For the last several years, the folks at Star Trek Wines have been producing original and replica bottles for their final-frontier-inspired offerings, and then the company moved into hard alcohol last year with their first Star Trek Spirits product: the long-awaited Romulan Ale.
Now, the group is going one step further as they head into the realm of high-end whiskey products for a new highly-limited series they’ve titled The Captain’s Table — with only 200 bottles produced in each of four planned releases.
The Star Trek Spirits team unveiled their first Captain’s Table bottle at August’s Las Vegas convention during an invite-only tasting event, where signups for the expensive $347 first-batch bottles began — with a lottery system used to determine who received access to purchase the 200 bottles, a common practice for highly-sought whiskey and bourbon releases.
Here’s how Star Trek Spirits describes the first Captain’s Table bottle:
Carefully curated Rye malt whiskies have been distilled in Alembic Pot Stills and matured in seasoned Cognac barrels, showcasing the unrivaled quality and layered flavor profiles. For the Captain’s Table, Star Trek Spirits has partnered with renowned Master Distiller Crispin Cain. Accompanying this stellar blend is The Octagon, a meticulously designed collector’s box with a built-in light base designed to showcase the Captain’s Table bottle, elevating the bottle to the centerpiece of any bar.
Members of this exclusive Captains Table society will additionally obtain a distinctive metal coin medallion, nestled within the bottle topper. Much like the saucer of the USS Enterprise-D, known for its detachability, the zenith of the Captain’s Table topper features a detachable magnetic metal medallion. This exclusive coin is more than collectible; it also acts as a key to unlock an array of special privileges including access to private tastings and exclusive virtual distillery experiences.
While public purchasing is now closed for the first Captain’s Table bottle, we’ve been granted the opportunity to allow five USA-based TrekCore readers the opportunity to sneak into the last open reservation slots.
To be clear, this is not a free bottle giveaway. We will be giving out five private passcodes to access a purchase link for the Captain’s Table #1 bottle, which will allow our selected winners to bypass the Star Trek Spirits lottery — and purchase the bottle at the $347 retail price.
This contest has ended and our winners have been notified.
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To enter for your chance to obtain a purchase link, simply complete the form below by Sunday, October 15 at 11:59 PM. After the entry period closes, we will select five random entrants to receive the Captain’s Table passcodes and purchase link and respond to the email address you’ve provided.
(Unfortunately, some states are not eligible for this contest due to alcohol shipment restrictions; see below for details.)
All submitted information will be deleted after our five winners have been contacted, and will not be shared or used for any other purpose. Good luck to all!
The team at Master Replicas is continuing to get leftover Eaglemoss Official Starships Collection stock out to collectors, but along with their regular restocks of the model inventory they’ve recovered, now the company is also offering short runs of autograph packages too.
Announced last night for a Tuesday, October 10 sale date, three of Eaglemoss models will be made available with a strict 250 or 500-count set of signed plaques.
Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, has signed 250 plaques to accompany the gold-plated XL-sized model of the original Constitution-class Enterprise — the Shatner package will cost $379 / €379 / £349.
Deep Space Nine star Nana Visitor (Major Kira) has signed 500 plaques to arrive with the XL-sized model of the titular space station, at a cost of $140 / €140 / £125. Of note to Star Trek starship fans, the third ‘Signature Series’ offering is a signed plaque from Galaxy-class designer Andrew Probert, 500 of which will come with an XL-sized version of the USS Enterprise-D model at a cost of $109 / €09 / £99.
Master Replicas is touting this trio as “just the beginning” of their ‘Signature Series’ line, so we expect more to follow in the weeks or months ahead. These special packages will be on sale until the inventory runs out at the Master Replicas website starting at 9PM in the UK, 4PM on the East Coast, and 1PM on the West Coast on Tuesday, October 10.
Check back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek collectible news!
The newly remastered STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE posters. (Vice Press)
As Vice Press creative director Matt Ferguson told us in September, the efforts to ‘remaster’ the original Bob Peak art has been an extensive effort.
