25
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
25 points (100.0% liked)
Daystrom Institute
3455 readers
45 users here now
Welcome to Daystrom Institute!
Serious, in-depth discussion about Star Trek from both in-universe and real world perspectives.
Read more about how to comment at Daystrom.
Rules
1. Explain your reasoning
All threads and comments submitted to the Daystrom Institute must contain an explanation of the reasoning put forth.
2. No whinging, jokes, memes, and other shallow content.
This entire community has a “serious tag” on it. Shitposts are encouraged in Risa.
3. Be diplomatic.
Participate in a courteous, objective, and open-minded fashion. Be nice to other posters and the people who make Star Trek. Disagree respectfully and don’t gatekeep.
4. Assume good faith.
Assume good faith. Give other posters the benefit of the doubt, but report them if you genuinely believe they are trolling. Don’t whine about “politics.”
5. Tag spoilers.
Historically Daystrom has not had a spoiler policy, so you may encounter untagged spoilers here. Ultimately, avoiding online discussion until you are caught up is the only certain way to avoid spoilers.
6. Stay on-topic.
Threads must discuss Star Trek. Comments must discuss the topic raised in the original post.
Episode Guides
The /r/DaystromInstitute wiki held a number of popular Star Trek watch guides. We have rehosted them here:
- Kraetos’ guide to Star Trek (the original series)
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: The Animated Series
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Algernon_Asimov’s guide to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Darth_Rasputin32898’s guide to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- OpticalData’s guide to Star Trek: Voyager
- petrus4’s guide to Star Trek: Voyager
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I really enjoy how lower decks makes the events on screen absurd in a way that fits the vibe of an adult animated scifi series but manages to make it still feel like LD is in the same universe as other star trek shows that are superficially very different in tone, genre and pacing. In the crossover episode Captain Pike finds Boimler and Mariner annoying (they act like cartoon characters... because they are) but ultimately Pike is pretty seriously charmed through an immediate recognition that what these annoying time travellers value about starfleet/the federation is the same thing he does. It is things like this that ground LD in the rest of the universe and make it not feel like a superfluous side gimmick.
This week's episode is a great example, the ferengi joining the federation (from my as of yet incomplete star trek watching experience, I havent finished DS9) is actually a pretty massive expansion of star trek canon to hand out to the animated spinoff show. To me, as a fan of star trek less for what happens in any one particular moment and more for the broader constellation of stories in a shared universe, I had high expectations for what the final negotiation process was going to be like with the ferengi.
I thought they nailed it, the ferengi acted like cartoon versions of themselves by trying to swindle them, but ultimately it came not from an unrealistic supervillian type place but rather a place of ferengi's not wanting to enter into a serious alliance that makes them vulnerable with an organization that can easily be swindled by others (which would probably be considered a serious moral failing by ferengi) ... it is a cultural thing to them and the final test was looking for a recognition of that which I think is a perfect way to allow a lot of silly fun while also making the choices feel like real people were making them. It also echoes the SNW episode where Pike realizes how to be genuine with an alien species in order to convince them to join the federation, and I don't think I will ever get tired of those episodes as they get to the heart of what star trek is about.
Great episode!