Star Trek: Lower Decks is back for the fifth episode of the new season this week, and today we’ve got new images from “Reflections” for your review!
This week, Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) get assigned to man a Starfleet recruiting booth at a Federation job fair — meanwhile, Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) considers some of his past experiences.
Here are four new images from this week’s new episode:
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS — 305: 'Reflections'
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REFLECTIONS — Mariner and Boimler work the Starfleet recruitment booth at an alien job fair, Rutherford challenges himself.
Written by Mike McMahan. Directed by Michael Mullen.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Reflections” on Thursday, September 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada and on Prime Video in many other regions.
More than twenty years after the first Star Trek Cookbook found its way home from the Delta Quadrant, Chelsea Monroe-Cassel returns to the galley with a brand-new take on food from the final frontier — and we had the opportunity to chat with the author ahead of this week’s brand new edition of The Star Trek Cookbook.
Learn how to make meals that are out of this world with this indispensable guide to the food of the stars! Perfect for every fan, this updated edition of The Star Trek Cookbook from the New York Times bestselling author comes with brand-new and delicious recipes, tantalizing visuals, and easy-to-follow instructions and advice to make the best foods from the future.
With all-new recipes right beside timeless classics, food stylist and New York Times bestselling author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s reimagining of The Star Trek Cookbook presents a visual feast along with complete guides on favorite foods from across Star Trek, adapted for easy use in 21st-century kitchens.
Themed as a Starfleet-sponsored collection of recipes from across multiple quadrants and cultures, and intended to foster better understanding of different species from a human perspective with its Earth-centric ingredients, this must-have cookbook embraces the best of Star Trek and its core message of hope, acceptance, and exploration in the spirit of gastrodiplomacy.
TREKCORE: What was your origin story with Star Trek? How did you become a fan?
CHELSEA MONROE-CASSEL: I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my dad, and I love it. I love all of it. I think it’s amazing. I think it’s very cool because it’s such a hopeful view of the future and I love a dystopian story as much as the next person, but when it increasingly feels like maybe we’re living in a dystopia, it’s nice to have your escapism promise you something better!
TREKCORE: This is now the second Star Trek cookbook. The first Star Trek Cookbook, which was released in 1999 and is presented as a cookbook written by Neelix, is still in print today. How do you approach this version of the cookbook to provide something new to fans?
MONROE-CASSEL: There’s definitely room for new take on the idea of a Star Trek cookbook. I think that there’s a lot to celebrate about the Neelix cookbook. So many people love it. As you say, for the past 20 years, that’s been THE Star Trek Cookbook. That’s fabulous! It was really, I think, in many ways ahead of its time in terms of fandom cookbooks. It feels like there’s one for every TV show, but in 1999, that was pretty much it.
That said, I feel like it can’t quite decide what it is. You’ve got some recipes from the actors, some from the characters, and a lot of behind the scenes stuff, which is amazing. I loved reading through all of that especially. At the end of the day, it’s got good recipes, which is what counts.
I think from what I’ve read, a lot of people keep coming back to those recipes. I obviously want to be clear that this new Star Trek Cookbook is in no way meant to replace that one. I think there’s definitely room on a shelf for both of them, if you’re so inclined, or for just one or the other. I didn’t want to copy it. It is its own thing.
I wanted to give a fresh take on it. I didn’t actually really closely read any of the recipes themselves but I did read a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, just for any insights as to how to make my own recipes better, especially with like the Romulan Ale. Tell me anything that is whatsoever useful about Romulan Ale behind the scenes. Just give me a starting point.
With this and with all cookbooks I do, I always start with arguably a ludicrous number of lists. I make crazy amounts of lists. The first one is everything that I know should go into the book, and that fans will expect to see. The gagh, the Plomeek soup, things like that. The next list is maybe things that sound cool. Just reading through the names on Memory Alpha.
A third list could be things I saw on Pinterest that look like space food, and do they match up well with anything that’s on one of the other lists — or do I have to make something new that is still in keeping with the world?
I always try to keep my recipe collections as canon as possible. For example, the Uttaberry Cruffins in the cookbook: cruffins are not canon yet, but Uttaberries are. It’s a little bit of wiggle room, but it’s still, I think hopefully at heart, really rooted in the world of Star Trek.
TREKCORE: How do you approach turning Star Trek food, which was just meant to look good on screen, into an edible recipe that people will enjoy? For example, how do you give fans a recipe that allows them an enjoyable experience of eating gagh without them needing live serpent worms?
