Star Trek

The Voyager episode “Bliss” has always been a wonderful story in my opinion. Naomi Wildman and Seven of Nine, two individuals who joined the ship’s crew after the events of “Caretaker”, find solidarity in their respective distance to life on Earth. They also in a time of crisis bring comfort and assist each other.

Annotations for Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x04: “A Farewell to Farms”

The episode title is a play on Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms, a romance between an American ambulance driver in the Italian Army and an English nurse, set against the backdrop of World War I, and has as one of its themes the idea of an end to, or retirement from war.

Qo'noS is the Klingon Homeworld, last seen in DIS: "Point of Light" or, chronologically in-universe in DS9: "The House of Quark".

Ma'ah first appeared in LD: "wej Duj", and was last seen in LD: "The Inner Fight". The targ may be the pet he inherited from his previous captain, Dorg, whom he killed and then attained his own rank and the IKS Che’Ta’. The farming outfit Ma'ah wears echoes the one the older Picard wore in TNG: "All Good Things..." and he is sipping from a Klingon bloodwine mug. We also see how bloodwine is made - apparently harvested from worms grown in the soil.

The usual title sequence is replaced by cinematic-style titles complete with rousing music. Mariner and Ma'ah befriended (sort of) each other in "The Inner Fight" on Sherbal V, which is why she's calling.

Malor mounts brush devil jaws on the transport. The brush devil is a creature native to Qo’noS with a particularly loud hunting scream, mentioned in the DS9 novel Heart of the Warrior, in which Worf tells of when he and his brother Kurn participated in a brush devil hunt.

A petaQ is a Klingon epithet, which can be loosely translated as "weirdo" (from taQ, to be weird, and pe, an imperative you). The Klingon axe-throwers are using various blades, but the one flying across the screen is a mek'leth, a two-pronged dagger generally used for throat slashing and disemboweling (ENT: "Marauders"). bahgol is a warm tea-like beverage (DS9: "Blood Oath").

One of the members of the Klingon band is playing a concertina like DS9’s Klingon Chef in DS9: “Playing God”. Ma'ah tells K'Elarra he did not expect to see her in this pugh gegh (as per the closed captioning) but I suspect this to be an error and it should be pugh qegh, which translates to "barrel/vat of dregs", which makes the bartender's insulted reaction more logical. par'Mach means "love" (but with more aggressive overtones). K’Elarra’s manhandling of Ma’ah and her sniffing him are typical of Klingon mating practices (TNG: “The Emissary”) and her “boob window” commented on by Mariner appeared first on Klingon females with the Duras sisters in TNG: “Redemption”. K’Elarra is voiced by Mary Chieffo, who played L’Rell in DIS.

Boimler's beard has progressed to an actual moustache now although his goatee is still a work in progress, charitably speaking. cha'DIch can be loosely translated as "second", in the sense of someone who speaks or acts on behalf of the principal in a duel, or in other contexts a confidant or mentee.

Cerritos is in orbit around Praxon IV. Tendi refers to when Migleemo fought the Orion warrior B'eth in LD: "Old Friends, New Planets". We are told Migleemo's species (Klowahkans) for the first time, and are told they invented warp travel to discover "strange new meals" as opposed to strange new worlds. This also explains Migleemo's penchant for food metaphors. Whether the planet name is a pun on "cloaca" l leave for speculation.

'urwI'pu' means "traitors". Martok’s legendary killing of them took place in the Ketha Lowlands, a poor area of Qo’noS, where he said his family was from (DS9: “Once More Unto the Breach”). A d'k tagh (misspelt diktagh) is a traditional Klingon warrior's dagger first seen in ST III. Boimler's fear of skiing cropped up last episode in LD: "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel". He mentions the Ritual of J'ethurgh and the Ritual of Forced Conscription, both first mentions.

bIj means punishment, which is usually used as a verb, not a noun. But the term “Experience bIj!” is a particularly deep cut from the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Interactive VCR Board Game - A Klingon Challenge, where during the game Captain Kavok (played by Robert O’Reilly who was Gowron on TNG and DS9) occasionally says this to one of the players who must then draw a Bij card and do what it says.

K'orin is a Klingon General and friend of Mariner's, who was last seen in LD: "Envoys". quv beq means "crew of honor". lujwI'pu' means "losers". Councilor Enaj is “Jane” spelled backwards.

Mordanian may refer to the inhabitants of Mordan IV (TNG: "Too Short a Season").

