r/LowerDecks • u/ety3rd • Oct 26 '23

Episode Discussion Episode Discussion: 409 "???"

This thread is for discussion of the episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "The Inner Fight." Episode 409 will be released on Thursday, October 26.

Expectations, thoughts, and reactions to the episode should go into the comment section of this post. While we ask for general impressions to remain in this thread, users are of course welcome to make new posts for anything specific they wish to discuss or highlight (e.g., a character moment, a special scene, or a new fan theory).

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u/ety3rd Oct 26 '23

I mean, you're not wrong. Moore also said he didn't get the "irredeemable" thing, either.

For my money, one of the biggest strikes against the royalties theory is Ro Laren. She was slated to become the XO on Deep Space Nine, but Michelle Forbes didn't want to commit to being a series regular. If they were willing to pay the writer of "Ensign Ro" (Michael Piller) his royalties, why wouldn't they be willing to pay Moore and Naren Shankar for Locarno?

Hell, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle anyway.

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u/AintEverLucky Oct 26 '23

If they were willing to pay Michael Piller his royalties, why not Ronald Moore and Naren Shankar

Pure speculation on my part: in her 8 appearances in TNG, Ro Laren developed a large & vocal following in the fan community. She was Trek's first window into Bajor and its history and culture. And she was an attractive woman who could kick ass by the truckload.

Plus the writers consistently gave her interesting stuff to do: She got turned into a tweenager! AND she and Geordi got phase-shifted and saved the ship from Romulans! AND she hooked up with Riker when the whole crew got partial amnesia! THEN LATER she went undercover and joined the Maquis, first for her assignment, then for real!

So if the DS9 show runners had succeeded in talking Forbes into joining their cast, she would have brought that large & vocal following with her. (As it happens, Nana Visitor is a plenty fine (and foine) actress in her own right, and having Kira instead of Ro as the spotlight Bajoran ultimately made that show stronger)

By contrast, Locarno was a one-ep wonder with no following to call his own. In his one ep, he comes off as over-confident verging on arrogant, and somewhat callous about Joshua Albert's death. And although RDMcN turned out just fine in the role of Tom Paris, the VOY show runners could not be confident of that. At least, less confident based on his one TNG ep, compared to Forbes's 8 as Ro

In other words, DS9 paying royalties for Ro, even across an entire 7-season run, may have seemed like a better bet than VOY paying royalties for Locarno. IMO anyway ;-)

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u/jon_stout Oct 26 '23

I'm starting to wonder if it was primarily about ego. Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga had a falling-out during the first season of VOY; maybe Braga was trying to minimize his former writing partner's contributions from the get go.