I'm impressed how Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome works so well and are so similar in live action to their animated ones ! I think Noel Wells and Eugene Cordero could have worked too but it would have taken a lot of work and prosthetic they might not have time to work on...Still its honestly the top Crossover episode in all of Star Trek, just perfect work !!!
"Stuck in dystopian San Francisco" is a reference to the seriously great DEEP SPACE 9 episode "Future Tense." It's Episodes 11 and 12 of the third season, and one of the best STAR TREK episodes ever. DEEP SPACE 9 has a lot of those. It's also set in 2024.
You should watch all of DEEP SPACE 9, and ENTERPRISE, and if you've finished all of ST:NG, then PICARD. I understand you tragically watched ST: NG BEFORE TOS, which is terrible, but can't be undone. And I think you also watched DISCOVERY? IF not, watch it and STRANGE NEW WORLDS!
So I think this is a little bit of a modern classic episode of Star Trek. It's right up there with "Trials and Tribbleations", I think, as a fun episode that just celebrates Star Trek's history and has a good old time!
"That could have gone better?" No, it could not -- we got to hear Jack Quaid do the Boimler scream. "We must save Lower Decks, my friends." WR, I started watching the 1701 ("no bloody A, B, C, or D") when I was nine. Star Trek is a phoenix and will outlive us all. Trust an old hand, and wait for the miraculous rebirth.
I love the detail that's packed into this, maybe even more so than a usual Lower Decks episode. F'instance, pay close attention to Mariner when the portal starts portaling. She's at the back of the group but is *booking* it once things go south so she almost manages to grab Boimler in time. For that matter while both Tawney and Jack do phenomenal jobs as their live action selves the look that goes with "it's a poster... that's pinned up" might be the closest animation in live action I've ever seen. This episode alone got me to buy the 4K UHD because, well, Lower Decks taps out at 1080p and the Cerritos deserves to be seen at least once in its full space-truck glory! Also, just me or are the Lower Decks uniforms in the running for the best live action outfits maybe.... ever? I mean, for me nothing tops the Wrath of Khan look but damn these run them close. Oh and I think I might have posted this before but if Lower Decks must come to an end could the Paramount overlords somehow find the money to give us live action Middle Decks? Maybe try something different so instead of episodic seasons we get an anthology show, two or three episodes each following our main characters as they go to other ships and progress their careers? Hell if it goes well you've got your built-in event movie as all of them come back together on their various ships to seriously prod buttock. For some reason I tend to picture Boimler in the centre seat of an Obena class (the same ship type that the Cerritos saved at the end of Season 2) and Mariner in a Lunar (but not the Titan, given what happens to that ship in canon we need to have at least one Lunar-class beauty as a going concern!).
My favorite thing about this episode is they didn't use a Deux Ex Machina to solve it. They used reality The modern Enterprises have been built with a piece from an older Enterprise. We are currently building the Enterprise CVN-80 It will include a total of 35,000 pounds of steel from the Enterprise CVN-65 and will also incorporate four portholes taken from the Enterprise CV-6. (The CVN-65 used to have a different set of portholes from the CV-6)
21:20 My grandpa went relatively young. Heart attack at 57. I remember I talked to my dad on his 58th birthday, and being one year older than my grandpa ever got to be was a heavy moment for him.
here is some context involving Pike that you won't get until you watch his season of Discovery and SNW. Having seen S1 of TOS, you already get some of it since you know what ultimately happens to him. The line about "stuck in a dystopian San Francisco..." is a reference to the 2-part DS9 episode "Past Tense".
Commenters: why do people love to piss in the cereal of other people? Someone is loving something. What's the point in showing up to announce you hate it? Why try to ruin someone else's happiness? Why not just keep it to yourself, or for conversation with people who agree with you?
Good reaction :) While I love everything about this episode, the funniest part to me is the implication of the final scene: Lower Decks is in animation because everyone on the Cerritos is perpetually stoned off their gourd on Orion hurricanes
I totally agree with you regarding the relevance and contribution of _Lower Decks_ , sadly it seams Paramount+ is axing all of its new Star Trek content in the wake of the strike (aside from Strange New Worlds), so it is very unlikely we will get to sea Boimler in any future shows. I still have hope we will manage to save the show, or at the very least get some movies after its conclusion, however even if there were other shows on the horizon, the producers of _Lower Decks_ and _Strange New Worlds_ have previously said that they felt that these two shows were similar in their vibe enough to benefit from the crossover, and I have to agree, if you take Boimler and Marinner's shenanigans to Pickard's show fro instance... I just don't really see it meshing well..
