Phasers Set To Stun: Lower Decks S5.E8 Upper Decks

0:01 Space the Final Frontier. Join us for a bold conversation our prime directive to recap our favorite Star Trek shows, both new and old, to engage and debate about all things Trek. Prepare to energize with Phasers Set to Stunt. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Phasers Set to Stunt, where we continue to show our love for everything Star Trek.

0:45 In this ongoing series from a film by podcast, we're exploring every quadrant of the expanding universe of Trek by covering television, animation, movies, directors, and much more. Plot of the course, as always, is your core Trek crew. I'm Scott Hofmann, I'm David Byurne, and I'm Wind Whitey. And in this episode, as we have been for a few weeks now, we're drawn back into the animated side of Star Trek with one of our favorite fresh news series, Lower Decks, which is back for its final season, and we are toward the end. It makes me a little sad, it does. Before we talk about this latest adventure of the uss Soritos, we're calling for a red alert, so this episode is obviously full of the spoilers. If you haven't seen the latest episode, please go watch it and then come back and join us. We'll be waiting here for you, all right, So Dave, if you don't mind, let's break down the latest episode called Upper Decks. Let you tell us what it's all about?

1:39 I sure will. Written by Colleen Crawford and directed by Bob Sororos, the episode that flips the cards on Lower Decks, where we go from a show about the lower decks to the upper decks and focus on the main command crew. In this episode, we get to see the bridge crew of the Sorito. So what looks to be a simple mission of trying to understand what it has an alien life forb known as the Lagoons riled up. It isn't long before they get their answer and find themselves in a battle with another alien race known as the Clicks. We finally get to see the command crew in action, and it is indeed a sight to behold. It was it was It was a surprise of an episode, yeah, because I mean it's from the title, like you should get that it's gonna be about the upper deck crew.

2:21 But they they jump right into the face of it, and Boimler and Mariner are walking down the hall. They're like, you know, it seems weird. They're always kind of like fading into the background, and man, it's good to have a day off. I was like, that's such a meta conversation. It is, you know, it's so funny because this episode felt like the next generation Lower X, just the flip side of it, all of it, and I think that was fantastic that they did that. That's a great cat. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, it was definitely intended that. It's even the layout of the episode is very similar to what they did back then. And they're taking full advantage of a day off because they're taking some time to do what I would think is pretty long and drawn out process, especially with the complexity they do. But we see Halloween on the Cerrados with some pumpkin carving. Rutherford carves a veger, which you know, we just discussed on our crossover with the film at forty five special thanks to Chuck Brian for joining us on that one. I don't know when I saw a veguer, I was like, oh my god, that's such a that's such a coincidence, even though it's the forty fifth anniversary, so it's probably not, but still it is nice.

3:30 To see it was in Mariner going to her mocking of Vigor. I just thought that was hysterical. Yeah. I also noticed, I know we're going to talk about Easter eggs later, but specifically in that scene, I thought it was kind of interesting that she says she kind of mentions her favorite captains. She says, you know, Janeway, Kirk or Cisco, And I was like, so, is that maybe the writer calling out what their favorite captains are through Mariner or do you I wonder if maybe like Tony News and is kind of speaking through that of. Her good question. I don't know. I was kind of taken aback that the card wasn't mentioned at all, because but that's me, that's coming from me personally, you know, I respect everybody has their different love their different captains and stuff like that. But I was like, wait, wait a minute, what what does.

4:15 She do say? Meanwhile, Pike is like nothing, I get nothing. You were on my show. Nothing. But anyway, I also thought it was kind of interesting that Mariner and Wayne keep me honest on this. It seemed like Mariner had kind of a day of the Doctor moment. Yeah. In the Red episode, yep, you are I mean I love that they did that, this behind the scenes thing that happened, you know, all this huge adventure we ever actually ever see. I mean that opens the door for you know, maybe we could get a short trek in the future where we kind of get, you know, a step into that kind of thing. But yeah, that immediately maybe think of a Doctor Who episode where it in the three D.

5:01 Yeah, and I always wanted to get stuck into a painting. What where're they coming from? Yeah? And you know, as usual, you know, I'm always a fan you know Shaka when the walls fell, when we get one of those moments and he says, masorrow when the lake was smooth, like everything's fine, I was like, damn love it. What about you guys? What are some other favorite moments? Oh, there are so many in this episode. It's just I think one of the things that I love to get to We get to see each one of the upper deck crew members in their elements, you know, and we get to see them how they react in tough situations.