MONROE-CASSEL: You hit on exactly the thing with the Klingon food in particular, where if you take something like the Rokeg Blood Pie; I think in “A Matter of Honor” is a bunch of cut up beets with butter scotch pudding and like cranberry juice or something over top, and you’re just like, “Oh yes, not with a 10 foot pole am I going near that as an edible dish.”
The cookbook has a version of the Rokeg Blood Pie that is edible, but still incredibly gruesome looking. My mother stopped by the day that I was making it and she was just absolutely horrified. She normally likes to try what I’m working on, but not this one!
One of my personal rules is that the food has to not only be edible, but arguably taste good. Even when you’re dealing with a lot of alien cultures, it still has to be food. It still has to be edible and it still arguably has to be good food.
It’s all about finding the balance between how it looks, how it tastes, the ingredients that go into it, while still making it approachable to make for most people. I don’t have crazy culinary training and I think that that weirdly works to my advantage in some way, because I’m not going to put anything in the book that most people can’t tackle if they wanted.
TREKCORE: The book is presented as a Starfleet Academy text book about the foods of other worlds. How did you approach creating what feels very much like an in-universe book, but balancing that with you also want this to be a cookbook that people use to make recipes?
MONROE-CASSEL: It’s very funny because as you say, it’s a balance in between getting it to feel in-world, but also be practical. I really wanted it to be not just the Federation, but to embrace that hopeful feeling that’s so central to Star Trek and to see if I could do that with food.
As you say, it’s pitched as “understand and experience other cultures through food.” It’s just the other cultures are Andorians and Romulans and what have you.
TREKCORE: Were there any dishes that you really wanted to include that you never figured out a way of fitting into the book?
MONROE-CASSEL: Yes. The ones that got away! Jumja sticks are on that short list. I made them once and they were perfect. The perfect shape, great texture, amazing flavor, and I did not take notes, and I could never do it again. It makes me so mad to this day. I’m hoping maybe at some point I can tackle that again and a couple other ones for the blog.
Another one was the Samarian Sunset cocktail. I desperately wanted to include something, at least as an homage to that and the way it changes color when you tap the glass. But you can do a cocktail that changes color with fizzy powder and stuff, but it’s over the course of 15 minutes of sitting on the counter and it’s not exactly showy.
The ones that got away still get me. I still think about them. That, combined with the fact that nobody gave me a sneak peek at Strange New Worlds so I didn’t know that Pike cooks in every single episode. There’s some really good looking food in that captain’s quarter.
TREKCORE: Plenty of opportunity then for Volume 2.
MONROE-CASSEL: I’m going to make the argument! A couple more seasons under our belt and see what else he makes.
TREKCORE: Are there any dishes that you are particularly proud of?
MONROE-CASSEL: For comedic value, I really like the Spatchcocked Tribble because the Short Trek “The Trouble with Edward” that gives us the origin story of the tribbles is one of my favorite little slivers of Star Trek, everything. I just think it’s hysterical.
I got a kick out of that one. For that one, I think we zoomed in on the photo, but I made a mock up of a replicator to photograph it in the Original Series era. I did one for Discovery too, but I think they never quite worked for the photography because you needed to pull back too far from the food in order to see it was a replicator. But we now have replicators in the house, so that’s great!
TREKCORE: What recipe would you recommend for the beginner chef? And what about the Star Trek fan who considers themselves as skilled as Neelix in the kitchen?
MONROE-CASSEL: For the most part, all the recipes have a difficulty rating. I think it should be pretty easy for people to pick something that’s within their skill range. There aren’t that many that are crazy difficult.
I think the Uttaberry Cruffins are probably one of the hardest recipes, because you make a little quick jam and you make a rough puff pastry and it’s a little finicky and then you do the weird little shapes. That one I think is pretty good for a high challenge.
The soups are very easy for somebody just tackling it for the first time. Those are really good. I think the Denobulan Sausage is very showy for how relatively easy it is. That’s one of my other pretty easy picks.
TREKCORE: Having just spent a period of time immersed in both Star Trek and food, what’s your reflection on the role of food in Star Trek?
MONROE-CASSEL: Most people, many people, they say, “Oh, a Star Trek cookbook. Why do you need that? They have replicators. You just push the button that’s your cookbook.” I argue that a world with replicators is not a world without cooking.
