Daystrom Institute

The title refers to the time dilation effect on Dilmer III, and is a pun on either fully dilated pupils in drug use or fully dilated cervixes in labor, or both.

The stardate is 59499.6. The dimensional fissures leading to parallel dimensions have been a recurring thing this season, starting with LD: “Dos Cerritos”.

The purple Enterprise is a Galaxy-class, meaning Enterprise-D. In the Prime Universe, by 2381 the 1701-D had already crashed on Veridian III and the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E had been in service for about a decade. Tashar Yar was the original security chief of Enterprise-D, but was killed in TNG: “Skin of Evil”. No, I’m not getting into TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and Sela now, so don’t ask. Mariner talks about the carpets on Enterprise-D, a running joke that was even echoed in PIC’s 3rd season when the reconstructed ship was reactivated (PIC: “Võx”).

T’Lyn says her home was an outcopping of jagged rocks in the Viltan Flats. That location originally comes from the Last Unicorn RPG module The Way of Kolinahr, and is in the province of Tat’Sahr on Vulcan.

Boimler’s beard has progressed further, and the goatee has almost joined with his moustache. Rutherford seems to be also getting into the game, if his stubble is any indication. Freeman’s order to retrieve the wayward tech is so as not to violate the Prime Directive, which forbids any interference with the natural technological or social development of a civiilization. Dilmer III is pre-industrial, so the Prime Directive is in full force.

Dr T’Ana does a more foul mouthed version of the classic “I’m a doctor, not a…” catchphrase first properly used by McCoy in TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”.

Undergoing temporary surgical or genetic modification for Starfleet away teams is standard protocol. Examples can be found in TNG: “Who Watches the Watchers?”, TNG: “First Contact” and in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”.

Vulcans are known to have sensitive olfactory senses. females especially. In ENT: “The Andorian Incident”, T’Pol used a regularly injected nasal numbing agent to suppress the smell of humans.

Rutherford jokes about churning your own butter, a reference to stereotypes of primitive, pioneer peoples (seen today in renactments or in communities like the Amish) who still manufacture butter with manual methods.

A michelada is an Mexican drink, often called a “Mexican Bloody Mary”, made from beer, lime juice, hot sauces and chili slices. There are several variations throughout Mexico, but Boimler and Rutherford’s version is a bit excessive, as is usual for them.

Dimler III has a time differential of a week on the surface for every second aboard ship. As Tendi remembers, in VOY: “Blink of an Eye”, Voyager came across a planet surrounded by a tachyon field that experienced 58 days for each minute of shipboard time. Mariner’s explanation of time dilation alludes to an old joke attributed to Einstein: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”

The architecture of Dimler III reminds me of Beta III in TOS: “The Return of the Archons”, but earlier - I’d peg it around an 1870s American frontier town, like Walnut Grove, MI in Little House on the Prairie.

The head they find is of course that of an alternate, purple Data, who also lost his head in TNG: “Time’s Arrow”. In the Prime Universe, at this point Prime Data is dead, having sacrificed himself in Nemesis (2379) - although as we see in PIC, he kind of gets better later.

T’Lyn poses as a traveling performer, much like what Picard & Co. did in “Time’s Arrow” when they claimed to be a troupe of actors. Snell is voiced by Eric Bauza, who does a great imitation of the immortal Wallace Shawn, who was Grand Nagus Zek in DS9 and is probably best known to geeks as Visini from The Princess Bride.

As Tendi notes, TNG-era Romulan uniforms had hilariously overpadded shoulders. Mariner refers to TNG: “The Inner Light” when Picard was hit by a beam from a Kataan probe which made him experience an entire lifetime as a Kataan farmer while only a matter of minutes passed for his crew (and learned the flute). The last time we saw a Kataan probe (or something very similar) was in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

Mariner refers to ENT: “Carbon Creek”, when a trio of Vulcans - one of them T’Pol’s great-grandmother - were stranded temporarily in Carbon Creek, PA in 1957. While it is true that in most stories like this there is a suspicious neighbor that gets the protagonists in trouble, I don’t recall there one being in “Carbon Creek”. T’Lyn uses a quill to write.

Purple Data’s voice is provided by Brent Spiner. He says he has been just a head before, which means that the events of “Time’s Arrow” also occured in his reality (as he confirms later when he says he built a magnetic field core in 19th Century San Francisco).

Tendi says that Orions aren’t usually science officers (part of it may be due to the stereotypes surrounding Orions). Her great-grandmother Astrea did serve on the Orion science vessel D’Var (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”).

Purple Data alludes to his positronic matrix, which is also the basis for Soong-type androids in the Prime Universe. Positronic brains for artificial beings in Star Trek is a homage to the works of Isaac Asimov, who used such brains for his robots in his Robot Stories.

The alien writing on the front of the saloon I’m pretty sure is a substitution alphabet (like Orionese as seen in LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”) which just reads “SALOON”.

I’m also pretty sure Tendi saying that she can’t compete with T’Lyn’s giant melons is an intentional double entendre.

Mariner refers to the Edo (TNG: “Justice”), who doled out what we might consider overly harsh punishments, like capital punishment for damaging plants.

Purple Data says Tendi requires her full strength to function at “peak performance”, which is the name of a TNG episode that focuses on Prime Data and his self-doubt when he experiences defeat.

The “guy in a silver jumpsuit” was the unnamed scientist that led Picard and Prime Data to his time-displaced buried head under San Francisco (“Time’s Arrow”).

Tendi says Purple Data really is “fully functional”. In the infamous TNG: “The Naked Now”, Prime Data claims, when an intoxicated Tasha Yar is trying to seduce him, that he is “fully functional” and “programmed in multiple techniques”.

Mariner’s cell neighbor calls her “Big Mare”. In LD: “Starbase 80?!” Boimler calls her “Mare Bear”. I am not comfortable with either of these nicknames.

Having her alien family “be here all along” is a common trope (The Wizard of Oz comes to mind) where protagonists realize that what they were seeking was actually around them all the time (“The true treasure was the friends we made along the way!”).

Purple Data misunderstanding the use of metaphor is a trait the Prime version often exhibted, especially in early TNG seasons. And of course he had a close relationship with Geordi La Forge, the Chief Engineer of Enterprise.

Rutherford blames the snafu on LCARS issues, LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) being the operating system used on TNG-era starships, as opposed to S/COMS for ENT and TOS-era ships and TCARS for 29th Century timeships.

Purple Data says he spent a year in the field with the away team. 12 months or so on Dimler III translates to about 52 seconds in shipboard time. However, considering that Tendi didn’t reactivate the head until about 4 months in, the time could have been as long as 16 months (64 seconds).

Freeman sends Purple Data back through the fissure in a photon torpedo tube, much like how Spock’s body was shot towards the Genesis Planet at the end of ST II.This guy

I have a weird question. Some numbers of pips can have the black pip. However, the 4 captain pips have never been depicted with this.

In some ways, this makes sense; a "lower" captain wouldn't make sense, and we've seen that the highest first officers hold commander pips. It's most likely that have 4 pips with one black is totally invalid.

However, I wonder if there's ever a circumstance where the black pip would be there. For instance, let's say someone gets field promoted to acting captain, but Starfleet either takes their time making it official or it's going to take a while (a few weeks) for the ship to get back to starbase to pick up a new captain (meaning the acting captain will be a bit long-term)? Could it be used then?

I imagine most of this is speculation, but I'm wondering if there's any example in canon of a long-term acting captain that could disprove the use of this pip configuration.