Definitely one of my favorite episodes of either show. Everything from the writing, the direction, and especially the acting came together masterfully. I love that Jack Quaid went back and watched Lower Decks to study Boimler's animation just so he could get the mannerisms down, like the power walk As for Pike, I honestly get where he's coming from. Time travel is tricky enough to navigate without an overly excitable crew involved. And like he said, it's like dealing with a toddler who's running around touching everything. But in this case if he breaks something, it's the entire space time continuum. So, lots of pressure. I'd say he definitely liked Boims and Beckett, but he really needed to get them out of there before they did something on accident and then everyone in the future gets turned into space salamanders or something.
Joking aside, they basically fudge things to make the concept work. Tawny doesn't look that much like Mariner but both she and Quaid have enough physical similarities that costume, make-up & hair and their own acting let them get away with it. I'm sure the same would've been true if they'd painted Noel Wells green and had Tendi instead of Mariner show up.
SNW is a tear jerker every episode, I definitely was hit with feels here. And save Lower Decks, I am just starting S02 of prodigy. Too late for Prodigy, Decks could maybe still be saved. This was as good as the musical episode if not better.
The only critique I've ever had about this episode is that some people don't like Lower Decks (not sure what their problem is), and you do need more than just a light understanding of both shows to fully get this one. Otherwise, no notes. Easily one of the best episodes of Trek EVER. Like a 9.95/10.
I'm 71 (original Trecker 1966) and embarrassed to admit that I have been crushing on Nurse Chapel. But I am very pleased to have lived long enough to enjoy this with my 13/14 year old self.
22:37 nooooo you didn’t react to Pelia’s best line of the entire series thus far! “careful with my floor, I USE THAT!” Hahahah. It was just so ridiculous that she said such a thing but also perfectly fitting to the character.
There are more easter eggs scattered through this episode: L'aan speaking about falling in love when in the past, for one; the reference to riots in San francisco (that's a DS9 reference)... a few others. You can stand to watch this episode a few more times once you watched other series. CERTAINLY when it's time for SNW. And, to be sure, Strange New Worlds is well worth adding to your watch list.
The best part of Boimler shouting "Riker!" as he mounted the saddle was that Jonathan Frakes was standing right there since he directed the episode. For me the main thing about Lower Decks is that it is made by fans FOR fans. That doesn't mean that people new to Trek can't enjoy it, but it is a special place for fans to geek out together. I was part of a Star Trek club in junior high school which was around 1977 and my first Star Trek convention was in Seattle in 1978 (Harlan Ellison and George Takei were featured guests) so I can tell you, I appreciate the hell out of it. I personally thing that Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are the best that New Trek has gotten and combined they may be the best writing in the entire franchise.
This episode was referenced in season four episode one of lower decks. When Brad and Beckett left the bridge of the USS Vyager after the Macro virus escaped
This is one of my favorite episodes. So many easter eggs in this episode. Especially how this episode gives a plausible reason for Spock smiling in the original pilot.
That last scene, particularly M'Benga's last line, is possibly the best scene in the entire franchise. The second best line is Plox telling Malcolm that, while it is unethical to harm a patient, he can inflict as much pain as he likes. The third is tied between Boimler's, The portal's trying to portal me!" and Tendi's, "Stop lurching towards it."
Thank Cary Grant for that quote. Cary Grant, now part of Star Trek Canon, as is Patti Lupone soon hereafter! Didn't you do a reaction video of this episode last year, because that video was how I found you then began to follow you. LLAP & Vulc'n'Roll 🖖🤘
@@WarpReactor it was Those Old Scientists that got me to find you. Well, I probably stumbled across your channel when watching another review of TOS. No matter, I'm glad I did!
This was hands down my favorite episode of this season (and there were already some great episodes). They did a great job of balancing the humor and the more dramatic elements of the storyline. It was just such a fun episode to watch.
Not only was it easier effects wise to send Boimler and Mariner to live action, it also made more sense narrative wise. Tendi and Rutherford simply wouldn't have geeked out as much.
I had the same reaction. I don’t know why, but this episode made me tear up as well. I think it’s just that this crossover episode was written so well. It did justice to both shows as well as the characters. It immediately became one of my favorite episodes of the whole franchise.
Don't apologize for having emotions, sir. I'm 62 and I've been noticing the very same thing about myself for the last year or so. The tears come much more easily now and pretty much the way you describe it. I'm sure there are multiple reasons feeding into this, but no matter what they are, I would put it to you that far from being a reason for any degree of shame, it is something to embrace as a part of our humanity that, perhaps, we'd put up walls against and possibly neglected in the past. I think the world would be a better place if more men were unashamed of being fully human. I enjoyed the reaction and take care! 🖖
In the final episodes of Picard Season 3, when they are going over the names of the ships in Star Fleet, there might have been a USS Boimler ship if I remember right. I also know one of the ships had a Ferengi name, honoring the actor who passed away.
