Seriously, she betrayed Mariner worse than Freeman did. Freeman thought she badmouthed the ship to a reporter. Jennifer KNEW it couldn't have been Mariner's fault.
I loved how it was something he's always wanted to do but never has because, as a Cali class, it's just another one of those things that's a once-in-a-lifetime classic Starfleet experience for them while it happens every other week to more prestigious assignments like your typical Galaxy class.
Sorry man, but Shax FINALLY detonating the Warp Core will always be my latnium up for the whole episode and possibly the who season. It was set up from episode one and to finally see it come to fruition and too see the absolute joy on Shax's face was worth it.
Yeah, I can't find a single fault with this episode. This caused me to realize that I don't care what this douchebag thinks about it. There are better ways to spend my time.
@11:39 "What part of the Cerritos is still the same part that left the Starbase in episode 1 of season 1?" The warp core. Shaxs never ejected it before.
When the Aleto appeared after the other two were destroyed, I was hoping Billups would tell Captain Freeman "We're fresh out of warp cores!" à la Geordi
He wiped Rutherford's memory so he could take all the glory for himself, like he said in the episode admirals need ideas!! So he wiped his memory so he could be the sole creator
I think there's more to it than that. The implant came in after Rutherford was injured in an accident, what if the early Texas classes had daddy issues as well, and the admiral was afraid that Rutherford would blow the whistle on the project?
I think it's actually some of the tech on the Texas class ships. Sean talks about how some of it looked pretty crazy and should be integrated into all ships. Pretty obviously Buenamigo wanted the glory for himself, PLUS he was dabbling in Section 31 or otherwise near verbotten tech.
He was developing the ships in secret, so it would make sense to wipe the memory of a cadet that was just badly injured working on them. That's a lot of attention that he didn't want.
The Riker Manuever. As a fellow 6'4 hooman with a bad back injury, this move is life. As is commanding furniture with my leg just to get some spinal relief. Thank you, William T. Riker. Thank you.
Right there with you. I'm 6'7" I'm always putting my foot up and leaning on that rest leg. I never survive being an ensign in a California class cubby😅
One thing I noticed a lot of people missed, is that, it's actually the four main Lower Decks characters that are instrumental in the Cerritos's victory. Tendi gives Freeman her second wind by pointing out the Aleto missed out on Starfleet's primary mission, Rutherford realized the truth about the AI's origins, Boimler realized that Shaxs' idea was actually a sound one and had the best chance at taking out their pursuers, and of course, Mariner brought the California Class cavalry fleet in to save the day.
The California class showing up en masse was my latinum up. Many shows have tried to do that kind of scene, but few pull it off well. This one did. Even if you saw it coming, it was still fun and rewarding to see the class stand together. Also, hot damn the music in this episode! Incredible work there.
It works because these ships weren’t just doing their duty in helping a ship in distress. They were there in solidarity to save one of their own in a moment of need. Now that we know how the Cerritos is regarded in the support fleet, we know what being able to do this meant for everyone there. Plus they got to kick ass on their own, not just as support for a bigger, more prestigious vessel, which is something Cali crews almost never get to do. So the feels were high for this one…
My latinum up has to go to Captain Freeman using Rutherford to lure the Texas class ships away from the station. That was truly a Starfleet level of excellence in putting the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few, the few being her own crew! This was one of the toughest, boldest, and best moments for Captain Freeman - and I feel like it’s a shame we didn’t give it the recognition it deserves
I've got to agree with this. I literally had tears unabashedly falling down my face. All I could think was "Forget EVERYONE that says Cali crews are second rate." The Cerritos crew performed to the highest standards and ideals of Starfleet by risking themselves to protect not just the crew of their sister ship (a far superior one at that), but all the innocent lives aboard the Starbase. Wow. Seriously, f everyone that disparages Cali crews.
Between that and Ransom listening to Tendi about the scan for intelligent life, without hesitation calling a halt to their work, they showed their hearts to be pure Starfleet up there with the best crews in the fleet.
Being as you guys are from Ireland, I, an authentic native Texan, will inform you of the missed Easter egg in this episode's title, "The Stars At Night." It's a reference to a very popular Texas folk song called "Deep in the Heart of Texas," whose opening line is "The stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas." You will hear this song played at just about EVERY sporting event in the Lone Star State, especially during the 7th inning stretch at baseball games. There are still plenty of cities and towns in Texas, so we're probably not done with the Texas class. After all, there are plenty of letters in the alphabet for USS Enterprise (TNG) and plenty of rivers on Earth for more runabouts (DS9).
