Drawn Into Lower Decks: recapping Something Borrowed, Something Green

0:03 Mariner Boindler. Starfleet is better with you in it one way minute I had your bed raw. Yeah, I thought you were like a boring worker drone, and you are. It's sort of unfair. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Drawn Into Lower Decks, a limited series from a film by a 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 Serritos. So obviously, as always, read alert, spoilers are ahead. If you haven't seen the latest episode, please go watch it before you hear what we have to say. As always, I'm Scott Hoffman and I'm Wayne White, and we were so close to having our fellow ensign, David Burns back with us, but he accidentally picked up an opidian umbrella in an antique store. He sent us a lovely postcard from the nineteenth century San Francisco, and we look forward to talking with him whenever. Section thirty one allows, Wayne, let's jump right into it with a recap of the latest episode, Something Borrowed, Something Green. In this episode, we got to focus on fan favorite Divana Tendy and a closer look at the Oriyan homeworld. While Tendy heads home with Mariner and to Lynn to attend her sister's wedding slash kidnapping, she slowly reveals aside she's worked hard to keep hidden from her crew. Meanwhile, on the Cerritos, we see cracks in the friendship between Boimler and Rutherford, but they

1:34 slowly mend in the Holodeck as dueling twin twains. So I'll say this is certainly one of the more unusual episodes so far. I think it was very well written by Mike McCann and Grace Para. Wayne, what did you think of this episode? I love this episode. We have two completely separate stories they don't interconnect at the end, but a lot of news stuff, a lot of whirl building here in this this episode. Yeah, I thought Bournan Rutherford's friendship, the whole thing with their fight and then their solution in the Holidack was just was just brilliant and hilarious. It's the best Mark twin I've seen it. Insert that's wait a second time, Zero was brilliant. I'm not going to say that yet, but it's a contender. Yeah, it certainly had in the scale of twains, it had the most ever in Star Trek. Yeah, it definitely seems a lot more personal, right, and both stories very first. Definitely, definitely we got to learn a lot about some of the characters. We got to all we got to learn about the friendship, but we got to learn a lot about Tendy and her world and her family, which it's great seeing the background of this character, plus the Orion's which we have seen very little of in any of the Star Trek series.

2:53 Yeah, and I think they made brilliant use of that by saying, this is a great opportunity not for us to mend fences, and they kind of queue back to the Murderous Mirror universe Peanut Hamper in the beginning, but saying like, we don't know a lot about it, so let's also send to lend there to document some of this and to help people kind of understand it's it's a I think it's a great build on what we got kind of a hint to in those old scientists, right, saying like Orion's are not just this this one dimensional kind of race. So your species. So let's get into the some of your favorite moments from this episode. Well, you know boy in rough difference friendship and the way they overcome our argument I mentioned that's on the Holidack. And then but on top of that, when they get Captain Freeman and the alien chow Knath in it to do it that that had me rolling. That shot with the chow Knath and the Mark Twain wig On was just absolutely hilarious. I love that scene. And of course, you know, the plan fails because the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. That's what that's that's what makes it great. Of course, you know we got the solution, which actually rather surprised me but made me very happy. You know, I wasn't sure how they were going to solve their differences. Why not have the alien eat their plants? I mean that that that was fantastic.

4:25 And then the Orions, I really you know, I'm such a trekky and seeing more the Orions and their planet and their culture being explored on Star Trek was was was great. You know, they're the one of the first alien races to ever appear on Star Trek, and after fifty seven years, we know very little about them, but they never appeared at all on any of the twenty fourth century series. They appeared on Enterprise, but still even then we did learn much about it. I think that this episode will be Lower Deck's biggest con tribution to the Star Trek continuity because it is exploring and developing the Orion race, either through this episode or through Lieutenant Tindy and what we see of her later on as a series progresses, and you know, any future Star Trek that that wishes to use the Orion's will have to look back to Lower Decks and specifically this episode from now on, and it's a it's a great format to be able to do that exploration with animation. You can create vast landscapes, you know, get it, and it's it's a serious exploration, like I know that when you get into the Pheromone bar right, it's not necessarily as serious, and there's a lot of humor with it.

5:36 But at the same time that I think they're doing a great job of establishing what would their structure be, right, not just thinking of it as you know, what we'd seen in the original series. Going beyond that a little bit, I think we got a little taste of that with the the crisp Pine Star Trek. Yes, where right? And I know that there's been some other minor dips into Orions with I think Enterprise, Right, Ever since the original Star Trek, we've only known the Orions. It's the Orion pirates. You know that. We've we heard that many times, you know that, And but that's all we've seen. We've never actually went any farther than than pirates going around in a spaceship. And uh, to finally see that there's more to that than just them going around pillaging uh poral spaceships or worlds that that are lesser than them, to actually see they have a culture.

