Drawn Into Lower Decks: recapping A Few Badgeys More

0:03 Mariner Boindler. Starfleet is better with you in it. I know, way man, I had your bag drong. Yeah, I thought you were like a boring worker drone, and you are. It's a sort of unfair. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Drawing into Lower Decks, a limited series from a film by podcast that focuses on the animated comedy Star Trek Lower Decks. Each week, we'll get you ready for the newest episode of Star Trek Lower Decks with an animated discussion about the latest not so epic mission of the uss soritos So Red Alert listeners. Spoilers are ahead. If you haven't seen the last episode, please go and watch it before you hear what we have to say. As usual, I'm Scott Hoffman and I'm Winwided and uh we contacted the Daystrim Institute so that we could have them bring back fellow Lower Deck or David Burns for this episode. But he's helping a group of EXO coops work on their communication issues, so hopefully we can include him before the season wraps up. We're getting close or whatever Section thirty one allows. Yeah, we may have to arrange a rescue mission at the Day Strom for him.

1:11 I think, so you're gonna have to beam him out of there. Yeah, so let me get us right into it, if you don't mind with a recap. The latest episode a few badgies. More so, there's a triple threat of AI facing the Cerrito's crew as Badgie, Peanut Hamper, and Agamus conveniently returned at the same time. It starts with Badgie who come into ars ADRIGMANI ship to lure the Cerritos and his father Rutherford into a sinister trap related to the recent string of mystery attacks. Before they pursue this investigation, Tendy and Boimler is sent to the day Stream Institute, where a Peanut Hamper is up for parole and Agabus promises info related to the attack on the pine Our ship. It's an intense episode that furthers the mystery of this season, provides a healthy balance of danger and personal growth, and seems to debunk any theories about the mystery ship being related to our FAVORITEAI villains. And would you agree? I definitely agree. We're learning more and more each episode about that mystery ship. Still don't know who it is, though. It was an interesting as much as I've been kind of leaning into that. It feels like if they went back there, it would seem kind of odd at this point, especially if it's a mere universe kind of thing. We'd be seeing nice versions of all these villain aies. Well, as you want to mention, you called it too. A couple of weeks ago, in a conversation between you and me, you had mentioned that you thought that they were maybe kidnapping or taking specimens. You we got that, right, Yeah, right, Yes, that was interesting considering they're leaving debris behind almost to kind of,

2:42 you know, make it seem like it's death and destruction. Also an interesting species they targeted this week with the Buyinars. Yeah, there's a race we haven't. This is only the second time we've ever seen them, and I'm glad we did. I always liked that episode that they came from. Yep, i'd be I'd be somewhat surprised if there wasn't actual scripted dialogue for the Buyinars that was, of course scrambled into the Binar language. But I feel like at some point we'll probably get some kind of explanation for what they were saying. I'm sure it has a giant clue that we just can't understand because we don't speak the language. Yeah, I thought it was an amazing episode.

3:24 We've got writing by Edgar mom Plas here if I'm pronouncing that correctly, and directed by Bob Suarez. So yeah, wait, did you What did you think of the episode? Overall? I liked it here. You know, we've got a lot of return appearances from earlier episodes. You know, we're now Lower Dexters, now in its fourth year, so it's able to actually use some of its own heritage, its own creations as return appearances, and we got three of them, and I'm glad that they. I don't want to say they wrapped up this story on a few I think. I think we've still got more to come from them. But I enjoyed it.

4:05 I enjoyed I enjoyed seeing Agamus again. I loved that episode that he first appeared in. I thought that was hilarious, and I thought he was hilarious in this episode two. Yeah. Yeah, especially hearing Agamus. I think we're going to get into that a little bit later, but it's one of those voices that I think is really well cast in this and I totally agree. I've always been a fan of the AI episodes, going way back to you know, Next Generation with Brothers in particular is one that I watch on a pretty regular basis. I don't know why, I just keep going back to it. It's a good episode, and these three villains are really well developed, especially Peanut Hamper. The last AI that I thought would come back as a threat is the Exocoms, but I think it's used in a hilarious way that I don't think any other Star Trek show could have done. Well.

4:55 Oh, you're absolutely right. So as far as breaking down those favorite moments, all start us off with one getting back to what you had said before about Agamus, I think, aside from the voice casting, I think Jeffer Cobs does an amazing job with this. But I liked seeing the use of the drones. I think that was a nice touch of development for him, always just being this kind of self contained box. Yeah, and when I saw the drones for the first time, it reminded me of something. I don't know. I may be completely off base there, but there was an episode way back in the first season of the Next Generation called The Arsenal of Freedom. The Drones the Echo Papa six oh seven drones. They look just like that, And that was the first thing that come into my mind.