@@GarrettMoffitt - That wasn't Texas who turned. It was a Hispanic officer, whose office is adorned with mementos of the Texas Revolution...his actions showing that his loyalties lie SOUTH of the Rio Grande. :-) (He even had a Mexican flag on display.)
Something that deserved a shout out in Cetacean Observations - T'Lyn's rank insigna is for a provisional ensign (same as the Maquis in Voyager), presumably because she was trained in the Vulcan service and isn't a Starfleet Academy graduate.
This episode explained why so many Admirals turn evil. Buenamigo said that as soon as you become Admiral you get stuck. All those bad-faith admirals are just desperately trying to have any real impact.
@@leiderdawg "Don't let them promote you, don't let them transfer you, don't let them do ANYTHING that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference!"
@@ReelMeurik And Kirk speaks from experience, seeing as he dealt with more or less the same problem as an admiral, himself. Leaning more into the ‘making a difference’ aspect rather than ‘vainglorious attention-seeker’ but those are two sides of the same coin, really, and comes down to the same fundamental problem of a hidebound and intractable admiralty more concerned about personal legacies than actually serving the greater good. The only thing really keeping it from going completely off the rails is the amount of oversight the Federation Council seems to have over Starfleet itself.
That's not a reason to turn evil. Imagine if a US President said "Once you become president you're stuck and thats why I tried to take over the world."
I had to stop and comment when you spoke of Jennifer's glance and nothing more as a "down". That was an UP for me and I'll tell you why. After having been unceremoniously blown off by her last week, we acknowledge that Jennifer is present and Mariner pays her zero mind whatsoever. Just desserts, IMO
That's not what the down was for, it was how the relationship was handled over the entire season, which I agree with the big down for. But, I do agree that Jennifer deserved a ghost for her reaction to mariner
@@myksmith You need to watch the Next Generation episode "Darmok". Basically Tamarian's are a race that speak in metaphors and phrases to express ideas and situations.
Minor reference you missed. The mention of data inserting the isolinear chips so fast they blurred was a reference to the naked now after the one crewman removes them to build towers with them.
One of the California class ships was the U.S.S. Culver City; a nod to the location of Star Trek's original studio, and the 40-Acres - the backlot where exteriors for several episodes were filmed.
Deep cut: when Rutherford theatens to delete the Aledo's A.I., he says the A.I. will become a "dunsel." This is a word from TOS "The Ultimate Computer". After an M-5 supercomputer operations drill (before it goes haywire), Commodore Wesley refers to Kirk as "Captain Dunsel" which Kirk takes serious offense at. Spock explains to a confused McCoy that "dunsel" is a term used by midshipmen at Starfleet Academy, and that it means "a part that serves no useful purpose".
Jennifer being ignored by Mariner at the end isn't a down for me. Jen turning against Becket clearly hurt, and being betrayed by a loved one leaves a mark. Mariner isn't going to forgive her immediately, she's gonna have to take some time to have a real heart-to-heart with her. Probably a B-plot for Season 4 Episode 1, with Mariner blowing up at Jennifer for not having her back and Jennifer having to earn Mariner's trust and love.
You lot seem to be confused about how the real world works. If someone is constantly making excuses to avoid being with you, repeatedly breaks your trust, and then runs off without any communication, that's not the superior in the situation. Jennifer by comparison is flawed for what? Wanting Mariner to be more honest?
@@topogigio7031 The thing is, Jennifer refused to listen when Mariner tried to explain herself. She didn't want Mariner to be more honest, she just assumed like everyone else that Mariner only said negative things and wanted nothing to do with her. Rather than even _TRY_ to talk to her, Jennifer turned her back on Mariner because of blind assumption.
That score at the battle was amazing. I love how they maked the California Class become the lower decks of Star Flet. This was all I wanted to see in Star Trek 🖖
I feel like there’s one thing you missed - “I will burn your heart in a fire” isn’t merely a chilling line, it’s one of _Badgey’s_ lines. He says it, more or less, while chasing Tendi and Rutherford through holodeck-Bajor. “Here’s a fun tip: I am going to burn your hearts in a fire!!!”