The title alludes to the Robert Burns’ 1785 poem To A Mouse (“The best laid schemes of o’mice and men / Gang aft agley”), which was used as the title to John Steinbeck’s 1937 Novella Of Mice and Men. It also plays on the association of angels, messengers of God, with the “typo that is not a typo” angles, referring to the geometric shapes of the Orbs and Cubes. Additionally, “Of Gods and Men” is an entry in the fan film series Star Trek Continues and VOY: “Heroes and Demons” dealt with photonic life forms.

The stardate is 59482.3. The Veraflex Nebula is new, as are its inhabitants the Orbs and the Cubes.

The Orbs and Cubes are photonic species, of which as noted VOY encountered one in Heroes and Demons” and another in VOY: “Bride of Chaotica”. VOY also suffered from an infestation of photonic fleas in VOY: “The Voyager Conspiracy”. Artificial photonic lifeforms might include sentient holograms like the Doctor (VOY), Moriarty (TNG: “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle”), Vic Fontaine (DS9: “His Way”, et al.), Lewis Zimmerman’s assistant Haley (VOY: “Life Line”) and a colony of Yaderans (DS9: “Shadowplay”).

The war that began when the Orbs and Cubes’ nebulae collided reminds me of the sentence that begins the Golden Age science fiction Lensman saga in E.E. “Doc” Smith’s novel Triplanetary, of the perpetual war that begins between the Arisians and Eddorians when their galaxies collide (or rather pass through) each other.

The stack of circular furniture on the antigravity sled includes Worf’s chair from his quarters from TNG, a Romulan cloaking device (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, last seen on Cerritos in the Anomaly Storage Room in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”) and a dabo table (DS9).

Ensign Olly is newly transferred from the USS Reseda. Reseda is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, so the ship is presumably a California-class ship, one that is crewed by reformed Maquis. Olly is a descendant of Zeus who as per Greek legend was prone to procreating with mortals. Her name could be a short form of “Olympia”, a site sacred to Zeus where the ancient Olympic Games were conducted.

Mariner alludes to Kirk’s encounter with one of these beings, who posed as gods in Ancient Greece, but was actually with Apollo (TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”) who had set his sights on Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas. “One with the wind” refers to how Apollo said Hera “spread herself upon the wind” when she decided to die.

In the New Frontier novels, Mark McHenry is the con officer for the USS Excalibur and is also a descendant of Palamas, who had been impregnated by Apollo. Unlike Olly, McHenry’s powers initially manifested themselves as a preternatural knack for stellar navigation.

Olly’s lineage explains why she’s wearing a laurel wreath similar to Apollo’s. We find out later that it’s a bioluminescent construct that does not come off.

Vassery is the “sen-SORs” Admiral who is in command of Douglas Station, last seen in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”.

Boimler’s mustache and goatee are growing, as are his side burns. Behind him as he scrolls through the PADD he stole from the parallel universe (LD: “Dos Cerritos”) are his action figures of Mirror Archer, Monster Maroon Spock and First Contact Data (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”). On the other shelf is Rutherford’s model of DS9 (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”) and a replica of Wesley Crusher’s repulsor beam from TNG: “The Naked Now” (also seen in “I Have No Bones…”).

Photonic beings feed on power, like the photonic fleas attracted to plasma particles in Voyager’s sensor grid (“The Voyager Conspiracy”).

In TNG: “The Outrageous Okona”, Data tries to learn about humor from a holographic simulation of a 20th Century stand-up comedian called “Mr Comic” in the episode. However, on the program list Mr Comic was identified as Ronald B. Moore (as opposed to Ronald D. Moore), named after the special effects supervisor on TNG, VOY and ENT.

The alt PADD’s bevel is 3.7% deeper, and it’s red. The variance between the two universes was 0.327% (“Dos Cerritos”). In the corridor, we see the hijab-wearing Operations crewman, last seen in LD: “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”.

Kayshon says, “Rajik, when he fell in the chasm”, in context probably meaning “disappeared”.

Tendi says if they get Ferengi blood, they’ll have a rainbow. Ferengi blood is yellow (LD: “Mugato, Gumato”, PIC: “Disengage”).

While examining the crime scene we get a mention of pulp detective Dixon Hill (TNG: “The Big Goodbye” et al.). Up against the wall of the gym we see some anbo-jyutsu gear (TNG: “The Icarus Factor”), last seen in LD: “wej Duj”.

The Orbs use round PADDs, although how they hold them without any limbs is a question. Wait, one of them was doing bench presses in the gym. Never mind.

“The whole Hawai’i thing” refers to when Boimler pretended to be Hawaiian in LD: “wej Duj” so he could ingratiate himself with Ransom.

In the hangar bay, we see Cerritos’s shuttles named after Californian State Parks: Yosemite, Redwood, Joshua Tree II (the original was damaged in LD: “Grounded”) and Pinnacles.

We also get a glimpse of Steve Stevens, formerly Ransom’s sycophant, whom we haven’t seen since LD: “Twovix”.

Olly says that she and Mariner are nothing alike, but then she says “I love the brig. This is my favorite place,” which is more or less what Mariner told Ransom in LD: “Temporal Edict”.

When the LD SB80 episode mentioned Matt and Kimolu were infected on an away mission, it reignited some thoughts/questions about how the lives of Cetacean officers in an era of Trek where whales are beginning to become more common as crew members.

Here's the discussion that I think can be had within current canon: I can't help but notice what seems to be a difference in the quality of life between Gillian on Voyager-A and Matt and Kimolu on the Cerritos.

Sure, Matt and Kimolu don't have as flashy or futuristic-looking of an aquarium, but in addition to having each other, the pool-like design of their accommodations allows them easy interaction (a.k.a parties) with the crew. I feel like there's much more opportunity for them to have a fulfilling social life on the Cerritos.

In comparison, Gillian feels very enclosed and isolated from the rest of Voyager; there's always glass between here and the crew (as humpbacks sometimes need to surface, I image there's probably an area with some air in the aquarium), and people are shown having to wear full suits to be in the same space as her. In addition, there's no other whale with her. In fact, we don't really see a staff of officers in Cetacean ops - just Rok. It seems like a very lonely existence.

Of course, a lot of these seeming inequalities can be attributed to circumstance rather than neglect on Starfleet's part. For one, Gillian, canonically a humpback, is more than triple the size of Matt or Kimolu, belugas, so it's much harder to design any space at all for her on a starship, let alone one that gives her the freedom to safely interact with crew.

As for being the only humpback on Voyager, this is probably because there just aren't that many - her species was only repopulated less than a century ago during the whale probe incident.

Now, here's some more difficult-to-answer questions:

• How often do whales go on away missions?
• What precautions do they have to take on away missions?
• Do these missions come up organically, or is there some sort of quota?
• How does their shore leave work?
• What is the Academy like for whales? Is there an aquatic division? Do they sometimes have co-ed events with land-based cadets?
• Honestly, what is the life of a civilian Federation whale like? Do they have mobility accommodations should they e.g want to go see Vulcan or something? Do they live like 21st century whales, or are there LCARS panels in the ocean?

These questions definitely can't be answered with current lore, but I guess we can imagine and/or extrapolate from how Starfleet has accommodated other non-humanoid officers.

The title is the same as the famous two-part TNG episode that brought Leonard Nimoy as Spock back to our screens and possibly an allusion to bringing several parts of Star Trek together. It is being released on the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek: Generations.