5:42 I cannot believe that the creators are the animators didn't think of that, but it gave him a lot more ability to do things. And I mean I just every time I saw him on screen, I had to laugh. Yeah, I think it was a nice touch how they had the so those drones. I was thinking of the exact same thing. I think Marginal Freedom was a great episode. But the fact that they made them all black with a red eye piece in the middle and kind of give them a little horns on the side. It was a bit of a nice touch. And every time he did the light change from red to blue, just like it's fine, look I've got a blue light. It was. That was so well done. Oh that was so funny, just hitting on a trope that comes up so often. So sharing some of the love over to the other side of the mission with the Badgie. Always a very sinister character that has come back and you know, to reek Havoc a few times. I liked the initial scene where he shows up on one of Rutherford's old eye pieces. Yeah, that was interesting I to think about that. I could wasn't quite sure what that was at first, and I remember, that's right, they ripped it off of him. Yeah, it had kind of a It kind of reminded me of Lore being picked up by like the various ships as he was floating through space. Yeah, that's right, things like that. But I think some great moments with him. The boop on the nose, yeah, as he was attacking the ship. I thought that was hilarious. They couldn't handle any more boops right exactly, and getting through their shields, and even

7:15 Rutherford's angle of trying to appeal to him by giving him a hug. He had no plan whatsoever. He just knew that there was something that he could do to at least slow Badge you down if he went over to the ship himself. And of course Mariner was in tow to, you know, help him do whatever plan he had, which apparently was none, just you know, offered himself up as a sacrifice and see what he could do. But I think the dialogue in the moments between Rutherford and Badgie were great. Oh yeah, they were fantastic. And Rutherford's plan of basically using love to solve to save the day. You know, we see that so many times and that turns out to be so corny, but here they turned it on his head and it only made matters worse. And I thought that was that was just brilliant, a brilliant twist to something we see a lot of. And of course then he gets split off into Gugie and LOGIKEI I thought Logic was a lot better than Gugie personally. Just the dead pan presentation there reminded me of some of the beats we've been getting with Tillin. Right, Yes, I thought that too, and a logical character giving a great deadpan comedic performance.

8:26 Even having Logic he's back broken and then kind of giving the xis and then just digitizing out. It seemed a little too easy to kill one of those things, but kind of an interesting gamble having Gugie come back with them at the end of Crito's I'm not sure sure about that. Yeah, I'm not sure either. That that makes me think that we haven't seen the last of him, so of course, and then he ascended to you know, Q like status, becoming one with everything and then just blinking out. There were a lot of interesting things that popped up there. I couldn't quite identify. You know, I know that he mentions a few things that will come up in the deep cuts, but particularly that kind of bird shape that was appearing behind him. I'm not sure if that had any kind of connection or if it's just you know, kind of an animation embellishment that we got with him ascending. Yeah, it was interesting. I don't know the background of it, but it reminded me of it reminded me of some of the religious symbolisms that we see of how like some gods are are portrayed. I don't know if that's what they were going for, because you know, he was ascending basically to godhood, but that's what I got from it. I think, with as many cuts as we get to DS nine, I'm surprised that wasn't some kind of Easter egg of Cisco kind of you know, welcoming him or something like that ascension with the prophets and all that other stuff. So well, speaking of deep cuts, yeah, let's get right into it.

9:58 Obviously, lewardex does a great with Easter eggs every single time, and the further we get into the season, the more clever they're getting. Let's talk about Jeffery Cones himself as the voice of Agamus. What can you tell us about his background? Well, you know, here's someone who's appeared on more Star Trek than anyone else as guest stars. He's been in so much. He's played nine different characters over a fourth series, so he himself is an easter egg to Star Trek. But his biggest characters were on Deep Space nine. He played Wayun the Vorida, who was in league with the Dominion and the Founders. And then he also played Brunt the Feringhi, one of the Grand Nagus's lackeys. He played both of them, and you know, he actually appeared as both of those characters in one episode called The Dogs of Warves, the second to last episode of the series, and I didn't realize it, but he never appeared. He never met himself, which that's kind of a disappointment. I would love to have seen both the characters actually meet on screen. But then he also played Searn and Dorian on the final season or the final two seasons of Star Trek Enterprise. We didn't see too much of that character because they had intended on him becoming a main cast member in season five, but we never got that season. And then he played many other characters. The other one I can think of is pink On Voyager. I can never pronounce the episode right to Scottie, it's it's the episode with with

11:28 the Rock, Dwayne Johnson whatever pronounced that episode. He was the fight officiator, and you know, he's he's just been in so much television. Babbylon five, he voiced the question on Justice League conventioned. I mean just you know, every time just turn your TV on, you'll see him. Well, and if you're going way back, he was the reanimator right. Yeah, to me, he's always going to be Wayun. That was such a great part, especially when they started getting into the clones and you know, coming back in so many instances. It's a really fun part of DS nine. It was that was such a it was a tragic character, but he was such he was the cool side of the dominion. It was he always kept us cool no matter what happened. It was a great character. And then of course that was the opposite of Brun, who was always emotional and always plotting and scheming. They were both very fun characters. Yeah, and I'm glad we're seeing him do a lot more. I forgot about the question in Justice League, it's a great poll. But he has a great voice.

