Drawn Into Lower Decks: Recapping Twovix, and I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Flee

0:03 Mariner Boindler Starfleet is better with you in it one minute big Raw. Yeah, I thought you were like a boring worker drone. If you are, it's sort of unfair. Hello everyone, and welcome to the first episode of Drawn Into Lower Decks, another 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 Serritos. So red alert listeners.

0:43 Spoilers are ahead. If you haven't seen the latest episode, please go watch it before you hear what we have to say. Coming back for this series or your crew from another of our limited series, Strange New Wednesdays at the Helm, I'm Scott Hoffin and I'm Wayne Whited. Wayne, thanks for coming back for another trek with us. We'll also be enjoy by Yeah, it's happy to have you back. Well. We'll also be joined by David Burns, who's working on a secret away mission, so we're looking forward to hearing from him whatever section thirty one allows. Yeah, he's on surely even rise, so we know that's the truth. I I mean he's getting the idol, He's going the whole nine yards. Wayne. Before we get into the season, what's one of your favorite things about Lower Decks and what it brings to the Star Trek universe. It is a gold mine for Easter eggs.

1:26 It connects everything, including the most obscure mentions of Star Trek. It has brought in every series, every mentioned, even even the animated series from back in the steventies is mentioned, and there's a lot of callbacks to that with this series. Plus, the characters are just fun. The episodes are fun. They're they're they're funny. I mean there's never been a funny Star Trek before. And I love this. Yeah, I mean it does a great job of doing that really seamlessly. I mean it's not just kind of a dump of Easter eggs and kind of nerd joy. It's it's full of so many things that kind of pull a connected thread together of a story.

2:08 I love the fact that it's a comedy that's made precisely for the season viewer, with brilliant deep cuts, like you said, but it's also fresh enough that new fans can catch up without missing a beat. And this season's episode a certainly no exception. I mean, right out of the gate, we're pulled into the world of Star Trek Voyager with two vics, right, yeah, and that's fantastic. Voyager is a fantastic series. I know Star Trek fans are split in between with this series, but I love Star Trek Voyager. I followed it from beginning to end, and this is a love letter to that series and all its fans. I mean, that's the best way to put it. All the mentions, everything about it is just perfect.

2:51 Absolutely yeah. I mean you can see the joy on mariners face when she realizes what the mission is. She's like, we're getting a Voyager, and then you know what you're in for. So in this episode, just to kind of recap, the crito's crew escorts Voyager to its final destination as a museum piece. That's a high profile mission. That's also a maker break moment for most of our lower debt crew, who will get promoted to lieutenant junior grade as long as nothing goes wrong. But it's a Voyager episode, so things go real crazy, real quickly, which is common for Voyager. Yeah. Absolutely, I had I forgot how crazy Voyager gotten until they mentioned all the things on here, What were some of your favorite moments from two bish Well, seeing the Voyager again it was probably my favorite thing about it.

3:39 Everything was perfect about it. They recreated Voyager in every detail it's from from the ship and it's unique way of going to warp. The sets were exactly as I remember, the costumes, the props, all the way down to Jerry Goldsmith's theme. This was this was Voyager. It was it was It was perfection. Yeah, yeah, I mean what struck me. So the heart of the episode is this controversial cut from the Voyage series which I had never heard of. Actually, Voyager honestly is one that you know. I watched Next Generation, End to End, Deep Space nine up to a certain point, and then with Voyager, I tried and I dropped off. But as soon as I heard that this was about a situation where Jane Way had to basically murder someone to solve a problem, I immediately paused and went to look into that episode and it's it was like, oh my god, this really happened. And I've done that so often with this show, and that's part of what I love about it. Like, if you've never known these kind of things. It gives you these moments to kind of pause and dip into something you've never seen before. Yes, says This episode, which was called tu Vix and it aired during the second season of Voyager, was one of the more popular episodes of the series. It was also one of the more controversial. It split the Star Trek Voyager fan base right down the middle as well. A lot of people agreed with with what the writers did and what Janeway did with the character of Tuvik's her decision, while others felt it

5:12 was against the character of Jane Way and against Starfleet Captain would would do. I actually lean more towards you know, she really didn't have any choice. We had these two characters, you know, yes, killing Tuviks, but she was saving Tuvak and Knelix. Exam a choice you could have. I mean, you can't just you know, eliminate those characters from the series. But but I agree with the decision. But it's amazing that they brought this back because it is one of the most talked about and controversial moments of the series. And I'm great, I'm grateful that they actually not only brought it back and into the limelight, but didn't quite say they're what their opinion was either that the solution that they had at the end was perfect for it.