Even if you loved a dish, every time you replicated it, it would be the same dish exactly and there would be no artistry to it, no nuance. Whereas if you replicate the ingredients and then you assemble them, then you’ve got something interesting. You’ve got a little variation. If you feel like a little more red pepper that day, you can just throw that on top.
I think they touch on this in at least one or two episodes, I think, of TNG, where Riker’s making that really terrible looking omelet using Owon eggs. It looks so bad, but over and over again, we see food in Star Trek as this integral part of it. Whether it’s the replicators in the mess halls and people coming together to eat, or food in the captain’s quarters as an honored guest.
Also off world, every time you send a landing party down, for better or worse, they’re eating the local flora fauna food, various repercussions. It’s comedy too. Lower Decks touches on that a lot. They’re constantly in the mess hall fighting with the replicator if it doesn’t recognize them, or the replicators shooting food out when they malfunction. It’s amazing. It’s so quietly a part of Star Trek, as it’s a part of the real world, our everyday lives.
I think one of the cool things about fictional food is that it takes something that is essential for us to live and it removes it a step or two from what is normal and what is just rote. We all need to eat to live, but isn’t it great if we can eat for fun too, and get a little bit closer to the places and people that we really admire through food?
That’s what I try to do — open that doorway a little bit for people.
In addition, stick around to Jamie’s theory about who Brent Spiner will be playing in the final season of Star Trek: Picard, and Alex’s wish for more news about next year’s Mission Seattle Star Trek convention — months after ticket sales were supposed to open.
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
You may just now be hauling out your Halloween decorations, but it’s never too early to be planning for Christmas — especially if you’re a Hallmark ornament collector!
Which ornament beamed down first this year? It’s the penultimate “Mirror, Mirror” Storyteller character, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott! Following the “Mirror, Mirror” editions of Kirk, Sulu, and Uhura in 2020 — and Spock and Chekov in 2021 — this year completes the set, with the McCoy release planned for October.
I’ve been collecting Star Trek Hallmark ornaments for decades, but what makes this mirror universe set extra special is Hallmark’s radio technology:
Each of the character ornaments contain audio from the episode, and will play back lines from the episode on their own — but when brought together, the ornaments will communicate with each other with built-in radio technology to replicate scenes from the episode where those characters interacted.
Once all seven $29.00 ornaments are released — Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov — the entire set will work together to perform a cut-down, abbreviated rendition of “Mirror, Mirror” for owners.
You’ll want to make sure you have a Hallmark Keepsake Power Cord in order to experience the audio/visual elements of this impressive ornament (sold separately) — and just to be clear, the Power Cord is not the same as the Magic Cord, which was a previous tech innovation and is not compatible with these ornaments.
If you’re a long time collector like me, you probably have a few of these things lying around. I was very confused for a moment when I grabbed my Magic Cord box by accident.
Since I don’t yet have McCoy on hand, I can’t evaluate the full-crew audio experience, but I can still tell you about Scotty in detail!
Considering these audio clips are coming from a 1960s television show, I think the sound quality is pretty remarkable — especially when you compare it to some of the very early talking Star Trek ornaments from the 90s. I ended up plugging in Uhura alongside Scotty, and the volume level between the two sounds nice and even… so I can’t wait to have them ALL linked up in the end!
As for the physical ornament, Mirror Scotty’s uniform and accessories are nicely detailed. The character has his dagger on his right hip, his phaser on his left, the iconic Terran empire logo is present on his chest, along with the three medals pins on the left and rank braids on his sleeves — and of course, that stylishly evil gold lamé sash (which isn’t quite sparkly enough for me!).
Where I did want to see a bit more detail was in the sculpt of Scotty’s facial features. This ornament looks a bit more like the character design from The Animated Series than live-action Jimmy Doohan. Don’t get me wrong: it’s still obviously Scotty at a glance, but it comes off a bit cartoonish.
Overall, this is a great addition to the Star Trek ornament family — and since it is a Power Cord ornament, it’s the kind of thing you can easily leave up and enjoy all year long. Wouldn’t it be cool, though, if Hallmark released a little folding cardboard bridge or transporter room or something, as a backdrop for the ornaments and a way to hide the Power Cord?
I’ll be counting down the days until I can get my hands on McCoy in October, so I can hear the whole crew in action! Make your next away mission a trip to your local Hallmark store, or head over to Hallmark’s website where the whole crew is standing by: Kirk,Spock,Scotty,Uhura,Chekov,Sulu, with McCoy to be available next month.
Just be sure to avoid transporter malfunctions and any staff wearing gold lamé sashes!