“Where we can, we have accessed the original Bob Peak paintings, made new scans, and cleaned them up extensively — and then I have remade all the graphic design elements for the posters from scratch. That includes remaking the titles and credits from the ground up, and the paintings have also been colour-matched to the final posters…
It’s been a months-long process now that started last year. The aim is for it to match the original one-sheets nearly exactly, but just be brought up to modern standards.”
Here's a close up of the Star Trek The Motion Picture poster restoration. First image is the new work by me. Mostly it's colour correction (to match the old lithos) and pulling out more detail, but also removal of artifacts like the red/grey scanline right through Kirk's face. pic.twitter.com/sdcLzyo6uJ
Ferguson hasn’t been working on the project solo, however; Vice Press has partnered with Thomas Peak — Bob Peak’s son — to reference the original artistic work as a basis for the Star Trek poster project. In addition, the company credits support Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition producer David C. Fein with help on the project.
The remastered classic Bob Peak one-sheet. (Vice Press)
Vice Press will release two editions of the original Star Trek: The Motion Picture one-sheet Wednesday, October 11 at 1PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6PM BT (UK), both a replica of the 1979 poster artwork and a new metallic foil variant with a strict limited run.
The ‘standard’ Motion Picture poster will not have a set run limit; because the original Matt Ferguson TMP poster design sold out so quickly when it was announced last month, Vice Press will leave the preorder window open for one full week and then print as many posters as necessary to fill those orders. The ‘standard’ TMP poster will measure 24″ x 36″ and cost £39.99 / $52 USD, with sales open through October 17.
The reflective foil variant, however, will be a limited run; only 200 prints of the 24″ x 36″ poster will be sold. This version of the Motion Picture poster will likely sell out quite quickly on October 11, and will be available for £49.99 / $65 USD.
The metallic foil version of the MOTION PICTURE one-sheet poster. (Vice Press)
Both editions of the remastered Star Trek: The Motion Picture theatrical one-sheet poster will be available this Wednesday at the Vice Press website — and if you want that foil edition, be there on time before the special variant is sold out.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek collectibles news!
Star Trek: Lower Decks is back for the next episode of the new season this week, and today we’ve got new images from “A Few Badgeys More” for your review!
Last seen in a Season 3 post-credits scene, Lower Decks’ holographic hell-raiser Badgey (Jack McBrayer) returns to terrorize the Cerritos crew — and the story of digital baddies Peanut Hamper (Kether Donohue) and AGIMUS (Jeffrey Combs) continue while the pair live in Starfleet custody.
Here are nine new images from this week’s new episode:
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS — 407: 'A Few Badgeys More'
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"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
"A Few Badgeys More" (Paramount+)
A FEW BADGEYS MORE — Three computerized villains return to cause problems for the Cerritos crew.
Written by Edgar Momplaisir. Directed by Bob Suarez.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns on Thursday, October 12 with “A Few Badgeys More” on Paramount+.
Hiya Toys keeps warping through the Kelvin Timeline! After launching preorder sales for Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy in August and two versions of Spock in September, the Star Trek newcomer has unveiled two more character figures from J.J. Abrams’ 2009 film.
This time, the company is moving into the secondary characters from Trek ’09, with their take on bad guy Nero (Eric Bana) and Scotty’s engineering sidekick Keenser (Deep Roy), complete with character-appropriate accessories.
Hiya Toys — STAR TREK 2009 Figures
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Nero (Hiya Toys)
Nero (Hiya Toys)
Nero (Hiya Toys)
Nero (Hiya Toys)
Keenser (Hiya Toys)
Keenser (Hiya Toys)
Keenser (Hiya Toys)
Keenser (Hiya Toys)
Nero comes with multiple hands, his sharp spear (used to kill Captain Robau in the opening moments of the film), and a Centauran slug (used to torture Captain Pike aboard his Narada ship).
Keenser appears in his red engineering smock, multiple hands, a large wrench, and two heads — one which includes the small alien’s black welding googles.
Playmates Toys’ Nero — and cancelled Keenser figure — from 2009.
You can preorder both of these new Star Trek (2009) action figures today for $24.99 at the Hiya Toys website ahead of their 2024 release.