5:56 Oh yeah, they leaned way far into it. The kind of took the whole controversy and flipped it on its head to this big comedic extreme with a giant hybrid ball. I mean, what was what was his Twilets? Yes, Tilts, Yeah, Twilets eventually started making a hybrid army of all the characters, just kind of mash them up and then they're you know, ultimately kind of turned that into this giant monstrosity of a hybrid ball and eventually found their way to to solve that. It was brilliant. It made me want to go and watch the episode, which I did immediately after seeing this. Let's talk about the deep cuts. Lower decks never disappoints. When it comes to Easter Eggs, which we've talked about. This series always is a great job of taking you back to your favorite Trek moments while sparking more interest in those episodes that might be new to you. So as far as Easter Eggs go, for this, obviously the whole premise is a giant Easter Egg, but what were some of your other favorite Easter eggs. Well, you know, there are so many of them. I know I missed a few of them, but we'll start off with one of the bigger ones that I noticed.

6:57 Every year they change and make the battle with the Board Cube during the title sequence bigger, and this being the fourth year and their their merchandising showed the characters in Star Trek four form. They've included the whale probe from Star Trek for the Voyage home now the battle, and they even have it complete with the sound effects. Makes me curious as to what they're going to add next year. But that's one of the big ones and that's what we'll see for the rest of the season. But most many of voyagers most discussed episodes are referenced in this in this episode, from some of the best some of the worst, They've incorporated a lot of the controversial elements into the storyline. We've already mentioned one of them with the two vics, but it's also one of my least favorite episodes. I love this show, but there are some some episodes that I don't like, and one of the least my least favorite one is the one with the salamander creatures, and of course they would have to have those two of them in there, you know where, or Jane Way and Paris becomes salamanders and end up mating and having children. And I laughed, I laughed really hard. I hate that episode though. Yeah.

8:07 Yeah, it's also mentioned in here that they're taking your back to Earth to San Francisco put on display, and that is that is perfect with the continuity because in the episode of Voyager and Endgame, uh, the Jane Way that came from the Futures mentions that Voyager is can be seen at the Presidio in San Francisco, which matches this. And then of course we also learn that eventually Voyager would be brought to the Starfleet Museum as we saw an end star Trek Picard, but that's that's later in the time. We also the brill cheese Nelick's Cheese and a rough third solution to the problem that is from the very first first season of the show, an episode Learning Curve. There was a season finale. I had to laugh when they brought that back too.

8:54 And of course we also got the macro virus that's from an episode called mac mac Chism in the third season. We've got we we had that's right, we got mentioned to the Pike thing. Just go back to our our these old science episodes that we did not that long ago, and you can understand about that. And we've got the we got the appearance of these characters Doctor Chaotica from Bride Chaotica, Michael Sullivan from Fair and the clown from Thaw, which confused me. And I'm glad they even mentioned it in the episode she or he wasn't an hologram. That was that was some illusionary world that Jane Waite was thrown to. But and Boimler mentioned it that he's not a hologram.

9:37 I'm glad that that brought that up. Of course, then we got to the clarinet. I saw Harry's clarinet, and then the end after the Klingon ship is destroyed. Now this isn't much an Easter egg, It's just something I found humorous in the wreckage of the Klingon Clingon Bird of Prey. There was a little barrel of blood wine floating through space. That was a nice touch. Yeah, I've got notes here, and I was kind of like waiting to say, like is he going to say the Neelix cheese. Is that Is that the worst thing he's gonna say? But yeah, I mean yeah, and then it became this big solution to the to the to the entire predicament of the episode. Yeah, I mean the Neelix Cheese, doctor Katika, the clowns. I mean, this is all stuff that I've got to look into at least three Voyager episodes to see what's going on.