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek merchandise news and reviews!
Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran Wil Wheaton is the latest member of the franchise family to return to his character — or at least, a version of Wesley Crusher — in the latest Star Trek Online story venturing deeper into the Mirror Universe.
Announced during last week’s Star Trek Day event, Wheaton will be voicing the character of Terran Empire Wesley Crusher in a new event called “Eye of The Storm” in the ongoing Star Trek Online: Ascension story.
Things have escalated in the Mirror Universe, as the Terran emperor is attempting to control The Other, the Mirror version of V’ger – a dangerous entity of tremendous power. Up until this point, the identity of the leader behind the Terran Empire’s strategic incursions into the Prime Universe has remained a secret.
However, players team up with former enemy-turned-ally, Admiral Leeta (voiced by Chase Masterson from Deep Space Nine) and learn that the Emperor is none other than the Mirror version of Wesley Crusher from The Next Generation (voiced by Wil Wheaton).
In order to stop the Terran Emperor from threatening both the Prime and Mirror Universes, the Federation will need to stop him from controlling The Other, all while fighting off his forces led by the dreaded Captain Killy (voiced by Mary Wiseman from Discovery).
These events all take place in a brand new featured episode, aptly named “Eye of the Storm.” Star Trek Online: Ascension also introduces plenty of new content for players to discover, including a new 5-player ground TFO “Storm Chasers” and the new Elite Officer Upgrade System that allows players to upgrade bridge officers. Captains can also play through the latest event, “The Emperor’s Will”, to earn a new reward, the T6 Terran Somerville starship.
The long-awaited update also brings exciting new features to the game for the very first time, including new missions starring Mary Wiseman (Star Trek: Discovery) as Captain Killy and Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as Admiral Leeta.
Star Trek: Online – Ascension launched for PC players on September 13, and will arrive for console players at a later date.
Keep checking back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek gaming news!
We’ve got one last roundup of new Star Trek merchandise announcements for you this weekend, after the deluge of new products which arrived surrounding September 8th’s Star Trek Day celebration.
First up is another new 1:6-scale figure from the folks at EXO-6, and this time they’re headed back to “The Best of Both Worlds” with their highly-detailed Locutus of Borg figure.
This figure of course represents Captain Jean-Luc Picard after he was assimilated by the Borg in 2366, complete with exterior skull plate, black armored body suit, and the robotic arm which fits over his right hand.
While there are no accessories with this figure, the new Locutus release does include integrated lighting: the iconic red laser which comes from the side of the Borg’s head is represented with a red LED light, powered by two batteries.
Kidrobot is continuing its line of Star Trek character plus dolls, with new releases spanning from the Original Series through Star Trek: Voyager, and even to Star Trek: Lower Decks.
In addition, Kidrobot recently added a pair of posable Badgey dolls from Star Trek: Lower Decks; the 13″ bendable plushes come in both “Good Badgey” and “Evil Badgey” (on preorder) designs and retail at $26.99 each.
Pottery Barn has entered into a new collaboration with Star Trek, bringing a number of Trek-themed home good products to market through its Pottery Barn Teen brand.
Including products such as bedding, lighting, school bags and more, the new Pottery Barn Teen / Star Trek collaboration has products which represent the Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Discovery and the Kelvin Timeline films.
There are sheets covered in Trek starships (both Federation and alien alike), chromed ornaments, a huge wall mural of the Enterprise-D, signs, pillows, and even an Enterprise-D snowglobe.
There are also sleeping back and pajamas – however since this is through the company’s teen-focused brand, the pajama sizes are geared toward younger Trek fans.
We’re still waiting to learn when Dramatic Labs’ new Star Trek game Star Trek: Resurgence will beam down for fans to play, but a comic prequel to the game is slated to arrive from IDW Publishing this November.
The five-month story will bring readers the tale of the USS Resolute, the hero starship of the forthcoming game, as the ship and its crew undergoes a catastrophe which must be resolved through Star Trek: Resurgence — and Federation engineering specialist Dr. Leah Brahms is at the center of everything.
Building upon the wave of excitement for Dramatic Labs’ upcoming interactive video game, IDW is thrilled to announce the five-issue comic book prequel of the same name, Star Trek: Resurgence!
Exploring the calamitous events of the U.S.S. Resolute preceding the game’s main storyline, the miniseries will be written by Andrew Grant and Dan Martin with art by Josh Hood (Avatar: The Next Shadow, We Can Never Go Home) and will debut in November.
