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

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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.

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This makes this season's Rutherford make a lot more sense. I am definitely a Rutherford-Tendí shipper, but even my friend who is significantly less so of one than me noticed that the two of them seemed to barely interact after she returned from Orion. They didn't have a lot of screen time, but even the screen time they did have was more being in the same scene together than interacting together which seemed so unlike them. But I thought the whole Tendi-T'Lyn rivalry was very unlike Tendi, too.

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The showrunners said from a very early point that the two would not get together during the shows run

I had missed this. I'd hung five season's worth of ship-hope on them, but I regret nothing because they're adorable and they had better get together in the comics!!!!