I caught that too and went back to rewatch the episode. The thing that bothers me is the Alito sounds like Agimus when it says "I will burn your heart in a fire." Anyone else hear it like that?
Re: Jennifer, set up for next season - you could easily spend an episode or three on their reconciliation. Better than some quick treatment with the time left. Mariner not acknowledging her is in character after the split. They're not done yet.
The Jennifer/Beckett thing isn't something you do at a party, it's a one on one thing. Jen's got a lot of apologizing to do! Hell, she forgave her mother for transferring her to Starbase 80 for C's sake!
And tell me they're relationship has nothing to do with current world politics and scoring brownie points with an influential and easily angered, but small, demographic???
Spending three episodes on their reconciliation would be two more episodes than they spent properly trying to build up their relationship in the first place. With the exception of the candle making episode, they kinda violated the whole “show, don’t tell” rule for television and films by pretty much telling us over and over that Mariner and Jennifer were a couple but hardly really showing it. The only episode we got where they followed the “show, don’t tell” rule and showed us them as a couple for a significant amount of time was the candle episode so honestly I didn’t feel one way or the other about their breakup
Why does everyone ship Mariner and Jennifer so hard? Jennifer already proved herself not worthy of Mariner. Mariner has moved on. Other than being hot and blue why is everyone so high on Jennifer? And you can't put a saddle on our girl Mariner.
Or, we could acknowledge that Mariner has a history of short term relationships, and that Jennifer, while hot, ultimately is not important at all to the plot or Mariner's character. Not every ensign who goes on a date with a more important ensign gets a third of a season exploring their boring relationship.
Wait, did he give it a similar cadence? I'll have to go back and rewatch that. And to catch what the name of that Sovereign class ship was. It was unintelligible in the show proper, and Sean sped through it each time he mentioned it.
I disagree with Sean's downvote, but I'm not sure he meant that it should be resolved right then-just that Jen & Mariner should have (in his opinion) at least agreed to talk about it later. That said, I think the writers handled it right.
For Californians like me, the scene where the whole class warps in brought tears of joy. I know those cities. I've been to many of those cities. I was born in Oakland. Hearing all those places listed off was just amazing.
- On one of the Cali class were the male Capt. Freeman and bug-Boimler - Dr. Miglimoo had a funny food pun to Tendi (paraphrased) "Don't be a CANTelope, be a CANelope!"
That entire bridge crew was weird variants of our crew. There was also a Billups/T’Ana hybrid, a female Shaxs, a bearded male Freeman, Mariner with glowing eyes, and there was something different I couldn’t see about that Ransom.
@@HsvSciFiGuy Yes, I noticed alternative Billups at the party in the end of the episode, but not the others, it would have been interesting to see them interact with their alternate versions. And what about their interpersonal relationships? Is yellow eyed Mariner that captain's daughter? Is she friends with Mosquito Boimler? Does she annoy alternate Ransom and female Shax?
The Sovereign was the USS Van Citters (not Critters), named after John Van Citters of CBS - one of the head honchos in charge of all Star Trek. He tweeted a pic of his(!) Sovereign earlier today. I recall that he was the guy who spoke up & tried to clarify things, when the fan production guidelines were introduced after Prelude to Axanar. It could also be a tribute to Darrell Van Citters, famous Hollywood animator/director and John's actual brother (mentioned in the Twitter thread). Either way, it was a nice touch.
Oddly labelled NCC-72504 - lower than any Sovereign-class so far. Lots of new California-class ships too, including (I think) the USS Vallejo NCC-72707. Or possibly the USS Vacaville, instead. I only got a glimpse.
LD S3 finale showing how to do mass fleet of duplicated ships warp in correctly with various color, names, and crew. Not to mention some of the other cali class crew has been showing up in various stories since season 1. The scene feels earned.
The other benefit of animation is they can have pain scheme variations for the fleet. Which might be a specific thing for this class to show the federation isn’t boring when they do second contact.
Prefacing this with that I have not consumed vary many other Star Trek media besides LD... but that seems to be what is separating LD's epic "cliche" moments from being too cliche. They are earned! Built up gradually over episodes, even prior seasons! When a cliche is done randomly just to look cool, that is where it falls apart imo.
The episode title comes from the song, “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” The lyrics are, “The stars at night, are big and bright *clap, clap, clap, clap* deep in the heart of Texas.” Hence, the allusion to the Texas Class ships.
