It always bugs me when people mistake "charismatic" for "good person." Some of the best villains are charismatic, complex, even sympathetic - see Khan, Dukat, and Q. But make no mistake - they're all bad guys. Just because they're interesting complex characters brought to life by talented actors doesn't change the fact that these guys are all villains. Their motives might be sympathetic - but that doesn't make them pure, and even if they were "right," there's still their evil methods. Unfortunately, we tend to make this mistake in real life way too often too.

As per the military judge issue: the crime that was being considered, initially, was Julian hiding his genetically engineered background, so he was going to be tried by a military judge to probably discharge him. Julian's parents made a deal with star fleet to keep him in the service.

Can you imagine if Wesley's last episode had included him throwing Picard's "first duty" speech back in his face when it came to the obvious, blatant evil that Picard was allowing to happen? And how that might have colored Picard's actions in Insurrection? Great character opportunity missed.

Q is absolutely to blame for the harm from the Borg encounter. If I push someone into a pit with a tiger in it, I can't pretend it's *just* the tiger that killed the person. Also, "he's not evil, he merely treats people like playthings" is such weird reasoning. That's *how* you can tell he's bad. Treating those weaker than you as playthings, with no regard to their safety and lives, IS an evil thing to do.

On the subject of Lower Decks' self-referential humor: I think a lot of it is due on the fact that the show is very much built around the idea of meme culture humor. The show is shitposting gold. Regardless of whether or not this works for you, it gives context as to why the jokes are built that way. It's not just a matter of referencing other Trek material for its own sake, but also about subverting the depiction thereof. Like the Armus prank call bit, for example. The idea is not just to refer to Armus, a very serious villain that resulted in a main character death, but to also do it in a way that is completely antithetical to its depiction on TNG. Not only is Armus completely irrelevant to the LD episode's narrative, but the characters themselves deliberately refuse to take it seriously at all. The humor lies in the complete subversion of Armus as a plot device on TNG without changing anything about what Armus is or what it can do. Incidentally, this is also the reason why the Pakleds are featured as the main villains of season two. They were very much depicted in TNG as a species that the Enterprise crew had a hard time taking seriously. They were essentially a joke. But Lower Decks flipped the narrative on its end and asked the question: what if you really had to take the joke seriously, in spite of its inaneness? Again, we're dealing with an example of subversive humor, only the other way around. And this kind of humor is very much a recurring thing on Lower Decks. Now, it's totally ok if you don't like it. Personally, I find that this is one of the more endearing aspects of the show, because the subversion requires being very much aware of the tone and weight of the material being referenced and casting it in an entirely different light.

With regards to Julian's parents being tried by Starfleet & not the civilian courts, I'd argue that's not what happened. Julian was technically the one on trial, for lying on his application to Starfleet regarding his genetic enhancements and he was going to face a court-martial. To prevent this his parents went to Sisko, who took it to Starfleet Command. While not explicitly stated Starfleet JAG would have worked in coordination with the civilian courts to formalize the plea-deal. Had Julian's father not reported to the JAG Admiral (the necessary condition to complete the hearing against a Starfleet officer), Julian's court-martial would have proceeded and civil charges filed against both parents. The minimum security prison also sounds more civilian than it does "military".

The whole Sonya Gomez thing I didn't even know who that was until somebody pointed it out. If you don't know who the character is you're just like oh that's just another captain but if you do it's just a nice little call back.

I think the joke in the Armus Lower Decks bit was that, as Tasha's killer, Armus' place in Star Trek has always been as a serious, dark, sinister character from a serious, dark, sinister episode, and the Lower Decks gang is making him look foolish by pranking him. It's the classic comedic tradition of a character who takes himself very seriously being suddenly deprived of dignity for comedic effect. Daffy Duck keeps trying to assert his control of the situation so it's funny when he keeps getting shot in the face by Elmer Fudd. That's the joke. Which is not to say all your criticisms are invalid. It has nothing to do with the show or the characters. It's weird and random to reference something 35 years old just to make that joke, which could've been made with something far more relevant to the show/characters and would've made more sense. And in a show whose premise is, in large part, poking fun at the ridiculous over-serious aspects of classic Trek, it's about the easiest & laziest joke they could make. All of these are valid criticisms. But I gotta push back on your assertion that there is no joke. There is definitely a joke there.

