TREK REVIEW: Lower Decks 4-1 & 4-2

All Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes are watched using the traditional Orion method.

4.1 - "Twovix"

Now, with a title like that, it could only be a winner. Lower Decks storms back with a cracking episode that acts as a love letter to Star Trek: Voyager, particularly the most out-there, unexpected and idiotic parts of its seven-year journey.

So, as well as having a "Tuvix" situation when several crewmembers end up merged into composite beings by the transporter, we have a macrovirus infestation, a holodeck malfunction (made worse by the ship having holoemitters installed throughout, something they gave up trying on Voyager itself), hyper-evolved newt people (sadly only as models) and even Neelix's stinky cheese.

Given that fans are still debating the ethics of Janeway's decision to split Tuvix back into Tuvok and Neelix over his own wishes, it's refreshing to have Captain Freeman announce that Janeway straight-up murdered the guy, and sensibly go to Starfleet for some support in the matter. Of course, things get out of hand from there, helpfully having all the merged characters stuffed into an unviable mess (although as for Tendy's insistance it was non-sentient - was that just a handy assumption to make the decision easier?) Either way, the blob couldn't very well carry on as it was, and a little unlikely pseudoscience, and some good work between Tendi and T'Lyn saved the day.

Meanwhile, the madness on Voyager, which gets increasingly out-of-hand, is a lot of fun, not only for all the callbacks but just the overall ridiculous thrill of it all. There's a fast-and-loose approach to continuity (with even Mariner pointing put that the evil clown guy shouldn't be in the holodeck's logs since he was never a hologram to begin with), but it's all in service to the jokes. There's a real sense of the series loingly poking fun at the franchise's past, which is what it's always been best at. Focusing on Voyager makes for a tighter story than just wildly grabbing at the whole back catalogue.

I particularly like the addition of T'Lyn, who provides a new dynamic to the team. After being introduced in season two, it seemed clear she was going to transfer over to Starfleet and the Cerritos, only to disappear until the closing moments of season three. She makes a great foil for Tendi, and it'll good to see how she does on the Cerritos (although, given it's Gabriel "Valencia" Ruiz voicing her, maybe the USS West Covina would be more appropriate).

Links and observations: 

Boimler and Mariner briefly discuss "that Pike thing we aren't supposed to talk about," placing the Strange New Worlds crossover before the season.

The USS Voyager is here installed as a museum ship, after several years being of prep after arriving home in 2378. We're still in the early 2380s, probably crossing into the timeframe Star Trek: Prodigy, which was set starting in 2383. At the end of the first season, the Voyager-A was nearly ready to launch, and it makes sense Starfleet would try to time the events together. By the time of Star Trek: Picard, in 2401, the original Voyager has been moved from Earth to the Fleet Musuem, and the Voyager-B is active.

4.2 - "I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee"

After that storming opener, the second episode was going to have a tough time impressing, and it's fair to say it doesn't hit the same heights. Nonetheless, there's a lot to love about this episode, and in the absence of a ton of callbacks, it has to work harder for both jokes and adventure.

It's full of sci-fi cliches, though, from the alien zoo holding humans as exhibits (which has been used as recently as the first season of The Orville, and as far back as the original Trek pilot "The Cage," and doubtless much, much earlier) and the cutesy alien that turns out to be a blood-thirsty monster (which we've seen on Doctor Who, Farscape, Futurama, to name but a few. Even Mike and Angelo had the fuzzballs.) 

Still, it works, giving us a fun adventure in service of the characters' development. Having Mariner face up to her self-sabotage is a much-overdue step for her, and it's interesting that it's shepherded by Ransom, giving us a glimpse of how such a dudebro managed to make commander in the first place. It appears he's actually got a real insight into his crew's personalities.

Meanwhile, there's some lovely stuff with Rutherford once again making things difficult for himself rather than taking the simple route, all because he wants to stay best buds with Tendi (and when the hell are they going to get together?) At the same time, Boimler has a horrible time trying to find new quarters, showing that the much-deserved promotion the team have all now received comes with its own challenges. (Of course, we discover that Boimler is being an idiot and never considered that the quarters next to the collector lights would have a dimmer switch. Or think of, I don't know, replicating some curtains maybe.)

In both episodes, we've also seen a mysterious alien ship make unprovoked attacks on first a Klingon ship, and then a Romulan Warbird, wiping them out. This new background arc is intriguing, and I'm left wondering if this is a new threat or, more likely, something unexpected from the past. (I swear the ship looks like one from one of the Trek games, but I can't put my finger on it.) We shall have to wait and see.

Links and observations 

The Romulan Warbird is oriented to be taller than it is wide, which was the Andrew Probert's original design for The Next Generation before he was told to tweak it.

While this episode doesn't depend on callbacks, there are several, teh funniest being Ransom and Shaxs exercising in the same leotards that Troi and Crusher wear on TNG. 

There are also plenty of recognisable aliens in the Menage, incuding an Aldebaran serpent (which Q turned into on TNG "Hide and Q"), a glommer from TAS "More Tribbles, More Troubles," the space dog from TOS "The Enemy Within," a Hanonian land-eel from VOY "Basics" (a very long way from home) and a Ceti eel from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

It's not only Trek getting referenced. The episode title is a reference to I Have No Mouth, Yet I Must Scream, a truly disqueting and justly famous sci-fi horror story by Harlan Ellison. 

