Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 4x04 "Something Borrowed, Something Green"
::: spoiler Logline Tendi is summoned back to Orion for a wedding. :::
Written by: Grace Parra Janney
Directed by: Bob Suarez
::: spoiler Logline Tendi is summoned back to Orion for a wedding. :::
Written by: Grace Parra Janney
Directed by: Bob Suarez
Lower Decks continues to shine. I enjoy finally being shown aspects Orion culture, beyond being considered, " ... delinquents, pirates, slave traders." (DSC s1e15, although the same perception about Orions is held throughout Star Trek). The expansion of Tendi's background is great. I'm hoping for more on Orion in Star Trek's future. Poor Mariner, lol.
Getting to see Boimler and Rutherford settle in as roommates made for a nice B story. That got me wondering again about Mariner and Tendi's new quarters since their promotions. And, T'Lyn's.
The mysterious ship of destruction is getting old for me. When only ten, twenty-five minutes each, episodes are considered a season, there's little time to dilly-dally around with story telling. I'm just hoping this tease doesn't continue to be unexplained until another season.
To bad there wasn't time in "wej Duj" (LD s2e9) for an Orion Lower Decks segment. Now, I'm just waiting for an appropriate situation to say, " ... that makes you more of an Orion plagiarist."
Honestly, whilst it would be nice for the mysterious ship of destruction to actually reach the central plot someone soon, I'm enjoying the little snapshots into lower deck life on other ships. It's a shame it always inevitably ends with vaporisation.
I was hoping the little ship of doom is using unfamiliar tech to transport the people on the destroyed ships somewhere. Mainly because of Ma’ah and the Che’Ta’, and now the Orions. But, I'm leaning more towards destruction, than transporting. On the plus side, I have an astonishingly consistent track record of being wrong when guessing story points. Fingers crossed that my streak continues.
I think they've been hinting that it transports since no bodies are visible in the debris, but a decent amount of organic material, like the wooden spear shaft, has survived.
I would prefer this, I think, because I've been having trouble reconciling a sitcom spending a few minutes most episodes this season racking up a body count that would now be in the hundreds, or even thousands.
As a franchise, of course, Star Trek can handle both silly comedy and lethal brutality (and even Lower Decks has successfully juggled in a few serious scenes amongst the comedy, at times), but the way these vignettes have been inserted into the A plots this season is like if in "The Trouble with Tribbles" Arne Darvin had been gang-raped just before the credits rolled.
I thought it seemed like V'Ger's data storage attack, though V'Ger stored entire ships (even planets), leaving no debris.
::: spoiler spoiler Woot! Woot! My ability to incorrectly guess a storyline remains true. LOL! :::
These snapshots, combined with Wej du, are the best intro for new people into different Trek species. I love them and I want as many more as possible. Give me Cardassians, Ferengi, Jem'Hadar!
Some of them, notably the Romulans, were a little stereotypey. I know they're going for funny, but it's Star Trek, makes me feel weird.
Collectively, each of the races in Star Trek have their own thing that they do. Individually, some lean more into it than others, but that's the way they go, pretty much.
Captain Freeman referenced it destroying the Orion ship in the intro, so it's making its way toward the plot. Or the Cerritos is making its way to the plot.
" … delinquents, pirates, slave traders." (DSC s1e15, although the same perception about Orions is held throughout Star Trek).
It seems that Orion culture internally looks down on those who want to be in the sciences, but it's Tendi's grandmother that shows the galaxy that they are not all just pirates. Some several years after DSC S1, in SNW S2.
It's clearly there to seed the ongoing mystery to be resolved in the finale. This show doesn't really do long-form storytelling except in very broad strokes.