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In other news, CBS Studios has announced this week the details of the forthcoming collaboration between musician Kid Cudi and the Star Trek franchise, first revealed back on Star Trek Day in September.
The Kid Cudi / Star Trek “Boldly Be” collaboration will officially kick off during New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 12 with a new Trek-inspired song from the artist called “Heaven’s Galaxy” — written Cudi, produced by longtime collaborator Dot Da Genius and said to be “inspired by Cudi’s own fandom of Star Trek.”
In addition, the artist and musician will be riding his own starship into the digital gaming world of Fortnite, as a new mission titled Mirror Mayhem in late October.
This event will bring Kid Cudi into the Fortnite gaming world:
Boldly Go as you partner with Captain Skyles (Kid Cudi) on a mission to uncover the source of a sonic anomaly that threatens the peaceful planet Vada. Beam down to explore, discover and defend a world these forces are threatening to tear apart. It’s up to you and other Starfleet recruits to work together with Captain Skyles to uncover the source of this musical malady and restore the harmony of Vada while there’s still time!
Cudi as ‘Captain Skyles’ in his Fornite appearance. (CBS Studios)
Finally, Cudi is also launching a Star Trek-themed clothing line through his own webshop, set to include T-shirts, crewneck shirts, hoodies, and both “a custom button-up t-shirt and a colorful leather varsity jacket with robust chenille and embroidery details.”
This clothing collaboration will launch on site at New York Comic Con on October 12, and then go live on KidCudi.com beginning October 16 for wide availability.
Fans attending NYCC can visit the Star Trek x Kid Cudi booth (#2653) to see some of the clothing line in person, and get a preview of the Fortnight game as well.
Come back to TrekCore often for the latest in Star Trek merchandise news!
We were on vacation for most of the last week, and in our absence, Paramount Home Entertainment has provided clarity on how fans can request replacement Blu-ray and DVD discs for Star Trek: Picard’s series finale.
As we reported last month, a visual effects shot in “The Last Generation” on the Season 3 did not match the final aired sequence seen on Paramount+ — and after Paramount Home Entertainment acknowledged the issue in late September, we now have guidance for those fans who wish to get a replacement disc containing a corrected version of the series finale.
Once there, choose “Other” in the “How Can We Help You” selector, choose your format (Blu-ray or DVD), and then complete the “Issue Details” section similar to the example pictured below — be sure to clarify if you have purchased only Season 3 or the Complete Series set, and specify which disc number in your set needs to be replaced.
After completing the Issue Details section, fill in your personal contact information and hit “Submit” to send off your request to Paramount Home Entertainment.
While this will help those of you who have already purchased Star Trek: Picard Season 3 in one of its various forms, as of yet it has not been announced how fans can identify corrected Picard sets — once produced and released to the marketplace — later this fall.
We don’t have any details to share yet, but if and when information is released you’ll find it here.
Check back to TrekCore often for the latest in Star Trek home entertainment news!
Star Trek: Lower Decks serves up another big episode that expands the world of Star Trek as it visits Ferenginar in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place,” a fun expansion of Ferengi culture that adds a significant new detail to the Star Trek canon. The USS Cerritos has been sent to support the USS Toronto in negotiating the first stage of the Ferengi Alliance’s application for membership in the Federation, while the Lower Deckers are assigned to contribute to updating Starfleet’s guide book entries on Ferengi culture.
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” is another confident big swing: the Ferengi have started the process of seeking Federation membership. By the time of Star Trek: Discovery’s jaunt into the 32nd century this seems like a done deal; there are (more) Ferengi Starfleet captains. But the first steps on that road are set here, under the leadership of Grand Nagus Rom.
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” (Paramount+)
It’s wonderful to hear Deep Space Nine vets Max Grodenchik and Chase Masterson reprising their roles of Grand Nagus Rom and First Clerk (what a great title!) Leeta, and the scenes between Captain Freeman, Admiral Vassery, and the Ferengi delegation are great. Vassery is the perfect dumb admiral not aware of the con being run on him, Freeman sees right through the swindle, and Rom and Leeta make an excellent team as they taunt the Federation to show a little Ferenginar backbone.