10:22 If you haven't dug into the original two vis highly recommend it. It's a very interesting episode and gives you great context for this. So let's talk about some pipworthy moments. For those who don't know, and I'm assuming everybody does, but a pip is an indication of rank that's earned as the characters grow, so when they're promoted, it appears on their collars if you're in the next generation kind of world. So as much as this series hits the comedic beats, it doesn't miss a chance to build some character depth into our lower deckers. So, Wayne, which character do you think stole the show in this week's episode? Well, you know, I really had to think about this, and I went through all the characters and had to try to decide who who stands out the most. Who is brought out into the front and advances and be the USS Voyager. I mean, it's the star this episode from where this is what we're wanting to see. This is this great advances the story learn a lot about about Voyager. It made me go back and look a few things because, uh, you know, I was curious about the timeline. For the first time ever, we can actually pinpoint exactly when this episode happened from from the things that were mentioned in this episode and because the two vics. The Voyager episode happened in twenty three seventy two, this happens in twenty three eighty one, which that makes nine years. Means it's been three years Voyager returned from the Delta Quadrant and exactly twenty years since the third season of Star Trek card which that you know, this places this and

11:56 also places the events of its old Are these the straight two World's episodes directly in this year at this point in Star Trek's Timeline's interesting. I didn't even make that connection. That's fascinating. I gotta look at down that a little bit more. Yeah, for me, I kind of leaned toward Mariner. I love the fact that the voice actor behind her, Tony Newsome, is such a star trek Nerd, a star trek aficionado like she's. You know, I've seen on some of the Paramount specials talking about how much of an expert she is and how much love she has for Track, and that's a family thing for her, that she's so much more of a trek Nerd than she lets on. I mean early in Lower Decks, like early seasons, it seems like she's just kind of like scoffing at it and doesn't want to be there. But her just geeking out of her voyager won me over.

12:52 It's one of those moments that lets you know that the actors, the writers, in the crew behind the series love this as much as we do. And you can see that eastergg they're pulling through and the way that they kind of weave it through is fantastic. But I thought that Maritner's actions in this episode show how far she's come since season one and how much she cares about her fellow Lower Deckers. It definitely goes to a different place in the in the next episode when we'll get into that a couple of minutes, but so before we wrap it up our discussion about two vic let's get into the turbo lift and explore a bit. So we see so much of the Siritos, from familiar territory like engineering, to newer crews such as cetacean ops, which I've always thought was a great reference to Star Trek four, the voyage Home that we covered in nineteen eighty six. But the fact that they have dolphins with their own deck is I think it is absolutely brilliant. It's always been there, you know, It's it's always been there, We've just never seen it. The time I learned that there were dolphins on any of the starships was back in I believe it was Nicking ninety one when the the production designer of Star Trek in Ectionation, brought out a book with his designs and sketches for the Enterprise d and it included a cetaceans ops and I always wanted to see it. It's great that we finally have got to see it after all these years. But it's always been there on these newer ships. That's fascinating.

14:20 So it's on all the newer ships, yes, well I'm not sure about all of them, but like the Galaxy class, and I don't think it was unlike like the Defiant or I'm sure Voyagers and have it. We would have at least heard something about it. Those were smaller ships the larger ships, and I always see the Serritos as being a little bit of a larger ship. Maybe probably the Titan has one too. I would say it'd be interesting. So for this episode, which deck would you want to visit? I would spend time with Boler and Rutherford. I mean they their love over Voyager, their understanding of Voyager I thought was great, and the way they solved the problem with with the Neelix's cheese was was brilliant. They seem to to be great at their job and and love doing it. I think it's going to be fantastic to spend the day with them in the X.

15:09 Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, especially with Rutherford. He's he's one of my favorite characters. I think for me, I'd want to listen in on the medical deck as long as I can stay, you know, safely away and not get sucked into the massive hybrid ball. It'd just be interesting. Let's see more about the history of Voyager, you know, I think like the macro virus and tu Vix and just learn a little bit more about it from that angle, I don't know. All around, I think it was a fantastic episode and a great way to start. Would you agree? Yes? I agree? I agree? And what did you think about the ending? You have any theories about these mysterious ship Part of me was thinking about the exocomp. What was the Exocomp's name that came back? Something Hamper, peanut Hamper. Yeah, but I don't think that's where they're gonna go.

