Congrats to our four new junior lieutenants, they did in 4 seasons what Harry Kim failed to do in 7.

Assimilated salamander robot is my new favourite villain. That said, why did the exhibit not display their children?

Some thoughts after sleeping on it…

— I found the 4 x 01 Twovix the best season premiere yet.

All the premieres seem callback and Easter egg heavy. Making this one a museum (ship) mishap episode worked that into the story in a natural way and allowed some of the weirdest and trippyest things from Voyager to pike on. Bravo.

While some reviewers have expressed regrets that the original Voyager actors voices weren’t used, I’m glad that the focus stayed on the Cerritos crew, the artifacts and how Voyager remains dangerous wherever she is, even as a literal museum.

I am unhappy that the Klingon lower decker and his ship were sacrificed for the seasonal mystery big bad. It’s clear it’s really dangerous though. (Perhaps the mystery ship is collecting humanoids to take them to another era where they are extinct….?)

It’s also likely the case that I enjoyed the ride of the premiere more for knowing I had another new episode to watch immediately.

— The second episode was mostly a straightforward Lower Decks classic, but one that did its job to move the main 4 lower deckers into their new roles.

We’ll have to see how well it works on rewatch, but the moopsie scenes seem likely to be classics. After the Voyager celebration of weird in the season premiere, it was very smart for Lower Decks to underscore its ability to give us its own very original weirdness, and remind us that humanity are the most dangerous in the menagerie.

I’m glad that they make Rutherford a bit of an odd man out in the promotions. I still feel that he’s a bit of an incomplete person/character because his ambition and drive has been submerged by the implant. I really hope that the writers will keep dribbling out more about that.

I grinned like an idiot throughout the first episode because of all the Voyager callbacks but I got the biggest laugh in the second episode when Boimler goes to his new quaters and the room is bright red because of the glowing nacelle. I had to pause because I was laughing so much. For the past ~30 years I always wondered what crew quarters which face towards the nacelles were like. Thank you, Lower Decks.

…moopsy

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.

Now I want to know how T’Lyn knows what Borg smell like.

T’illups using “Tuvix” as a verb was golden.

Also Captain Dr. Frigleeman definitely didn’t awaken anything in me I swear.

So why did Boimler’s between-the-holodecks room have the (embarrassing) events of both adjacent holodecks reverberating through it? One of the core capabilities of a holodeck is the ability to manipulate where sounds appear to be coming from, which must include the ability to dampen sounds enormously. And if that technology exists, it should likely be available for ordinary walls between quarters too.

Is this just another case of Boimler not realizing that basic niceties (like viewscreen light filters) exist? And did both Freeman and T’Ana disable the audio dampening of their own holodecks?

Where can I get Moopsy as a ringtone for my phone?

The DS9 episode was handled with such dignity, but the Voyager episode was a fever dream and I am absolutely here for it!

After 3 seasons, it’s surprising to finally have a voice actor for Westlake.

I didn’t know I needed Clarinet Macro Viruses and assimilated Salamander Automatons at the helm, but my gosh did the LD team deliver!

I wonder if the promotion rollout explains why marketing for this season was so sparse.

I LOVED Shaxs talking about his relationship issues with Ransom and the fourth wall lean on the tubes was perfection.

I only watched the first of the two last night, but I’m so glad those of us who called Janeway a murderer for what she did to Tuvix are finally validated since most other Starfleet officers seem to agree.

Veneers? Really?

Worf can get a new spine but they can’t regrow some teeth?

I bet we see the Vulcan Lower Decks ship destroyed next. I wonder if Tlyn will find out

I’m honestly disappointed about the double release, because now I have to process two awesome episodes at the same time and I keep getting them mixed up.

Quick hitters, in no particular order:

• love Ransom demonstrating competent personnel management, another “surprise” twist of stuff working as it should.
• the Shax/Ransom exercise scene is fabulous
• Did that macro virus really get stuck behind a panel on the bridge for a decade (ish), or did curator guy cook it up to enhance the exhibit?
• the whole Tuvix sequence was the perfect absurdist sequel to the original episode. Apparently T’Lynn and all of the merged persons are also cold blooded murderers in their own special ways.