6:32 Uh, they have you know, have a civilization that's that's built. It's it's great to be able to delve deep, deeper into this on and race. I think there's a there's a brilliant parallel between the two stories because we also get a lot more than I ever knew about another race through the critos. Right the am I saying it read the Chellenoth Chelnoth. Yes, that's correct, another race, well very little of right, But then reading what little has been documented, and I'm going from like what do you call it? The Memory Alpha kind of the Wikipedia of stars. Yes, yes, just got into you know, what we know about the child Nath is limited to Essac. You know, they seem to be kind of a warrior race. But there's not necessarily a lot about scientific exploration yet when we first see let's see if I get the name right, is it cocor almost any talking about you know, cataloging spatial anomalies or gaseous anomalies or something like that, Like you don't necessarily associate that with what we've seen of them so far.

7:34 But it's broadening things a little bit. It's it's building that out. Yeah, and I think they did it in a great way. And I think, you know, hats off to Noel Wells that does the voice for for Tendy. There's a tremendous following behind this character. And it just shows you know, how well they're doing with the writing and the performances that are giving us the great opportunity to get more into this. And anytime you're expanding Star Trek, it's a it's a good thing in my opinion. And the shelloth to expand on your your reference that they first appeared and barely appeared in a third season ext Generation episode called Alliance. He was kidnapped along with Pcard and a couple of other people when forced to work together in this like the little prison. That's pretty much all we really saw that character. However, they did explore this this race a little bit more in the DC comic books from the literally and nineties, and I have the issues, but my collection is fast. It would take me hours to go through and try to find those issues. But I do know that the and I recognize the right away.

8:43 The ship that they had on this this uh episode for him matched the ship that was designed for the DC comics. Matter of fact, I was I looked it up online. It was the same design that was on the cover of the issue that he first appeared to. I'm glad they have that connection. I thought that was fantastic that they were at least making a little nod to the comic book adventures. Interesting. Yeah, so the little glimpse, So I haven't seen those comics, but the little glimpse that I was able to see, you know, over the shoulder of one of the characters, it almost kind of reminded me of the X Men's Blackbird. Yes, it did look at that little portion. It was kind of interesting. Yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying, seeing a lot more of not only ten D but the Orian home World. I also like the fact that we're getting more to lenn In here. I think her deadpan delivery is spot on, and it's not you know that she's dead pan and oblivious. She's completely aware of what's going on in the situation and you know, applying logic to this and just having this great deadpan foil to the other characters. I'm glad we're seeing more of her. I agree absolutely. I also, you know, to talk about the mustache, elephant in the room, both of those Mark Twayne Holidack sequences. I absolutely loved it. There are certain Star Trek, there are certain Next Generation episodes that I come back to on a regular basis. One that you already mentioned Allegiance. We'll get into that a little bit later. But Time Zerow I thought was a fantastic arc. And

10:16 I don't know the actor's name, but the one that played Mark Twain did a phenomenal job. That would be Jerry Harden, and you are absolutely right, he was phenomenalized Mark Twain. I love those episodes. Two. Oh God, he's just he's enjoyed to listen to and so to hear Boimler and Rutherford kind of continue that. I know that there their Southern accent is a lot more exaggerated we hear than we hear in that twain, But I'm guessing that the recording booth must have been a lot of fun. In both of those. There's a great mention when coke Or says, you know, somebody says tried in a Southern accent. He's like, I'm Southern child. That is a Southern accent and gets upset. Yeah, I laughed at that.

11:03 I thought that was fantastic. Well, kind of on a related subject, we've already gotten into a little bit of it. But as far as deep cuts, you know, when it comes to Easter Eggs, lower Deck is probably the leader in uh in Star Trek universe, and it takes you back to a lot of those episodes, sparkling interest in ones that you haven't seen. I know that there's one in particular that I'll that I'll mention and I'll probably want to look into a little bit more regarding the Orion's and we've already talked about times era a little bit. What were some of your favorite Easter eggs? Well, there wasn't too many of minutes episode. Now, this was more about building new characters in the New Worlds. But at the beginning of the episode, the Orion vessel that the mysterious ship destroyed is a twenty fourth century update to the original twenty second century Orion ship that we saw an enterprise, great great nod back to the original designs of it. And then of course you know all's going on with the Orions. They mentioned that the belly dancer outfits, which is exactly how we were first introduced to the Orions, all the way back in the very first Star Trek episode I ever made the cave. And then the big East egg that I saw was the ship that they found in the Orion junkyard. That was a Raven class vessel.

12:22 That's the same type of ship that Anica Hanson and her parents were on when they were captured by the and assimilated by the Borg and the Star Trek Voyger episode the Raven. Of course, Annika Hanson is seven of nine and as we know from from Voyager in from Star Trek the card, so that is fascinating that actually makes me want to dive into that episode a little bit. I never watched a lot of Voyager, but I'm getting a little, you know, little tastes of it. And I saw that design of that ship and I loved it immediately. So knowing that that's absolutely something I'm gonna dig back into. Oh yeah, Voyager's worth watching. Anyone out there that that his skip Voyager watch it. It gets better. The longer goes, the further and you go, the better it is. I have a feeling I'm probably going to be hitting you and David Upp for a curated list to say, give me the samplers that are really going to get me hooked. So yeah, a few of the deep cuts that I had seen, so there was one. I love the Pheromone discussion. I think the Ingrida character was phenomenal. Her design seemed like she was inspired by Purcella, the sea Witch from Little Mermaid. Yes, I think she just chewed the scenery. I left how they're all talking about getting hopped up on the stink and also the kind of stuff. But then there was a mention that I didn't quite recognize.