Kahless refers to Kahless the Unforgetable, a semi-mythical figure who was the greatest warrior in Klingon history as well as the first Emperor (TOS: “The Savage Curtain”).

Fekh’lr is the guardian of Grethor, the Klingon underworld (TNG: “Devil’s Due”). While we’ve known that part of Kahless’ legend is that he conquered a group called the Fekh’lri, we’ve never actually connected them to the mythical Fekh’lr on screen. In Star Trek Online, however, they do resemble Fekh’lr and were foot soldiers of Kahless’s enemy Molor (created by the Dominion), and were banished to Gre’thor with him. Boimler’s remark suggests that the Fekh’lri were minions of Fekh’lr as this story has Kahless killing Fekh’lr.

Painstiks (or pain sticks) were first seen being used in the Klingon Rite of Ascension, marking the occasion of a Klingon child reaching the Age of Inclusion and becoming a Klingon warrior (TNG: “The Icarus Factor”). darseks are the main currency used in the Klingon Empire (TNG: “Firstborn”). tagh-jaj qaD can be translated as “begin the challenge day”.

Boimler notes that the maximum painstik voltage is 30,000 volts. Whether or not an electrical shock is lethal really depends on both voltage and amperage, where voltage is the force of electrical power passing through but current (amps) is the rate of flow.

A hogfish (on Earth at least) is a type of wrasse living in the Western Atlantic, so called because of its elongated snout. It doesn’t have more than two eyes, though. Enara Prime is a planet in the Delta Quadrant, home to the Enarans, a telepathic species (VOY: “Remember”).

HIq’aD comes from HIq (ale, wine) and ’aD (blood vessel), so I’d imagine it’s an epithet saying that Malor’s a drunk.

qoH means “fool”. Boimler references his brief transfer to the *Titan* at the end of Season 2 and the first few episodes of season 3. Klingons can’t transfer ships except with a two-thirds vote of the Oversight Council.

chatlh means “thick soup”, but it’s also slang for “nonsense”. Sto-vo-kor is the Klingon equivalent of Valhalla. Ma’ah uses a bat’leth while Bragh fights with a gin’tak battle spear. The armor Bragh crashes into before he grabs the spear is a Klingon Honor Guard set from STO. The Klingon blood spilled is pink, as per ST VI, although this has been inconsistent through Star Trek, which generally shows Klingon blood as red.

Mariner discovers that the dimensional rifts are not natural, but someone is causing them. toDuj means “courage”.

Malor claims he sees Kahless, the “original one”. A clone of Kahless was created by the monks of Boreth in TNG: “Rightful Heir”, who eventually became the ceremonial Emperor/Head of State of the Empire. He also says the original was “good at imitating voices”, which indeed the Excalbian recreation was when he imitated Surak’s voice in TOS: “The Savage Curtain”.

Written by: Diana Tay

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

• The episode title is a reference to a British comedy drama, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, starring Dame Judy Dench, who voices the character Krog.

• Captain Freeman records the stardate as 59393.7.

    • Judging by the amount of facial hair growth Boimler’s exhibited over the course of the three episodes this season, we can assume that so far the entire season has taken place over about 17 hours.

• The cruise ship, the Cosmic Duchess has a number of habitat domes attached to it, very similar to the habitat domes we see attached to Starbase One in various episodes of SNW.

    • Freeman claims the Cosmic Duchess is the size of a moon. Though moons can vary fairly wildly in size, even if we’re talking about Pluto’s smallest moon, Styx, that still indicates the cruise ship is one of the largest structures we’ve seen in Trek, and perhaps the largest structure built by the Federation.

• Rogue nanites were also the problem in the TNG episode “Evolution”.

• ”One of the space casinos has a bunch of Dixon Hill slot machines.” Dixon Hill is the fictional hard boiled detective, whose adventures Captain Picard enjoys playing out on the holodeck, as first seen in “The Big Goodbye”.

    • In space, they just call them casinos.

• It’s Jennifer! From Star Trek! Jennifer is played by Lauren Lapkus.

    • Jennifer has not had a speaking role in the show since season three’s “Trusted Sources”, where she and Mariner seemingly broke up over the erroneous belief that Mariner betrayed the trust of the USS Cerritos crew by bad mouthing them to a FNN reporter; yet in the first scene this episode with her, Jennifer is acting as though they’re still an item.