That the whole episode’s plot line comes down to Starfleet showing that it respects Ferengi culture by being willing to swindle the swindler makes total sense. The Ferengi are a very proud people, and it is interesting to see how as their culture has continued to evolve that fact has remained constant. It also previews how a Ferenginar within the Federation would work — law-abiding and progressive (thanks to Rom’s reforms), but still valuing the art of the deal and quick to take advantage of any opening.
I could have watched easily another three or four scenes of contract negotiations of Ferenginar preparing its application for Federation membership. This is a big moment in the Star Trek universe, and it’s brought to us by Lower Decks. Obviously, the show can’t do this all the time — because then it wouldn’t be Lower Decks anymore — but it is always a fun treat when it does (and harkens back to the show’s other Deep Space Nine themed episode, “Hear All, Trust Nothing”).
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” (Paramount+)
The episode also makes a significant contribution towards expanding our understanding of Ferengi culture. While we’ve seen some fun details of Ferenginar thanks to the many Ferengi episodes of Deep Space Nine, “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” expands outwards our understanding of the planet and does not just repeat the parts we’ve already gotten a good look at through Quark’s family.
The Ferenginar created by Lower Decks’ writers and animators is authentic, true to what we already know about the culture, and vivid. This is typified by the Dominion War Memorial (A Sober Farewell to Lost Profits) that feels authentically like the kind of memorials that the Ferengi would actually build. Memorialize the Dominion War? Of course. It was a galaxy-defining conflict. But what do Ferengi really value and mourn? Their lost profits. What a perfect Star Trek joke!
The episode also does not turn down an opportunity to make some biting commentary on our own current stage of capitalism through Boimler’s time on the planet, and Mariner’s storyline with the returning Quimp (previously seen in “Envoys”) allows for a continuation of the season’s arc of Mariner continuing to mature.
But while most of the episode is an absolute triumph, it does falter a little with the Tendi-Rutherford storyline. Firstly, for reaching for some easy and convenient awkwardness that strays a little too far into unbelievable sitcom type situations, but also because sometimes the awkward humor of Tendi and Rutherford’s situation is just… well… awkward.
These two characters clearly care very deeply for each other, and potentially do have romantic feelings for each other. It’s actually put a really interesting spin on the usual “friends to lovers” storyline to just have them not progress in that direction and remain something more than friends and something less than lovers. But what’s obvious, and dialed up in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” to mine the humor of the situation, is that both are clearly inexperienced in romance, feel too awkward and uncomfortable to have a deeper conversation about their relationship (or just don’t want to), and are both totally comfortable with that.
It ends up being a bit too uncomfortable, and not always in a funny way, to see the sweet dynamic between these two characters played for laughs like that. Maybe I am just being over-protective of two characters that I care about very much, but their storyline did not quite land the laughs with me in the way that I hoped — and it detracts from what is otherwise my favorite episode of season four of Lower Decks so far.
TREK TROPE TRIBUTE
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” features the other big trope involving Starfleet admirals. Not the one where they’re secretly evil… but the one where they’re much dumber than our heroes. Admiral Vassery is an idiot!
CANON CONNECTIONS
The movement of Ferengi culture away from illegal to legitimate business — as seen in the teaser where the Ferengi courier is dumping its weapons — is a direct continuation of the reforms put into place by Grand Nagus Zek and continued by Grand Nagus Rom from the end of Deep Space Nine.
By the 24th century, the Genesis Device is apparently being used to terraform planets.
The 62nd Rule of Acquisition, “the riskier the road, the greater the profit” was previously cited in “Rules of Acquisition,” “Little Green Men,” and “Business as Usual.”
The Vancouver class was introduced in the Lower Decks episode “Much Ado About Boimler.” This one is the USS Toronto, the current home of most Star Trek live action productions.
Admiral Vassery’s comment about Moab IV and its dome refers to the genetically engineered society seen in The Next Generation episode “The Masterpiece Society.”
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” (Paramount+)
Grand Nagus Rom has his own Hupyrian servant, who appears to be female. Grand Nagus Zek’s Hypyrian servant was Maihar’du.