15:54 It feels like there's going to be some kind of deep cut. We haven't seen it, and it's a massively powerful ship for being really really small, right, Yeah, and watching this I have some suspicions, but it wasn't really until the second episode that I started to put things together. But I don't maybe way out of a wrong So I'm gonna wait till the second episode to tell you my theory on that. But because I may be completely in the wrong ball field with this, all right, well, I can't wait to hear it. Well, listen, before we go any further, let's drop into Impulse for a short break, and when we get back, we'll talk about the second episode or a two part premiere. Okay, well, we've got a special treat this week that celebrates the return of Lower Decks on Star Trek Day with a double episode. So when let's talk about the other episode from our Steven season four premiere, I have no bones yet I must flee. So as a quick synopsis, this episode pretty much picks up pretty quickly from two vix by addressing the question what about Rutherford as the only lower Decker that didn't get a promotion in the last episode. We followed his pursuit of a pip while seeing how other deckers adjust to their new roles. Most of all, we get to follow Mariner on a mission to free some humans from a galactic menagerie. And you really got to see the friendship between these four characters, especially with Rutherford. I mean his reasons for not getting promoted.

17:11 You know, he's had many chances to and he didn't want to because he was afraid that he would be split from Tindian and the others. It's really warming and we're really seeing growth with these characters. We've seen it through all the series, but they are very very close and now seeing them promoted, they're still lower decks. Lieutenant junior grade is not very high up in the in the ranks of a starship, so they're still way down there. But we've seen some major growth with these characters in this episode. Yeah, and that's one of the consistent things that I love about this series. It doesn't just go into like this catalog of goofs, which it probably could, but I don't think it would last as long. Like it's a legitimate Star Trek series with you know, characters that you get invested in, that you care about, that you see grow into different roles and you know, maybe stakes that aren't as high as they usually get on the rest of the series, but still you know steakes that are significant nonetheless, and you know they they take their job as seriously as they can when you're you know, emptying the holodeck waste and things like that. But uh, yeah, there's there's a lot of character growth I'd love to see in here. What were some of your favorites most of the episode. This episode made me laugh all the way through it. I love the menagerie, the moop, see the was fantastic. When when that it was fantastic and it was so cute. Yet when we find out it's true nature. It was very, very terrifying,

18:44 and I love the animation of it. I love the way everyone was It was just went crazy in the menagerie when when the move went sucking the bones out of of everybody and them having to run around. I love that. And I loved the scene with Boiler when he gets the quarters between the holidack. What that has to be the worst. First of all, why would you put a quarters between two holidacks? But I mean, nobody wouldn't want that. I think you think that they'd soundproof a little bit better, But I know what goes on in those holidacks. I wouldn't want to be in a room where I could hear everything to leave me, not at all. And you would think that the windows next to the miscell would be automatically tinted, like there's nobody that's gonna want that giant bright light the entire time they're in that does Oh yeah, that was fantastic, didn't Didn't that remind you?

19:33 Reminded me of an Old Sign Fell episode where a Cramer was stuck with the roaster's chicken sign blowing in there. That that was the first thing I thought of. That was so funny. Yeah, I love that. No, you're right about the what do they call it the Manager the Imaginarium. I'll just call it the Nagerie because yeah, I was calling it. It's one of those Uh it's like it's full of pauseworthy moments, you know, like in The Guards season three and they get into that you know, vault and they pass by all these things, You're like, oh God, I can't pause fast enough and get on a magnifying glass. Just see all those kind of things. Going back to the ending of two Vix, I like that we're continuing a theme where we get at lowered I look at lower decks of other ships. So so far we've see mcclingon and a Romulian ship, and we get this kind of boiler mariner dynamic on those ships. Who do you think is going to be next? Are we going Cardassian? Yeah?

20:29 Cardassian or for Ringy one of those two would be the next one that gets blown out of the sky or blown out space. I mean, so does that say anything about the trajectory that this ship is on, that it went through Klingon and then Romulan. Well, you know, I'm trying to remember my star, my star charge was, but I do believe it's clingon Romulan and then Federation borders both of those. It could be making its way towards Earth. I don't know. I'm I'm guessing there, but it could be interesting. We'll have to see where that goes. So as far as other kinds of Easter eggs, what were some of your favorites from this one? One of my favorite ones was actually the Romulan ship. I love this because I remember seeing the sketch for this ship back in nineteen eighty seven. It was created back even before the first season. The next generation came out by Andrew Probert. He's the guy who designed the Enterprise d It was the original sketches for the Ambulan Warbird. They changed, they flipped it a little show.