• Ransom recruits Boimler to locate the AWOL Admiral Milius. Milius is named for the screenwriter John Milius, who wrote such films as “Conan the Barbarian”, “Red Dawn”, and perhaps most relevant to this episode, “Apocalypse Now”.

• It’s Jet! From Star Trek! Jet is voiced by Marcus Henderson, and has not had a speaking role since season two’s “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

    • Jet’s hands were devoured by piranha bats, but Doctor T’Ana is going to grow him a new pair. Characters were artificial body parts include: Captain Picard [heart], Worf [spine], Geordi [eyes], Nog [leg], Ishka [heart], and Jack Crusher [personality]

• ”She gave me back a candle!” Mariner did not accept the return of the candle, telling Jennifer to give it to Castro.

• Jennifer is being prompted and transferred to the USS Manitoba. Usually the Manitoba is only ever mentioned alongside the USS Saskatchewan, and both are overshadowed by the other Prairie-class starship, the “USS Alberta”.

    • ”There’s a bunch of Andorians on the ‘Toba*.”* As a species native to a moon covered in ice, Andorians are well suited to cold temperatures aboard the Manitoba.

• This is the first episode in which we see a Gallamite depicted on screen. Jadzia Dax dated a Gallamite named captain Boday, who was notable for his transparent skull and “toothy smile.”

• The Kreetassan vacationers are offended when Boilmer drinks a cocktail and eats in front of them, causing one to attack him before Ransom intervenes. It was established in “Vox Sola” that Kreetassans view eating the same way they do sex, an intimate and private act.

• ”Apparently one of Milius’ acolytes spends a lot of time at the top of the huge, dangerous mountain.” The mountain is very familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

• We learn that T’Lyn’s favourite musician is an individual named Krog, who plays an instrument called the vibe tubes. Though this is the first we’ve heard their name, the vibe tubes appeared in the TNG episode, “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

• ”You’re grabbing my genitals!” As Captain Kirk discovered in “Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country”, ”Not everybody keeps their genitals in the same place.”

• Boimler refers to various space whales, mentioning the gormagander, introduced in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”, and ”those galaxy’s child things,” from “Galaxy’s Child”. Previously Mariner was the only character to break the fourth wall in that fashion.

• When the nanite icosahedron strikes a palm tree and briefly stops, you can see a millinery in the background that has on displays hats similar to several that Guinan wore over the season of TNG, and some Bajoran vedic mitres.

• ”I can’t believe we’re going to get killed by a goddamn icosahedron.” Yet Mariner has been seen playing Bat’leths and BiHnuchs in “The Least Dangerous Game”.

• Rutherford locates a miniature Intrepid-class USS Endeavour. There have four other USS Endeavours, NCC-1895, NCC-25530, NCC-39222, and NCC-71805. Only the NCC-71805 was mentioned in dialogue, with the other three only appearing on charts and displays.

    • We’ve previously seen a tiny ship when Jadzia Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien get shrank down along with their runabout in “One Little Ship”.

• ”We’ve been through a month of hell!” That is the longest length of time any Starfleet ship has gone through hell.

• Boimler appears to be drinking bloodwine out of the traditional mug, the sort of which were first seen in “Apocalypse Rising”.

Consider watching this video with FreeTube, a nifty open-source program that lets you watch YouTube videos without Google spying on your viewing habits!

Combined with Libredirect, which automatically opens youtube links in Freetube, it becomes really slick and effortless to use.

• The episode title is a call back to the TNG season two finale, “Shades of Grey”, in which commander Riker is attacked by a poisonous vine, and the only way to save him is to make him watch other episodes from TNG’s first two seasons in his head. Truly, the cure is sometimes worse than the disease.

• Captain Freeman records the stardate as 59376.9 in her log.

• We’re informed that the people of Targalus IX have recently joined the Federation, acquired post scarcity technology, and are dismantling their capitalist systems. They’re literally burning their currency in the streets. However, we know that in the 24th century some Federation worlds, such as the Bolian homeworld of Bolarus IX maintain their financial institutions.

• In addition to what we can assume to be the Targalan’s language, much of the signage on Targalus IX is in Federation Standard -- i.e. English -- as are the anti-capitalist shirts they’re wearing.

• Boimler’s got a wispy bit of moustache growth happening. Apparently in addition to the PADD he took, he’s also attempting to steal Beardler’s look from the previous episode.

• Boimler is inundating the ensigns he’s been assigned with ”Bointers.” The first time he substituted his name for a real word was when he told Rutherford to ”Boim me up,” in “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”.

