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

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What a perfect finale. It really shows what I most loved about Lower Decks. The crew - aside all comedy - is formed by professionals which are capable of working together and advancing beyond their single capabilities. There is no drama or trying to hide important info from each other like in PIC or DIS. This is what I always loved about TNG, DS9 and VOY and it is great to see it still works - even on modern television.

One silly, little joke got me out of nowhere (maybe I was a little bit emotional about the impending end):
Ransom: Mr. Rutherford, a little birdie told me you made some pretty inspired updates to the plasma injectors.
Rutherford: Was it Dr. Migleemo?

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This was a pretty solid episode with some very good jokes (the thing about creating a warp field with one nacelle was fantastic, for example), but I left feeling underwhelmed because of the bizare "the first officer is two LTJGs" thing. Lower Decks has had a shockingly strong track record of not doing things that strike me as immediately stupid, but this is really silly. "Ransom must be pulling another twisted prank, because he's not this bad at his job" level silly. I think it's still better than promoting Tilly to XO, but that's a bar I had hoped this show would remain well clear of and a close shave is disappointing.

I think I understand why they did this: there's no obvious non-specialist XO candidate of an appropriate rank in the main cast (arguably Shax, but he's "only" a LT and does not seem ready for the job), and they didn't want to just trot out a handwave and say they'll be picking up the XO at the next starbase or something. I'd also theorize that they had planned to have two more seasons in which to work Mariner and Boimler into positions where they might actually make sense for an XO billet. But they aren't there yet, and they both know it.

Also, gosh would that alternate universe explorer thing have been useful in DISCO S3. And probably Prodigy too. It's also a dangerous can of worms to open for future stories, because having reliable access to random slightly different universes, apparently at different points in their timelines, is incredibly useful for both anticipating and solving problems in the "prime" universe. There's also cool stuff they can do with it and I'm sure they will, so I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Finally, props to them for coming up with a more plausible reason for our heroes to literally save the universe: because someone connected to them got unwittingly thrown into a position of enormous influence, and deliberately picked them. It's Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.

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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.

I am at a loss as to how Rutherford's implant could be flexible enough to function as part of his brain in day-to-day life, and yet somehow be incapable of helping him solve engineering problems on an old ship? Is there some kind of weird DRM installed that prevents it from opening schematics older than a couple years? Or is all the data on California class systems stored in a file format that they latest and greatest starfleet tech can't open? Both of which would be rather colossal failures of Federation computer tech.

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The showrunners said from a very early point that the two would not get together during the shows run, and I get the distinct impression that they actively enjoy trolling shippers. So this is pretty much exactly what I expected, and I'm perfectly happy with it.

(Also, look at Tendi in that last scene, when she gets a scan of Rutherford during a conversation about them being "just friends". She saw something on that Tricorder which she didn't expect, and then when Rutherford gets up and has his back turned, she's clearly checking him out. Draw your own conclusions.)

haverholm

What was ~~Cronenberg~~ Kovich's line about that again? "The Mirror Universe has been drifting away" or some such?

I'm willing to bet the Terran Empire tried some multiversal invasion that exploded in their collective face and blew them across the quantum plane (if that's a thing). The Quantum portal could easily be written into that.

Value Subtracted

And yet it endures. Unlike the Terran Empire, which fell centuries ago. Were you aware that the distance between our two universes started expanding sometime after your departure? There hasn't been a single crossing in over 500 years. You didn't know that, did you? You're all alone now.

There's definitely a lot of wiggle room in there.

Dr. Fortyseven

Honestly, for me, the finale covered it enough. It's obvious they like each other. I don't think it needs to be directly confirmed in dialogue for it to be legit.

Dr. Fortyseven

Holy shit, I don't remember that at all.

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Rutherford upgraded his implant to be little more like Alternate Rutherford who had a super implant that also blocked out his emotions entirely.

This wasn't a story about how his implant was bad at dealing with alternate universe versions of technology. His story was about how he had always used his implant to protect him from feeling emotions. Cranking it up slightly was all it took to finally block him from loving anything. Himself as he is, the Cerritos, Tendi. As soon as he took it out all of those emotions flooded in.

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I can’t believe it’s already been five seasons.. that was a great show.

Unexpectedly really relatable too, as a young working professional (well, less young than when it started..)

data1701d (He/Him)

I feel like I’ve been pulled off Ketracel white cold turkey. So many good episodes. My ultimate conclusion is the best episode is probably season 3 finale, with season 4 finale very close behind.

The Rutherford thing was weird - they could have written in a bit more foreshadowing. I’m gonna tell myself it’s a way to make Eugene Cordero’s makeup easier for a live action film.

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A pretty cool episode. Top takeaways:

I'm going to miss Captain Ransom. I think it would have been fun to have a season or two of him. Only Discovery has had the balls to hand over the Captain's chair to another during its main run, and I think that is a good thing.
Starbase 80 is now set up as a new DS9-style show. A starbase guarding a dimensional portal. God I hope that happens. I just hope they pull off the ensemble cast that made DS9 such a classic.
I hate the tease for Rutherford x Tendi, it's so mean to tease it in the finale But really it's so cute.

Plenty more I missed of course.