Fully Dilated

 Blu-ray, Lower Decks S5 (Fully Dilated)

They both win! Tendi and T'Lyn are both in the running for Senior Science Officer on the Bridge and throughout the episode Tendi desperately competes with the Vulcan woman, even while they're both trapped on a time-dilated planet living out life while they wait for Boimler and Rutherford to beam them back way out of schedule. On the face of it, it's a charming end to a fun episode where the Captain, listening to the advice of... none other than Lieutenant Commander Data (or more precisely: Data from a purple universe - yes, typically wacky idea), decides they can both have the position. At the same time it's typical of modern Trek (and modern life in general), that people have to be placated when things don't smooth out for them, so instead of having to face a hard decision and deal with it as a fact of life, we have to find a way to please them both. It might sound a touch crusty and complaining to point this out, but Trek was always good at dealing with difficult things, disappointment being one of them, and teaching the audience while our characters learn something. Of course this series tends to subvert things a lot, even while paying tribute or making callbacks to a better era of Trek production, so it's not exactly out of character, and really, it is a... let's say 'sweet' ending. Tendi's always been sweet, T'Lyn is the epitome of the professional Vulcan character modern Trek's always lacked, so I can live with what is a concession to the sensitive in this case, and while I don't remember how it plays out, I'm now curious to see how the roles will work.

The big, nay, massive boon of this particular story is having Brent Spiner along to play Data's head, in what I assume will be the last ever time he plays his famous character (or a variation of such). It may not be The Commander Data of our (and 'Lower Decks'), universe, but apparently this purple alternate is pretty close judging by the way Data talks of his best friend, Geordi, whom he has to get back for, or Lieutenant Worf who he's seen chew ropes with his bare teeth, and Data himself experienced the same events of 'Time's Arrow' where he was stuck in a cave for hundreds of years only to be rescued by Picard, himself, and 'a guy in a silver jumpsuit'! It's all very appealing, jumping back into a version of Data that's much closer to the original 'TNG' character than the later (or current, in this episode's time), Data of the films, since he'd be dead at this point, yet would return in 'Picard' set much later than 'LD,' filmed before this episode... It's simply charming to hear the old Data way of speaking, still on the Enterprise-D, albeit a purple version (Data's take on his universe's penchant for purple is why wouldn't you use the colour if it's available, which is as good a justification as any!), and of course he and Tendi go together perfectly, both nice, thoughtful characters interested in science, while Data is more sensible, able to provide moral support and see past Tendi's issues. It does highlight the difference between this series and 'TNG' in that even one of the calmest and sweetest-of-temperament characters seems scatty, manic and a touch cruel (she turns Data off mid-sentence), compared with 'TNG,' but in Tendi's defence she was going without sleep and her urge to 'win' against T'Lyn had clouded her judgement.

It's never a good idea to try and compete with a Vulcan, and T'Lyn is typically adept at whatever physical tasks she puts her mind to, whether it be instantly performing expert juggling she's never attempted before (a bit like Data dancing in 'Data's Day' - he'd have made a good Vulcan), a gardener of great distinction, able to grow giant vegetables, then becoming rich through turning the vegetable skins into beauty products the natives love, it's both ridiculous, yet grounded in typical Vulcan behaviour of excelling at all they do - most importantly for me after so many bad versions or performances of the race in recent decades, she does so much to remind us why Vulcans are the coolest race, and the reason they're my favourite. The only missing element for me was when she decides to withdraw from the running for the Science Officer position due to believing she was unable to communicate well enough after Tendi had withdrawn into her competitive bubble. It's endearing she blames herself for Tendi's mistakes, but I felt she should have made the choice as she saw the issue had come between their friendship, something she valued and would not want to damage. It's possible she meant that and was choosing to focus on the 'faults,' but she seemed quite genuine and there are plenty of times we've seen her make a pretence for the sake of reverse psychology or whatever, so you can tell the difference.

As it is, the story is quite a pleasant undercover mission on an alien planet, the trio of Mariner, Tendi and T'Lyn are trapped there and just start living lives with different emphases for each so it becomes a fascinating look at what they'd do in such a situation as it has been for plenty of characters before (the obvious ones being both Trekferenced when Mariner realises this is her chance to have a 'probe life' like Captain Picard, and also calls it a 'Carbon Creek' situation after the 'Enterprise' incident of Vulcans crashing on Earth and having to make a life there). Aside from Mariner's bad language and the writers still finding a way to bring some disgust into proceedings (Boimler and Rutherford have to lick the Transporter console to remove their spilled drinks, getting repeatedly electrocuted, and suggesting the operator doesn't wash his hands... unlikely consoles would be affected by a liquid spill as Starfleet would be wiser than that, or that they'd get spiked by electricity - on the other hand the consoles do often explode in battle, so maybe it was a comment on their apparent unreliability at sensitive times), this is one of the most gentle episodes of the series, what with Data there to share wisdom, and an agrarian community, there's very little seen of the Cerritos and the other characters so it gives them an opportunity to do something different, all while still playing with familiar Trek tropes.