Boimler observes that Mariner has been “weathering that stem bolt for so long, it probably can’t even self-seal anymore.” Yes… but what does that mean???
It is, appropriately, raining on Ferenginar.
The Ferengi law enforcement who is sent to round up Boimler at the end of the episode uses the famous energy whip seen in the TNG episode “The Last Outpost” and in the Enterprise episode “Acquisition.”
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
The episode title is a play on Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a short-lived British horror-comedy television series which aired in 2004 and has since gained a cult following.
The Ferengi ship introduced at the beginning of the episode appears to be a new design to Lower Decks. I couldn’t find any concept art or anything of that nature that it could have been based upon.
According to Ransom, the USS Cerritos is “statistically the horniest and least romantically committed crew in Starfleet” with no married couples aboard.
The establishments viewed by the Lower Deckers as their shuttle lands include “All You Can @#$%!,” a giant Slug-o-Cola billboard, “Acquire Pour Homme,” “Uncle Quark’s Youth Casino,” “Lobe’s Lodge,” and the “Maximum Oo-Mox Rub Dungeon.” There is also a sign for what appears to be a movie theater playing “Latinum Lost!,” while Boimler also points out the Museum of Gambling and the Museum of Haggling.
The mountain-and-stars artwork on Boimler’s hotel room wall strongly resembles a stylized version of the Paramount logo.
The Ferengi TV shows Boimler watches are Pog and Dar: Cop Landlords and Will They? Won’t They? the workplace sitcom where everyone is secretly in love with each other.
The villain in Pog and Dar has a horned dog pet which originated in “The Enemy Within.”
This episode has a wonderful tribute to Star Trek: The Experience with Quark’s Federation Experience Bar and & Grill (which is called the “Starfleet Experience” in dialogue.) The Starfleet Experience has a giant model of the Enterprise-D and Voyager hanging over the entry way, just like the old Experience did. As a huge fan of the Experience, this made me very happy.
The Starfleet Experience waiters are wearing TOS uniforms, which Tendi and Rutherford remark are “those old velour uniforms that used to catch fire all the time.” The TOS uniforms worn in Season 1 and 2 of the original show were velour.
This episode adds a new Rule of Acquisition to the list: Rule 8 is “Small print leads to large risk.”
“Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” (Paramount+)
Despite the Tendi/Rutherford story not completely working for me, I love “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” for a myriad of reason: a star turn by Max and Chase returning as Rom and Leeta, a great face off with Captain Freeman, a nice continuation of Mariner’s arc this season, funny Boimler stuff, and some really nice Ferengi worldbuilding.
All that, and the Ferengi Alliance’s formal application for Federation membership. All that together makes this my favorite episode of the season so far.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns October 12 with “A Few Badgeys More” on Paramount+.
The Master Replicas team has been finding and selling wave after wave of leftover Eaglemoss Star Trek products for the last several months, and this Friday comes a group of rare starship model variants, fan-favorite ships, and a load of Star Trek books.
From Star Trek: Picard Season 1, the fleet of Inquiry-class ships were led by Captain Riker on the USS Zheng He — but that was just one of four different versions of the Inquiry-class design in that large fleet.
Top: USS Zheng He, USS Toussaint; Bottom: USS Maui, USS Varian Fry
Eaglemoss produced a very limited number of those other designs before they went under, and Master Replicas has finally located the stock of the USS Toussaint, the USS Varian Fry, and the USS Maui. Seen on eBay for “over $1000 each” Master Replicas notes, these three rare models will be part of the weekly drop going up on their storefront this Friday, October 6.
Along with the Inquiry-class ships, the company also plans to release a few very popular ships: the standard Borg cube, the three-nacelled future Enterprise-D design seen in “All Good Things…,” the XL-sized Galaxy-class Enterprise-D and Deep Space 9 station, and the gold-plated original Enterprise from the classic Star Trek series.
The XL-sized DEEP SPACE 9 station model.
