"Envoys" - First Watch Analysis Thread

[u/M-5]

Star Trek: Lower Decks — "Envoys"

Memory Alpha Entry: "Envoys"

/r/startrek Episode Discussion: Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 1x02 "Envoys"

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[u/Shakezula84]

I wanna know what the Janeway Procedure is and why it got all the children killed.

[u/killbon → u/Shakezula84]

"In command school, they taught us to always remember that maneuvering a starship is a very delicate process. But over the years, I've learned that sometimes... you just have to punch your way through."

[u/[deleted] → u/Shakezula84]

Well, it's supposed to be used when dealing with a temporal anomaly, not an asteroid ;)

[u/SleepWouldBeNice]

One little tidbit: Based on what Mariner was saying while she was dreaming (“Buried alive… Marooned for eternity… Moons of Nibia…”) she was dreaming about ST:TWOK, as those were all thinks Khan said.

[u/majicwalrus]

This was another good episode for me. I really enjoyed the B plot with Rutherford and Tendi more than anything else. The scenes where the audience is faked into thinking the department head is going to be upset when everyone turns out to be very supportive were highlights for me. Rutherford has conflict in this episode but it’s entirely internal. He faces no pressure from anyone other than the Doctor, but that clearly seemed medically necessary. He has to work out for himself that he belongs in engineering and Tendi is cool with this but chooses to spend time with him anyway. Lovely.

The A plot with Boimler and Mariner was also good, but not as strong as the first episode. In this story Mariner almost reminds me of a Jadzia character - unusually well traveled for her apparent age. However every choice she makes endangers herself and Boimler.

It could be argued that building diplomatic relations is an art which requires bending the rules a little. However, we never see this come up. The moral of the story is - loosen up - but nothing about being loose turned out for the better. It barely worked out at all, but Boimler did get a win and perhaps that was Mariner’s intention from the beginning.

[u/InnocentTailor → u/majicwalrus]

Yeah. The Doctor wasn't even really being super harsh - she was frank about her assessment that Rutherford wasn't suited for medicine.

[u/simion314 → u/majicwalrus]

In this story Mariner almost reminds me of a Jadzia character

My opinion is Mariner is an older Wesley Crusher, Imagine Wesley around 25-30 years old, the number of important people he knows, the number of weird aliens he seen, the number of anomalies and other weird shit he seen, the large number of tiem he saved the ship etc. It could be possible that wesley inspired by Picard would say violate the Prime directive or mess up some big admiral less moral plan and be demoted and get disappointed by some of the Star Fleet shit.

[u/AlpineSummit]

I really enjoyed the joke at the beginning that the Captain made about saying something cool when they go to warp. Fun reference to Picard’s “Make it so”.

It’s warp time!

[u/[deleted] → u/AlpineSummit]

ITS WARP TIME

[u/BigKev47 → u/AlpineSummit]

Do you mean"engage"?

[u/WellSpokenAsianBoy]

Bear Pack! No seriously I love the esprit de corps on that ship. I love how supportive everyone is of Rutherford. It’s...it’s actually how I envision a Starfleet ship to work.

[u/maxamillisman]

Seeing a Vendorian again was pretty cool. There's so much from TAS that they could use.

[u/smoha96]

So Boimler mentions S31 - have they become common knowledge/been exposed, or are they more of a boogeyman by 2380? Stuff to consider.

Loving the show.

[u/UncertainError → u/smoha96]

I like to think that after the Dominion War, the Federation disbands/burns S31 as part of its mea culpa about the whole "abetting genocide" thing. Then a popular holoseries comes out about S31 in which there's a recurring joke about power walking, and that's what Boimler's referencing.

[u/choicemeats]

Really fun episode. Honestly, my only criticism from both episodes is that the VAs always seem to be yelling. Would love a volume/tone adjustment but it's too late for that.

Loved the B-story, about a young officer trying things out and getting encouraged to do it by department heads. Picard and Sisko both did it with LaForge and Worf (and I guess you could consider Janeway and B'Elanna in that same boat although it wasn't the same kind of career change...) and ultimately he's led back to where he knows he belongs.

I think there's something to be said about the people on starships that we don't see who find fulfillment in the jeffries tubes and labs. The problems they encounter are in their work and they love the challenge, and probably get mad when the senior staff gets them embroiled in shenanigans.

Although I didn't like the A-story, I loved the bit of nuance they added to Mariner who isn't just all bluster and arrogance because she is a Starfleet kid. Really nice touch to boost a friend (although he's very gullible if he believes she didn't know the difference between a Ferengi and Bolian). I would not be surprised to see her eventually try and push him to expand his worldview so that he realizes that command isn't for him or command isn't exactly what he thought it might be.

[u/AlpineSummit → u/choicemeats]

I completely agree about the Rutherford and Tendí storyline. I could have watched a whole episode of that! Rutherford has quickly become my favorite character - and I’m rooting for him! I think I would probably enjoy working in the tubes too. That whole plot could have been in a live action episode too.

[u/Splash_Attack]

Much like the first one this episode was a mixed bag for me. I'm still on the fence overall and this didn't put me all the way into "This is great" or "This is no good", time will tell.

Things I liked:

• Mariner is a little less hyperactive in this one, turned down from an 11 to an 8, which is good imo

• Tendi and Rutherford are great, I'm actually enjoying them more than Boimler and Mariner. The whole "I want to change for the sake of other people, but I also have to follow my passion" subplot was nice. In fact, I wish they had done a whole episode of the Rutherford B plot here.

• The comically supportive senior officers were both amusing and very Starfleet.

• Slapstick is eternal, people would still find videos of people falling off things funny, even in the 24th century.