21:30 But this that which we saw on this show here was the original design. Great. Just mid least that I mentioned to the Ramons again from Star Trek Nemesis. We have yet to see them again, but it's all part of them. We got am another mentioned to them, and then the Ramson's and Shacks's workout outfits. Yes, those are the same workout outfits that Beverly, Crusher and Troy were wearing in in an episode called The Price. Yeah, I don't know seeing I had a laugh. I see them wearing those those outfits were was hilarious. And then the Boiler's action figures. He had a Spock from what looked like Star Trek. Two, he had a data from First Contact, and I'm pretty sure the other one was was Archer as he looked like in the Mirror Universe. He's definitely a Star Trek for him.

22:19 Yeah, and then when we got to the Menagerie, I did catch I know I missed a few of the aliens on there, but I did catch that they they're in the Managerie was a City Alpha eel that was from Star Trek to the eels that they put in the ears. Of course, we saw a Koala that's from this show. And then there's that that weird three headed snake globe monster that really goes back when Q made his second appearance back in the first season of the Next Generation in an episode called Hyde and que he first appeared as one of these aliens and this is the first time we've seen it since that since nineteen eighty seven. Yeah, and then in the quarter that was close to the that was glowed red Boilers wearing a medusan visor that's the same type of vice as the Spot Corps. And there is in truth no beauty. And then I wish I knew the name of this this device. But the device with the tubes and the lights has a name, or at least it didn't. It's appeared in every series since. The next generation is appeared in multiple films. I remember seeing in a film way back in the eighties called Buccarou Banzie it's finally finally got it's called the Tucker Tubes, which I'm I'm just guessing with this that it's possibly could be named after Trip Tucker from from Enterprise, the engineer from from Enterprise. So maybe I don't know Boiler's quarters when he gets his second quarters, the one between the holidacks on his painting behind his on the wall behind his bed is one

23:53 of Data's paintings. Oh, I didn't even notice that, And I that's brilliant, yes, And I think that's it, although I do remember, I think in the right at the end, when when they show the menagerie at the at the end and with the humans, they're one of the alien races that is walking around. Are those those weird fish like creatures that Fleetwood Mac played in the second second series? Oh generation, Yeah, the episode is called me yep, I was exactly what to talk about it. Think that's it? Yeah, yeah, I think my favorites, like you, you got all of them here on my list. Given the callback to the Seinfeld episode with the Kenny Rogers roasters. But I love the fact that when they talk about the Tucker Tubes, even Billips doesn't know what they do, He's like, I'm glad we increase the efficiency. I mean, I have no idea what they're for, but look at that they're more efficient. This is a It's such a great callback. I love that as far as pit worthy of moments. So which character do you think stole the show in this week's episode. I'm pretty sure I have a good idea for what you're gonna say, but well, I don't know. I think the character the pressed me the most was Commander Ransom. He's really grew. I mean, we mean, he's had a lot to do in the first three seasons, but we really never saw much character growth other than him being rather arrogant and exercising all the time. But we really got to see a little bit more of his soft side and the way he's treating Mariner. You know, he's determined to see her succeed. We've never seen that side of him yet, And

25:27 of all the characters, I think he's had the most growth of this episode. Yeah, I mean their dynamic has come so far from where they were on season one, Like it didn't think they were gonna be able to stand each other long enough to stay on the same ship, and you can see that there's still some tensions there. There's still some kind of insecurity from Mariner, kind of thinking they're always going to about to get her. But yeah, Jerry O'Connell does a great job with Ransom. I love the fact that he's kind of bringing that character to life and he's helping to break it forward so much more. He's doing a great job, and I'll be I'll be looking forward to seeing a lot more of what comes out with the two of them professionally and otherwise. My pick is probably pretty obvious, but I think Rutherford more than earnest promotion. Like you said before, we saw a lot of his character development in last season. I think that's the one where we found out where he got the cybernetic implants kind of what led to that.

