I’m excited they did a cliffhanger. Even if we probably won’t see the resolution for a year and a half, it ups the stakes and I think the anticipation and speculation will be a lot of fun.

I’m sad Lowe left cause I love Sam...but in seasons two and three Sorkin does seem to struggle in giving him strong story material. ‘Someone’s Going to Emergency...’ rehashes a plotline from Sports Night (turns out my Dad was cheater for years) and then after that there’s like, what? That time we met his ex-fiance?…

Josh was the Hawkeye character, so he kind of naturally gravitated toward the center on more than one occasion.

I also think it’s a matter of genre. Because - like you said - the two don’t have all that much in common. Star Wars is largely fantasy (and sometimes western) while Star Trek is science fiction. And scifi has a history of the nuttiness being baked in; this is especially true of TOS coming out of the 60s.

What?

I’m actually kind of surprised that Lower Decks hasn’t already done a musical of its own.

Exactly! This is the furthest thing from the first musical number Star Trek has ever seen.

Every episode of SNW has had emotional stakes - including the goofy ones. Also, with Kirk and Batel in the trailer, and how often musicals explore romance, I strongly suspect the Kirk/La’an, Chapel/Spock, and Pike/Batel relationships will each reach a crucial turning point. Add to that the whole ‘sing your secrets’…

I genuinely don’t get it.

I love that he’s become kind of an unofficial recurring presence for the franchise.

Great episode. And while DS9 was much in my mind, the line I kept thinking of was from The Wounded about ‘I don’t hate you - I hate what I became because of you.’

The later seasons got a DVD release, but they’re kind of hard to find.

Riker had a particular way of sitting down that I think the fandom collectively realized when someone made a compilation video a few years back. It’s since become known as the Riker Maneuver. When Boimler sits on the saddle, he swings his leg around in a way similar to Riker, which is why he says the name.

Emony Dax should be out and about this time period. That could make for a fun cameo, at the least.

Mariner and Jadzia Dax could talk about traveling back to the TOS era only to be surprised at how attractive young Spock is.

I’m prone to agree with a lot of this. Obviously the ship has sailed - and whole the cast is wonderful. But I do wish the producers would’ve been willing/able to use more original characters. Like you said, the ones we have are amazing, and it’d be great to see more of that than being overly hung-up on legacy.

THAT WAS SO CREEPY!!!

THAT. WAS. AWESOME.

So I’m taking this as canon that everyone on Lower Decks is just drunk all the time.