Oh, the XenoGorn? Gornomorph? Let's workshop that name a bit.
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Difference is, there were straightfaced Star trek series airing when Lower Decks started. Now, the only show running (well, there's Academy as well) is doing high camp every week.
But they definitely do a lot of genre play, and recent interviews with the showrunners indicate that it's completely intentional, and unlikely to change any time soon.
It's certainly intentional, I just wish they'd keep their hands on the wheel instead of following every inane impulse that crosses their mind.
As for changing, well — the show is going to end after next season, so there's a very definite change.
Perhaps, if every other episode wasn't already a gimmick genre swap. Trelane and/or Q worked fine in plain science fiction where they were the wacky trickster element in and of themselves.
I'd really prefer this show to take a chill pill and focus on telling solid stories rather than doing cleverpants narrative gymnastics.
Soap Opera episode
WTAF. Enough with the damn genre exercises already.
Neat red vinyl there 🤩
Hold up now, that's Galaxy quest erasure! 🤣
Didn't you read the press release? It says "classic Star Trek" specifically 😅
I'm very careful reading those threads to avoid spoilers, because my partner and I will only be watching once the entire season is available. That said, a Dr Giger callback in any way, shape or form is the most promising thing I've heard about s4 so far 😂
Well, same voice actor. He's done quite a bit of extended universe things, but on screen (if that's the right term) he's been on the show 1975, 2006, and 2025. That's some staying power...
I remember feeling truly unsettled watching this for the first time. For one thing, the Doctor and Rose strands without the TARDIS — on a planetoid that really has no business hanging so close to a black hole. A small world teetering on the edge of certain and utter destruction, while the population assure themselves "we don't know how this works, but it'll be fine". And they rely on a race of "willing" slaves to do menial support chores. Perfect metaphor for Western civilisation, really.
But add to that the occult-tinged threat of the presence, voiced by Sutekh himself, Gabriel Woolf, that possesses the Ood and Toby. There are decidedly Lovecraftian themes at play here that sit really uncomfortably in a Doctor Who story, certainly in 2006. Of course the inferior, "mindless" slaves are affected, like racist old HPL would like to imagine, but the real trespass is the corruption of a white researcher who studies eldritch knowledge and is taken over by primal forces (probably sexuality).
Up to now, the modern show has thrown ghosts, werewolves, and walking dead at us, with a comforting "—but it's aliens" twist to moor it in (light) science fiction. Here, like with the physical situations of the castaway Doctor and the impossible planet, there is no safety net to keep the storyline from plunging into superstitious darkness. It's like Event horizon, barely adapted for a family audience.
So this is a solid first-of-two episode with high stakes on several levels; as high as one can expect in a show where you sort of know they'll be okay at the end. The guest cast do a great job of presenting a convincing, everyday work situation. Everybody is weary and a bit jaded — even Ida opening the dome to reveal the black hole comes with a tired sigh as if to say, "oh sure, I'll show off that old thing again" — but you get the impression they've worked together for a while.
As first halves go, this has to be top shelf for modern Who. The followup — let's talk about that next week, don't want to ruin the good mood in advance.
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Something rotten at the core of Starfleet? Surely not...! 🤣
It's an old chestnut, and well overdone by now, but the real question is whether they can give it a new spin, or simply make it work better than, say, in "Into darkness".
At least they're not pulling known characters out of mothballs for this, so I remain optimistic.