Well, Sean IS Irish and also probably too young to have seen "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" in the theater, so I'm guessing that song wouldn't be on his pop culture radar. :)
T'Ana's riding crop seemed to be reference to Captain Styles, and not only does the Aledo Computer look like M5, it also kills Admiral Buenamigo like M5 killed Ensign Harper.
There is a Et$y craftsman in Idaho who produced M5 panels a few years ago that could do M5, Atavachron, and Gary Seven's computer sequence blinkies (from the same reused prop) -- I was lucky enough to score one. Perhaps he'll make some more...
@@EricAkawie oooh, that would be an incredibly elaborate story :D I'd love to see that, it's just awesome. And who knows, maybe they could somehow connect all the rogue AIs to that weird tentacle machine race from Picard. :D
As a Californian I was laughing my head off when they were naming all the California class ships! Some of those cities you would not expect a ship to be named after and I loved it!😂
I was just a bit disappointed that there wasn't a ship named Commerce. It's already a silly name for a city but it would be even funnier as a name for a ship in a post money society, lol.
I feel like there wasn't time to do anything meaningful with Jennifer and their relationship. So it acknowleged that this was a thread that's left unfinished and a promise that it'll be addressed. All in all I liked that and I look forward to seeing how they deal with it when there's enough time.
My thoughts too. I thought it was treated well and got annoyed at Sean hours before this video was up because I could accurately predict what his reaction would be!
I like the fact that Mariner and Jennifer have been in a relationship, but it isn't really shown much. I want to focus on the core four characters. The more we get of Jennifer, the more people who want to ship the hell out of "Marifer" and all of a sudden, that takes over the show. I'm ok with Jennifer being a background character.
Did no one else pick up that when Boimler was naming all the California class ships he was doing it to the tune of a Johnny Cash song? “I’ve Been Everywhere Man.” I couldn’t stop laughing at that. 🤣 Also it should have been the USS City of Corpus Christi. Even the US Navy changed the name of that sub. lol
USS "City of Corpus Christi" was named such because there were several Catholic priests who wrote a letter to the Navy protesting a nuclear weapon being named after the Body of Christ. By theme naming, the sub should have simply been named USS Corpus Christi.
@@patrickmackin3579 There is! In Lower Decks 2x08, at 25 seconds in the episode, the Cerritos receives a distress call from the Bakersfield - no confirmation of it being a California Class though…
No show on tv does 26 episodes per season anymore. It’s usually 22 episodes now. That’s why you hear the phrase “the back 9” in reference to new shows. The network orders 13 episodes initially and if the show does well, the network will order the back 9 to give the show a full first season
When Rutherford played with his optical settings, you saw a crew member in the background middle that didn't seem to have neither a skeleton nor a heat signature, so I am guessing he's a hologram, which is a type of artificial intelligence. You have Badgey being retrieved in the mid credit scene, you have a reference on wikipedia that Peanut Hamper will be back in season 4, and you have Section 31 up to something from a couple post credit scenes back. My guess, Section 31 is using clones of the Doctors 29th century mobile holo emitter to make AI hologram spies to infiltrate star fleet (that Rutherford saw without realizing), but S31 needs existing evil AI's higher resourcefulness and intelligence (like Badgey and peanut hamper) to enhance a planned super soldier holo army that Section 31 is seeking to make, think an AI version of the Eugenics wars with Khan or like Star Trek Into Darkness of bad guys in Star Fleet looking for the smartest, baddest intelligence to design weapons, with but with a super AI instead. This may also tie in to the Mars colony AI revolt in Star Trek Picard. just a thought...
There was more than one person without skeleton or heat signature, but I assume it had to do with distance - Sam only "scanned" three people that were really close to him.
The Cali class cavalry charge was freaking awesome, I admit to an undisclosed amount of fist pumping on my part, big fleet battles is one of Trek's strong points.
