Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x10 "The New Next Generation"

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::: spoiler Logline
Season finale where lots of wild stuff happens!
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Written by: Mike McMahan

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

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Annotations for 5x10 up at: https://startrek.website/post/17452674

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Spoiler throughout:

Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series?
I like the Sense-oars pronunciation I spotted.
OMG I should've expected them to address the different Klingon looks but I didn't expect to see a T'kuvma / Discovery era Klingon reappearing. When they said "solidton" particles I imagined it was going to be a metaphor about keeping "canon" stagnant.
First time I see a ST character say "those words aren't real" to Treknobabble.
I'm glad they're keeping the Star Trek tradition of holding up way too many Pads on the table where one should've done the trick.
I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am.
I like how Brad tries to convince others that William's the worst.
How'd they know they were dropping out of warp if the next shot shows them cloaked?
I expected as much with the ship changing. Never really cared much for the different classes of ships though.
This Rutherford bitterness feels like it came out of nowhere.
Those whales are thirsty again.
I thought she was going all Kamehameha.
I have a feeling the clam is a reference to something but I'm not sure what.
IDK why, but that one shot of Boimler turning his head and us being able to see under his chin particularly stood out as a "bump the lamp" moment.
Was there a cut scene, what was (silver?) Badgey doing there? Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them?
I like how Ransom made his own rule for provisional first officers.
Engage the core is a perfect Warp catchphrase.

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Is that an angry bullpup version of the unicorn dog from the Original Series?

I believe it was a jackal mastiff, which hasn't been seen (outside of STO) in quite a long time.

I never wondered if Klingons had claws for toenails, now I am.

We got to see Worf's feet once, and I apologize for the reminder.

Worf's feet from "Ethics". They have a ridge running up the foot from his second toe, and a large protuberance over the outside of the foot.

Or was that Goodgey? Have I forgotten about them?

Goodgey did remain with the crew, and was last seen in episode 5x02.

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As a finale, I think that was satisfying. I'm glad they got the cameos out of their system last week, and primarily focused on the core cast this week.

The main thing that I wanted to see this season - a tie-in with the impending Romulan supernova - didn't come to fruition, but I'm trying not to hold that against them. They've very clearly left themselves a path for continuation in some form, so we'll have to see what comes of it.

Boimler eventually turning away from the alt-universe PADD was an inevitable conclusion, but I like the reason they provided, avoiding the low-hanging fruit of alt-Boims turning out to be a dick or something.

The overall Rutherford arc was less successful. I guess they seeded it previously, but I always just assumed his implant was on the fritz, so it was odd to see him suddenly blaming the ship.

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Loved loved loved the Wrath of Khan style shots of the Cerritos' saucer section, the DIS style Klingons, the ultimate fate of Starbase 80 and Carol along with it. Nice way to wrap it all up with a tribute to the ship's crew, but I'm still so sad it's the end at least for now. Time to hunt down the comics...

hopesdead

The impending supernova doesn’t occur until 2387 and the latest stardate available indicates a year of 2382 (“Fully Dilated”). The synth attack on Mars, which as a reminder was orchestrated by Zhat Vash to stop the evacuation fleet, happened on First Contact Day of 2385. The closest we’ve gotten was PRO, :::which ended season 2 with the attack on Mars occurring in real time.:::

hopesdead

Was this the story I expected? No.

Did I enjoy this? I thought it was awesome.

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One has to dig into the novels for some of this, but Picard took his promotion to oversee the evacuation plans, so in theory, Starfleet already knows about the supernova and is beginning their initial evacuation effort.

The Utopia Planitia fleet was a major project, but evacuations took place even before the fleet was built - Elnor's colony was an evacuee settlement, and Laris and Zhaban stuck with Picard after he rescued them.

I had been hoping that such a major re-evaluation of Starfleet's mission would affect this show, but it was not to be.

hopesdead

Which leads me to think this occurred before any of it. Or at the time they relegated their lower tier ships and starbase to this mission (explaining why we haven’t heard of California-class before). Everyone else is trying to help Romulus. Which of course we know the black hole created didn’t work, thus leaving the Prime Timeline without Spock.

haverholm

This show has been a balm for my worst nerd impulses since episode 1, and I will miss it. As finales go, I think this was damn near perfect, too.

Like others have mentioned, Rutherford's sudden frustration with the Cerritos felt a little off to me, but that's really small fry in the larger picture of
::: spoiler PREVIEW_HERE
a bona fide, stable quantum portal to parallel universes hanging around the Alpha quadrant since 2382!
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Wow, you'd think that would have been brought up even tangentially in Prodigy or chronologically later set shows? It could even feasibly have been used to
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bring Mirror Giorgiou home to her own universe in Discovery s3.
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But what do I know, it might not be as stable as it looked in this episode...

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I was thinking that it's interesting that crossovers with the Mirror Universe stop completely at some point around the 27th Century. There's a story there.