12:33 He does great work in voice acting, and you know, this is one of those series where you can bring back so many characters with the appeal of you don't have to spend any time in the makeup chair, but we want you back for in so many different ways. That's one of the things I love about the show, especially when you look behind the scenes and you see the faces and you recognize them for various things, and it's just a great thing to see. It had to be a big plus for him because all of his parts were in very very heavy makeup. To be able to come in and not have to set all those hours in the chair, that had been great. Yeah. Absolutely, Like we talked about the buyinars, coming back was an interesting play, especially considering the different species that they've that we've seen them sample so far. I mean, we've got the Rhymulins and the Pharan, the Remulins, and the Klingons, which obviously had kind of an adversarial stance with the Federation a few times, but then the Ferengi and the Binars. If these are the only the only species there samplings are the ones that we're seeing. It's a very interesting mix, and this one seems to come way out of left field. Yeah, because the buyinars. They've only appeared once before in Any Star Trek and that was back in nineteen eighty eight during the first season the Next Generation. The episode is called was one one zero zero one zero zero one. That was the name the episode.

14:01 It's a great episode, is actually one of my favorite from that first season. Some of the best visual effects that you've seen in the entire series in that episode. Just incredible. But we saw them. They're always in pairs. They communicate with that high pitched digital language. But it makes me curious as to why them Because the others were major races. This is one that was so minor. And I don't even remember if they were part of the Federation or not. It's been a while since I seen that episode. I don't think they were back then, but yeah, they really haven't. We haven't seen them at all since then. Yeah, I don't remember them being particularly adversarial, you know, another other QERENGI really I mean, there's been you know, some rough dealings with the for in the past, but you know, it's not like they're collecting all the enemies of the Federation or anything else like that. And again it's just one ship at a time. Seems very interesting, and I think they're just deepening the mystery with this episode to keep us guessing. I know that there was also a mention of you know, when Badgie is ascending, he talks about joining the q continuum and heading to the Black Mountain, which we've heard referred to in a previous episode when Shaksen passed away temporarily. Right, that's right, And we saw it earlier this season too, when we almost lost Boimler when he was in his strange room. It was outside the window, and again we got appearance by the mysterious Koala. So yep, there's a lot of that happening lately, and I wonder if it has any kind of connection to all this, or if

15:33 it's going to kind of reconnect in that way. It'll be interesting to see. I think it'll will connect. I mean, they have plans, They plan this out in advance, and I think everything that we see has some sort of plan with it. I know there were a lot of ais in the days Strum Institute, and if I'm not mistaken, there there weren't a lot of Easter eggs to catch in there. It's not. It doesn't seem like they were littering it with you know, so many different AI systems that you could have recognized. It's not like you saw Laura walking around or anything else like that. Lord Tyrannicillicus, I feel like that was a name that we've heard before, but it's not one that was familiar too familiar with that, And most of the ais I didn't recognize, except for one. I did recognize one, but it wasn't Actually it was more of an end joke than a than a Easter egg. One of the ais had the CBS logo on it. Really, that's interesting, that's very interesting. Of course we saw that used in the You had a great callback to that being used with the Paramount logo as well in the Ferengi episode. Yeah, there were a lot of places where you know, they're using some familiar tropes with AI, Like there was one that was speaking in a support group and seemed to kind of look like KIT with the speech light pattern that it had. It's possible that they just kept this devoid of so many deep cuts and references and just wanted to have fun designing various ais. Obviously the fact that none of them

17:03 could really move on their own. It didn't seem like they were all kind of like placed in chairs which had to be carried around, which led to probably my personal single funniest episode of this. The whole thing is when we first get that establishing shot of the Daystrom Institute. There the little the grounds of the prison. You see the individual ais are setting on the basketball court and someone throws in the basketball and it just kind of bounces around like like like a pool table. Yep, yep, And there's like weights out there in the yard, but nobody's using them. No, I don't have any arms, so how can they use exactly except for Agamus and his drones. But that's kind of I think it was really well done, and it's also it's nice to see that they're at times when it's kind of like we're going to throw you someplace where we know you're gonna want to go nuts and pause it and look for a bunch of stuff if you don't have to. This is one of those inesses we're just enjoy it and have some fun. We always talk about the pipworthy moments, those times when we go through the season that has a lot of comedic beats, but always has a chance to build some character depth In the lower Deckers, which one, in your opinion, had the most pipworthy moment When I think this one's going to be given to Rutherford, you know, he's finally forced to confront his creation that's gone bad, and like I mentioned before, he decides to try to defeat it with

