• The episode title is a reference to a British comedy drama, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, starring Dame Judy Dench, who voices the character Krog.

• Captain Freeman records the stardate as 59393.7.

    • Judging by the amount of facial hair growth Boimler’s exhibited over the course of the three episodes this season, we can assume that so far the entire season has taken place over about 17 hours.

• The cruise ship, the Cosmic Duchess has a number of habitat domes attached to it, very similar to the habitat domes we see attached to Starbase One in various episodes of SNW.

    • Freeman claims the Cosmic Duchess is the size of a moon. Though moons can vary fairly wildly in size, even if we’re talking about Pluto’s smallest moon, Styx, that still indicates the cruise ship is one of the largest structures we’ve seen in Trek, and perhaps the largest structure built by the Federation.

• Rogue nanites were also the problem in the TNG episode “Evolution”.

• ”One of the space casinos has a bunch of Dixon Hill slot machines.” Dixon Hill is the fictional hard boiled detective, whose adventures Captain Picard enjoys playing out on the holodeck, as first seen in “The Big Goodbye”.

    • In space, they just call them casinos.

• It’s Jennifer! From Star Trek! Jennifer is played by Lauren Lapkus.

    • Jennifer has not had a speaking role in the show since season three’s “Trusted Sources”, where she and Mariner seemingly broke up over the erroneous belief that Mariner betrayed the trust of the USS Cerritos crew by bad mouthing them to a FNN reporter; yet in the first scene this episode with her, Jennifer is acting as though they’re still an item.

• Ransom recruits Boimler to locate the AWOL Admiral Milius. Milius is named for the screenwriter John Milius, who wrote such films as “Conan the Barbarian”, “Red Dawn”, and perhaps most relevant to this episode, “Apocalypse Now”.

• It’s Jet! From Star Trek! Jet is voiced by Marcus Henderson, and has not had a speaking role since season two’s “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

    • Jet’s hands were devoured by piranha bats, but Doctor T’Ana is going to grow him a new pair. Characters were artificial body parts include: Captain Picard [heart], Worf [spine], Geordi [eyes], Nog [leg], Ishka [heart], and Jack Crusher [personality]

• ”She gave me back a candle!” Mariner did not accept the return of the candle, telling Jennifer to give it to Castro.

• Jennifer is being prompted and transferred to the USS Manitoba. Usually the Manitoba is only ever mentioned alongside the USS Saskatchewan, and both are overshadowed by the other Prairie-class starship, the “USS Alberta”.

    • ”There’s a bunch of Andorians on the ‘Toba*.”* As a species native to a moon covered in ice, Andorians are well suited to cold temperatures aboard the Manitoba.

• This is the first episode in which we see a Gallamite depicted on screen. Jadzia Dax dated a Gallamite named captain Boday, who was notable for his transparent skull and “toothy smile.”

• The Kreetassan vacationers are offended when Boilmer drinks a cocktail and eats in front of them, causing one to attack him before Ransom intervenes. It was established in “Vox Sola” that Kreetassans view eating the same way they do sex, an intimate and private act.

• ”Apparently one of Milius’ acolytes spends a lot of time at the top of the huge, dangerous mountain.” The mountain is very familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

• We learn that T’Lyn’s favourite musician is an individual named Krog, who plays an instrument called the vibe tubes. Though this is the first we’ve heard their name, the vibe tubes appeared in the TNG episode, “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

• ”You’re grabbing my genitals!” As Captain Kirk discovered in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”, ”Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place.”

• Boimler refers to various space whales, mentioning the gormagander, introduced in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”, and ”those galaxy’s child things,” from “Galaxy’s Child”. Previously Mariner was the only character to break the fourth wall in that fashion.

• When the nanite icosahedron strikes a palm tree and briefly stops, you can see a millinery in the background that has on displays hats similar to several that Guinan wore over the season of TNG, and some Bajoran vedic mitres.