• We learn that the Orions have a ”pirate queen” who is the head of the Orion Syndicate. It’s unclear if this positon is the official Orion head of state, or simply the leader of the criminal organization.

    • Pirate queen Sabor is voiced by Debra Wilson, who has voiced several unnamed characters on PRO, the Orion pirate Z’oto on LDS, and even Lisa Cusak in the DS9 episode, “The Sound of Her Voice”.

• Orions used to use solar sailships. Other cultures who are confirmed to have used such technology include the Bajorans, as seen in “Explorers” and R’ongovians introduced in “Spock Amok”.

• ”Damn, now this is buffer time. Respect” The term buffer time was first used in “Temporal Edict”, and was coined to describe the policy of padding out work time estimates, first explicitly articulated by Scotty in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”.

• The House Tendi sailship has a ship’s wheel for steering the vessel. The pirate ship, The Serene Squall in the episode “The Serene Squall” was also a starship with a wheel.

• Sarium krellide was first noted on a display screen in TNG’s “Night Terrors”, and a combadge in PRO’s “Observer Effect” was seen to have the words written on a power cell. The is the first episode where the term is spoken aloud by a character.

• Tendi attempts to give her sister a cup of pyrithian bat milk. Doctor Phlox kept a pyrithian bat in the sickbay aboard the NX-01.

• ”Snakes don’t eat snakes!” Apparently snakes on Orion are less inclined to cannibalism than Earth snakes.

• The disruptor that the Targalan cleaning robot is attempting to sweep with looks very similar to the phaser rifle first seen in “Stardust City Rag”

• ”It is possible to do everything right, and still get your away team kidnapped by the corporate elite,” Boimler quotes Picad’s line from “Peak Performance”.

• Billups’ mother sent him a dragon. Human ”ren faire types” colonized Hysperia because of its dragons, as per “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” but we have yet to see one on screen.

• In addition to finishing repairs on the Sequoia, T’Lyn added a stick figure drawing of herself to those of Boimler, Mariner, Tendi, and Rutherford. The doodles of the Lower Deckers were first seen in “No Small Parts”

• Rutherford claims he and Tendi used to work on the Sequoia every day: ”It was our project.” Previously they worked together on a model of the USS Cerritos, and a model of Deep Space 9, as seen in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers”.

• ”I was trying to deceive you into socializing.” T’Lyn is really giving away the game on that whole, ”Vulcans are incapable of lying,” lie that they spout all the time.

• ”Come back Mackler, turn away from the mountain!” Boimler is referring to the Black Mountain where Starfleet officers go to fight three faceless representations of their father on their journey back to life, as outlined by Shaxs in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”

• It’s Goodgey! From Star Trek! Goodgey previously appeared in “A Few Badgeys More”.

• Captain Freeman contracted out the disposal of Targalus IX’s wealth to the Tendi family, which is implied will offset the loss of their fortune due to Tendi’s insistence on trying to find a peaceful compromise. It would seem that the gold bars and jewels must have some value to the Orions. We’ve seen gemstones as having value in episodes such as “Haven” and “Move Along Home”, but in “Who Mourns for Morn”, Quark describes gold as ”worthless.” Twice.

    • The Orion ship D’Erika is using for wealth disposal is presumably the same one she sent to retrieve Tendi in “Old Friends, New Planets”.

I'm reposting this because the list is now complete.

Edit: Except Garrett? Maybe she won't get one?

Fuzz (The Maniac)

Fuzz can switch from hysterical laughter to filter-free anger at the drop of a dime.

He's a fun-loving guy until he isn't. Just don't suggest anger management sessions to this Section 31 operative.

Melle (The Lover)

While most Deltans take an oath of celibacy upon joining Starfleet, Melle uses her irresistible magnetism for Section 31's benefit. After all, she's in a league of her own.

Zeph (The Machine)

Mech life ain't just about brute force. The human Zeph lives, works, and everything in between, inside his mechanical exoskeleton, drawing out the right tools in his work as a Section 31 operative.

Quasi (The Enigma)

No one's ever met a Chameloid's true form before, perpetuating their myth-like status as they never show their real appearance, which suits Quasi perfectly as a member of Section 31. He's disinterested in the delusion of "utopia" and most other things, especially you.