5:44 And I think that's what I loved because some of it was very you know star trek, and of course some of it was you know, just being silly but mixing the two of them together. And I absolutely loved that. There were so many scenes that I laughed hysterically. The whole engineering themes with Phillips. Oh God, I left so hard at that. So, yeah, all of it, wait went about you, I agree. I just loved how how they showed just just how good of a crew that the US of Cerritos has. And I too loved the Lieutenant Phillips story. I thought that was my favorite of them all, you know, because most of the time he comes off as kind of a weird buffoon like character, but here, you know, in engineering, he's top of the game, and you know, he shows here that he is a really good engineering just a little forgetfuls. Plus he has his own little Kirk Spock star trek Rapha Khan moment there.

6:42 Yeah, yeah, when she grabs the acts uses only what do you call this? Yeah, there was one moment that stood out to me with doctor Tana's ark, doctor Wastelake kind of torturing her to kind of update her pain chart. So she's getting right the way when she kind of breaks into the hallway and the click ats are invading and all this other kind of stuff and the guy says, uh, that was set to kill and she says, so am I and then just wages out. I was like, oh my god.

7:25 She's one of my favorite characters, she says in good moments this season. She yeah, they're using that character so well. So well, there's one very little, slight moment that just cracked me up behind and it's wading into the episode that shot where the Lord Deckers were leading the creature outside the shovel bay. They kept altering the episode. They kept telling Ransom to stop calling you space cows. But then when they leave that one creature it's got the little ear tag on it, just like a cow would. I don't know why, but that that hit me. Oh Vine humor, Yeah, one that hit for me. And this is going to be a deep cut. But the Mister Shack's arc I know I was talking to you about. Yeah, Well, not only did they have I thought it was kind of an interesting, kind of semi poignant kind of moment where he's kind of going in this meditative state where he's fighting his shadow self right and his you know, as a result, ends up beating up a lot of clickets to help save the ship and doesn't even know he's doing it. He thinks he's just battling Curtesy in her pressures. But the illustration style that they used for his shadow self reminded me so much of a New Teen Titans arc by George Perez and Mark Wolfman. It's pretty iconic for Dezy fans, the Terror of Tragone. The

8:56 Titans face off against these evil versions of themselves who were black and white except for their eyes that looked like the same exact illustration style here, And I was like, I don't know if that hits for any other fans, but for me, I was like, holy crap, we just got to cross over to start treking the Team Titans inspiration on that. Yeah, that that Battle of Timpasa that was the reference in Deep Space nine, wasn't it for Ties of Blood and Water? I think it was, Yes, that that's correct. Yeah, yeah, So we've already known that he's worked with and Grey Goot friends with Kiara Neurics, and that just ties right in there because that was a big episode of for her in her history and in the series. I'm glad this is a great point to bring that out again. I'm sure they had to kind of rush it since they knew this was going to be their last season, but at least we were able to get that.

9:44 Yeah, I'm glad, yep. Well. One of the best things about this we talk about this pretty much every episode, is the character development and the rich characters that we get from this. I think the fact that they're spending their last season doing so much to develop these characters instead of saying, here's one big last hurrah. You know, overarching story for the entire ship not only stays true to the whole kind of nature of the show, but it also helps to set up these characters to appear in other places, which I would love to see. I mean, obviously in the animated world would be ideal, but if it could come out any place else, that would be always welcome. Well, speaking of deep cuts, it seems like that's a good segue to get into the Easter eggs. Wayne, what kind of things did you see?