First, before I give my ''negative comment'' i just want to point out that I loved that scene of cali class ships. I think big fleet battles are usually one of Trek's weakest aspects to be honest. I love star trek dont get me wrong. But its often the same : Underwhelming FX, space laser and photon torpedoes. ''I dont know how long we can last, Shields is at *critical level* percent" ""Im giving her all she got" Ship being broken, panels falling and electricity sparkling on the bridge but somehow everyone important isnt affected yet. Saved by a Deus Ex Machina ship/fleet coming out of nowhere. I just summed up most of star trek space battles. I prefer Expanse space battles, and while Star Wars often have a braindead plot/script, it excels a lot more in space battles than Trek. Trek's strongest points imo resides in dialogues, intrigues, character development, narrative.. etc. Which is why that scene was so good; cali-class ships are the underdogs of the fleet. Looked down upon and even threatened to be disband. When they all grouped up in solidarity to fight together for their survival, it basically what gave the scene its epicness; the narrative behind it, not the actual battle scene. but thats all just my personnal opinion of course.
@@funguy5624 You make valid points, though you forgot about the rocks flying out of busted computer panels, so I think I really should have qualified it as "... Strengths, since the golden age of Trek ended."
As someone who is from California, the arrival of all the Cali Class made me literally tear up laughing. Sadly, I'm originally from Solvang, which was blown up in a previous episode. I'm also surprised there isn't a USS Santa Barbara.
Honestly, Mariner not bothering to interact with Jennifer and instead going straight to her friends makes sense to me. Like at this point Mariner has gone through many relationships and alot of them probably ended alot worse than this so I could totally she her just going "Oh well this didnt work out whatever, maybe next time". I dont think she will hold a grudge against Jennifer (even if she probably should after how Jen blew her off) but I dont she her losing much sleep over it or going out of her way to restart the relationship
Yeah, it would make sense - if there was an accident involving a cadet/officer, there would be an inquiry and investigation, and Rutherford knew too much for Buencamino to take that risk.
What if Buenomigo is Rutherford's father, and he wiped Rutherford's memory because it represented a danger to AND FROM the Texas project? By burying the pre-accident Rutherford, he wouldn't be targeted by the Alito, who may have fixated on destroying its creators. This would also explain why the Alito dropped everything to follow the Cerritos with all three ships, instead of continuing to destroy the Starbase. But if Rutherford was such a big threat to the project, why revive him at all? Because he loves the boy.
Absolutely loved the eject the core scene, not only for Shaxs, but you for once see the entire process of how it actually get's ejected. It was magical. I get why Shaxs wants to do it all the dang time!
You missed the rest of the references they used from “The Ultimate Computer” such as Rutherford saying “dunsel” and the fact that they are being pursued by 3 identical ships in formation, similar to how the Enterprise was pursued. I also have to disagree with your down on the admiral, whose name translates to “good friend”. I felt they were being ironic and leaning in the comedy with the “Good Friend” being a bad admiral, just like so many other admirals are friends with the crew.
It was such a hype moment when the Cali-Class Fleet came in to help the Cerritos. I am however saddened by the fact my hometown either doesn’t have a ship named after it, or it was destroyed at some point. Best case scenario it was simply just too far to aid in the battle.🙂
I think that the California class fleet was a reference to the copy and paste fleet of the end of Picard S2. They were both in the last episode of their seasons and at relatively the same time within the episode.
I don’t think the implant storyline is quite over. There were three people in that shadow I am thinking that there was a doctor and an engineer involved in that too, and will find out about it later seasons
I genuinely laughed when they said one of the California Class ships was named the USS Sherman Oaks. I don’t know why that particular name was so funny to me, maybe because of how far down the list of city names it meant Starfleet was going with naming California Class ships
My biggest problem with this episode is the premise that an unmanned drone is preferable to actually sending a sentient representative for *second* contact. Maybe once trade had become fully established, unmanned deliveries of goods would be the norm, but if this is only the second time the Federation has had contact with a species you still gotta put in appearances.
But in the episode before we saw just how little Starfleet really cares about that sort of thing, leaving a second contact with two worlds that Picard had *royally* screwed with almost two decades before making an appearance (and then only as part of a plan to discredit the Cali class). Ultimately diplomatic missions could be accomplished with either a much smaller ship or, more likely, passenger quarters on a Texas class when needed. Personally I also read into that decision another comment on the gulf between lower decks crew and those in charge. Admirals are so far removed they forget about the need to catalogue potentially dangerous nick nacks, move volatile materials by hand to prevent planet-shattering kabooms or, well, any of the other hundreds of jobs done by the rank and file that barely make up a data point in an ops report.