The opening epigraph, “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life,” is from ST II, when Kirk is flippantly answering Saavik’s queries about the unfairness of the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario.

The figure floating in space is Gary Mitchell, the former navigator of the USS Enterprise and Kirk’s former student and best friend, who gained god-like powers after the ship went through the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, developed megalomania and was eventually killed. Commander Jack Ransom, XO of the USS Cerritos went through something similar but survived in LD: “Strange Energies”. Gary Lockwood, Mitchell’s original actor, is credited, as he came back to do motion capture for the footage.

There follow a series of quick scenes, some of them taken from the previous Roddenberry Archive short films/teasers “765874: Memory Wall” and “765874: Regeneration”. “Memory Wall” refers to an unproduced scene from TMP where Kirk and Spock explore an information storage chamber inside V’Ger.

TNG-era Spock is standing on Veridian III, where Kirk and Picard fought Soran in Generations. The scaffolding and bridge is from where Soran planned to launch a missile to destroy Veridian’s sun and alter the course of the temporal Nexus. Kirk and Picard stopped him at the cost of Kirk’s life. The real-life location of this is the Silica Dome, Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Spock is played by actor Lawrence Selleck with a combination of prosthetics and CGI to make him resemble the late Leonard Nimoy.

A futuristic city that is probably 23rd Century San Francisco, seen in “765874” and with TMP-era Spock looking over it in “Regeneration”.

A blurry shot of someone performing a mind-meld on a Vulcan child, seen more clearly in “Memory Wall”.

A group of people on a mesa from “Memory Wall”. I am unable to identify the significance of the Eye of Sauron-like relief on the ground, but I am told it resembles an image of V’Ger, another allusion to the “Memory Wall” scene and a quick flash of V’Ger’s Voyager 6 name plate in that film.

The woman dressed in a uniform from TOS: “The Cage” is Yeoman J.M. Colt, who was Pike’s yeoman in that original pilot. Originally played by Laurel Goodwin in 1964, she is played by Mahé Thaissa, who previously played her in “765874”, “765874: Memory Wall” and “765874: Regeneration”.

765874 is Colt’s Starfleet service number, taken from Star Trek: Early Voyages Vol. 1 #13 (Feb 1998) (she was given the name Mia in the comic).

A shot of the USS Enterprise-D saucer after it crashed on Veridian III during the events of Generations, from “Regeneration”.

Mia Colt touching her finger to a mysterious wall of floating particles, from “Memory Wall”.

A new scene of TMP Spock melding with a Vulcan child. Given what happens later in the short, I’m confident this is Saavik, from when Spock found her as a child on the planet Hellguard in 2274 (between TMP and ST II) and took her in (TOS novel The Pandora Principle). While not on screen canon, Saavik’s backstory has been well established in novels and comics.

A new scene of Colt, now dressed in a Kelvin Timeline short-sleeved skant, in a chamber showing scans of Kirk. I can’t make out most of the words on the displays, but one relates Kirk’s service record and another ends with the words “… by the Director of Starfleet Intelligence”. This reminds me of where Kirk’s body was stored on Daystrom Station and its reference to a mysterious “Project Phoenix” (PIC: “The Bounty”).

Kirk, in his uniform from Generations and looking like his age there, walks through a peaceful garden. He is played by William Shatner, returning to the role at the age of 93 and is presumably made to resemble his younger self in the same way Selleck did Spock. We also see Robin Curtis as an aged Saavik. First played by Kirstie Alley in ST II, Curtis replaced Alley as Saavik in ST III and ST IV.

One of the crowd is a man with white hair is dressed in a 2375-era Starfleet captain’s dress uniform, but with white trousers instead of black. This character is credited as “Crusher”, played by John Daltorio, but otherwise his presence is not explained. The most likely Crusher would be Wesley, who as an interdimensional Traveler (TNG: “Journey’s End”, PIC: “Farewell”, PRO: “Into the Breach”) would be the obvious choice. His being in the dress uniform could be a reference to Wil Wheaton’s mostly deleted cameo in Nemesis at the Riker-Troi wedding.

The Vulcan that Saavik introduces Kirk to is Sorak (played by Mark Cinnery). He is Spock and Saavik’s son, according to the accompanying featurette “Robin Curtis: Becoming Saavik”. Fandom has discussed for decades about whether Spock did indeed impregnate Saavik on Genesis during his pon farr in ST III and whether or not she stayed behind on Vulcan in ST IV because she was pregnant. Given that Sorak seems relatively old, this is likely where this comes from.

We know that Spock did marry (TNG: “Sarek”), but the wife’s name was never mentioned on screen. The novels have him marrying Saavik (Vulcan’s Heart, which apparently inspired this scene) after a very long courtship. Given how long Vulcans live, it’s not as icky as it sounds.

The alien Kirk meets is Yor (played by Gorden Tarpley), a Betelgeusian Lieutenant Commander who was a Time Soldier from the year 2379 of the Kelvin Timeline who fought in the Temporal Wars (DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1”). We previously saw him as a hologram and cautionary tale as he died in agony in the Prime timeline sometime around the 31st Century, a side effect of having been transported across both universes and time periods. Yor hands Kirk a Starfleet badge - the same one Kirk wore in Generations and that Picard placed on Kirk’s grave.

Sam Witwer, notable for his roles voicing Darth Maul in Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, among many other genre credits, is also credited as Kirk, and may be playing the TOS Kirk with CGI prostheses.

When Generations-Kirk switches with TOS-Kirk, we hear a bridge chirp sound effect very briefly in the mix. The three Kirks are from different eras: TOS, ST II and Generations.

“There are always possibilities…” is taken from the last Captain’s log from ST II. On the wall is hung a set of Vulcan chimes (TOS: “Amok Time”) and a Vulcan lyre (TOS: “Charlie X”). On the table is an IDIC pendant (TOS: “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”) and a piece of jewellery shaped like Vulcan script and, although covered, the photograph of Kirk & Co. (taken on the bridge of the NCC-1701-A during ST V) that Prime Spock bequeathed to Kelvin Spock in Star Trek Beyond. In a teaser to this film, Colt is shown placing the photograph on the table in this scene.

Kirk approaches old Spock and they grasp hands in the same way that Spock did to him during TMP (“This simple feeling is beyond V’Ger’s comprehension.”) and of course he does his famous eyebrow raise at Kirk’s presence. Spock died in the Kelvin Timeline on January 2, 2263 on New Vulcan at the age of 161, having also been transported back in time and across universes.

The sky and landscape outside the window is reminiscent of Vulcan, so the Kelvin Timeline Vulcans must have found a similar planet to settle on after its destruction in ST 2009. It is portrayed that way in the 2013 Star Trek video game, when it is invaded by the Gorn.

There is a special thanks to Kevin Feige, who apparently made some things possible for the production and is a huge Trek fan.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x05 Starbase 80?!.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

The title refers to the titular starbase which is considered the worst posting in Starfleet (LD: “Terminal Provocations”). Mariner herself was posted there after the events of LD: “Trusted Sources”, although she resigned her commission soon after. It was recently mentioned in the season opener LD: “Dos Cerritos”, when it was said that the parallel universe Carol Freeman had been posted there, allowing parallel Mariner to take over Cerritos’s captaincy.

The water planet they just went to is named Piskes IX, continuing the tradition of science fiction planetary names which are just too on the nose, Piscis being Latin for "fish".