• ”I can’t believe we’re going to get killed by a goddamn icosahedron.” Yet Mariner has been seen playing Bat’leths and BiHnuchs in “The Least Dangerous Game”.

• Rutherford locates a miniature Intrepid-class USS Endeavour. There have four other USS Endeavours, NCC-1895, NCC-25530, NCC-39222, and NCC-71805. Only the NCC-71805 was mentioned in dialogue, with the other three only appearing on charts and displays.

    • We’ve previously seen a tiny ship when Jadzia Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien get shrank down along with their runabout in “One Little Ship”.

• ”We’ve been through a month of hell!” That is the longest length of time any Starfleet ship has gone through hell.

• Boimler appears to be drinking bloodwine out of the traditional mug, the sort of which were first seen in “Apocalypse Rising”.

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TLDR; Is PRO TNG or PIC era? Do Trek eras as we know them even matter anymore?

Edit: Fixed TOK to be TWOK era. My 2 brain cells had failed me there.

Before I give my problem, here's what I find the conventional Star Trek eras to be (including some common sub-eras that some might consider distinct):

• ENT era: 2150s-2160s
• TOS era: 2250s-early 2290s
  • TWOK era: 2270s-early 2290s
• Lost era: 2290s-roughly 2330s
• TNG era: 2340s-early 2380s (I count Enterprise C as roughly the start of the TNG era. At the very least, the shuttle for the Hansen's ill-fated trip in the 2350s has the trappings of the TNG era).
  • DS9/VOY/TNG film era: 2370s, maybe early 2380s
• PIC era: mid 2380s-early 25th century (I think the Utopia Planetia in 2385 is my cutoff)
• DIS era: 32nd century

I think most newer series have obvious placements, e.g:

• DIS starts in the TOS era, then starts its own era.
• SNW is in the TOS era (I'd argue it's straight up canon, based on LD).
• LD is TNG era, based on LCARS designs and the story conventions it parodies/pastiches.

However, the main thing that is ruffling my feathers is that PRO's placement in my framework is very confusing. It exists on an awkward border between TNG and PIC.

On one hand, some of its storytelling conventions fit better with PIC, not to mention the fact that the Utopia Planetia attack occurs at the end of PRO.

On the other hand, PRO continues some TNG era characters that aren't yet elderly versions of themselves.

This goes back to the initial question: Do we place the vast majority of PRO in the TNG era (and have like the last five minutes of season 2 [hopefully not the show] in PIC era), or do we extend the Picard era backwards to 2383 to include PRO in its entirety?

The 2383 solution might work, as that leaves 2382 in the TNG era for the 5th season of Lower Decks.

• The episode opens on a freighter ”Somewhere in the Beta Quadrant”; the ship is modelled off Kivas Fajo’s ship, the Jovis, from the TNG episode “The Most Toys”. The Jovis was itself a kit bash of the studio model for the Husnok warship from “The Survivors”.

• Tendi [Noël Wells] is seen using a holographic disguise to infiltrate this collector’s ship. Mirror Georgiou used a similar holographic disguise while infiltrating Klingon high society as an agent of Section 31 in “Point of Light”.

• The collector, Yorif, is voiced by Eric Bauza, who has portrayed a number of characters in LDS, PRO, and the non-canon Very Short Treks.

    • Yorif is of the same species as fellow collector, Palor Toff, who was seen in “The Most Toys”. They even wear a similar golden ribbon piece of headgear, which is established this episode to be prescription.

• Among Yorif’s collection is:

    • A Risian horga’hn

    • What appears to be the Bajoran tablet that Captain Sisko broke in “The Reckoning”

    • A Veltan lust idol - Palor Toff and Kivas Fajo both claimed to own Veltan sex idols in “The Most Toys”

    • A gold Ferengi mask that may have been modelled off similar masks made in Ancient China.

    • A type-2 phaser of the sort used in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”

• Unlike the Orion interceptor previously seen in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” the one that arrives to pirate Yorif’s vessel does not have a number of spikes on it, or a grapple claw; it does appear to have some extra cannons.