You missed a fantastic albeit subtle Easter Egg. When the Aledo is destroyed and you see it's explosion it's framed the exact same way as the destruction of the Borg Cube in ST: First Contact. The archaeologist ship even passes through the screen in an exact mirror of the the way the Akira class USS Thunderchild does AND they use the same sound effect as it zips by, so clearly intentional. Second missed thing, and this one I do think is important, is the tractor beam grabbing Rutherford's old implant is the same green effect as the Drookmani one that picked up PeanutHamper. Hoping that means, in addition to Badgey, that we get more J.G. Hertzler as the Drookmani captain in the next season.
That Sovereign-class ship was the USS Van Citters, not Van Critters. Likely named after Darrell Van Citters, an animator who, among other things, did much of the original development work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also directed the first new Bugs Bunny short in 25 years in 1991 which was paired with NeverEnding Story II. He’s also known for drawing the “Speechless” drawing honor Mel Blanc and featuring Bugs and the many other characters Blanc had voiced over his tenure solemnly bowing their heads in silence.
Perhaps it's a porque no los dos situation, but the head of product development at Paramount (and author of a Trek book or two) is John Van Citters, a strong pro-Trek voice on the Paramount board for the last decade and a half. I'd say it's primarily a shout out to him, as all sources seem to think highly of him. Doesn't mean it can't also be a nod to Darrell.
Rewatching the entire season at the moment. I just noticed in episode 5 you can see the cross line, M5-esque, code inside younger Rutherford’s ship during their race. That’s some nice continuity there!!
There was a thing you missed. When Rutherford is messing with the filters on his headpiece implant, he goes to a heat map view. One crew member did not have a heat signature.
I just loved how they leant into the whole "copy paste fleet" idea debacle from Picard S1 finale by having ALL the Cali class ships warp in, brilliant. Also loved how they say the phasing planet is Brigadoon class, absolutely brilliant. And Rutherford's visual scan at the end looks like when we saw through Geordi's eyes in TNG sometimes, and see the guy with two spines?
I've had a couple of days to ruminate over the episode and I feel some things need to be pointed out. I will address this to you, Seán. The reason the Cerritos is constantly being damaged so badly is because in spite of the limitations of the California Class, the Cerritos is often punching beyond their weight class, so to speak. The season 1 finale saw the crew fighting back against a surprise attack. They fought tooth and nail to survive. With this being the most intense episode of the season other than Crisis Point, it showed that the expectation of the Second Contact missions to go relatively smoothly was an illusion. Seeing an entire crew get wiped out barely moments into the episode stung hard. The attack was the kick in the pants Captain Freeman needed in order to see just how wrong Starfleet was and helped her reach out to her daughter. Every beating the ship took was a badge of honor, showing that support ships weren't to be trifled with. And this season we found out that other support ship crews looked up to them. This episode showed that in absolutely the finest detail. The other crews knew that the Cerritos crew gave their all to save the California Class. They were presumably heading back to Douglas Station for decommissioning when Mariner got the word out that the Cerritos needed their help. They ALL responded because the Cerritos is unofficially the flagship of the support ships. Her crew stood for every one of them, so they stood as well. It makes sense why they would celebrate aboard the Cerritos as well. It affirmed the unique bond of the class and the joy that... they still have jobs. I mean, not that they get paid or anything. It's what they live and die for. Thankfully more of the living than the dying. Wow. I spent a LOT of time simply writing that part. I should sleep.
My thoughts on the station having a lack of punch was more to do with there's usually ships docked and these stations are usually deep in federation space, so any attacker would be picked up long beforehand by their observation network
I have also wondered about SpaceDock not being able to defend itself. It technically is the last defense of Earth. But yet when the Borg attacked twice and the Breen attacked it was no where. Sure it can house ships, but what good is that if it gets damaged to the point it can't launch?
Also, the attack caught everyone off guard. The time from the Aledo opening fire and taking out everyone was literally less than a minute. Everyone was probably still reeling from a Starfleet vessel turning against them to respond properly or effectively. And these drone ships would know EXACTLY how to use a surprise attack on an unaware starbase for maximum impact. I’m not sure any installation would have been prepared for that attack with zero warning.
@@juliusarchibaldiv3880 I’ve always assumed that Spacedock itself isn’t really a major part of Earth Defense, but more like an office building, administering the local space traffic and serving as the hub that all Starfleet ships stay at when visiting. Any defenses it has are for the purposes of defending itself, not the planet. It’s just way too small and immobile for that. We know Earth has a proper planetary defense network that serves as a global shield grid along with orbital weapons platforms. It’s only ever been properly shown in Discovery, but the network has been described and alluded to at points throughout the franchise. That’s the real Earth defense, not Spacedock.