10:32 Oh? There were quite a few of them in this episode, But let me start off by referencing the clickings to serve you know they have appeared on series before. It is referenced first season episode They're at us, go back and watch us. A good episode. We talked about shacks in this history just now. But one of another thing that made me laugh was Ransom and Billocks. They discussed the quardry rocks falling out of the ceiling on the bridge. Yeah, yeah, that is there's something we've seen that many times in the past where when the ship was damaged, these these big chunks of things would fall out of the ceiling and hit people. Best episode to look that up is in Yesterday's Enterprise when the sea is getting hit. I don't know where that stuff was coming from, but it did a lot of damage. And that's we finally have a name for corktreet rocks, and Bingston mentions Jeordie LaForge and Roe Larin getting stuck out of phase. That's from the Nnaration episode Next Phase. And then after right afterwards, he goes on and talks about his time on the Or birth Class USS manticor The or birth Class is the same type of ship that the USS Grissom was and Star Trek three the Search for Spot and we also saw it again as the USS Pegasus and Next Generations episode Pegasus. We talked about there's Vgure. We saw Vjre in the Pumpkin I ever actually got to see that version of the ship in the original nineteen seventy

12:03 nine version of the home but because that visual effect was never completed. But we did finally get to see that version in the two thousand and one director's edition and the Starfleet Ecologist. He was a member of the race called the Grays and knit, the same race that the Federation President Jarishino was from the Deep Space nine two part or Home Front and Paradise Lost. And then finally we have Nurse Wesley. He mentions that he filled the hypersphrase with a medicine that would Carrey against the virus that would caut the crew to sing. Well, we all know where that reference is coming from. That's got to be a reference to Space Rhapsody from the Dridge New.

12:45 Worlds Highly underrated, highly underrated. Yeah. Plus I'm pretty sure that his name itself Nurse Westlake. That has to be a reference to the musical composer for rowerdex Chris Wesley. M hm. Yeah, interesting, good find. I want to mention one more, just noting like what I'm going in to look at the cast list to see who is here voice actors that stand out to me in this one. We got legendary voice actor Phil Lamar, who voices Freeman's husband Alonso, in a rare appearance, which seemed like it shook up Maerner quite a bit, like I don't know if there's anything beyond her just having kind of disbelief that Alonso is there. But it almost seemed like when she was refuting the fact that he could actually be there, it was like, well, no, it's physically impossible because reasons. So when that was happening in that segment, I kind of thought, is this possibly where the alternate reality windows are kind of bleeding in that we have alternate versions of people that are mixed in without us even knowing. It might be nothing there. It might just be that she had that disp but that is something that kind of made me birk my ear upload it.

14:03 Well, you might have something there, because I'm starting to get that feeling too. I think, and I may to be completely wrong with fine on next week, but I think that some of the people, some of the things that we have seen are not who we think they are. I saw the we haven't seen a preview, but I saw some of the photos for next week's episode. That kind of also makes me suspect, But I really do think that some of the characters that we've been following may not be the ones that we think they are interesting. Well, let's get into the rest of the usual segments we always talk about. First one being those pit worthy moments. It'll be kind of sad to not talk about those anymore. But where we are, Dave, in your opinion, which character shine the most?

14:47 I am going to cheat with this answers. I'm saying the entire upper deck crew nice. We finally get to see them in action and get to view them as we have all other famous Command cruise you know, we've got to know and love over the years in all these other series. You know, this is something we were missing in lower decks. I know it was about the lower decks, but we really needed to see this. We get to see each of these crew members in their environment and watch them excel, even Ransom in his odd own way. Wayne, what about you now? I agree with you, Dave. They all shot online. But I chose Lieutenant Shacks only because we get to see a lot more of his backstory, a little bit we know some of we didn't know. I just I find him one of the most fascinating characters from the upper Deck, a lot about his pajarity, went through the occupation fought with here. If all the characters, I think he deserves the attention brought on him, and I hope we see a lot more of him in like this spinoff merchandise, like novels and comics. Now. He has appeared in the comics before. He was a major character in the Star trek IDW comic, which is absolutely fantastic. If anyone's not reading that, it's an incredible comic and it's just with continuity.

16:01 But Shacks just he in my opinion, just edged a little bit more. I loved his story. Isn't speaking of merchandise just to throw some latinum their way. I will mention that if you want to look for some exclusive kind of lower decks merchandise, if you go to titmouse dot com. They have a lot of great lower decks merch including one of the newer t shirts focusing on Shacks. So if you're a Shacks fan like we are, then head over to tipmouse dot com and check out their shirts. As far as my pick, there's somebody that I don't think I've mentioned before is having a pipworthy moment. I'm gonna go with Ransom, believe it or not, even though he has this really weird way of bringing together the what is it the Beta and the Delta shifters by basically just being a dipstick and leaping, and he does a Ransom role, so you've got to respect that, but it seems like he's the fact that he's thinking that much about what he's doing with the purposes of bringing them together. It feels like it gives a little bit more depth. It's still a waiting pool, but a little bit more depth. So that was kind of nice to see. Well, Dave, what about if you could have been any character in this episode? Who would that have been.