Boimler’s beard now has a goatee, although it hasn’t joined with his mustache yet. Boimler talks about “tenth contact”. As we saw back in LD: “Second Contact”, there are follow up missions after First Contact which are dealt with by support ships like Cerritos to formally establish relations, set up infrastructure, etc. for newly contacted civilizations which are called Second Contact missions. “Tenth contact” is likely just Boimler wisecracking rather than a formal mission numbering.

We see the Sequoia shuttlecraft in the background. The shuttle, initially totaled in LD: “No Small Parts” was restored, then taken apart again by T’Lyn in LD: “Shades of Green” so Tendi could work on it together with the others when she returned from Orion. It seems to be coming along nicely.

Cetacean Ops was a throwaway piece of background dialogue in TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and then elaborated on in the 1992 TNG Technical Manual as well as included on the 1996 Galaxy-class blueprints. The Tech Manual mentioned that Enterprise-D had two whales who helped in navigation. Cerritos’s own Cetacean Ops was mentioned in “Second Contact” and finally seen - the first time Cetacean Ops had been shown on-screen in any Star Trek series - in LD: “First First Contact”. A Cetecean Ops has also appeared in PRO, on the Lamarr-class Voyager-A.

Casperia Prime, a ringed planet, has been mentioned several times in lore as a holiday destination, first in DS9: “Change of Heart” as where Jadzia Dax wanted to honeymoon. In PIC, it was mentioned that Jack Crusher was conceived while Picard and Beverly Crusher were having shore leave on the planet (PIC: “Seventeen Seconds”).

Deep Space 6 is from beta canon, being mentioned in the Last Unicorn RPG and in two VOY novels as well as in Star Trek Online.

The music cues when Starbase 80 appears are reminiscent of horror movie music and are taken from ST II. We can now add Denobulan lice to the blood worms, lemurs and tartan voles native to the planet.

Boimler’s mention of T’Pol is referring to the infamous decon chamber scenes from ENT, where the use of the gel to “decontaminate” after exposure to potentially hostile environments was just a gratuitous excuse to show the crew rubbing each other down while dressed in their underwear (ENT: “Broken Bow”). I’ve never heard Boims call Mariner “Mare-Bear” before, but… ew.

While Tendi scoffs at Mariner’s “curse”, we do have actual examples of people losing their mental acuity after prolonged exposure to an environment. In SNW: “Among the Lotus Eaters”, Pike & Co. lost their memory due to radiation from asteroidal material on Rigel VII. In TOS: “The Cloud Minders”, unprocessed zenite ore emitted a gas which reduced intelligence and heightened emotion, leading to a caste division in Ardanan society.

The dilapidated Starbase 80 corridor, complete with various wall fittings, a ladder and a Jeffries tube (even the font from the “Ward 5” sign), takes cues from the TOS Enterprise corridors for their design. Kassia Nox is dressed in a 22nd Century-era jumpsuit (from ENT), wearing Commander pips. Flux spectrometers were supposed to be used for luminosity studies in TNG: “Cause and Effect”.

Mariner was given the disgusting job of emptying the Cerritos holodeck biofilters in LD: “Moist Vessel” in a bid to get her to transfer off the ship. Tendi geeks out over the TOS wall comms which do indeed date to the 2260s, although then why command staff are dressed in ENT-era jumpsuits instead of TOS-era uniforms is an open question. Also in the fusion reactor room is the dilithium crystal access console seen from TOS Season 2 onwards in Enterprise Engineering (TOS: “Elaan of Troyius”, “Day of the Dove”).

SB80's Operations Center is basically a TOS Constitution-class bridge. The Southern-accented engineer Gene Jakobowski in the ENT-era jumpsuit may be a reference to NX-01 Chief Engineer Trip Tucker, especially when they think he’s initially dead. Tucker died on-screen (albeit in a holographic historical simulation) in VOY: “These are the Voyages”, a move that is heavily criticized in fandom, but was brought back in the novels. Gene is voiced by Stephen Root, who played K'Vada in TNG: "Unification".

The Acamarians first appeared on screen in TNG: “The Vengeance Factor”. Acamar is a real binary star system, also known as Theta Eridani, situated about 165 ly from Sol. One of the shops on SB80’s Promenade is called “Lornak’s”, after an Acamarian clan and another sells "Parthas", an Acamarian vegetable.

The “vintage” dress shop Tendi is at has a number of old Trek costumes and props. Hanging above, we have a red female Operations skant and male Sciences top from TOS, a Command top from DIS Season 2, and a female Command skant from SNW. We also see Pulaski's medical skant from TNG, a TMP-era uniform, a Rubicun III costume (TNG: “Justice”), a TOS Klingon uniform with honor sash, a torn Monster Maroon from the movie era, a field jacket from the same period and Ruk’s top from TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” We also see a First Contact phaser rifle, a movie-era Security helmet, various TOS tricorders and TNG/VOY PADDs, a TOS communicator, a Mirror Universe dagger, what might be a VISOR display stand, Khan’s necklace pendant from ST II, one of those TNG cylindrical bags, and, significantly, since the vendor claims the uniforms are of dead people, a pile of TOS redshirts. Others have pointed out NX-01 baseball caps, a cap from the Kelvin Timeline dress uniform, Kirk and Spock's mobster hats from TOS: "A Piece of the Action", a TNG-era medical kit, and Admiral Mark Jameson's chair from TNG: "Too Short a Season".

The turbolifts have the twist controls from the TOS era, which made a return in SNW, set in that same period.

This is actually the first time I’ve ever seen these kind of stairs in a Starfleet facility. Mackler and Gorm were in Boimler’s landing party on Targalus IX in LD: “Shades of Green”. Harrison Horseberry’s facial transformation is like that of Geordi in TNG: “Identity Crisis” which was due to exposure to parasites on Tarchennan III. The sickbay is also of TOS vintage right down to the design of the biomonitors.

Kassia reveals she’s El-Aurian, a member of Guinan’s long-lived species, although she’s just 30. She also claims that SB80 doesn’t use combadges, although we saw TNG-era combadges on SB80 personnel in “Trusted Sources” (although in this episode the badges are absent). It is possible, I suppose, that they were non-functional or the system ceased to function between that episode and now.

The Arcade has a machine that uses the large circular light that was part of the Atavachron prop in TOS: “All Our Yesterdays”. The screen of the Ferengi’s Fortune game reminds me of the 80s game Joust, and tucked in back is a game with the Cosmic Koala ("Moist Vessel"). Gene is playing a Galaga/Space Invaders-type game where a Romulan Valdore-class is shooting at Constitution refit-class targets (on the side of the cabinet is a Vastam-class from Star Trek Online). Gene is also wearing Scotty's vest from TNG: "Relics".

A zombie Jet Manhaver is on a Klingon targ kid’s ride.

The officer tearing the door wiring apart is Rutherford’s nemesis/rival Ensign Livik (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”). Horseberry detects an anaphasic consciousness (Clem) possessing the Cetacean Ops whales (TNG: “Sub Rosa”).

“Scrappy underdogs” is also how Mariner described the Lower Deckers in the very first LD episode “Second Contact”.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x04 A Farewell to Farms.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

Annotations for Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x04: “A Farewell to Farms”

The episode title is a play on Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, a romance between an American ambulance driver in the Italian Army and an English nurse, set against the backdrop of World War I, and has as one of its themes the idea of an end to, or retirement from war.

Qo'noS is the Klingon Homeworld, last seen in DIS: "Point of Light" or, chronologically in-universe in DS9: "The House of Quark".