Alok Sahar (Mastermind)

Alok Sahar is a strategic mastermind who leads a special team of Section 31 operatives. Sahar is driven to make amends for actions in his past by serving the greater good, which involves tracking down and recruiting Emperor Philippa Georgiou for a covert mission.

Philippa Georgiou (The Emperor)

Unable to return to the Terran Empire, Emperor Philippa Georgiou lives under a new alias as owner of The Baraam, a nightclub operating outside of Federation space.

That is, until Section 31 enlists her to help protect the Federation while also facing the sins of her past.

The Agenda is a current affairs program that covers issues primarily in Ontario, Canada, or at least from the perspective of Ontario, Canada. It's studio is in Toronto where, of course, Picardo has been shooting Academy.

Seems like something they could've released a couple of days before Halloween?

The title of the episode is a play on the 2011 film (and its sequel) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of retirees who purchase a hotel in India. Nanites are of course microsopic nanotechnological robots which were first introduced into the Star Trek universe in the TNG episode "Evolution", although chronologically they have existed as far back as DIS: "Perpetual Infinity".

The Stardate is 59393.7. Cerritos is at the Cosmic Duchess, an interstellar cruise ship with multiple domed biomes which is undergoing a nanite cluster infestation. Boimler's facial hair is increasing, now with stubble on his chin and cheeks. He notes that one of the casinos has Dixon Hill slot machines, Dixon Hill being a 20th-Century hard boiled detective character Picard was a fan of (TNG: "The Big Goodbye"). Mariner's shocked reaction to Jennifer's kiss is understandable, since we were led to understand they broke up in LD: "Trusted Sources".

Jet Manhaver is a background character who was last featured in LD: "We'll Always Have Tom Paris". The way he describes Ransom's using him as fodder is reminiscent of the jokes about the fates of redshirts in TOS.

T'Lyn suggests Jennifer has a brain parasite. The last time a brain parasite caused amorous complications was in LD: "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Jennifer says she is being transferred to the USS Manitoba, which from the name might be a Parliament-class starship (the others we know of being Toronto and Vancouver).

The Risa Bar is named of course after the pleasure planet (TNG: “Captain’s Holiday”) and the biome actually reminds me of the Risa instance in Star Trek Online. This is the first time we’ve actually seen Gallamites although the species was first mentioned in DS9: “The Maquis, Part I” when Jadzia Dax mentioned she had a dinner date with the Gallamite Captain Boday, and Kira evinced some discomfort with his transparent skull. Kreetassans, an easily offended species, first appeared in ENT: “Vox Sola” and consider eating a taboo activity not to be done in front of others. The huge dangerous mountain pointed out by Ransom vaguely resembles the Paramount logo if you squint (it may just be a coincidence).

T’Lyn makes note of the poster of Krog on the Rocks, who performs on Vibe Tubes. Named in this episode, the Vibe Tubes are a futuristic musical instrument, the prop first seen being played in a holographic recreation in TNG: "We'll Always Have Paris".

Admiral Milius’s acolyte is Denobulan, the same species as Dr Phlox of ENT. Denobulan females emit powerful pheremones during mating (ENT: “Dear Doctor”). “Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place,” is a lesson we first learned in ST VI.

Tendi makes reference to Mariner's parents, who are often separated for long periods of time since Carol Freeman is a starship Captain and Alonzo is a Starfleet Admiral.

Milius' appearance resembles that of Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, which in turn was written by John Milius, Francis Coppola and Michael Herr inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. In both stories the Kurtz character sets himself up as a demigod worshipped by natives.

An iscosahedron is a 20-sided polyhedron, best known to tabletop roleplayers as a d20 die. Gormaganders (DIS: "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad") and the "Galaxy's Child" thing (TNG: "Galaxy's Child"), are examples of cosmozoans, giant organisms that live in space.

Captain Tersal says that her parallel universe Endeavor has been through a "month of hell", an allusion to VOY: "Year of Hell". Although Endeavor's scale is due to her being from a universe that is tiny, in the Prime universe the runabout Rubicon was once shrunk by a subspace anomaly (DS9: "One Little Ship") and Voyager was turned into a Christmas tree ornament by Q (VOY: "Death Wish").

Written by: Stephanie Amante-Ritter

Directed by: Brandon Williams

"Sure, The Borg have been a bit of a problem. Their tendency toward mass assimilation and the stripping of individuality and personal freedom doesn’t exactly jibe with our idea of what makes a great leader. But let’s be honest. Kathryn Janeway hasn’t been perfect."