• Yorif’s ship is crewed by Hupyrians. This is the first time we hear a Hupyrian speak, as the ones we’ve seen previously have taken vows of silence as part of their service to the various Ferengi Grand Nagi.

• L’Kar was previously seen in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” and is voiced by Kari Wahlgreen, who has voiced a number of characters in LDS and PRO.

• The opening title now has a warp effect to it. In it’s fifth season, TNG’s title screen also gained a warp effect.

• In addition to Klingon, Romulan, Pakled, Borg ships, whale probe, and crystalline entity seen previous season’s opening sequence’s large battle, there is now:

    • A giant green space hand, as previously seen in “Who Mourns for Adonis”

    • Tholian ships forming a web, as seen in “The Tholian Web”

    • V’ger, from TMP

• Mariner [Tawny Newsome], and T’Lyn [Gabrielle Ruiz] are playing kal-toh, a Vulcan game introduced in “Alter Ego”.

• Boimler [Jack Quaid] believes he’s going to be featured in Starfleet’s “Fleet” periodical, but he’s not. However, Naomi Wildman, does get an honourable mention in their 30 under 30 list.

    • “She’s like ten years old.” Naomi was born in 2372 in “Deadlock”, and this episode takes place in 2382.

    • The cover of the magazine claims to feature the Top 10 Riker moments

    • The cover also teases an article on the Continuum, titled *”Q Who?” mirroring the title of the TNG season two episode.

• The USS Cerritos is pulled through a quantum fissure, and encounters an alternate universe version of themselves, which, in honour of the episode title, I will be calling the Cerridos. In addition to their uniforms being slightly darker, the Cerridos crew appear to exhibit only minor differences from the familiar crew of the Cerritos which resulted in their lives turning out different, such as:

    • Mariner’s counterpart goes by Becky Freeman, and is the captain of the Cerridos

    • T’Lyn’s counterpart says ”Remarkable” while she prefers ”Fascinating”. Fasmarkable.

    • Boimler’s counterpart grew a beard

    • Billups’ counterpart became King of Hysperia, which would imply that he is also not a virgin

    • Rutherford’s counterpart wiped Tendi from his memory banks after she left to become a full time pirate, and then cyborged himself up.

• D’Erika was introduced in “Something Borrowed, Something Green” and is voiced by Ariel Winter”

• Tendi has a model of the Cerritos in her ready room aboard the Orion Interceptor.

• ”You miss debating the ethics of goop with your Starfleet nerds.” Most spineless goop in Trek has questionable ethics, at best:

    • Armus is a Skin of Evil

    • Odo is willing to engage in illegal surveillance techniques, and hold suspects under false pretenses

    • Rick Berman treated several members of the cast very poorly, hired a known fraud as the consultant on Native American culture for VOY, and prevented TNG from having an episode depicting an openly gay couple back when that would still have been uncommon

• The Billups propose a plan where the Cerritos and Cerridos are linked together so they can create a pulse which will open the rift again, and allow the Cerritos to return to the prime universe. Spock devised a similar plan in “The Time Trap” to allow the USS Enterprise and a Klingon vessel to the Delta Triangle.

• We learn that Mariner is Mariner’s middle name.

• The crashed Orion vessel has orbs on rotating spokes, similar to we’ve seen on previous Orion vessels, beginning with the ship seen in the remastered TOS episode, “Journey to Babylon”.

• A group of blue skinned Orions appear, wearing the same uniforms as the Orions from “The Pirates of Orion”.

    • The blues pronounce the name of their species as ”Or-ee-ahn”, which is how it was pronounced in “The Pirates of Orion” and no where else in the franchise until now.

• Becky recounts the events of “Second Contact” when Boimler gets gummed on by a Galardon spider-cow, implying that she experienced that episode very similarly.