Ma'ah first appeared in LD: "wej Duj", and was last seen in LD: "The Inner Fight". The targ may be the pet he inherited from his previous captain, Dorg, whom he killed and then attained his own rank and the IKS Che’Ta’. The farming outfit Ma'ah wears echoes the one the older Picard wore in TNG: "All Good Things..." and he is sipping from a Klingon bloodwine mug. We also see how bloodwine is made - apparently harvested from worms grown in the soil.

The usual title sequence is replaced by cinematic-style titles complete with rousing music. Mariner and Ma'ah befriended (sort of) each other in "The Inner Fight" on Sherbal V, which is why she's calling.

Malor mounts brush devil jaws on the transport. The brush devil is a creature native to Qo’noS with a particularly loud hunting scream, mentioned in the DS9 novel Heart of the Warrior, in which Worf tells of when he and his brother Kurn participated in a brush devil hunt.

A petaQ is a Klingon epithet, which can be loosely translated as "weirdo" (from taQ, to be weird, and pe, an imperative you). The Klingon axe-throwers are using various blades, but the one flying across the screen is a mek'leth, a two-pronged dagger generally used for throat slashing and disemboweling (ENT: "Marauders"). bahgol is a warm tea-like beverage (DS9: "Blood Oath").

One of the members of the Klingon band is playing a concertina like DS9’s Klingon Chef in DS9: “Playing God”. Ma'ah tells K'Elarra he did not expect to see her in this pugh gegh (as per the closed captioning) but I suspect this to be an error and it should be pugh qegh, which translates to "barrel/vat of dregs", which makes the bartender's insulted reaction more logical. par'Mach means "love" (but with more aggressive overtones). K’Elarra’s manhandling of Ma’ah and her sniffing him are typical of Klingon mating practices (TNG: “The Emissary”) and her “boob window” commented on by Mariner appeared first on Klingon females with the Duras sisters in TNG: “Redemption”. K’Elarra is voiced by Mary Chieffo, who played L’Rell in DIS.

Boimler's beard has progressed to an actual moustache now although his goatee is still a work in progress, charitably speaking. cha'DIch can be loosely translated as "second", in the sense of someone who speaks or acts on behalf of the principal in a duel, or in other contexts a confidant or mentee.

Cerritos is in orbit around Praxon IV. Tendi refers to when Migleemo fought the Orion warrior B'eth in LD: "Old Friends, New Planets". We are told Migleemo's species (Klowahkans) for the first time, and are told they invented warp travel to discover "strange new meals" as opposed to strange new worlds. This also explains Migleemo's penchant for food metaphors. Whether the planet name is a pun on "cloaca" l leave for speculation.

'urwI'pu' means "traitors". Martok’s legendary killing of them took place in the Ketha Lowlands, a poor area of Qo’noS, where he said his family was from (DS9: “Once More Unto the Breach”). A d'k tagh (misspelt diktagh) is a traditional Klingon warrior's dagger first seen in ST III. Boimler's fear of skiing cropped up last episode in LD: "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel". He mentions the Ritual of J'ethurgh and the Ritual of Forced Conscription, both first mentions.

bIj means punishment, which is usually used as a verb, not a noun. But the term “Experience bIj!” is a particularly deep cut from the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Interactive VCR Board Game - A Klingon Challenge, where during the game Captain Kavok (played by Robert O’Reilly who was Gowron on TNG and DS9) occasionally says this to one of the players who must then draw a Bij card and do what it says.

K'orin is a Klingon General and friend of Mariner's, who was last seen in LD: "Envoys". quv beq means "crew of honor". lujwI'pu' means "losers". Councilor Enaj is “Jane” spelled backwards.

Mordanian may refer to the inhabitants of Mordan IV (TNG: "Too Short a Season").

Kahless refers to Kahless the Unforgetable, a semi-mythical figure who was the greatest warrior in Klingon history as well as the first Emperor (TOS: “The Savage Curtain”).

Fekh’lr is the guardian of Grethor, the Klingon underworld (TNG: “Devil’s Due”). While we’ve known that part of Kahless’ legend is that he conquered a group called the Fekh’lri, we’ve never actually connected them to the mythical Fekh’lr on screen. In Star Trek Online, however, they do resemble Fekh’lr and were foot soldiers of Kahless’s enemy Molor (created by the Dominion), and were banished to Gre’thor with him. Boimler’s remark suggests that the Fekh’lri were minions of Fekh’lr as this story has Kahless killing Fekh’lr.

Painstiks (or pain sticks) were first seen being used in the Klingon Rite of Ascension, marking the occasion of a Klingon child reaching the Age of Inclusion and becoming a Klingon warrior (TNG: “The Icarus Factor”). darseks are the main currency used in the Klingon Empire (TNG: “Firstborn”). tagh-jaj qaD can be translated as “begin the challenge day”.

Boimler notes that the maximum painstik voltage is 30,000 volts. Whether or not an electrical shock is lethal really depends on both voltage and amperage, where voltage is the force of electrical power passing through but current (amps) is the rate of flow.

A hogfish (on Earth at least) is a type of wrasse living in the Western Atlantic, so called because of its elongated snout. It doesn’t have more than two eyes, though. Enara Prime is a planet in the Delta Quadrant, home to the Enarans, a telepathic species (VOY: “Remember”).

HIq’aD comes from HIq (ale, wine) and ’aD (blood vessel), so I’d imagine it’s an epithet saying that Malor’s a drunk.

qoH means “fool”. Boimler references his brief transfer to the *Titan* at the end of Season 2 and the first few episodes of season 3. Klingons can’t transfer ships except with a two-thirds vote of the Oversight Council.

chatlh means “thick soup”, but it’s also slang for “nonsense”. Sto-vo-kor is the Klingon equivalent of Valhalla. Ma’ah uses a bat’leth while Bragh fights with a gin’tak battle spear. The armor Bragh crashes into before he grabs the spear is a Klingon Honor Guard set from STO. The Klingon blood spilled is pink, as per ST VI, although this has been inconsistent through Star Trek, which generally shows Klingon blood as red.

Mariner discovers that the dimensional rifts are not natural, but someone is causing them. toDuj means “courage”.

Malor claims he sees Kahless, the “original one”. A clone of Kahless was created by the monks of Boreth in TNG: “Rightful Heir”, who eventually became the ceremonial Emperor/Head of State of the Empire. He also says the original was “good at imitating voices”, which indeed the Excalbian recreation was when he imitated Surak’s voice in TOS: “The Savage Curtain”.

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x03 The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

After rewatching DS9: “Defiant”, I had a thought; to prevent transporter clones from impersonating each other, could Starfleet require, as a part of duty, that transporter clones receive slight genomic resequencing that changes no major traits but allows DNA scanners to distinguish them?

I can think of a few issues. One, would it break genetic experimentation laws even though there would be negligible changes to each transporter clone? Two, is this too sever a violation of personal liberties for the Federation to be allowed? Three, is the technology there to do this effectively in a starship’s sickbay?

The title of the episode is a play on the 2011 film (and its sequel) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of retirees who purchase a hotel in India. Nanites are of course microsopic nanotechnological robots which were first introduced into the Star Trek universe in the TNG episode "Evolution", although chronologically they have existed as far back as DIS: "Perpetual Infinity".