The idea of every second aboard the Cerritos equalling a week on the planet is played out well as we keep cutting back to the brief, but unrestrained panic in the Transporter room as time ticks by - the fact Voyager encountered a similar planet is mentioned and the Trekferences seem generally very apt and organic to the story, only adding to the pleasure of it all (such as 'Edo-level' stupidity as Mariner describes her two-month sentence in gaol for a mere eye-poke, yet that hints at the reality of a culture in which the people have horns growing out of their heads, so they would need to be careful!), an alternate Tasha Yar gets a mention (shame we never had Denise Crosby back in modern Trek, other than the old hologram recording she gave Data, seen again in 'Picard,' as a voice role would have been perfect), and the beam-out location is definitely reminiscent of Vasquez Rocks seen throughout Trek productions across the decades! Reflecting before rewatching the episode I wondered if Data's colour was meant to be a Trekference back to when they were experimenting with his skin tone before 'TNG' began, with bubblegum pink and battleship grey variations until the gold we know was settled on (even carried across to action figure variants of the time!), so it was a shame the purple wasn't named as bubblegum pink, though they do get in 'neutral grey' when describing our Enterprise.

It's somewhat surprising they mention neither the D's demise nor Data's, but I suppose they didn't want to bring down the mood, even so, it would have added to the continuity and seems conspicuous by absence - it's more the simple pleasure of meeting a legend for our characters rather than the poignancy of meeting him after he was dead and long gone, which of course isn't the case for viewers with 'Picard' to come a couple of decades later, with a new Data, but the 'LD' characters don't know that and shouldn't react in that way. If I'm nitpicking (and you know it's a good one when there's less to point out), it was not so Vulcan of T'Lyn to be taken out so easily by the Ferengi-like, sneering Snell (voiced by Eric Bauza, his last of numerous roles across the series), the village lurker who's a constant thorn in their side, able to leap from the rafters and knock her unconscious. But in general the Vulcan greatness was on pronounced display, even the attitude toward them was spot-on, Tendi worrying she's in competition with her back on the ship, and Rutherford reassuring her it's probably that Vulcans just forget about feelings (I know, technically Vulcans are supposed to know feelings very well in the sense they experience them tenfold compared to most races, but the point is they use such strong control to bury them that they are alienated from them, not barely contained just under the surface of their persona as is so often wrongly portrayed in Trek from 'Enterprise' onwards!). Oh, and I noticed a rare misspeak from a cast member that apparently wasn't caught at any stage: when commenting on the beverages Rutherford and Boimler have rustled up, Nöel Wells says: "This is something the other Boimler drink, isn't it"!

I enjoyed the classic plot of crew having to be physically transformed into aliens to infiltrate their pre-warp society, Tendi and T'Lyn's inadvertent competition and Mariner's eagerness to live out an alternate life while she has the chance, only succeeding in being imprisoned for her lack of awareness of the society's rules. Having Spiner was a high point of the season (better than the other cameos to come later), he really is Trek royalty, and I especially appreciated they treated him right, didn't have him do anything wacky like swearing or saying ridiculous lines for a gag, but played it straight as the real Data would (even while they technically had licence to do whatever they wanted since it's not The Data, after all!), and while he's now at the age the voice can't be disguised for being old (it sounds like he's got marshmallows in his mouth), he still gets the tone and readings perfect, and if this is, as I suspect, the last time he plays the role (though twenty-odd years ago we thought it was over then, so never say never!), it was a charming performance that expertly harks back to an earlier time. All that and the typically boisterous ending with Mariner playing her soap flute badly which closes out the episode beautifully and amusingly, means I liked this a bit more than when I first saw it, and it was always the high point of the season even then, meaning this is another season to have at least one episode that breaks into the 'standard' quality of old Trek, well done. Even the title is a play on Worf's famous line about Keiko being fully dilated so she may now give birth, another nice 'TNG' Trekference, yet also well suited to the dimensional fissures arc of the season - nice one.

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