Could the presence of Nog to balance out Jake's character be the result of the failure of Wesley as a character? Because I remember thinking when DS9 first started, "gee, I wish Wesley had a friend like Nog or Jake." I just remember thinking during the first season of DS9 that they should bring Wes back and give him a little Ferengi sidekick.

Poor Kira. The ONE character you don’t want to irk or overlook, less you feel her eyes piercing your back for the rest of your days ….. and she’s as ignored and passed over as Harry Kim’s promotion paperwork.

40:30 In my headcanon, the box exists because Temporal-Rift-Timeline Tasha Yar found out that Armus had killed Tasha-Prime, and presuaded a certain Romulan general to make the device - which actually only calls Armus - and she called him, just once, right after the Enterprise left with just the words "guess who's not dead, BITCH?" and then hung up.

In preparation for your Star Trek Continues episode, make sure you read up on Vic Mignogna-- writer, director, and Kirk. There's a lot of evidence for his being a serious creep to not only co-workers but underage fans at conventions. STC is an amazing project, but it would be unfortunate to cover it without mentioning the behavior of it's central creative figure.

"Where's the joke?" I mean, if I have to explain why it's funny to you, it still won't be funny to you. Also, I don't really mind the fan service in Lower Decks because...like, it's not...trying to be particularly serious. And considering I've had literally decades of Star Trek being SO fucking self serious and pompous and smug, I'm just happy to be able to watch a ST show that isn't perpetually smelling its own farts.

The Armus joke was exactly that. The story has spread through Starfleet, literally EVERYONE knows about him, but he's a joke to them. As for the how, you point out that it's a "Star Trek technical contrivance", but that's literally 85% of how anything happens on a Star Trek show at all (hell, Geordi being a blind man that can see is because of a "Star Trek technical contrivance"). The fact that it was a random piece of tech that lets them make the call is the point of the episode; the team is getting rid of random weird stuff that the crew came across. And the why? These characters are the goofy screwups; them playing a stupid prank without thinking about why is on par for them.

IIRC in Encounter at Farpoint Q outright kills a nameless ensign on the bridge by freezing him to death. Something he later does to Tasha Yar though he reverses it later.

One of the reasons I enjoy Star Trek, and especially Deep Space Nine, is how Star Trek is a bigger universe than any one show, and that the people who we meet for one episode may show up later with a whole new adventure under their belt. That's why I enjoy stuff like Sonja Gomez showing up in LD. Like, Vash showing up on Deep Space Nine with Q is a great object lesson in how the Gamma Quadrent is way more dangerous, than the Alpha Quadrent and our best explorers have no chance out there without help from a godlike being. Sonja Gomez showing up in LD seems like the same thing to me, the premise of the show made manifest.

Steve: "Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday season" Halloween: "Am I just a joke to you?"

I think the joke with Armus is meant to be inverting the power dynamic. Armus is supposed to be a very powerful, intimidating villain, so giving him an outside context problem that is outside his sphere of influence and seeing him floundering and flustered and not in control is supposed to be funny. YMMV on how *good* of a joke it was, but I think that was the intention.

Is "the female changeling" the leader of the changelings? I always thought that they were absolutely egalitarian and essentially see themselves as aspects of a single organism (the drop becomes the ocean, the ocean becomes the drop, etc.), mainly affecting individual forms to interact with (ugh) solids. She happens to be in charge of the Dominion's alpha quadrant operations, but that doesn't imply that she is in charge of any or all other changelings. A better alternative designation might be "Changeling #1", as she was essentially the first non-Odo changeling encountered by the Federation and their primary point of contact among the changelings.

I always figured the division colors changed because from Star Trek II through much of Picard's time on the Stargazer, all Starfleet uniforms were red.in the movies, division colors were represented by the undershirt and they were completely different from division colors in the original series. (And wildly inconsistent). Before that, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the division colors had already been radically changed: white was command and orange was science and green was medical and so on and so on. That was represented in the patch, not the uniform itself. When Starfleet went back to three division colors, perhaps they swapped red and gold because red was now seen as more representative of Starfleet as a whole and the command vision was the division that represented Starfleet most of the three. In other words, red had become the de facto Starfleet color during the use of the more militaristic uniforms of Wrath of Khan on so red remained the color of the "stars" of Starfleet. That's my head canon explanation.