The Stardate is 59393.7. Cerritos is at the Cosmic Duchess, an interstellar cruise ship with multiple domed biomes which is undergoing a nanite cluster infestation. Boimler's facial hair is increasing, now with stubble on his chin and cheeks. He notes that one of the casinos has Dixon Hill slot machines, Dixon Hill being a 20th-Century hard boiled detective character Picard was a fan of (TNG: "The Big Goodbye"). Mariner's shocked reaction to Jennifer's kiss is understandable, since we were led to understand they broke up in LD: "Trusted Sources".

Jet Manhaver is a background character who was last featured in LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris". The way he describes Ransom's using him as fodder is reminiscent of the jokes about the fates of redshirts in TOS.

T'Lyn suggests Jennifer has a brain parasite. The last time a brain parasite caused amorous complications was in LD: "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Jennifer says she is being transferred to the USS Manitoba, which from the name might be a Parliament-class starship (the others we know of being Toronto and Vancouver).

The Risa Bar is named of course after the pleasure planet (TNG: “Captain’s Holiday”) and the biome actually reminds me of the Risa instance in Star Trek Online. This is the first time we’ve actually seen Gallamites although the species was first mentioned in DS9: “The Maquis, Part I” when Jadzia Dax mentioned she had a dinner date with the Gallamite Captain Boday, and Kira evinced some discomfort with his transparent skull. Kreetassans, an easily offended species, first appeared in ENT: “Vox Sola” and consider eating a taboo activity not to be done in front of others. The huge dangerous mountain pointed out by Ransom vaguely resembles the Paramount logo if you squint (it may just be a coincidence).

T’Lyn makes note of the poster of Krog on the Rocks, who performs on Vibe Tubes. Named in this episode, the Vibe Tubes are a futuristic musical instrument, the prop first seen being played in a holographic recreation in TNG: "We'll Always Have Paris".

Admiral Milius’s acolyte is Denobulan, the same species as Dr Phlox of ENT. Denobulan females emit powerful pheremones during mating (ENT: “Dear Doctor”). “Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place,” is a lesson we first learned in ST VI.

Tendi makes reference to Mariner's parents, who are often separated for long periods of time since Carol Freeman is a starship Captain and Alonzo is a Starfleet Admiral.

Milius' appearance resembles that of Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, which in turn was written by John Milius, Francis Coppola and Michael Herr inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. In both stories the Kurtz character sets himself up as a demigod worshipped by natives.

An iscosahedron is a 20-sided polyhedron, best known to tabletop roleplayers as a d20 die. Gormaganders (DIS: "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad") and the "Galaxy's Child" thing (TNG: "Galaxy's Child"), are examples of cosmozoans, giant organisms that live in space.

Captain Tersal says that her parallel universe Endeavor has been through a "month of hell", an allusion to VOY: "Year of Hell". Although Endeavor's scale is due to her being from a universe that is tiny, in the Prime universe the runabout Rubicon was once shrunk by a subspace anomaly (DS9: "One Little Ship") and Voyager was turned into a Christmas tree ornament by Q (VOY: "Death Wish").

This is the Daystrom Institute Episode Analysis thread for Lower Decks 5x01 Dos Cerritos and 5x02 Shades of Green.

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the content of the latest episode, this thread is a place to dig a little deeper.

The title is similar to the infamous Season 2 clip show TNG: “Shades of Grey”, written due to a writer’s strike at the time.

D’Erika is eating wing-slug rolls. Orion wing-slugs were mentioned by Lwaxana Troi in TNG: “Ménage à TroiBoimler has seen when he died briefly (LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilonn beta canon they are said to be native to the Rigel system.

The Stardate is 59376.9 - by TNG reckoning that makes it 2382 (as also reckoned using Naomi Wildman’s age last episode), and Cerritos is at Targalus IX. One of the banners being displayed says “No Money No Problems”, an allusion to the song “Mo Money Mo Problems” by the Notorious B.I.G.

Boimler appears to trying to grow facial hair, probably inspired by his parallel counterpart from last episode. He’s calling his tips “Bointers”. He is addressed as Commander even though his rank remains LT-jg, presumably because he’s in command of this away team.

The shuttle Sequoia, named after the California National Park like all Cerritos shuttles, was damaged in LD: “No Small Parts” and has been under repair since LD: “Strange Energies”.

The Blue Orions are House Azure now, and a blazzard is a kind of domesticated Orion bird with reptilian features. Tendi says Orions haven’t used sailships in hundreds of years. Bajoran lightships used solar sails as far back as the 16th Century (DS9: “Explorers”), and R’ongovian ships also used solar sails for ceremonial purposes (SNW: “Spock Amok”).

The Orion sailship doesn’t have inertial dampeners, and neither did the Bajoran lightship. Inertial dampeners are only critical at FTL speeds, and solar sails are not meant for that. However, like Sisko’s Bajoran lightship, the Orion sailship does appear to have gravity plating.

Sarium krellide is a material used in power cells or in explosives (TNG: “In Theory”), and also powered Starfleet combadges (PRO: “Observer’s Paradox”).

Phlox kept a Pyrithian Bat as part of his menagerie on the NX-01 (ENT: “Flight or Fight”, et al.).

“It is possible to do everything right and still get your away team kidnapped by the corporate elite,” is a paraphrase of Picard’s “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose,” from TNG: “Peak Performance”.

On Hysperia, they keep dragons for pets and call their warp drives “dragonsbreath engines” (LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie”).

T’Lyn appears to have added herself to the cartoon squiggles of the others on the Sequoia’s hatch.

Boimler tells Mackler to “turn away from the mountain”. The Black Mountain is a spiritual battleground in the afterlife (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”) which Boimler has seen when he died briefly (LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”).

Assisting T'Lyn in demolishing Sequoia is Goodgey, Badgey's good twin from LD: "A Few Badgeys More".

The title is Spanish for “Two Little Hills”, and aside from a literal description of the episode’s plot, reminded me of the song “Dos Oruguitas” (Two Butterflies) from the movie Encanto. A similar title was LD: "wej Duj", Klingon for "Three Ships".

The collector’s (Yorif by the closed captioning) ship is a Zibalian freighter (TNG: “The Most Toys”), and the collector himself is of the same unnamed species as Palor Toff from that episode, which also appeared in LD: “Reflections”. He has Hupyrian guards (TNG: “The Nagus”, et al.). Tendi’s holographic disguise is that of a Heliian woman, the species to which Aquiel belonged (TNG: “Aquiel”). 

Seen in the collection is a Risian horgh’an (TNG: “Captain’s Holiday”), a Veltan lust idol (called a sex idol in “The Most Toys”), next to a broken Bajoran Reckoning Tablet (DS9: “The Reckoning”). Apparently, Orions lived in childhood slime dungeons. Yorif uses a ST II design phaser and claims his ornate facial piercing is “prescription”. 

The LD title has the 3D effect that was applied to TNG’s title which appeared only in Season 5. The ever-crowded battle in the title sequence is joined by Apollo’s hand (TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”), which grabs the Borg cube, a Tholian ship drawing its web (TOS: “The Tholian Web”) and V’Ger (TMP), complete with its sound effects.

Mariner is playing a game of Vulcan kal-toh with T’Lyn. Boimler’s Fleet magazine, aside from the “30 Under 30” feature, also highlights “Klingon Kouture: Blood is the New Black” (an allusion to Orange is the New Black, which also starred Kate Mulgrew), as well as “Q Who? The Continuum Awaits”(alluding to TNG: “Q Who?”). It also mentions “Treknomics”, which is an out-of-universe term used to refer to Star Trek economics. The cover also somewhat resembles the official Star Trek Explorer magazine published by Titan Comics. It is issue No. 47, a recurring number and in-joke in Star Trek. 