Here’s the description to Star Trek: Resurgence #1, coming in November:
On a windswept planet bordering the notoriously hostile Talarian Republic, a scientist on the cusp of developing technology that will revolutionize warp goes missing. The crew of the U.S.S. Resolute is tasked with an urgent stealth mission to recover Dr. Leah Brahms and keep her research out of enemy hands!
Here’s the description for Star Trek: Resurgence #2, coming in December:
After discovering the Talarians are being commanded by no stranger to Federation archives, Captain Solano and First Officer Sutherland board the suspicious Talarian vessel. But just as hope is within sight, talks of peace are derailed by an aggressive visitor and a shocking revelation.
In addition, stick around to Jim’s wish for the speedy release of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 soundtrack, and Alex’s predictions that the announcement train surrounding Star Trek: Picard will keep on rolling right into New York Comic Con!
WeeklyTrek is available to subscribe and download each week on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify— and we’ll be sharing the details of each new episode right here on TrekCore each week if you’re simply just looking to listen in from the web.
Do you have a wish or theory you’d like to share on the show? Tweet to Alex at @WeeklyTrek, or email us with your thoughts about wishes, theories, or anything else about the latest in Star Trek news!
“Room For Growth” is an episode whose central theme is fully encapsulated by its title, that everyone aboard the USS Cerritos has room for personal and professional growth. And though our characters all learn something in both storylines, the week’s A-story felt inconsequential to me and largely fell flat.
After the Cerritos encounters a D’Arsay archive that transforms the ship into an ancient alien city, Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) orders mandatory shore leave for the ship’s overworked engineers. Meanwhile — in the downtime created by the captain’s absence from the ship as she supervises the engineers — Ensigns Boimler (Jack Quaid), Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Tendi (Noel Wells) race to beat their rivals in Delta Shift to rig a lottery for newly-available quarters, by plotting a route to the terminal that controls the lottery through the ship’s maintenance systems.
I really liked that this episode let us see parts of the ship that we’ve never visited before, including a swamp underneath the hydroponics bay and inside the ship’s main deflector. Lower Decks has never shied away from showing us things on a starship that live action has not yet or likely could not, and so it’s always cool to visit new places.
But the room lottery storyline just did not do it for me — I have just never particularly enjoyed Star Trek episodes that revolve around characters being jerks to each other on purpose, particularly when that is meant to be the main driving source of humor from the plotline. That’s what the room lottery storyline hinges upon: the Delta Shifters are jerks!
There’s some nobility and personal growth in our Lower Deckers deciding they don’t want to be split up and stay together for as long as possible, but there’s no greater depth to their antagonists than that they are jerks.
As a source of character conflict within Starfleet, I just find that really boring; it just feels so inconsequential and petty. There’s nothing wrong with Star Trek exploring pettiness or conflict between characters, but when that’s all that is ultimately driving the story here, it just feels lacking.
This is not to say that I subscribe to Gene Roddenberry’s no-character-conflict rules from The Next Generation — that it never happens between Starfleet characters — but there are interesting ways to do it, and there are easy ways to reach for laughs. Sadly, in the room lottery storyline, “Room For Growth” reaches for the latter.
But what’s strange about this episode is that where the room lottery storyline fails for me, it succeeds in the B-story’s character conflict between Captain Freeman and the Cerritos engineering team aboard the spa vessel. The conflict in this plotline is about Freeman’s desire to do what’s right for her crew by providing them a space to relax, butting up against the engineering staff’s need to relax in their own way.
Both parties have to learn to be flexible to each other’s needs, and that’s ultimately a real message — and demonstrates real growth by everyone. While the storyline isn’t all that consequential, though the idea of a Federation starship entirely devoted to relaxation is an interesting and humorous one, it still feels like the episode ends with a substantial outcome from that story.
That’s the kind of Star Trek story — and the kind of Lower Decks story — that I enjoy watching.
TREK TROPE TRIBUTES
Freeman accuses the Cerritos engineers of all being “goddamn Geordi La Forges,” referring of course to the Next Gen chief engineer, furthering the Trek trope that Starfleet engineers never know how to take a break. (Any real engineers reading this, let us know in the comments if that’s true for real life too!)
Apparently Will Riker isn’t the only Starfleet first officer to de-evolve into a caveman, as the same thing apparently happened to Commander Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) in one of the Cerritos’ previous (unseen) adventures.