From the publishing library, they’ve located stock of 12 Eaglemoss Star Trek reference books, as well as several other Trek publications from the Hero Collector publishing label:
STAR TREK Shipyards Books
Starfleet 2151-2293
Starfleet 2294 the Future
Starfleet 2294 -The Future Updated and Expanded
The Borg and the Delta Quadrant: Akritirian to Krenim
Alpha Quadrant and Major Races: Acamarian to Ktarian
Federation Members
STAR TREK Designing Starships Books
Volume 2: Voyager and Beyond
Volume 3: The Kelvin Timeline
Volume 4: Discovery
Volume 5: Deep Space 9 and Beyond
STAR TREK Illustrated Handbooks
U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701
Deep Space 9 and the U.S.S. Defiant
STAR TREK Graphic Novels
STAR TREK/Legion of Super-heroes
STAR TREK Graphic Novel Collection #3 Hive
STAR TREK Graphic Novel Collection #130 A Piece of Reaction
Other STAR TREK Books
STAR TREK: VOYAGER — A Celebration
STAR TREK Nerd Search — TOS: Quibbles with Tribbles
STAR TREK Nerd Search: THE NEXT GENERATION
If you want one of the ships or products included in this next wave of sales, you’ll need to move quickly… because once they sell out or leave the Master Replicas site, they may never be available for direct sale again. This round of product is expected to be available starting on Friday, October 6 at 9pm in the UK and 4pm ET.
For more, head over to the Master Replicas website to sign up for their mailing list, and to bring home any of the next wave of surplus Official Starships models when they go on sale October 6.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek merchandise news!
The last of five VERY Short Trek animated promos just made its way onto the official Star Trek video channels! This time, it’s a Tendi-led tribute to the Animated Series with a return to the original Enterprise.
“Walk, Don’t Run” stars the voices of Noël Wells as D’Vana Tendi, Carlos Alazraqui as Scotty, Cristina Milizia as M’Ress, George Takei as Sulu, and Jonathan Frakes as Commander Will Riker.
T’Lyn gets a great character vehicle in “Empathological Fallacies,” a fun Lower Decks take on the “crew goes wild” trope in Star Trek that introduces some cool characters and concepts to the franchise in the process.
When the Cerritos is assigned to escort three Betazoid diplomats from Angel One to Risa, the crew begins experiencing a heightened emotional state — but after accusing the Betazoids of suffering from Zanthi Fever, it is discovered that T’Lyn’s mental projection of her emotional turmoil about her assignment to the Cerritos is the cause of the crew’s mania.
(Paramount+)
“Empathological Fallacies” is in many ways a sequel to “wej Duj” in that it picks up and grapples with the fallout of T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) being transferred to Starfleet service against her wishes. And while Mariner (Tawny Newsome) might be right — that T’Lyn’s former commander Captain Sokel is an idiot — the Lower Decks audience are so lucky he’s an idiot because she is a great character, and such a great addition to the show’s dynamics. After four episodes of being the straight woman to the excesses of the Cerritos crew, T’Lyn proves she can also hold her own in center stage of an episode too.
The T’Lyn/Mariner dynamic in this episode is great, and they play off well against one another as a duo. The humor in the dynamics of the core group of Lower Deckers is in Tendi’s (Noel Wells) thirst for T’Lyn’s friendship, but the relationship here with Mariner really sizzles and serves the overall episode immensely. I hope we see more of just the two of them together in the future.
This episode also reminds us that Vulcans really do have impressive mental abilities. It’s often less emphasized for Vulcan characters than their logic and lack of emotion, but episodes like this serve to remind me that Sarek’s Bendii Syndrome caused a whole Ten Forward to riot (in “Sarek”) and Spock influenced a guy’s mind through a wall just by touching it.
(Paramount+)
The ”it’s not Zanthi Fever, it’s actually maybe Bendii Syndrome, but we’re not going to really dwell on it” is a little hand-wavey, but not in a way that’s too distracting from the high points of this episode. From what we know about Bendii Syndrome up to this point — it did kill Sarek — it feels like T’Lyn just got diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s and that should maybe have been taken more seriously. But the show is telling us that it’s not, and so I’ll go with it.