Naomi Wildman was born on Voyager in 2372 during its sojourn in the Delta Quadrant, the half-Ktarian half-human daughter of Ensign Samantha Wildman who was pregnant when she came on board. This dates this season around 2382. Tendi mentions it’s been “months” since the end of Season 4. 

Worf encountered a quantum fissure in TNG: “Parallels”, which sent him on a journey through several parallel realities, including parallel Enterprises. D’Erika says that the Orion warship (later we find out it’s a medical frigate) dates from the time of the Great Plague over 300 years prior. Roger Korby’s claim to fame was his translation of medical records from Orion ruins that revolutionized immunization techniques (TOS: “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”), but I always imagined the ruins to be older than a few centuries. 

It was established in “Parallels” that quantum signatures differ from universe to universe. In this case, the parallel that Cerritos is in exhibits only a .327% variance. Among the differences in hair (and in Otherford’s case, cybernetic augmentations), the parallel Billups is King (where our Billups rejected the throne) and has Hysperian accessories over his uniform, like Worf used to wear his sash over his. 

We finally find out that Mariner is her middle name, so she was born Beckett Mariner Freeman. She went by "Becky" when living on Starbase 25 (LD: "An Embarassment of Dopplers") and her father still uses that name (LD: "Grounded").

The globes at the rear of the Orion frigate are like those spinning at the rear of a D’Var type Orion scout ship (TOS: “Journey to Babel”, SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). Blue-skinned Orions (actually light green) appeared only in TAS and were the result of coloring problems in the animation (Hal Sutherland, the director, was colorblind, also explaining why TAS tribbles are pink). Also, the odd pronunciation of “Orion” by the blue-skinned Orions here (“OR-ee-on”) comes from TAS: “The Pirates of Orion”, the mistake being due to an absence of a pronunciation guide.

Captain Becky says “there’s no interpersonal conflict allowed on my ship!” which was Roddenberry’s edict for TNG. Mariner also mentioned that people weren’t supposed to have conflict in LD: “Strange Energies”. Becky also uses a riding crop - in LD: “First First Contact” Mariner said she didn’t want a new captain because potentially they could be “some weirdo with a riding crop”. That was likely an allusion to Captain Styles (ST III) using a swagger stick. 

As she goes to replace Mariner, Becky uses the sarcastic Vulcan salute first seen in LD: “Moist Vessel”. We find out that the parallel Captain Freeman ended up at the infamous Starbase 80 (first mentioned in LD: “Terminal Provocations”). 

The Blue Orions say they are laughed at for their “ridiculous uniforms”, which were a product of TAS design. As Parallel Boimler goes to take his seat as Acting Captain, he does a reverse Riker Maneuver out of the conn chair. 

At the bar next to Ransom is a bottle of Cardassian kanar (DS9: “The Marquis, Part II”). In front of Boimler is a raktajino mug seen in DS9, in reality a Highwave Hotjo 16 oz. Travel Mug.

It's easy for us to understand that The Doctor is a sapient being.

After all, he acts like one! He's got a slew of odd personality quirks, balances irritating behavior with kindness and sympathy, behaves in a similarly slightly erratic manner as most of us flesh and blood creatures, and responds to difficulties with every appearance of genuine emotion. It's extremely easy for human audiences to look at the early seasons Voyager crew as bigoted for their slow acceptance of him as a "real" member of the crew, and react very harshly to later challenges to his personhood from people outside of the crew. It's not uncommon to see that behavior referenced as proof that 24th century people are no more "enlightened" than the obviously flawed people of today. And maybe they aren't; that's not my topic for today.

But the element I think that argument is missing is something these 24th century people have been exposed to all their lives, and we in 2024 have only begun to encounter: soulless, unconscious entities capable of impressive imitations of a real person.

24th century holograms appear as perfect copies of physical humans, with perfectly recognizable voices, normal human mannerisms, and convincingly human speech that responds naturally and automatically to nearly any expected or unexpected input. Any of us unknowingly tossed onto a 24th century holodeck would be totally convinced that these people projected around us and interacting with us are as real as anybody we meet today: nothing they do will clue us in to the fact that we're interacting with philosophical zombies.

Most of us first encountered something like this when ChatGPT and it's ilk suddenly got really good and easily accessible just a couple years ago. Suddenly a computer could create text that read like a human had written it, responding to context and occasionally interjecting very human behaviors (like making up answers to stuff it didn't know, and attempting to gaslight anyone who called it out for being wrong). A shocking number of modern people seem to genuinely believe that these bots show real consciousness (even some who really ought to know better). And it's not hard to understand why, when these bots can spoof every text-based indication of humanity that most of us look for.

People of the 24th century have spent their entire lives interacting with bots that smash the Turing Test even more thoroughly, and on every level imaginable. They can walk onto a holodeck and spin up a person from scratch who looks, smells, feels, and sounds completely real, who talks coherently and shows perfectly ordinary physical mannerisms. And they also know, with ironclad certainty, that these creations are no more human and no more alive than a tricorder or a hyperspanner. Just about all they have to definitively prove if someone is real or not lies in if they can exist outside the holodeck.

Enter The Doctor. He's very definitively a hologram. When first activated he's no more real than any other holographic creation, and only slowly grows in unanticipated ways which slowly convince his crew that he's become something more than that. This process is slow, but it's actually a bit of a surprise that it happens at all. Excepting Kes and Neelix, everyone on Voyager is quite accustomed to holographically generated people who act human but are purely a facade. That this very reasonable prejudice could be overcome at all should be seen as a triumph of empathy. It's not at all surprising that the people back home on Earth aren't buying it, and can't even be persuaded beyond a bare minimum threshold of plausible uncertainty.

I theorize that people who are growing up right now in an environment of very convincing AI chatbots will find it easier than we did to recognize holographic beings in Star Trek shows as sophisticated extensions of those internet bots, and will mirror the slow acceptance by Voyager's crew that The Doctor is something more than that.

So what does that mean for us? What do we do as more of our instinctive indicators of another person's humanity are effortlessly aped by machines? This is a difficulty which Star Trek shows had only begun to grapple with, but it's fertile ground for future episodes and undeniably a relevant question for our day.

I think the Vau N'Akat seen in Prodigy have a lot of "biological and technological distinctiveness" to be added to the collective's own. My question is whether or not the Borg could take advantage of the Vau N'Akat's abilities, and whether they'd be all that helpful.

For instance, could assimilated Vau N'Akat use their heirloom powers to manipulate materials in order to pump out at least the shells of Borg Cubes like nobody's business?

I think this depends on how heirloom material actually works and is made. Its utility to the Borg probably depends on whether or not it's a limited resource or actually some sort of alloy that could be constructed anywhere in the galaxy.

In truth, we can't know that, as in the current state of canon Vau N'Akat lore, it's basically just space magic to us. If I had to take a wild guess, I have two theories:

1. Maybe Vau N'Akat have detachable nanobot-esque cells that communicate with the brain over an electromagnatic signal, allowing the quick assembly of structures at a relatively precise level, especially with the one specific material. (Perhaps all that blue dust stuff that happens at death are these cells freaking out as communication ceases and, for lack of orders, devouring the body.)
2. The Vau N'Akat have organs that essentially very precisely accelerate exchange particles. (This theory makes the above one seem comparatively more plausible.)

Another question is whether or not Vau N'Akat drones could use all that "your will is mine" stuff to aid the assimilation of other Vau N'Akat and/or create one super drone.