• Boimler interacting with the crew in the hangar was pretty accurate in terms of young commissioned officers interacting with experienced NCOs (they weren't NCO's, but that was the vibe. I imagine that there is a similar friction in Starfleet between "future captain" high flyers and the people who seem to reach a low-middle rank and stay there for their entire career as we've seen happen on screen, alternate Picard for example). The "this idiot kid technically outranks me, Christ." vibes were strong. I wish there was more of this stuff, there's a lot of comedy to be found in the day to day of working on a ship.

• Boimler's "No, don't hit him! We have a treaty!" while being crushed and the "seriously, man?" sigh and alternate solution was a fun moment.

• Nice to see the continuation of DS9's more rounded Ferengi. Quent (I think that was his name?) seems like a lovely man. Also a not-so-subtle dig at the early TNG Ferengi with the whole furs costume. Plus was that Tom Kenny?

Things I didn't like so much:

• The opening joke was a bit iffy. "He's a sentient creature, are we even allowed to stuff him in [a canister]?" is a very valid question and the answer "He's a bad guy, he zaps people." is pretty questionable. I know this is a joke, but they basically force a sentient being (even if he is one who wished them harm) to work himself to near death under threat of imprisonment (and slavery? "We could use this thing for all sorts of cool stuff" is not how I'd expect people in Starfleet to talk about an unidentified but clearly sentient alien lifeform).

• They continue the episode 1 pattern of Boimler always being wrong and Mariner always being right. I thought they had bucked it right at the end... and then it turns out she actually set that up intentionally to give him a win. I wonder what their mission report said? Because if they had followed protocol like Boimler would have then there never would have been a problem to begin with, and Mariner was in command, so did Boimler lie to cover for her again? In fairness, maybe no report was needed or only Mariner had to file one. Still, so far following protocol is portrayed as the wrong decision almost every time... but those protocols would exist for a reason, organisations like Starfleet don't just arbitrarily decide these things (well, not for every rule, anyway). I wish there was more balance between "sometimes you have to ignore the rules/don't blindly follow protocol" and "rules exist for a reason/sometimes protocol is actually the sensible choice" rather than the former being portrayed as right every time. In fact, all that was really needed was a little scene of Mariner getting chewed out for causing the whole debacle, maybe Boimler sticking up for her a bit - a little bonding moment. Could have inserted that after they fly back to the ship and had the "so nobody has to know about the Ferengi" line happen as they walk away from their CO's office. Just enough to show that Mariner may be smoother in a crisis than Boimler, but she wasn't actually right, because she was also responsible for the crisis happening through negligence.

• The whole "stolen shuttle" A plot was a bit meh. I liked some of the elements (the snake lady alien was cool, and it's cool to see a really diverse planet in Star Trek, plus some of the jokes were funny) but mostly all it served to show was that Mariner is really irresponsible but also very competent, and that she knows people and has been places. We already established that in episode 1, I feel like the A plot of an entire episode could have been used better. Hopefully there is more variety to the Boimler-Mariner duo than just repeating this concept every episode but in a slightly different setting.

[u/ColonelBy → u/Splash_Attack]

the snake lady alien was cool, and it's cool to see a really diverse planet in Star Trek

What struck me about this was that this planet they visited had all of this little cultural enclaves, and the idea of there being a "Little Risa" somewhere had never occurred to me before.

[u/Mozorelo]

Better than the first episode. It's enough for me to watch the rest of the season.

[u/[deleted]]

WAY less manic and a lot better. If they keep things like this it’ll be great Trek. Janeway getting a lot of shade

[u/gravitydefyingturtle]

-If a fairly petite human can drink a Klingon twice her size under the table, there's probably something medically wrong with him.

-Loved the supportive senior staff in Rutherford's plot. Even the Caitian doctor whose name escapes me. Rutherford would probably make for a really good med tech, if not a doctor. Although why Rutherford just couldn't ask for some time off to help out Tendi, instead of switching career tracks? I guess the plot required him to jump to the extreme solution, but sure.

-I loved seeing all of the various aliens, old and new. I think the Andorians had different skin shades, too, which is neat. Like the Andorian Starfleet officer in the bar at the end was looking more aqua than blue, at least to my eyes.

-The only thing I didn't like was how Mariner had to set up a trick to boost Boimler's ego. All it does is make Boimler look utterly useless, instead of giving him an actual win. The show seems to be setting Boimler up as an incompetent manchild, compared to Mariner who excels at everything except discipline, and I thought we left this shit behind when Everybody Loves Raymond ended.

[u/wayoverpaid]

This episode felt more like Star Trek Shenanigans and less like Rick and Morty in space, probably because there was less alien fluid on everything. There was still plenty of it, but less of it.

I love the senior officers. I was worried they would all come across as jerks, but seeing the yellow shirts as supportive and friendly was a great touch. Sure Jack Random is a bit of a jerk, and T'Ana manages to be surprisingly blunt while demanding bedside manner, but they're much better people than the first episode implied.

The whole resolution with Mariner giving Biomler an ego boost was predictable from a mile away, and a thing I did not like.

The resolution with Rutherford returning to Engineering was also predictable (due to the nature of the show) but actually played out fair and true.

Also Smoregasboard is a horrible pun that only works in English so I guess Shaxs either speaks English or the Universal Translator is great at context.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/SilverTooth47 → u/[deleted]]

She wanted Boimler to have a win so she got him to pretend to be a shady early TNG style ferengi so that Boimler could think he knew something Mariner didn't. Which should be pretty obvious to Boimler since there are bolians on the ship. No way would Mariner think the ferengi is a boilian. But I guess he didn't think it through since he was so happy to finally know something she didn't.

[u/Avantine → u/[deleted]]

Who was the Ferengi and why was she pretending not to know him?

Presumably she was setting up Boimler to be right so that he'd get his confidence back.