• ”There’s no interpersonal conflict allowed on my ship.” Becky has the same views on human interactions that Gene Roddenberry held.

• Becky’s ready room captain’s trinkets include:

    • A California flag - Captain Freeman [Dawnn Lewis] has the same one in her ready room

    • A jewelled dagger - This looks like one of the ones Mariner was stabbed in the shoulder with in “Something Borrowed, Something Green”

    • A bat’leth - Mariner accidentally cut Boimler with one she brought aboard the Cerritos while drunk in “Second Contact”

• *”Don't you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute!” Captain Freeman yelled those same words to Mariner in “Moist Vessel”

• We learn that the alternate Captain Freeman was reassigned to Starbase 80, which was first mentioned in “Terminal Provocations” as the place where Starfleet ships off its screw-ups.

• In the Cerritos’ bar, there’s a bottle of Kanar with a tag featuring the mural from Quark’s.

• ”I have fooled you.” T’Lyn deceived the Lower Deckers into believing she was her Minor Universe counterpart. Because Vulcans lie all the damn time.

>Creation’s Trek to New Jersey begins next Friday, November 8 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ and has over 30 Star Trek guests scheduled to attend — including Anson Mount, Celia Rose Gooding, Christina Chong, Ethan Peck, and Jess Bush from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Tawny Newsome, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, and Gabrielle Ruiz from Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: The Next Generation favorites like Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, and more.

>The subsequent Trek to Dallas convention kicks off Friday, November 15 in the Lone Star state. Hosted at the Marriott Dallas Allen hotel in Allen, TX, thirty Trek celebrities are expected to attend — including Anson Mount, Celia Rose Gooding, Christina Chong, Ethan Peck, and Melissa Navia from Strange New Worlds, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, and Elias Toufexis from Star Trek: Discovery, Tawny Newsome, Eugene Cordero and Dawnn Lewis from Lower Decks, plus many more.

With the new poster having dropped, I thought it might be fun to compile the various Lower Decks posters, along with their theatrical poster counterparts. So...why don't we do that?

---

!Lower Decks Season 1 Poster A

!Star Trek: The Motion Picture Poster A

!Lower Decks Season 1 Poster B

!Star Trek: The Motion Picture Poster B

---

!Lower Decks Season 2 Poster

!Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Poster

---

!Lower Decks Season 3 Poster

!Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Poster

---

!Lower Decks Season 4 Poster

!Star Trek IV: The Voyager Home Poster

---

!Lower Decks Season 5 Poster A

!Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Poster A

!Lower Decks Season 5 Poster B

!Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Poster B

---

Those are the most obvious ones - I know there are other pieces of Lower Decks promotional art out there, so please chime in if you recognize any that I've missed!

Hey, this is a little bit late, but it occurs to me that it's now October, and that means it's also Trektober, the annual Star Trek inspired daily drawing prompt challenge.

There are three sets of prompts which can be found at: https://www.tumblr.com/trektober-challenge. The first is a set of general Trek inspired prompts. The second is Trek specific. The third set is NSFW.

I'll be trying to participate us, and I'll be sharing the results here. I'd like to invite anyone else interested in attempting some or all of the challenge to do so as well. Maybe spoiler tag any of the NSFW entries, though.

Happy Trektober!

• The episode title calls back to the TOS season three episode, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” which was the first appearance of a Medusan.

• We open with Zero’s personal log, where they record the stardate as 61881.4.

    • Zero also says it’s been a week since the previous episode, which was stardate 61875.9, though how precise they’re being isn’t explicitly clear.

• Zero mentions difficulty in repairing their containment suit, which was damaged in the previous episode. This does raise the question of who created their original containment suit on Tars Lamora, as it seems as though Zero is not involved in the repair process.

• Zero mentions the Paxans as one of the species of non-corporeal beings living at the colony that contacts them. When introduced in the TNG episode, “Clues”, the Paxans were so isolationist that they we going to destroy the USS Enterprise D to conceal their existence until Captain Picard was able to convince them to merely mindwipe the entire crew, except Data who helped to facilitate the deception.