Going with theory 1, maybe the "Your will is mine" stuff is actually a weak ability to lend extra cells to the desired person that builds up when a lot of people are doing it, strengthening healing and immune responses as well as any use of that person's detached cells, thus explaining that whole scene.

If this is the mechanic by which it works (and assimilation doesn't somehow bork the mental facilities for this), this could be a very powerful ability for the Borg. It almost sounds too powerful, as those cells could be used as essentially an assimilation virus or a bioweapon, which I think would break the balance of power in the ST universe in a way that I think writers really wouldn't want to.

Overall, as I have said before, just as I find it very fun to try to theorize how the Vau N'Akat work, I also find it very difficult due to both its status as a very new species and their general uniqueness (almost un-Trekiness, not to insult them) as a species. I do think Prodigy does some good things with the Vau N'Akat, and it's nice to have a species that's a bit more than just forehead ridges and a fatal flaw (if they even bother with the forehead ridges - looking at you, Betazoids). However, similar to some of the complaints with Prodigy in general, I can't deny that the space magic aspect feels more Star Wars than I can say I like in Star Trek.

So, what are your thoughts?

I guess the only case we can examine is The Doctor. Whenever The Doctor uses a transporter, what traveling: the lights or the mobile emitter?

There have been many cases which The Doctor has become solid so other solid objects can no longer pass through them. If the object we are seeing being beamed is the mobile emitter, then is it necessary for them to be on a separate pad? I imagine the person accompanying The Doctor could just hold the emitter instead.

As anyone who watched Prodigy knows, the main characters + Chakotay end up on the ISS Voyager A during some accidental multiverse hopping due to time shenanigans.

It could be argued that the mirror universe is just a random variant of it in the multiverse where the Terran Empire is still prominent.

However, I noticed two things: Terran Admiral Janeway refers to the fleet as "The New Terran Fleet", maybe suggesting a success for the Terran rebellion.

This is further supported by the fact that her combadge is the same as (and her uniform plausibly an evolution of) the ones seen in the various IDW mirror universe comics, the earliest of which is from 2017.~1~

The plot of these comics tries to fit in with the info from DS9, revealing (in its own continuity, at least) that the Terran Empire still existed during DS9 but had been reduced to the Sol System, with most people outside it not even realizing it still existed. The comics chronicle the resurgence of the empire and the rise and fall of Picard.

Is it possible that the timeline we see in Prodigy is actually the same mirror universe in DS9 and that the IDW mirror universe comics have been semi-canonized?

1: Coincidentally but not relevant to the question, the ISS Cerritos shown in the holodeck in LD:I, Excretus also uses these badges, but not the typical mirror universe uniforms, although it could be those are just the mirror Cali Class uniforms.

While responding to a comment in a crappost I made on Risa, my mind developed a few thoughts on how Seven was impacted overall.

First of all, here are the facts:

• Seven was assimilated at 6 years old.
• She was in a maturation chamber for 5 years (2350-2355).
• She was in the collective until 2374, when she was 30.

Now, my questions:

• What is 7's biological age? In other words, how far does a Borg drone need to be matured to function in the collective? Equivalent of a 16? 20? 25? How much do Borg age while they are assimilated?
• What are the psychological impacts on Seven's mind, and to what extent are they permanent? To what extent is she emotionally equivalent to a child? Having such a level of isolation from humans would obviously (and clearly did) have a major impact on Seven's mind. However, Seven improves a lot in some senses by Picard. Is it possible that Borg nanoprobes somehow maintain neuroplasticity in a way that allows Seven to be able to adapt in a way a human who have become a ferile child at 6 might not be able to?

Because of his original purpose, it makes sense that the Doctor wouldn’t have held a Starfleet rank during Voyager.

However, in Prodigy, he still doesn’t have pips. This leads to my questions:

• Can a self-aware hologram hold rank or a non-com position in Starfleet?
• If so, how would the Doctor attaib it?

According to the STO wiki, he doesn’t wear them by choice but does have a rank. That might be a reasonable explanation; I can’t imagine Janeway not at least trying to field commission him.

Darwin Station was an explicitly Federation genetic research facility which was creating human children with telepathic and telekinetic powers, rapid physical maturation, and immensely powerful active immune systems (the last of which unwittingly killed the crew of a transport ship). This seems like precisely the sort of genetic engineering which has been banned in the Federation since it's conception, in regulations which are repeatedly referenced in TNG, DS9, and VOY. And yet, nobody even hints at there being an ethical, legal, or regulatory issue with what these researchers are doing. Dr. Pulaski even says of one augment child, without any apparent concern, "We could be looking at the future of humanity."

One would think that if one has a broad reaching policy against genetic augmentation principally motivated by the genetic wars, and by subsequent reinforcement of the idea that arbitrarily enhanced people are likely to be dangerously unstable, this sort of genetic program is exactly what that policy exists to prevent. And yet, there is it.

So, what happened here? Was this the product of a brief lull in Federation policy regarding genetic augmentation? A Federation research team going way off the rails, meeting an Enterprise crew feeling unusually liassez-faire about Federation law? Or something else?

Here’s a bigger bugbear (than the Vulcan question): how does it all work in Ferengi society?

I’ll split order my post by my pre-Rom and post-Rom thoughts.

Pre-Rom:

• Gay (not Lesbian) Ferengi are probably a normal thing.
• Based on DS9 “Profits and Lace” and Nilva’s reaction to the transitioned Quark, it might be possible that male to female transition, while considered very weird, would be considered fine if you make a sufficiently good female by Ferengi standards, if you know what I mean.
• Conversely, female to male transition probably wouldn’t be accepted, based on the reaction to Pel, although Pel didn’t necessarily actually change her gender identity or get her lobes surgically enlarged. It may be possible that some trans Ferengi existed and simply hid that they weren’t cis, although it’d be more difficult considering the mobility limitations on females. There were probably surgeons on the planet who were like “If you’ve got the Latinum, I’ll totally do it.”
• Overall, I think the sentiment would be, “If you’ve got the lobes and you’ve got the Latinum, I don’t care what you do.”
• For instance, if a non-binary Ferengi made lots of profit, they might not be totally respected, but at least not bothered as much.

Post-Rom:

• Lesbian Ferengi are probably legal but still frowned upon.
• Transitioning either way is probably easier, considering the shift in gender roles as seen by 2381 in Lower Decks.
• Generally, with the Federation membership bid, probably a lot more open but still rife with social issues.

Questions:

• Do Ferengi experience dysphoria when their ears are the wrong size? (Very possibly yes, considering the dysphoria humans can experience from other secondary sex characteristics.)

I've often pondered about how Vulcans view gender and sexuality.

I think pre-Surak/logic, they may have demonstrated homophobia and transphobia, but modern Vulcan Society would probably be chill with it under the reasoning that discrimination would reduce a person's efficacy as a functional member of Vulcan Society. For instance, given a choice between allowing a person to contribute verses driving them to the brink of suicide, Vulcans would probably tend to lean towards the first option.

There could very well still be stigma (Vulcans are far from a perfect society; some may have views that it is illogical to have a romantic relationship without a child), but it's dampened by the logic from the previous paragraph.

There's also the Pon Farr to keep in mind. Not only would it be hard to fight a person in the Ponn Farr, but also you'd literally be killing them by trying to prevent expression of their orientation.

I can’t think of a single VOY episode with mind-melds that didn’t have a character treating it as a super taboo or dangerous telepathic ability.