I think the shipyard has defenses but the AI ship is already within the base's shields and knows the layout of the station. It probably has ton of defenses and the AI was just quick to neutralize them with it's initial attack. Considering it has the ability to remotely command the station it's attacking to opening up and launch the other two ships. Also look how the purple torpedo things hit the sovereign class exactly on the phaser arrays in an attempt to disable it.
I'm not been in the best head space lately but when all the Cali class ships jumped in I got real misty eyed and was so happy to see the mother and daughter reunion.
Great review (as usual) of a great episode - Sean Ferrick, Mike McMahan, and William Shatner are my three favorite people in Star Trekdom. I've been binge watching all the Lower Decks Ups & Downs from the beginning and Sean is the BEST!!! Give him a raise - don't let WhoCulture steal him away. : )
I think the California fleet at the end was definitely a sly dig at the end of Picard S1. I know a lot of us ship geeks were really excited to play spot-the-class with Riker's fleet, and the thin gruel we got was really disappointing- this episode flips that on its head by making the entire class showing up a punch-the-air moment. I think that although the Texas class was clearly a failure, Starfleet will take some of the ideas forward into the Protostar, which is a highly-automated vessel capable of creating vehicles and presumably outpost structures on-site with its cargo replicator.
One detail I haven't seen mentioned here, and that excites me to be an up is near the end of the episode. When Rutherford is talking about how cool his implant is he tests it out and we see from his POV for a moment. There is one person who both has no bones AND gives off no body heat according to the scan.
I knew there was a reason they focused that much on Rutherford's eyepiece on the intro of 3.7 however I did think the Texas class AI was going to have AGIMUS somehow sneaking into it to take over them. Think the genderbend of Shax being a big muscular woman with bright red lipstick needed a mention (infact I'm surprised you didn't mention that ship at all)
How could you not give the scene where all of the ships warp in an UP? The lead up to it, the reveal, the music, the battle, all were amazing. Starfleet coming together to protect their own. Yeah, I agree that you didn't really give this episode the credit that it deserves.
You didn't say that the end scene with all of the Cali class ships is fantastic to see so many Cali ships, but it is also a reference to the copy/paste fleet at the end of Picard S1.
I have a feeling the old Rutherford knew of the issue with the AI, this could be why his memory was erased and the accident being used as good cover up.
I practically had to lock myself away from all social media so I wouldn't *accidentally* spoil anything... especially screaming "WARP CORE EJECTED! WOO!" and then "BADGEY'S BACK OMG"
No mention of the Cali ship with the male-Freeman, insect-Boimler, female-Shax, orange-eyed-Mariner, human-male-T'Ana, and alien-Ransom that comes after the Inglewood?
Hmm, when all the Cal's showed up, and the did the quick sweep through the other bridge crews, surprised you did not mention the 4th (and last) bridge crew.
When Buenamigo and Freeman were arguing, he said he was doing it for the benefit of the many even if that meant the Cerritos crew had to die. In true bad faith Admiral fashion, he believed he was saving lives by making crewed ships obsolete.
in the fine tradition of trek it is taking a real world debate (the use of drones vs maned aircraft and robots in place of solders) and re-frames it. That has always been a good way to get an outside look at things.
When the Aledo says that it is in full autonomous mode, it sounds just like HAL 9000 reporting that "I am completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly".
The reason Buenamigo had to be so secretive is that Starfleet has been extremely against using autonomous ships since the M-5 computer installed on the Enterprise attacked the Lexington, Excalibur, Hood and Potemkin during war games killing Excalibur’s entire crew. If Buenamigo’s ambitions were known early on he would have been shutdown swiftly. Also, I actually thought Buenamigo was using the M-5 code, so I was surprised it was Rutherford’s code.
I guess who's to say that Rutherford's code isn't based on the M5 code? If Buenamigo had Rutherford working with the M5 code, that would explain why he needed to wipe his memory. Also, with Buenamigo's admission that he set up the Ceritos, it is entirely possible that he set up the accident that wounded Rutherford.
I really didn't think this was going to end up in Badgey. I thought we'd discover that Buenamigo would have used the M5 code, which would really explain why it's bad and why he had to conceal everything.