On the topic of a better name for the Changling Leader, perhaps 'Voice of the Link' fits best as, in their natural state, they don't exist as separate entities.

In fairness to richard bashir, he would have succeeded jsut fine if Jerry Seinfeld hadn't tanked his restaurant and kept his visa renewal form.

A Jago Hazard featured comment in a Steve Shives video was not the crossover I was expecting, but loving it. Two of my fave YT channels!

The funniest part of the Armus scene is that it implies that everyone in Starfleet knows about the oil slick. Like there was a holodeck story they all played or something.

Regarding Lower Decks, I don't watch it as a comedy. A lot of the references get a smile out of me but I'm in it for the characters and the overall story. I find the references often add to their subject and allow us to see it from the context of other people in that world, sometimes even fleshing out the related lore (mugatos come to mind). This is gonna sound really condescending but maybe you're just watching it with the wrong expectations. I know it's intended to be a comedy, but I prefer to enjoy it for what it is than what it tries to be, and what it is is some otherwise really good Trek.

Some autistic people have difficulty determining what's supposed to be humour. My husband and I are both autistic, but I was raised in a family of comedians so I can usually recognize it. Often humour can feel like a secret language that everyone else seems to understand, but can feel deliberately isolating to me. It's not so bad for me now, but I find myself having to explain a lot of humour to my husband, who didn't like a lot of tv shows and movies that he didn't realize were supposed to be funny until he viewed them through that lens. That being said, we both recognize that Lower Decks is supposed to be funny.

For all its faults, Lower Decks is obviously intended as a comedy. How are there people that have watched it and not seen that? Doesn't that inherently mean the show failed, on some level? I like most of the jokes, but I do respect the point of view that *way* too many gags are just references. Do people need a laugh track?

Weyoun will have their own Fox News show any day now.

"What are you going to show me!?, that I turned right when I should have turned left!?" that was the most epoch part of the movie. "what does god need with a starship?" again the most memorable lines.

"There's Barack Obama hiding behind Superman... " 😆

I think the joke is supposed to be that Armus can't leave Vagra II, and can't come after them, making him an easy target for mockery (plus, he's supposed to be evil personified, so that's kind of like mocking the Devil to his face). Like, I get your angle, but complete ridiculous humor in the Star Trek Universe was what I thought LD was going to be, so if it was only that, I'd be like "Eh, it's just as expected." I'm glad they did more with the show overall and I hope they have more story and gags that are connected to the characters in S3, but I don't really mind some of the silly out of nowhere references here and there.

A hero knows who they are inside, articulates that to others around them, and their actions do not contradict what they have articulated. That is the definition of a hero in movies during the Production Code and during early American television.

Where you see pandering I see celebration. Both the writers and I love the material and want to show/see more. And on Gomez in particular I don't see a need to create a new character when we can develop an existing character.

That Guinean figure’s face is AMAZING. It’s incredibly true to life!

My opinion on fanservice is that it is a good thing, but it shouldn't be taken to extremes, and it should always be in character. If you make it too excessive, you risk fourth wall breaks and the story becoming impossible to take seriously. (I can't STAND fourth wall breaks, except in comedy/satire...in something like Spaceballs for instance it's fine, but NEVER in any serious story.) Subtle types of fanservice and easter eggs can be all over the place as they don't disrupt the story unless you go WAY WAY overboard.

Hey Steve! New trekkie here (within the last year) and i just wanted to say, though i am sad you’re not into lower decks, i can understand why. The many references and jokes scattered through-out feel less like comedy and nostalgia from my perspective, but more like a really enthusiastic fan inviting me to come learn and get interested in finding out more about the show; The comedy feels like it comes from the enthusiasm. I am now finished TOS, TAS, and half way through TNG while keeping up to date on Lower Decks. Thanks for the great content and keep up the fantastic work!

