Lower Decks

Ever wondered about all of those OTHER people on the Enterprise? This week, they get names! And plot lines! Meet the one that annoys Riker! The one being tested by Worf AND Picard! And who could ever forget the one that annoys Geordi? All of that and a second space bartender, when Mission Log visits the Lower Decks. Always love seeing the non-bridge crew. Such a better episode than the last. one. I did not remember the mission that she goes on and was completely shocked at the dressing down that Picard gives here. The justification was a nice turnaround. Adore this episode. Lovely to see an episode focus on characters not usually seen. The ending is pretty shocking too. Definitely a great TNG episode & a stand out of season 7. Sadly there are now less than 10 TNG episodes left!!! Yeah, I quite liked this one. Always nice to have a peek behnd the curtain into the inner workings of the ST universe. Yes, I enjoyed it also. Such a failing of TNG to not flesh out a few other crew members. To have some enlisted members on board! Geez, they made it seem like Chief O’Brien was the only Chief Petty Officer in Starfleet!!! Also, I felt a little tingle/arm hair stand when Picard began his announcement that she had died. Hearing that tone when a soldier has died, just kinda creeps you out…. An excellent episode, and proof that after two ropey weeks (even if I sneakily enjoyed last week’s there’s no denying it was a stinky mess) there’s still room for innovation this late in the game for the series. And kudos for killing the pretty girl too (and indeed the only character to recurr from a previous story) – not that I generally want pretty girls to be killed, but it gives the story an unsentimental realism. Life’s rough sometimes, and it’s good to see that acknowledged. Every long-running show should do a script like this, and some have. Defining the situation from a new viewpoint is a great idea. I agree that Sito was the right choice to ‘get on a shuttle.’ <<– New, 'Discovery' jargon for 'redshirt.' In The Walking Dead, whenever they're going to kill a character, he/she gets a lengthy scene early in the ep, then dies minutes later. Sito's loss felt much more 'earned.' I might have liked to see Locarno in this situation, but this certainly had an emotional impact. Plus, we get to meet the waiter who really runs the ship! With regard to Ken’s comments about Sito having to boost Lavelle’s morale – if you’re not already familiar with the term, look up “emotional labor”. Yep, there’s actually a term for this, and a lot’s been written about it. It’s something you may not even have thought about before, but it is in fact a thing, and – spoiler alert – it’s a thing that many studies have found falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women. It’s an eye opener to read about. I remember a lot of Usenet chatter at the time of this episode, actually before it even ran, that this episode was supposedly setting up the crew of Voyager. Heh…sorry, but no! Seems like it would’ve been incredibly unlikely for the entire surviving group – Ogawa, Lavelle, Taurik, and are they going to take Ben with them? – to have transferred to the same ship all in time for Voyager to start. State reason for assignment transfer request below: Because all my best buds are going to Voyager and I want to go too! BFFs 4EVA! I agree that the “momentous” nature of Sito meeting the Cardassian has a lot more impact if you’re also following Deep Space Nine at the same time; TNG’s 7th season was concurrent with DS9’s second season, so anyone following the franchise as a whole would have gotten what was up there. Still, I think enough was done directorially to sell the moment on its own. I’m glad that DS9 never did the much-touted “Tom Riker & Sito break out of Cardassian prison” follow-up. Not that I didn’t like either character, but it would have cheapened the narrative currency of both of their exits from the story. I know some books about the USS Excalibur feature