• Upon arriving on Ovidia IV, the Protogies are wearing protective visors of the sort shown in “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” to shield them from the horrifying, madness inducing appearance of any Medusans they might encounter.

• ”I’ve always had this [...] yearning to experience life. To touch and feel as you do.” This yearning has been depicted as far back as the second season premiere, “Into the Breach, Part I”.

• This is the first on screen depiction of parisses squares, a sport first mentioned in “11001001”. The ion mallets the game is played with was introduced into continuity in “Real Life”.

    • The game is being played with uneven teams, with the Nova Squadron cadets only having three players, and the Protogies having five. Though not explicitly stated, in “11001001” it is implied that teams have four players.

    • The holographic Protogies should be careful playing the game. A parisses squares accident is what led to the death of the Doctor’s holographic daughter in “Real Life”.

I know we've all been crying to ourselves in bed at night over the end of such a wonderful show - me included - so here's a fun little distraction for now.

1. What is your prediction for the plot of the series finale?
2. How much gold-pressed latinum do you bet on it?

I bet 5 strips that it will be a parody/pastiche of the time shenanigans of TNG:"All Good Things" and VOY:"Endgame" where we get to see the futures of each character.

Your turn. Betting closes once the first episodes of the season comes out (in other words, I think you have until 11:59 PM PST on October 23rd to bet, though I could be wrong). I will declare the winner of our imaginary latinum when I've watched the finale.

P.S If it's not too much trouble, since there's still more than a month to season premiere, would you be able to pin this, @ValueSubtracted? It's totally fine if not, but would be convenient due to the long-term nature of this post.

What are your guy's thoughts on the theme for Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973)?

I feel like:

1. It almost sounds like the battle music for a Star Trek turn-based JRPG on the Nintendo DS.
2. I feel like PRO's theme gives very similar vibes to this one while having a distinct identity.
3. I almost feel like this theme is a weird in-between of the TOS theme and TNG-era theme (which makes perfect sense - I mean what else would be between the 60s and the 80s).

!

Star Trek \#StarTrek

@startrek

Bell in Canada is preventing the showing of Star Trek Prodigy, AT ALL.

The new season is unavailable.

Bell Canada asucks, please ST folks, lease it to CBCor Global, or CTV or anyone. \\\\\\

Did I say Bell sucks?

Bell also cancelled Jon Stewarts The Daily Show, love for that to seen in Canada as Democrats Abroad for example are not able to see it.

How Nurse Alyssa Ogawa Paved an Aspirational Future for Asian American Women

> Alyssa Ogawa is a symbol of hope for Star Trek’s promise of a more diverse and inclusive future.

The official Doctor Who website has a companion piece, which has been shared here.

What’s better than getting to gawp at some painstakingly recreated Star Trek ship models and sets? Getting to do that while Q himself regales you about how cool it is to do exactly that.

That’s pretty much the premise of “Return to Tomorrow,” a new video taking a look at some of the latest virtual recreations of Star Trek props, sets, and models hosted by the Roddenberry Archive. Over the past few years, the archive has worked with “holographic renderers” OTOY to create a digital Star Trek museum, painstakingly replicating sets from across the entire series, from the original Trek to contemporary shows like Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks that people can take virtual strolls through, either online or through apps on VR headsets.

But if you just wanted to chill out and watch a video instead, this is a pretty great option, if only because you get to listen to John De Lancie, the man behind the irascible Q, poetically discuss why Star Trek design speaks to us in so many forms as it’s developed over the years.

Direct YouTube Link

Extended Clip: Strange New Worlds Season 2

Teaser Trailer: Lower Decks Season 5

Teaser Trailer: Section 31

Full Panel: Star Trek x Doctor Who

Video: Star Trek x Doctor Who Friendship Is Universal

Game Trailer: Star Trek: Lower Decks x Doctor Who: Lost In Time