And we can’t forget to discuss how cool Dolorex, Katrot, and Cathiw are. Your previous experience with Star Trek tees you up to take these characters at face value. Oh, these are “women of a certain age” characters in the Lwaxana Troi vein, there to be the inciting reason for our crew’s distress, much like Troi’s big mess in DS9’s “Fascination.” Discovering in the twist that they are Betazoid spies is unexpected and it’s a lot of fun — and who wouldn’t want those lipstick stun batons on their person? I know I do.
Choosing to make Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) the main character to interact with — and face down — the Betazoid spies was also a great choice. How often do you see four female characters over the age of 40 sharing a scene, and particularly an action-focused scene? I thought that was a great thing to see. Lower Decks has given us a number of wonderful guest stars, and I hope that we might see these badass Betazoids again in a future season.
(Paramount+)
And rounding out the episode, the C-story of Boimler (Jack Quaid) spending the day with Security and being both thoroughly unimpressed — and then thoroughly impressed — by their skills and life philosophy was a lot of fun. This is a classic Lower Decks take on a theme that runs throughout much of Star Trek’s depiction of security officers, which is that the best security officers aren’t the ones just looking to pick a fight but know exactly when aggression is appropriate. I enjoyed hearing Shaxs’ (Fred Tatasciore) philosophy about security, and it feels very relevant and enlightened in the way that you’d hope from a 24th century starship.
Is it a little silly? Sure it is, because it’s an animated comedy. But there’s a really important message underlying that about the need to live a complete life and find balance between work and creative pursuits — and that’s a Malcolm Reed puzzle I can build all day long.
TREK TROPE TRIBUTE
The Cerritos crew have a more complete “Naked Time,” “Naked Now,” “Fascination,” and “Singularity” experience in this episode than the brief “is this what Star Trek has become?” orgy simulation scenes in “I, Excretus.”
(Paramount+)
CANON CONNECTIONS
The Betazoid “socialites” are being transported from the matriarchal society of Angel One to Risa.
Boimler asks if the Security Department are going to teach him the Delta Quadrant wrestling technique of Tsunkatse(from the Voyager episode of the same name).
The Betazoid disease Zanthi Fever was the cause of all the shenanigans in the Deep Space Nine episode “Fascination.”
Boimler correctly guesses Kayshon’s Starfleet Officer Charades pick was Odo from swimming in a bucket.
One of the sacred security officer rituals is a puzzle of Star Trek: Enterprise’s Malcolm Reed.
Bendii Syndrome was experienced by Spock’s father Sarek, and impacted the emotions of the Enterprise-D crew in “Sarek.”
The painting of Vulcan’s Forge in T’Lyn’s quarters is based upon a screenshot from the 2001 DVD edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition. (The image was slightly modified for the 2022 Blu-ray edition.)
T’Lyn’s quarters feature a familiar image. (Paramount+)
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch makes her Star Trek debut as Dolorex.
Katrot mentions how much she likes Starfleet carpeting, matching the feelings of many Star Trek fans following recent live-action shows’ decisions to forgo the carpet in favor of hard flooring.
“I’ll devour whoever I want, Dolorex, you sanctimonious buzzkill” is a great line.
We learn in this episode that Caitiansand Betazoids have a past; at one point in history centuries before, Caitians hunted Betazoids for sport and food.
Katrot’s baseball hat says “It’s Romulan Ale O’Clock Somewhere!”
The rowdy party music, in classic Star Trek fashion, is classical music.
The Worf poem goes “Worf, Worf, torn between worlds. A warrior? No, a farm boy. The son of Mogh. Clang goes the bat’leth against the armor of your heart!”
I love seeing the animated Romulan Warbird.
(Paramount+)
“Empathological Fallacies” is a thoughtful episode with a good mix of fun and action. It cements T’Lyn’s role in the Cerritos dynamic, and lightly connects to the season’s overall arc with the reveal to our crew of the mysterious vessel that has been destroying ships throughout the season.
We still do not have much clue where this story is heading, but it’s an intriguing addition to Lower Decks and I am excited to see where it goes.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns October 5 with “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” on Paramount+.