13:39 Somebody mentioned something around making up a reason that a Captain would get seduced by show girls. Do you know what they were talking about there? I don't know the specific episode, but that is a direct reference to Archer. Captain Archer from Enterprise when he first encountered the Orion's he saw the Ryan slave girls in their belly dancer outfits and he was seduced by their pheromones. I wish I knew the episode. I actually missed that, so I didn't have it in my notes, and I can't believe that actually slipped by me. No problem, I'm probably going to go digging, digging into to try to find it. I am another one that's a little bit of a you know, a sidebar, but I liked seeing the Orion language that they had kind of written on the edge of the sedan and around the world. So whenever I you know, this goes back to reading Legion to superheroes and you know, having interlack be something that's a one to one letter for letter, something that you could translate if you kind of sit down and think through it.

14:37 I always thought that was a lot of fun with that. I love seeing those type of translations, and those are just little things that are kind of pauseworthy. Moments that somebody could go in and say, like, I wonder if I guessed letter for letter what these things would say, and kind of decrypting that. I kind of like doing that from time to time. It wouldn't surprise me that there is some sort of rhyme and reason to it. I can't see them just putting scribbles down. They probably put some thought into it, because they do with every scene, and it's got to have a great inside joke that goes with it. I'm sure. Yeah, Yeah, my favorite deep cut has got to be Coke Or voiced by Eric Bowza. The voice acting credits for this person go on for Miles. I love the character's design, kind of reminding me of a cross between Klingon and Clifford from the Muppets. If that's not kind of too much of a deep cut for people, But as soon as I saw that, I was like, wait a second, is that a child off from Allegiance. It's one of my favorite TNG episodes. Essac was probably with my favorite character in that dynamic, especially when he tried to eat the rations in their cell. Kind of that jellied cat food thing reminded me of Jeff Johnson. Trying to eat a veggie patty, you'd just be like, poison. I can't have this. I need to survive. And I love the fact that he could survive by eating bondsaie trees, Like that's a total left turn that you wouldn't expect to the species. But just a look of horror on Boiler and Rutherford's face, it was fantastic. And that that line that he delivers where he says, why am I wearing this itchy hair hat? Brilliant, just so well done.

15:56 Bring on the child. I love it. Let's get into the next category. We're talking about the pit worthy moments. We've talked about that before, the indication of rank on their necks and this. You know, as much of this series hits the comedic beats, it doesn't miss a chance to build some character depth. So who do you think stile the show? I mean, this is Tendies episode, and I'm sure she did steal the show. I will agree that, but I'm actually going personally, I'm going to say Lieutenant to Lynn. Her characters played by Gabrielle Ruez. This character has been around for a little while, she's been there. I kind of ignored that character until now. This episode showed that that even with that deadpan Vulcan logic, she has a sense of humor and she makes a great addition to the lower Deck team. I loved her in this episode. I loved her with Mariner and the interaction she has. I hope the plan is to make her a permanent part of the show, because we need to see more of her and make her more part an integral part of the stories. My eyes were open on this, so I'm going to give this episode to her. Yeah, I gotta I'm gonna double down and totally agree with that. You know, if we can get more of to Lynn, I'll be I'll be very happy. As always. Let's get into the turbolift and explore around a little bit, from the familiar territory like engineering, to new areas like cetacean ops.

17:15 There's a lot to see and a lot that they're kind of broadening in this animated series. Where would you want to visit? In this week's episode, All the Planet, Ryan, I get, well, you know, I'm not a girl, but I would love to have joined U ten D, Mariner, and to Lynn on their girl trip to the planets. After all, I mean you know what red or green blooded life form would wouldn't would like to visit a planet where the girls or belly dancers and and they seduce their men into this uh, into being sex slaves with their fair non moans. I mean, and plus I love the time of Green Game. I just what it sounds like. It's such a wonderfully fun planet to visit.

17:55 So while you're getting hopped up on the stink, I'm going to be in the holideck. If there's an away, you know, while they're running the Twain program, maybe we get a chance to see mister Pickard and his company put on a production of Midsummer Night's Dream like we were promised in a time zero. Yeah, and it would be interesting to just to see Shacks and a few of the other crew members do their best Southern accents. The ones that did they was hilarious, and it seems like there's there's a lot of opportunity there, all right, listeners, Well, thanks for joining us this week. As always, hailing frequencies are always open, so feel free to share your thoughts, your predictions and questions on social media. Wayne. As always, thanks for joining me. This has been a lot of fun I love doing this with you, Thanks for having me, and we'll see everybody next week. Yep. If you want more trucks, certainly let us know. You can find us at a film by podcast dot com. A film by podcast at gmail dot com is where you can send us some of your ideas, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Tune in next week and we'll see you on the next mission.