Logline
Three computerized villains return to cause problems for the Cerritos crew.
Written by: Edgar Momplaisir
Directed by: Bob Suarez
Bradward ‘Meat Pipe’ Boimler
Now we know why he was so popular on the raisin farm.
Tendi just wanting to play in the sand is cute.
Boimler being completely fed up with the assignment is great - he knew exactly what he was walking into, but did it anyway (I’m glad it actually had payoff at the end).
Rutherford has finally resolved badgey, and seemingly learnt nothing.
I didn’t feel like mariner had a whole lot to do in this episode, she just kind of tagged along.
Rutherford has finally resolved badgey
I don’t know about calling it resolved. Badgey is now an omnipotent being currently not interested in killing Rutherford or the Federation. It might not stay that way necessarily.
An odd number of Binars… and we find the missing pair operating a bridge console at the time of the attack.
Certainly fits the profile of the other acts of treachery followed immediately by betrayal.
I have to admit, with the revelation that the ships are all being stolen with fake debris left behind… I’m at a loss as to what the endgame is.
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I seriously doubt they’re being salvaged for parts. Lower Decks has already done that with the Pakleds.
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The ships don’t really fit a profile. We have the huge vertical warbird to the tiny Orion vessel. The militant Bird of Prey to the sciency Binars.
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Only the Orion and Ferengi vessels could be argued as sharing a mission—with their sorting of random weapons. But even if the ship is after weapons, there are better targets.
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Taking the crews prisoner seems impractical.
Really, the only things the ships all have in common is a lower decker that is vindictive and gullible enough to commit treachery. But that’s not an objective, that’s a means to an end.
Oh no.
It’s another menagerie, isn’t it?
Edit: that or the Pakleds started hiring subcontractors.
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Annotations up at: https://startrek.website/post/2610545
A bit of a weird episode in that the protagonists didn’t solve much, the two problems just sort of fizzled out for their own reasons.
Kind of surprised that Peanut Hamper was up for parole-- Memory Alpha doesn’t list a specific stardate for A Mathematically Perfect Redemption but judging by the adjacent years and the stardate AGIMUS listed she’s been in Daystrom for less than two years.
IMO this episode confirms that what we saw last week wasn’t an anomaly, Rutherford’s got it bad for Tendi. It’s kind of weird to have him focusing on her encouragement to the exclusion of Mariner (who was in his immediate vicinity!) otherwise.
A bit of a weird episode in that the protagonists didn’t solve much, the two problems just sort of fizzled out for their own reasons.
One can say the same for plenty of good stories like Indiana Jones.
I want to disagree with this but… you’re right. Heck, in Raiders, Jones actively makes the entire situation worse before the story kind of fixes itself.
Did anybody else feel like the plot required a bit more suspension of disbelief than usual? The federation really needs to invent antivirus technology and firewalls.
Honestly it’s really fleshing out the lore about why everyone in the galaxy is so averse to AI.
I liked the triple parallel twist that all three AI ended up just wanting nice things instead of galactic domination. That’s a rare thing in superpowerful AI stories.
Antivirus and firewalls aren’t as useful when you can bypass shields and either physically beam or holographically project something directly into the override circuitry. You don’t need to take over the computer if you can take over the controls.
Boimler and Tendi are rarely paired up for their A/B-plots, as well as Rutherford and Mariner. I was kind of disappointed much wasn’t done with that, they were just kind of … there and it was Boimler and Rutherford’s story chiefly. Not much character interaction between the duo. That made it a bit funnier when Rutherford was like “Tendi is right” and Mariner was taking a bit of umbrage to that.
Yeah a little bit of a shame how inconsequential the pairings wound up being, but still a fun outing. Also I enjoyed how both A & B plots dealt with AI threats with one being silly but existentially deadly, and the other AI being superficially deadly but relatively harmless.