CANON CONNECTIONS
The D’Arsay archive seen transforming the Cerritos in the cold open is a reference to The Next Generation episode “Masks,” where another D’Arsay Archive transforms the USS Enterprise — though the archive the Cerritos encounters (apparently not even the first!) is dedicated to the god Minooki.
Taz, the administrator aboard the Dove spa vessel, is the third Edosian seen on Star Trek — and the second in Lower Decks, following the Osler commander seen in Season 1’s “Much Ado About Boimler.” It seems that this species gets to manage Starfleet’s more unique service vessels!
It looks like the Doopler emissary from “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” left one of his split bodies behind — a Doopler corpse is tucked behind one of the roots in the swamp beneath the hydroponics bay.
The mud from the mud bath aboard the Dove comes from the Tellarite homeworld, Tellar Prime.
One of the relaxation technicians aboard the Dove is the same avian species as Doctor Migleemo.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
Boimler’s padd gives us another good look at the detailed Cerritos cross-section map designed for Season 2.
Towel Guy, who we’ve seen in multiple previous episodes, has a name: Federov! And Mariner is right, he really could replicate a bigger towel.
Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) and T’Ana’s (Gillian Vigman) foreplay is to commit crimes together on the holodeck, similar to Dixon Hill, but working for the other side, and with the holodeck safety protocols turned off. And that’s all we need to say about that!
The color transition work as Tendi, Mariner and Boimler pass between the black-and-white holodeck and the full-color Jefferies tube environment is really well done.
We do learn that Doctor T’Ana lost her tail when she was serving aboard the USS Algonquin, and now Shaxs is the only other person who knows the full story.
Shaxs wants to phaser the incoming asteroids, but Ransom reminds him that’s the deflector dish’s function aboard a starship. The deflector: often mentioned but rarely explained!
In the funniest aside in the episode, Boimler, Mariner, and Tendi discuss what they’ll say to let people enter their quarters, referencing Riker’s use of “come!” Tendi’s suggestion of “Enter, friend” is a little more inviting, though.
Overall, sadly, “Room For Growth” is the least successful Lower Decks outing in some time. The episode’s A-plot just did not come together for me, and the episode as a whole just feels rather inconsequential — and lacking in the explosive laughs that Lower Decks is more than capable of.
It’s not a bad episode, exactly, it just does not live up to the show’s potential.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with “Reflections” on Thursday, September 22 on Paramount+ in the United States, Australia, Latin America, and the Nordics, as well as on CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada and on Prime Video in many other regions.
Factory Entertainment is continuing their strides into the final frontier, as the company has announced their next new Star Trek prop replica — this time, celebrating the debut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – The Director’s Edition in high definition.
Teased earlier this year, the new Star Trek: The Motion Picture “Ilia Sensor And Command Insignia Limited Edition Prop Replica Set” is now available for preorder from Factory Entertainment, a two-pack release containing both Admiral Kirk’s golden Starfleet insignia, and the light-up sensor unit worn by the Ilia probe in the second half of the firm.
This limited edition prop replica set is packaged in a collectible magnetic closure gift box featuring original poster artwork and contains two iconic items — the Ilia Probe Sensor and Captain Kirk’s Command Insignia.
This replica set was created with valued input and research from the production team of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Directors Edition, using newly restored behind the scenes reference material, allowing our team to faithfully replicate the props as seen in the film.
ADMIRAL KIRK’S COMMAND INSIGNIA — Worn by James T. Kirk to denote his rank of Admiral and Chief of Starfleet Operations at the beginning of the movie, this 1:1 replica insignia is cast from solid metal with a brilliant gold-plated finish and features a magnetic clasp fitting on the back.
ILIA PROBE SENSOR — As part of the Ilia Probe, the sensor’s primary function was a mystery, but it served as a connection between the Ilia Probe and V’ger. This limited edition prop replica incorporates glowing LED’s with a motion activation feature and is supplied with a clear elastic cord that allows the sensor to be conveniently worn as a necklace.
The clear cord is also removable so the replica can also be worn with costume tape or adhesive, just like the original prop. However, unlike the original prop, the electronic features are self contained, using modern micro-components.
Our team got to see the company’s prototype Motion Picture replica set at San Diego Comic Con back in July — including the packaging and Ilia probe wiring — giving fans a good look at what to expect when the final product is released near the end of the year.
Following this Kirk-era replica, the next Star Trek prop replica coming from the company is a Next Generation Season 1-era “dustbuster” Starfleet hand phaser, which Factory Entertainment also previewed at San Diego Comic Con:
