The Cerritos is continuing the proud Starfleet tradition of having good mental health advisors and a kinda useless ship’s counselor.

Man, I was hoping they’d confirm the commonly held theory that Sokel is T’lyn’s father (since she’s the Sh’val’s version of Mariner). No dice unfortunately.

Really like how Mariner was emotionally mature enough to solve the problem by just talking. Sure, she’s done that some other times (Crisis Point II comes to mind), but she doesn’t really know T’lyn nearly as well as those other examples. Really shows how far she’s come from the therapy-hating Mariner in Season 1. She’s not wrong to point out how Vulcans tend to have a very narrow view of what their species should be like while idolizing paragons who don’t fit that mold. Tear them space elves down, girl!

Other notes:

• One of Shaxs’ officers at the gathering reaaally looked like a Kiley (Kileyan?) from SNW episode 1. Guess Pike’s message stuck.
• I noted previously that they drew the betazoids with larger eye dots to reference their dark irises. Looking back, I think they even did that when drawing Counselor Troi in season 1.
• we don’t often see Tendi being the butt of the joke. guess there’s no place to ham up her excessive emotionality than a T’lyn episode.

Ah, that explains why they actually acknowledged that Prodigy exists for once.

I was about to say that since LD doesn’t color in characters’ irises there’s very little to differentiate the animated Betazoids from humans. But it turns out they gave them bigger black eye dots!

Looks like Tendi’s happy crying in one of the last pictures, so here’s hoping that T’lyn gets some embarrassing wholesome emotions exposed.

And you may tell yourself, “This is not my aesthetically pleasing residence!”

And you may tell yourself, “This is not my aesthetically pleasing Bynar spouse!”

I’m a little surprised her ride home wasn’t stolen/stripped for parts.

Fifth most powerful family in the Orion crime syndicate. The people who are above Tendi in the social hierarchy don’t need it, those below probably like living.

Loved this one, prob my favorite of the season so far. We’ve had Tendi’s attitude towards her own Orion heritage hanging over her character this entire show (plus a touch of SNW), so it’s fun to finally dive deeper. I like how T’lyn was used here-- basically as a manifestation of Tendi’s friends prying into her personal life. I wasn’t expecting Mariner’s main role this episode to be running gag, but hey, it worked.

The plot resolution (at least on the character arc side) wasn’t super surprising, but I think it works and goes beyond where we last left the thread of Tendi’s pirate identity in season 3. On DS9 it felt like she just saw herself as a trained pirate trying to be a scientist, here we have the gang affirming that the scientist is Tendi’s real self. For those of you reading queer allegories onto Tendi, this episode just makes them all the deeper.

The Brutherford B-plot was incredibly silly, even as LD plots go. It’s not deep, but I think it was just audaciously funny enough to work. I was initially skeptical of how they just yadda-yadda’d past the guys’ conflict resolution on the holodeck. I think it works because it heightens captain Freeman’s (and the audience’s) disbelief that they’d expect their petty Seinfeld shenanigans would translate to any useful diplomatic measures.

Other notes:

• The big guy from the B-plot friggin’ threw Shaxs. might be the first time we’ve seen Shaxs succumb to the so-called Worf effect
• T’lyn seemed to accept a group hug at the end with nary a raised eyebrow. So un-Vulcan!
• Tendi’s great-grandmother Astrea had the same title Mistress of the Winter Constellations, and if the bouncer’s reaction is any indication it’s related to D’vana being her family’s prime–does that imply Astrea also had a similar path in life before ending up on the science ship D’Var?

Vanessa Marshall as: a different green skinned space lady

I know they said that in production, and I personally find it funny, but in universe it doesn’t make sense. Harry was the head of Voyager’s Ops department. Being an upper-decker/bridge crew matters way more in practice than rank on paper. It’s not like his department would explode oor even substantively change if he made Lt. JG.

Hell, Tuvok got promoted to Lieutenant commander in the middle of Voyager’s flight and nothing weird happened in his department. And the less said about Tom Paris’ rank situation the better.

Man, I’ve been waiting for a Boimler/T’lyn episode ever since they confirmed she was going to be a recurring character! It’s cool how having an extra member unlocks new sub-group to bounce ideas off each other.

A little let down by this one if I’m being honest. The setup is pretty fun and Vexilon is a charming character. I feel like there was nothing unexpected in Boimler’s plotline though. He’s stressed and sweaty just like we (and his friends) expect, he screws up a little, pep talk from T’lyn, he’s got his confidence and is a good boi leader. Sure, him questioning why he’s fit to lead is interesting, but the little “get your shit together Boimler!” moment is basically what we’ve seen in something the hunt vs Kranch and the resolution isn’t that much different.

I think the only bit of the episode that landed for me was the Dirk/Ransom bit at the end. Sure it feels a little mean and un-Starfleet but the past couple episodes have built up why Ransom’s actually a good superior officer/Mariner’s attitude about him is wrong, and it’s fun to peel back the reasons that he’s not so above it all.

yeah it’s missing a bit where the ensign falls in front of Captain Gomez. As portrayed in the subsequent panels though she’s extremely chill about it.

I mean if you’re being pedantic that still traces back to the JJ Abrams, the use of synths at Utopia Planetia was precipitated by the pending doom of the Romulan sun which was a prime timeline event canonized in Trek 09.

Freeman looks like she’s doing a legitimate non-diplomatic smile in that under-shuttle pic.

We don’t see that a lot, it’s weeeird.

Throw T’lyn (promoted after a short stint of time served offscreen) and Tom Paris in too.

The Tom Paris one was absurd and Harry was right to call it out when Paris made lieutenant again before he was even considered.

All our Wej Duj heroes came back for episode 1! …I hope Ma’ah’s okay.

It’s interesting how between Lower Decks and Prodigy (plus some brief mentions in other post-VOY shows) we have a decent picture of how the universe view now-Admiral Janeway. It’s clear she’s viewed with a sort of heroic reverence, Captain Freeman assumed that Janeway’s logs would have a good answer for a Tuvix situation. Voyager’s celebrity status has definitely inflated her image a little, really put’s Dal’s awkward first encounter with the real Janeway in perspective.

It feels very right that they didn’t actually dive into the morality of killing Tuvix other than “that’s messed up!” and making the Tuvix’d crew clearly in the wrong/not sapient before de-Tuvixing them. Lower Decks does earnest optimism about Starfleet well, but I don’t think deep dives into moral situations are something for a goofy 22 minute show.

They’ve definitely edited some of the rank pips in trailer shots we haven’t seen yet (and some we have). Might explain why T’lyn is rocking a standard ensign pip a bit into the first trailer.

Oh man. Voyager’s one of my least favorite series overall but I do love me some ship beauty shots.

“I’ve dreamed of doing this for so long…eject.”

25th century. Too late for at least two of the sentient holograms we’ve seen who really could’ve used em.

It’s from Lower Decks. A simulation of the Borg Queen says this to Boimler while he’s taking a test on a mini-holodeck.