Lower Decks showed in an episode towards the end of season 2 that they have Starfleet Officers test their skills in simulations of previous missions of past ships. This could easily explain how these characters knew who Armus was and what buttons to push to upset him. They are probably warned not to go anywhere near his planet. I don't remember if they did but I'm sure the TNG crew literally left a warning beacon in the system. Is prank calling Armus the greatest joke ever? No. Is it going to be humorous to most Star Trek fans? Probably

Star Trek Continues is so good that my brain never wants to sort it as non-cannon and separate from TNG & TAS.

Humanity would have lost to the Borg with out Q.

If you have Riker in engineering gold - then that's easy.. it's Thomas. 😃

As much as I did enjoy Lower Decks, I couldn't disagree with anything you said your review. The fan service would have been fine if in small doses, but when over half each episode is just in-jokes, how is it accessible to new viewers? You need to be a Trekkie to get so much of it, which means none of it stands on its own merit. It's a shame, I still think it has a lot of potential but it's certainly infuriating, even for me, who (as I say) enjoyed it regardless.

I never would have even gotten the Armus reference in LD at all. I never remembered that name. I didn't know that puddle had a name. Until Baby changed his name to Armus and I had to go look that up to understand the joke. From then on, I remembered that name.

I'm so happy you mentioned Thomas Paine and his quote, my mind is my own church. I completely agree with that and it was the only thing that made sense to me in college. The first time I ever read that quote I was like, "Dude... heck yeah!" I grew up in the Bible belt and couldn't believe that one of our founding fathers had even said that! I love your Star Trek videos, btw! I only ever watched the original series as a kid, and then Next/Gen during my high school years. I was never interested in Deep Space Nice when it first came out during my college years, but I will say this---you've made me want to go back and watch all of them with new eyes!!! When I watch your videos, I feel like a giddy kindergartener again, waiting for picture book story time from the teacher. You point things out that I never noticed before, and now I want to go back and re-watch everything that I missed! Thank you Steve! So glad I discovered your channel! 🖖😁🛸🐈‍⬛

Can I say, SN are great? I'm from Europe, talked to people from Asia (Thailand, a secretary just like me, she offered to teach me Thai 😍), heard the opinions from American people, read novels from African people (Botswana), watched films from Australian people... We're all wonderful people! Just love them all! #IDIC

To me Q is basically Sid from Toy Story...he is playing with his Toys but he doesn't care one bit if one or more of them gets broken...he does start to grow attached to his toys and therefore plays less harshly with them but that does not make him a good being.

I admire the slight tremble in your voice in describing those Thomas Paine quotes. Humanism can and should move the heart to build a better world based on universal compassion. I agree with those sentiments wholeheartedly!

18:46 👍 STAR TREK CONTINUES! It's so damn good!

To heck with the "no female captains" thing. (I'm a Rachel Garrett stan.)

With the Lower Decks reference jokes, the joy isn't in simply "being reminded" of something else from Star Trek. YMMV, and that's perfectly fair, but for me personally those moments are a celebration of the wider franchise and the things we love in it - watching it feels more like gushing with a fellow trekkie about our favourite Trek minutae than it does simply being reminded of references to other shows.

"Star Trek Continues" is such a warm love letter to Trek by the fans that made it. Wholeheartedly agree on your opinion on it. It's the wonder and awe of the Original Series, but with a more modern level of story writing and production.

Honestly, being reminded of all these great moments in Star Trek V kind of makes me want to go watch it again. I'm afraid I'm going to regret it, but there it is.

The silliness of Star Trek V is worth it all on its own. It’s actually the movie I’ve used to introduce my stoner friends to the franchise for that exact reason.

A young neurodivergent me always had one favorite character in each trek show that I lached on to. In TOS is was Spok. In TNG it was Data. In Voyager it was the Doctor. And in Ds9 it was Jullian Bashir. For the most part, I think Odo was designed to be that type of character but he didn't really match with how I interacted with others and he was far too gruff and rigid to really fit with my particular experiences. Bashir was much easier for me, especially once I found out he was an augment. It just really matched how I felt about wanting so badly for everyone to like me, completely missing social cues, and being queer coded, but that's for another day. Hearing Alexander Siddig, as Bashir, say the phrase, "My disabilities," in a fan project he did on his channel was a catharsis I didn't know I needed. If you've never seen it, check out Little Achievements with him and Andrew Robinson on his channel SidCity.