Lower Decks continues to surprise me. When I first heard the concept, I was super unenthused and not onboard. Star Trek didn't need an animated adult comedy show. But I watched it anyways to give it a chance and I absolutely love it. I think part of that fear was that I thought the show was going to be making fun of Star Trek, but it's never felt like that. Throughout Lower Decks, it always feels like Star Trek is in on the joke, and not the butt of the joke. Then this episode was announced, and it was the same thing.... I love Lower Decks, I love Strange New Worlds, but I don't want this. It sounds stupid, let them stay in their own lanes. And wouldn't you bloody know it, it became one of my favorite episodes. If I'm learning one thing, it's that I need to stop discounting/ underestimating Lower Decks. You definitely need to check out Strange New Worlds too. I don't know if you've watched Discovery yet, but Pike, Spock, and Number One were reintroduced wonderfully in Disco Season 2, which more or less directly leads into the start of Strange New Worlds, and it's been fantastic. Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Deep Space Nine all jockey for position in my list of Top 3 Trek shows (order depends on what day you ask, haha).
Fun little detail- the point where Boimler is about to go back to his time is right at the point where a Lower Decks episode would've ended. Problem solved, and then Mariner shows up so the rest of the episode can happen :)
Eh, something ends up happening to break them apart. In TOS, Chapel does end up engaged to Dr. Korbin, the guy who runs the fellowship she signs up for. She was going to that fellowship anyway.
@@MeNoOther I didn't want to spoil SNW for him, so I kept it vague. He was (or should have been) aware about Chapel's fellowship and engagement from TOS.
I have watched both of the seasons from strange new worlds I have not gotten into lower decks just yet but I am going to tonight. Although I watched this episode multiple times I really enjoyed your reaction to you you were emotional just like I was which was very refreshing to say just got yourself a new subscriber my friend.
Honestly the fact that anyone could hate on strange new worlds, calling it woke, criticizing it for reasons that aren’t even based on the content of the series itself, it’s just insane to me. They’re refusing to just enjoy what has been one of the greatest seasons of trek in quite some time. I have to admit, I’m a huge DS9/VOY era fan… but this season was so legitimately good in that it was fun, nostalgic, progressive, heartwarming, dramatic and full of comedy and action, how could anyone hate that???
If you wanna see another great Jack Quaid performance, check out Oppenheimer (2023), where he plays the future Nobel prizewinning physicist Richard Feynman. It's a small role, but Quaid makes it count.
That Orion Captain got what he wanted as someone who discovered something as an Orion scientist in the history books. There a possible crossover episode again. Before this episode, there wouldn't be any chronitons on their body but since they used the portal and stayed in the past for some days, there should be some left in their bodies. So a possible time travel situation is similar to Defiant using transporters to travel thru time in San Francisco's Bell riots. Would be funny if Boimler&Mariner returns to the past with Lt James Kirk's on board the Enterprise as they try not to violate the temporal prime directive. They're worried that the Department of Temporal Investigations will interrogate them when they get back to their own time since it's another Kirk temporal violation incident that needs to be followed up again. As for a Lower Deck episode idea, they could follow up on the Mariposa colony of former clones from the S02 TNG episode. It will be over a couple decades since the Ent-D had resolved the cloners' issue of replicative fading by getting the clones to mate with that crashed Irish colonists. Another episode idea could be with Wesley Crusher just going around the universe with his Travellers' powers and thru time as an agent of the Aegis encounter the lower decks crew members.
Loved your indepth take on the episode, both as someone watching the live action shows and also catching up on Lower Decks. I feel like even if you don't know all the shows, that this episode is still a lot of fun. And has a lot of emotional beats, too, like when you were getting a little teary-eyed :D Lower Decks and SNW are some of the most fun recent ST I think. Any plans for after Lower Decks wraps? Not sure if this is up your alley, but would you consider reacting to My Adventures with Superman? I'd say it's pretty fun and charming, and it just got renewed for S3.
I always wonder what the fact that these people are _known_ to someone 120 years in the future does to someone's psyche. I mean, the crew members aren't _that_ surprised that Pike's birthday is a holiday, but they're knee deep in a second five year mission after Pike has already had a successful first one, so they may think that he has a long distinguished career after this and that he's well on his way to earning that type of legend for himself. But how many Ensigns, Seaman's Apprentices, and Lieutenants Junior Grade, could name even the _captain_ of the USS Ohio when she was commissioned in 1904, today? (The only US Navy ship I could find on Wikipedia that was commissioned that year, 120 years ago.)