26:26 And it was nice to get a call back to all he's done for the crew, because when you think back, he's he saved the critos more than enough times. But like he said, like he said, he didn't want apart from the lower deckers. It's nice to see how humble and loyal he is to his crew, which makes me like him even more. And I'll be interested to see, you know, in his promoted role, if he has any kind of interaction with newer ensigns, where that kind of goes and how much the lower deckers are able to stay together. I love the resolution of Rutherford and Boimler sharing quarters and then Boiler you know, sits up in his bunk and dense, the dense the one above. Rutherford walks right in.

27:07 He's like, oh, you can just din the windows. That's are super easy. That was hilarious. Yeah, why why wouldn't they just make that an automatic setting in the room, Like, don't ever do that? So I didn't even it didn't even occur to me. Like whenever i'm you know, looking at the ships, we always get these great panning shots. In next generation, in several other places. But it didn't even occur to me that there are going to be some windows that are facing themselves and a lot of rooms that are probably inconveniently placed. Like you said, nobody wants to be between the holodecks. But it's it's a great way to kind of, you know, bring the the ship, kind of the the design of the entire ship into more practical terms and to kind of see where people are.

27:52 Yeah, it's you never really think about that, and you can. You look at the Enterprise D. I mean all those those windows on the neck portion, which is the lower decks, were staying for the Enterprise D. They are right up against that the Buzzard Collectors, which is with those windows, those rooms would be exactly what's happening with Boimler's room. They would be flooded with that red light. You just I never thought about that before. We never got to really see much of the lower decks and other than one episode in the Next Generation, and I kind of feel sorry for him now. I wonder they'd want to be promoted. Yeah, exactly. And there's one more thing that I want to get back into theories on what that little ship is that massively destructive little ship. Wayne, what are your thoughts on that? Well, you know, I may be completely off base.

28:37 I mean, it may be totally wrong. But the first thing that this reading me of when I saw it was one of the agonizers that were used to torture people on the Enterprise from the classic original series episode Mirror Mirror. They'd stick them on the bodies and then they would zap the person when it turns and fire us onto the Klingon. And then the Romulan ship looks exactly like one of the agonizers, even the little bits that stick out on the top sides of it. Like I said it, maybe we're completely off but if we are going to be doing a mere episode, a mere Universe episode, I think it's perfect for lower decks. Yeah, that would be very interesting to see. I like that theory. We'll have to see it keep if it keeps coming back in future episodes. I have a feeling they're probably gonna kind of unravel the mystery pretty quickly. I have a feeling that might kind of do a couple more dips into other lower decks, but I think they won't have much time to kind of draw it out, so be interesting.

29:38 To see what happens next. So before we wrap up, let's get back to the Turbo Lift and explore a little bit. Which deck would you want to visit on this week's episode? Oh gosh, well, not nothing on the Menagerie, because that's the mopsie that was terrifying. I would not get that thing chasing after me, you know, trying to eat my bones. No, No, I would. I love to be in engineering. That engineering has always been a fun place. I mean, whether it's the Enterprise d or Voyagers and the Cerritos also looks like a fun place to work. It's just it's got a great atmosphere. It's right at the heart of the ship. You got you know, you've been able to work right third, and that's where I'd want to be, right there at the engineering.

30:22 That's what I could see. Even if you've asked me at any time, if you see me, even what position, I would probably be an engineer. Yeah, I think at one point I'm probably going to go to citation ops, just because the whole idea of that sounds fascinating to be I think on this one, I'd probably take a chance and I joined the command crew on the menagerie. As long as I'm safely away from UPSI maybe kind of you know, up be levitated a bit. I just want to explore more of that managine area, the SETI eel. Like you said from Wrath of con there's probably a ton of other things as long as it's at a safe distance, a lot of dangerous animals and oh my god, there's always a bigger fish. So all right, well, Wayne, thanks for talking with us listeners, thanks for joining us this week. As always, helling frequencies are open, so feel free to share your thoughts, predictions, and questions on social media. If you want more tracks, certainly let us know.

31:12 You can find us at www dot film by podcast dot com, a film by podcast at gmail dot com, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Wayne, thanks again for joining us, Thank you for having me. Tune in next week and we'll see you all our next mission. Take care,