TREK REVIEWS: Television Heaven series reviews

I've four new reviews up on Television Heaven covering the breadth of Star Trek for your reading pleasure.The cute and underrated kids' spin-off Star Trek: The Animated Series, the flawed but watchable Star Trek: Voyager, the equally flawed Enterprise (but my do I have a soft spot for it), and bringing us right up to date, a review of Star Trek: Picard S1 as a whole, to sit alongside my episode reviews on the blog.

While we're at it, John Winterson Richard and Peter Henshuls have covered the ever popular Star Trek: The Next Generation, the connoisseur's choice, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and along with site runner Laurence Marcus, they've gone back to the beginning with a look at the original Star Trek.

TREK REVIEW: Short Treks 2-4 & 2-5

THE GIRL WHO MADE THE STARS 

EPHRAIM AND DOT

After three live action vignettes, the second set of Short Treks presents a double bill of animated shorts, the first animated Star Trek episodes for forty-five years. It's surprising that the franchise hasn't explored the animated medium more often. After all, it's much easier to create alien life forms, spectacular ships and strange new worlds in cartoon form than live action. However, while Star Trek: The Animated Series has experienced a reassessment in recent years, it's long had a poor reputation, and this has likely put the blocks on animated Trek for years.

Now, however, Alex Kurtzman and his team are pushing the franchise back into the world of animation, with two new cartoon series planned: the comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks and an as-yet untitled Nickelodeon series. To whet our appetites are these two sweet mini-episodes, which show us how kid-friendly animated Trek can be done in the twenty-first century. Both rendered using computer-generated animation, “The Girl Who Made the Stars” and “Ephraim and Dot” are cute, straightforward little tales that, while clearly aimed at children, have something for grown-up fans of the Star Trek universe. Like the other Short Treks so far, they tie into elements of parent series Star Trek: Discovery.

“The Girl Who Made the Stars” gives us a glimpse of Michael Burnham's childhood, before the awful events that would tear apart her family. We see a very young Michael, here voiced by Kyrie McAlpin, scared of the dark and unable to sleep. She is consoled by her father Mike, portrayed by Kenric Green as he was in Discovery's flashbacks. He tells her the story of a little girl, living in Africa before even the stars were born, and how her bravery brought the stars the sky and saved her tribe and all of humanity from darkness. This is based on a real myth of the /Xam Abathwa, a San people of southern Africa, and was mentioned by Michael in Discovery's season two opener, “Brothers.”

It's good to see Star Trek exploring what will be lesser known cultures for much of its audience. The creation myth is embraced and retold in a visually striking and powerful way. It gives it a Star Trek twist, with an alien visitor giving the young pioneer the gift of the stars before returning to space in his ship (although where he's from if there aren't any stars yet is an intriguing question). The themes of courage, curiosity and the desire to explore and advance are core Trek values and it's good to see them illustrated in another way here. It's also nice to see some positive backstory for Michael, as well as an exploration of her ancestry (although the strong African influence on the episode is somewhat damaged by the visible lightening of the principle characters' skin compared to the live action actors).

Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, who has worked as exec producer on much of Discovery and Short Treks so far, and written by Brandon Schultz, it's a rather beautiful episode, and the animation is stunning.

“Ephraim and Dot” is equally family-friendly but takes a very different route. It's a silly, slapstick sketch starring an alien tardigrade of the species seen in Discovery's first season, although made significantly cuter, and a DOT-7 maintenance robot of the type that's been glimpses affecting repairs on the series. It ties into Discovery by exploring more of the tardigrade's life cycle and its swimming through the mycelial network – the fungus-based hyperspace system that the USS Discovery uses. However, for the most part this episode riffs on classic Star Trek, to delightful effect.

The tardigrade doesn't get a name in the episode itself, but she is apparently called Ephraim. This was, reportedly, the name of the tardigrade character that at one point was considered for the bridge crew on Discovery, which would have been bizarre and wonderful. Both Ephraim and Dot have tons of character in spite of having no dialogue at all. Ephraim fins her way onto the Enterprise – rather beautifully rendered in animated style – and lays her eggs in its workings. Dot kicks Ephraim off the ship, leading her to pursue it, and her eggs, through years of Star Trek adventures.

We get glimpses of familiar and memorable Trek episodes and movies, or versions of them, even using original sound clips to accompany the new animation. For those following, the adventures we see are “Space Seed,” “The Naked Time,” “The Trouble With Tribbles,” “Who Mourns For Adonais?” “The Doomsday Machine,” “The Tholian Web,” “The Savage Curtain,” The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. How the eggs manage to stay undiscovered for twenty years, through a ship-wide refit, is anyone's guess, but it's a wonderfully nostalgic run through of favourite moments from the early years of the franchise. There are some stylistic choices that mean the shots don't quite fit with the established events, but that's not really here nor there, although the error of the Enterprise's registration is a glaring one.

Watching Ephraim and Dot chase each other and scuffle is simple, silly entertainment, hardly the most taxing thing Trek has presented. Yet there's still some room for a message, with Dot coming to value the tardigrade's right to life. It's bookended by an information film presented in retro style, narrated by Kirk Thatcher, sounding at times a lot like Leonard Nimoy. Directed by Michael Giacchino, stepping beyond his role as composer, this is a slight but thoroughly enjoyable little story. Does this cutesified version of Star Trek count as canon? I honestly don't care. Sit the kids down and introduce them to Star Trek.