This one was written by Aaron Waltke, the head writer on “Prodigy”.

And I agree there’s not much to write home about with this one, but unlike the previous entires, I personally did not find it actively terrible.

Kinda? They was certainly a few scenes early in where something about her animation seemed odd.

Yeah, I don’t want to rewrite the episode too much, because that’s not what I’m here for, but what Rutherford and Boimler showed up on the bridge, still struggling to get their Twain cosplay off? The episode already had Rutherford decrying how complicated vests are. They get called to the bridge, and they’re still half in costume when they interrupt Freeman’s negotiations with Coqqor and he demands an explanation. They stumble over one another trying to provide context for who Twain is, and that they were in an argument, but by both engaging with the character they were able to sort out their differences. The camera pulls in tight on Coqqor’s face as his eyes narrow, and after a pause he says, “Show me.”

Freeman’s willing to entertain anything at this point but isn’t convinced. However, Coqqor really gets into the character. After some coaching from Boimler and Rutherford, Freeman is able to reach an agreement with Coqqor, and in addition to scanning access, they agree to a cultural exchange. They give Coqqor the Cerritos’ library of Twain writings, including a printing of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” that’s been in Boimler’s family for generations, but he’s willing to part with for the sake galactic diplomacy. Coqqor then immediately eats the book.

There is a handful of ships we’ve seen on LDS that were previously only in video games or, concept art, or now in a comic, and I really like that the crew behind the show has all these deep cut references, in addition to making their own inclusions.

I was immediately excited to see a Chalnoth show up. I thought LDS could have some fun with a species that is, at least according to “Allegiance”, completely lawless trying to do science.

The bit about the Chalnoth not trusting Starfleet scans because they’re too nuanced and through I thought was good, but the rest of the b-plot after that didn’t really work for me. Maybe if Coqqor had actually engaged in the Mark Twain conflict resolution strategy. That would have been fun.

Fortunately the a-plot was really strong on this one.

This is silly.

Worf doesn’t worry about that.

What does a Koala need with a space ship?

To travel through the quadrant and obliterate other ships, but leave no bodies behind, clearly.

Though LDS already leaned pretty heavily into “Star Trek: The Final Frontier” in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxous”.

Best boss I ever had.

It’s bullshit that Tom didn’t immediately get promoted to lieutenant commander; Will got his rank bump for that mission; Tom deserved it just as much, if not more.

Do they explain why a hirsute adult man who’s been living alone for nearly a decade has a beard?

No.

I did think it was a bit of a shame that one of Trek’s most powerful ethical quandaries got so easily and blithely technobabbled away

Personally, I’ve never really thought of it as being that much of a quandary. Janeway’s decision wasn’t much different from what the Vidiians do; she condemned one innocent being to death so his body could be used to save two others. We recognize it’s wrong when the Vidiians are jumping starships to harvest lungs and kidneys, but suddenly we need to have a debate when Janeway is molecularly disentangling Tuvix?

Also, I do think it would have been more interesting to proceed with Tuvix from a storytelling point of view. Obviously that doesn’t work great when you have actors contracted for multiple seasons, but VOY is way too eager to hit the reset button.

The only thing I think could have actually made the Tuvix story something worth debating is if we ever learned what Tuvok and Neelix’s perspectives were after the fact. But we don’t. They never speak of it again. Probably because Janeway threatened to murder anyone on the ship who brings it up.

And speaking of inside remains as a result of transporter accidents, will you do these canon connections posts for the Very Short Treks, (even if they themselves have been declared non-canonical)?

I think that after the season of LDS is done, while we’re waiting Disco season five, I’ll try and do some Non-Canon Connections. I already did the LDS comic mini-series back before the switch to Lemmy. So I’ll probably do all the VST episodes in a single post though so far there seem to be much to work with there. I also started working on one for the PRO video game a while back and I’m about halfway done that. I just got distracted by other games.

Well, that’s oh for two. I don’t think this instalment was quite as rough as the first, but it also didn’t have Pete Holmes, so it gets points for that alone.

For whatever reason I assumed each of the VSTs would be done by different studios, but this is the same team that worked on the first. I don’t have high hopes for the rest.

I think we have to take intention into account though. Did T’Lyn know, or at least suspect, that by transporting all the Tuvixed beings that she would be combining them into a single lifeform? We don’t see her react when the transport completes, but she does hesitate before saying she might be able to “split them into their individual components.” I got the impression that her intent was only to transport the various Tuvixi into the brig, not amalgamate them into an abomination in the eyes of both science and the Prophets.

It’s like the transporter accident in TMP that killed commander Sonak and another officer. No one was at fault, but they still died. If Rand figured out a way to restore Sonak to life afterwards, and the only thing would have been impacted was his inside remains, you wouldn’t say it was unethical to do because Rand was the one operating the transporter when the accident occured.

Next you’re going to tell me you care about Icheb.

I enjoyed this issue quite a bit, as we finally get a bit of actual story momentum, especially between Worf and Alexander. Sisco being side lined for the issue so we can get the big final confrontation between him and Kahless in the last issue of the crossover didn’t work that well though, and I feel like we’re supposed to care more about captain Meyerson, despite the fact that he’s been in like two issues, one of which being the FCBD issue which was barely marketed.

Still, on the whole, between the Worf/Alexander fight, and the Defiant and Theseus crews working together across the two ships, this mostly worked for me.

While I do think spoiler tags for anything in an episode less than a week old is probably just good manners, I have no intention of putting in place any sort of official policy requiring them. Rules are for Cardassians, and here on Risa we have little pictograms on our foreheads, not spoons.

In my opinion, anyone seeing a spoiler tag should assume it’s for something recent. Nobody is going to use the tag for a 23 year old episode of VOY.

https://startrek.website/c/startrekonline

I don’t think the character was supposed to be Kirk. The credits on the youtube video’s page just has Holmes credited as “The Captain”.

Obviously no good is going to come of overanalysing the joke, but maybe it was a Jellico situation?

I don’t think it’s a matter of giving up so much as it is acknowledging that these posts don’t really serve the community. Which is fine. Trek comics are obviously a niche within a niche, so there isn’t enough interest here to generate discussion.

I’d argue that there wasn’t really any sort of message to be found here.