18:36 love, which you know, that's what you expect to happen, right, but it's it sounds corny, it is corny, but it's you so many times in other series, but here the love only makes the situation much worse. And Badgie starts splitting into two good Gie and then Logic and then but it takes Badgie to evolve into God to become to see the era of his ways, which that is a nice twist. You know. You hear in so many different sci fi series that these bad guys they want to conquer the universe. And but when you do conquer the universe, what are you going to do with it? Right? I mean, once everyone is conquered, once everybody's under your your spell, what are you going to do? And I like the idea that he set back and he goes, you know, you know, what's the point, And because that's that's what I think, you know what what is the point? I like that that that was a great a little bit of a twist ending and and not what everybody would have expected for this, and that's why I really like the end of this episode.

19:41 Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree. Rutherford's got to take it for the exact same reason you mentioned the fact that he tries to appeal to Badgie, not using harmful or lethal means to try to shut him down, and it is a risky move but considering how much damage he could have done, but you know it, it shows Rutherford taking responsibility for Badgie and wanting to do more there. And ultimately, when he's starting to ascend, they know that he could destroy everything, but like you said, he appeals to different sides of him and kind of asks why. There's an interesting parallel with the agamist story where he subjugates an entire planet, which seems I mean, the fact that Boymbler let that happen, I don't know what he could an stop it, but and he did it so fast, very very fast.

20:32 Yeah, those drones work. He could probably sell those things. But the fact that even Agamist is kind of like, yeah, but I don't really care. I mean, I conquered a whole planet, but I was supposed to be here with Peanut Hamber and she's not here, so yeah, never mind, I'm bored and just leaves. So to kind of diffuse that typical you know, AI is meant to take over and subjugate everything. No, not always. Sometimes, like Peanut Hamper just wants to go home to her dad Kevin and just chill. You know, it seems a little strange that she went through that entire plot just to do that, But then again, you know, as long as she's happy, that's probably what matters.

21:15 And I guess that's another easter egg is that I think when Peanut Hamper goes back home, it's back to that same station the exocomps were developed. That's correct. That was from an episode of the Next Generation called The Quality of Life. It that's exactly what it looked like in that episode, and it's kind of nice. And she went home. I mean, of the three return characters, she seems to be the one that has been rehabilitated and and is sincere. You know that was that was kind of sweet that, you know, she's saw the air of her ways and just wanted to go home with her her loved ones. I like that. I also thought it was kind of interesting that they didn't give any of the other exocomps speech. Yeah, he has kind of the the the accepting kind of door chimes at first, and then kind of the accusatory door chimes, and he's like, whoa hold on a second, what do you think my attentions are? It was very interesting. So we always talked before the end about getting into the turbo lift and exploring more of the cerritos. We really didn't see that much of it in this episode, but you know, with what we've been talking about, it's my answer as far as what I'd want to visit on this week's episode would be the day Stream Institute. I've always thought it was fascinating, especially considering the events in Picard. It's a place where I'd want to be a bit cautious and exploring, but there's just so many interesting aspects of that to explore, and I'm really glad that that's a place that they've developed so

22:47 much in Star Trek. It could have been just a one off reference that they never got back to, but they've used it so well, especially with AI. Well, it was just a reference for many years. We heard about the day Stram all the way back from the next well actually I think we heard it all the way back to the original series or something, but we never actually got to see it until Picard season one and then more now here, it does seem like an interesting place. I agree with you. That's my choice too. I would love to went with Boymer and Tendy there because we've seen that they're the front of AI technology in the twenty fourth century, and we learned that they now have a prison for AI. We'd never seen that before, so yeah, I think it would be a very interesting place to explore. I also would like to went with Tendy and be on the beach and make the sand castle. She looked very happy there. Yeah, yeah, the fact that she took some with her. I was like, that's got to be some kind of sand. That sounds a very mellow, which is probably well earned after this season. Oh yeah, all right, Wayne. Well, as always, thanks again for joining me for another episode. I'm always happy to be here and listeners, we always appreciate hearing from you, and we appreciate you joining us for every mension that you're here to discuss with us. As always, hailing frequencies are open, so feel free to share your thoughts, your predictions, your questions on social media.

24:11 If you want more tracks, certainly let us know and you can find us at a film by podcast dot com, a film by podcast at gmail dot com, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Tune in next week and we'll see you in the next mission.