If the Leif Ericson class didn’t exist, how could it be in the handbook??!

“Robbie McDunc”? Really? ¹

Billups as the masked pilot surprised me. I expected it to be Locarno.

I thought that was a well-executed fake-out, and enjoyed the heck out of it. I thought it really made the B-plot work–Freeman is very rarely at her best when around Mariner, which means we see her screw up a lot, so I was very happy to get a reminder that she’s the sort of officer Starfleet would give a command to.

“Robbie McDunc”? Really? ²

1: see 2.

2: it's a question worth repeating.

Lower Decks has as much (more even) blatant fan service as Picard season 3, although because it is a comedy I find it more forgivable and less grating than I did in the other show.

Agree with your agreement here. If I unloaded my feelings about all the fanboy moments in Terry’s Picard, it would actually be unpleasant to read…so I won’t. How about I just say that you’re super right about Sito Jaxa, too. I thought the connection to that episode was very sweet, and really enjoyed hearing Mariner talk about how much the Dominion War sucked, too. It made sense to me that she’d be more comfortable getting that out with a stranger than her friends, at least when I think about the guys I was in the Navy with.

Oh, man, I totally missed this when I watched the episode…I remember bumping a little when I heard the line “I was betrayed by my crew,” but just being confused instead of grasping the implications. The whole thing makes way more sense now. Thank you for spelling it out for me!

I’m so glad StarTrek.website is here for this kind of thing–it made my life better today!

The Bynar lower decks are a fun place–the animators did a great job communicating some casual insults on a foundation of deep affection with just a few facial expressions. I bet the Cerritos could face the bad guys from Buffy’s Hush easily enough.

Well, that’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. I happen to have grown up on DS9, and in my heart there’s not much room for Worf’s Wacky Adventures on Risa; people a couple years older than me tend to have performed some personal, private retconning of at least one episode of TNG’s first season–if not more. And I have just finished the novel “Spock’s World,” and realized I wish I’d read it years ago and some of the thing’s Diane Carey wrote in that exceptional book are better than the contradictory idea’s Paramount officially introduced in later media.

What season 2 of Picard means to the producers is far less important than what it means to you–and if it inspires you to go back and watch TNG, you may want to jump straight to Season 2 of that show, as well.

I have been working under the assumption that the unknown vessel is Peanut Hamper. Because that seems like a comedic call back. But Lower Decks has a history of surprising me!

Not to mention my favorite work of Tellerite cinema.

Err, wrong IP there, @beefcat. “The Historical Documents” isn’t from Star Trek, it’s from BSG.

(I also have a soft spot for parts of Picard season 1)

I actually like that this is a favorite episode thread, because season one of Picard has “Nepenthe,” which I come back to again and again. I love how Troi is the central character of that episode and the primary mover of the whole plot. It’s the crowning moment for any non-titular TNG character in all of Picard, and superior to anything in S3!

I spent over a decade addicted to meth, and in my experience, that green slime ain’t meth.