In regards to the uniform color change, I always "in universe" explained it based on the all red military style uniforms from the movies (Wrath of Khan, and so one). When Starfleet moved back to differentiated colors, they just kept Red as command.

The best way to think about Q is the myths of the Fae. He sees the world in such a wildly different way, we don’t understand his morality or motivations. But, from what we see, Q is playing with us, he is bored, that’s the text. But for him, nothing has stakes. He needs the game to have stakes, have meaning (from the voyager episode with the Q who wants asylum). He puts lives in real danger, but always in a ‘fair’ game, there’s always a path to victory. He’s testing us, like rats in a maze. You win, and you go free. If you attract his attention, if he fancies playing with you, his future games might be easier to win, but it’s not compassion as we understand it. He isn’t malevolent, but he’s definitely the villian.

"Shatnerian" If I have my way, this will become a word, and I shall use as often as I can. Yay, tour of the figurines!

I remember having a Seala figure but I’m not sure I ever had a Guinean… Cool collection. Thank you for the tour.

Watching some low-effort Steve with some low-effort fast food. Today's a good day.

Your comparison of people with strong vs weak moral character was really enlightening.

So what is the ensigns log then ? Is that not a fan service podcast with throwbacks to a show that was on over 50 years ago. People find fan service moments funny. Lower decks is a fan service show. Family Guy fan service 80’s references are the same thing and that’s made that show hugely popular.

I loved a fan service moment in Picard, season 2. The punk on the bus was the same punk on the bus that Spock dealt with. This is something that works because non-fans will think it's at least amusing. He's a rough-looking guy who backs down quickly. Casual fans will see it as a reference to a great ST movie. And superfans will recognize all of the details. This is the same actor, Kirk Thatcher. He was originally Nimoy's assistant, and he asked to be put in because he loved punk rock as well as Trek. He also wrote and recorded the songs, "I hate you" and "I still hate you". I do think that we lose something in scenes where the only point is "You have seen this thing before." Lots of recent movies have leaned too far into this. Lots of classic movies are classics because many generations connect to it. But when something comes up that has no meaning without context, then a future generation won't enjoy it. I also think that this series has a different standard. Trek, Actually is specifically a commentary on Star Trek. It loses all value without the original work. A joke that is only a reference to something would work because it's aimed at the audience. They all know the episodes.

With the initial meeting with the Borg, I was under the impression that the borg were already on their way to earth. Q was trying to give the Enterprise a heads up on what was coming.

In "Why Democracies Die" the authors talk about a point in American history that sounds almost identical to the situation with the female Captain ban in order to placate the Tellarites. After the end of the American civil war most in the North believed that the end of slavery should mean African Americans would have full legal equality (at the level they do today). But, as the years followed and Reconstruction efforts continued, the South still refused to budge on this and they realized that unless they went along with the South that the union would fail even without a war because the average Southerner simply did not accept African Americans as equals, and so the North accepted that the only outcome of the war would be the end of slavery, not the end of inequality. Justice was delayed to preserve the Union.

In response to the uniform division color swap between TOS and TNG - I guess people are forgetting for half a century there the uniform was red for everyone. They didn't just swap, they didn't have gold or blue for decades. I guess the admiralty liked keeping red for command so they made engineering use gold.

"Not in front of the Klingons" always gets me! 🤣

BTW, the original phrase is "ours is but to do AND die". It's fatalistic, not presenting any sort of choice (not even a false choice with only one right answer). The point is that the doing is what is going to get you killed, not that avoiding your duty is what would get you killed. Nor, as it's frequently used, to be a paean to dedication and commitment, implying that the only way someone could be prevented from succeeding is by death, and any lesser obstacle will be overcome.

From Picard's point of view those crew members were all significant because in Roddenberry's future (and hopefully ours) every life has value and is important. However, from Q's point of view, the whole universe and all of time, where entire civilizations come and go, it's the big picture that matters. The Federation was too cocky and self-righteous. Q was right. Without those deaths there are no consequences. It was tough love. It was punishment for Picard for his arrogance. It was Picard who said they were ready for anything that prompted Q to send them to the Borg. That doesn't make Q a hero or anything, but let's not forget that part.

Wanna understand? (44:51) All the Armus scene was howling funny! It's absurd, silly, and knee slapping funny. Well, for those of us who aren't grumpy poohs. ;) To me, what some feel is fan service in LD is a love letter to the entire series for the rest of us and why many of us have found Lower Decks to be one of the best of all the Star Trek series.

Hey, I'm somebody now! Yeah it is over the top, with that same flavor of Shatner delivering his lines about the Enterprise as a lover in "The Naked Time." But I think Kirk is at his strongest as a character when he's dealing with pain. But in the context of ST V especially, if Sybok takes away his pain...Kirk would love some of what little of David he has.

My thoughts on Q: His only goal was to teach. Maybe not the best of methods, and he's certainly callous. I never perceived him as a villain because I believe his intentions were to advance things along and make sure the human race learned the right lessons. The entire encounter with the Borg was to teach the humans some humility and that most important lesson: space travel is *very* risky and you can't handle everything. If you're not willing to take the Big Risk, you shouldn't be out here.

"Jake is the good kid and nog is the juvenile delinquent.". Boy how that ended up playing out over time. When I think of Nog it's in the later seasons, where he has shaped up and Jake... Tries his best.

I was worried that Boingler was watching a koala drown, so I'm glad that got cleared up 🙂

I honestly think Wesely Crusher became a much better character the day he became a guest star. when they didn't have to write him into every chapter but only brought him when they had something for him to say or do.

Incidentally, I think Star Trek needs a half hour live action sitcom. Like, "Trip n T'Pol" as newlyweds on Vulcan and all the hijinks they go through. Or, Tilly's Sillies.

Not to harp on the LD point, I find it more of a 'light-hearted' Trek. I've never seen it as a full fledged comedy and it doesn't make me laugh out loud all the time (which is perhaps why I think that), I find it entertaining on its own merits. Sucks that you don't enjoy it, but thats the way it falls sometimes. Keep up the good work 😊

Having people punished by a military court for violating the Eugenics laws was *not* an inconsistency - it is in fact wholly consistent with Federation law and the history of Star Trek. The laws against genetic manipulation were laid down at the end of the Eugenics wars, and breaking them is considered a war crime. It's a similar situation to the protection of Talos IV, which is also done through military courts. Another reason military courts are used is secrecy. Eugenics cases will involve information which cannot be allowed out, since knowledge of the technology itself is part of the crime.

I love these comment response videos. Gives great insight into your audience and I love it when you dive deeper into your own videos!

Best part of this video was you talking exitedly about your figurines. Precious

Fan service v pandering: Screencrush had a recent video that, I think, perfectly explained it. Fan service is when, in Avengers: Endgame, Captain America finally says the words "Avengers, Assemble!". Pandering is when Maz gives Chewbacca a medal in Rise of Skywalker.

I would love to see you and Jessie Gender talk about lower decks, especially about the comedy working or not working for each of you

Also, Steve, the writers tend to treat the United Earth, humanity and Starfleet as if they all the same thing. Presumably, Earth has it's own government, and the Earth government sends a representative to the Federation council to represent them. And Presumably Earth is responsible for running itself like a respectable member of the Federation. But when the Dominion was operating on Earth, and they were looking at stepping up defenses, there is no mention of speaking to the Earth Ambassador, or getting approval from the Earth Congress. A bunch of Starfleet officers just make decisions for 8 billion people and there's no civilian oversight; the triumph of democracy.

to your "What is that joke" question. it's called a non sequitur, something that comes out of nowhere without setup and unrelated to anything else going on. the humor is derived from the sudden absurdity of the situation. Family guy does this with cutaway gags far too much. but in lower decks it wasn't used too often. now I acknowledge that non sequitur absurdist humor isn't everyone's cup of tea, but your personal incredulity does not diminish how others reacted to it. the random absurdity was the joke, it fell flat for you but that doesn't mean there wasn't a joke there.

A tour of Steve's Star Trek figures? This is quality fan service.

51:18 So, I don't think that Eberwald's comment in particular really gets the idea across as well that many of us are expressing when it comes to what kind of show Lower Decks is. Lower Decks is 100% for sure different from other Trek shows in terms of its tone. It's very light hearted and fun, and while there are numerous uses of humour in the show, that doesn't inherently make the show a comedy. It is first, and foremost, a Star Trek show, and I see it as more of a light hearted romp through that universe than a comedy show. As you said in your original review of LD S2, 'Fun'.

Steve, I think the thing that you're kind of missing about Lower Decks is that a big chunk of the premise of the show is just flat out . . . "Hey, you know how X thing happened in Star Trek, and we *never* got any further check in on that? Yeah, how about we do that now." And yes. That IS an incredibly fanservice thing to have. There is a lot of stuff that's going to be there just to be there. But there's also a lot of very functional call backs in there as well. Having an episode dealing with strange and odd artifacts involve a call back to The Most Toys is a great example, that's a great way to a) touch base on a lot of weird one off things, and b) it works within the premise of the idea. An episode of the crew being put through ridiculous scenarios they aren't supposed to succeed in all somehow based on Star Trek movies of the past is absolutely *brilliant*, letting them poke fun at some of the happenstances there with a bit of commentary on what actual characters would think about them. After all, how often, in this very youtube channel, is it joked on how incredulous Kirk's mission reports must be? But, sometimes, that joke is going to fall a little flat. Sometimes it's not gong to make a lot of sense, when it should. But sometimes it also doesn't really *have* to entirely 'make sense'. A lot of why Trek never revisitted some ideas was that the idea was just spent, and Lower Decks can drive that in with just a passing comment or cameo. Where Lower Decks really does shine, however, and where I think more of the attention of the show will swing in the future, is that it actually has a pretty solid ensemble cast, both in main and secondary characters, who all have a remarkable amount of chemistry together. Which has always been the meat and potatoes of what makes a good Star Trek series. And if it takes them one or two seasons to REALLY hit their stride, suffering through the occasional out of place joke to get there . . . I mean, I got through 2 seasons of Enterprise, Season 1 of TNG . . . I think I can bear the odd mistep in Lower Decks as it finds it's footing.

ARGH! You read my comment! For the second time!!! Feel weirdly proud of myself 😊

While showing us his action figures -- "You can see I've swapped the uniforms around." TRANSLATION: "I play with my toys."

19:30 Wondered how kindly disposed Steve is toward Star Trek Continues. I'm stoked that his opinion is favorable.

When you 'take a break,' you still do a great job.

When you do your video on Comedy in Star Trek I hope you consider the scene in Kira's quarters in Deep Space Nine Season 2 Episode 2 when everyone came to bid her farewell. That scene always cracks me up.

There is a difference between fan service and self indulgent fan service, it the difference between 'Here's your one Wrath of Khan reference for this series' and 'Here's your second Wrath of Khan this episode, look out of three more next week.' Recent Trek tends to do the latter more often than the former often then not, for me Lower Decks is self aware enough of it own jokes to get away with most of them, most of the time.

37:19 This is SO SO relevant in terms of fascism sneaking its way into the discourse. Most of the fascists I've run into online used to/are still doing that "balance" narrative.

Q is mad, bad and difficult to know.. he's Lord Byron... and DeLancie plays him that way to the hilt :)

I think the biggest problem I have with excessive fan service is that eats time that could be used to introduce new ideas ...

Another case in point for Q not being a good guy: he put the crew at risk by causing a warp core breach just to test Amanda Rogers' Q powers, would have killed Amanda (under orders from the Continuum) if she hadn't measured up, and condoned or was at least aware that the Continuum murdered Amanda's Q parents.

Going over your doll collection should've been a video all on it's own. I love seeling people's collections of things and the stories behind getting them.

Lower Decks is "Family Guy" in Star Trek form

*_"There is no difference between gods and men. One blends softly casual into the other."_* Paul Atreides, the Dune books [Frank Herbert]. tavi.

I can't thank you enough for mentioning "Star Trek Continues". I had no idea this existed and you are right, it's the best fan series I've ever seen. Thanks.

When people say "it's supposed to be that way" they're essentially saying "it's supposed to be that way AND I like it that way." They aren't necessarily saying you're wrong or your opinion is invalid, they're just telling you their opinion.