17:22 I'm gonna be with Mariner because the lower deck crew, you know, they get the car pumpkins, they're unaware of the stricter as being under attack, clearly free of like, nothing happens about them, you know, they talk about you know, nothing happens without them, and they get to into a friendly drink together in the end. So that's who I would want to be with. That's a good choice. Yeah, Paint though, that's fine, Yes, absolutely. Wayne, What about you? Well, I chose Comedia Ransom because through most of this he just pretends to be asleep, laying back, you know, making weather, but hate him and join together to succeed. He has little to do it in this episode, but he does it brilliantly and I want to be here.

18:06 Yeah, yeah, you know. On on that note, Wayne and Scott, did you guys get that vibe of Riker, you know when he kind of did that stuff to instant Row. Yeah, yes, yeah, that's the vibe by guy in this episode because for that so. That's a good call. Yeah. You know, most of the time the character they show him Morris and he gets his a poon and you know, someone to laugh at, but you know, really underneath and he shows it in here. He's a pretty damn good commander, I guess is why he's first officer. Yep, absolutely well. I did see the the Riker Captain Morgan pose that he did where he's talking to him for no reason whatsoever.

18:49 You don't need to lean on it, but there's a little captain in you. Absolutely, Scott, what about you? For me, I'm going to go back to mister Shacks and I'll double down by saying he had an amazing the animated sequence. When I watched it a second time, I just the way that it's choreographed, the lighting that they use was exceptional, and I'd love to see more of it. It feels like since the battle was all on his head, the danger seems pretty low, so it's almost like a holideck adventure. But yeah, just because it was one of my favorite segments to see, Joyce. Yeah, you brought that up. I want to mention the information in this episode was really well done. It was you know, they did some great job with lighting. I mean, it's fantastic in every episode, but this episode it stood out.

19:35 Everything just looks so beautiful. In this yep. I agree when Yeah, it does feel like maybe there's some an intentional kind of like plussing up the sheen on this one because it's focused on the upper deck, so maybe leaning into a little bit more of the cinematic nature of it and just make it seem like something that would be an upper deck kind of show. So two episodes left. No, it's sad, isn't it? Yes? And you have you seen the photos for from next two weeks? Episode there was only two of them. I stayed away from. Well, there was one picture of we knew he was coming back, we are not coming back. We knew he was going to appear on the series, but the photos showed five different Harry Kims. Very curious as to what's going on with that episode?

20:23 Oh no, interesting, Well, I mean maybe to our theory before, maybe we get this, you know fleet of Kims that are kind of illustrating that thing. Right, there's more crossovers and more imposters than we think could be maybe not necessarily with nefarious you know means or whatever, or maybe ensign Kim is the big bad and he is like, I've been opening the holes in subspace so I can finally get promoted at least once. I could. You know, it could be. I never thought i'd hear the sentence a fleet of Kims. Yeah, I heard it here first. Well, I'm excited to get into the next two. Even though it's it's sad that it's ending. It's been a hell of a ride, so I can't wait to see where they.

21:08 Go with it. And the kudos to all the writers, stricters, cast crew, everybody, because it's been a incredible ride. Yes, it really, it really does deserve a lot more attention and praise. I think that's true with a lot of animation that it needs kind of a wider lens and more people taking a look at it. All we can do is just hope that you know, if we're reaching one other person that recommends seeing the lower decks, that it's that it's getting some of that love that we have for its well. As always, thank you to both of you for joining us for another episode. Absolutely always fun. And thanks to all our listeners for joining us once more.

21:51 Hailing frequencies are always open for you to share your thoughts and questions on Facebook, Instagram, and your favorite social channels. You can email us at a film by Podcast at gmail, find us online at a film by podcast dot com, and if you're looking for more exclusive content and swag, send some latinmar Way through Patreon. See you next time for another episode of Phasers. Set the Stunt