It isn’t often these podcasters gush and swoon over a Klingon character, whether new or legacy. But, boy oh boy, did Lower Decks deliver this week. Martok is back!
Listen to our latest episode below as we explain…
Listen To This Episode:
J.G. Hertzler–the actor who plays Martok–didn’t phone it in when donning his bat’leth once again, which was a pleasant surprise. In fact, you’d never be able to detect that this wasn’t one of the seminal TNG episodes. He’s still got it. So, bravo Lower Decks. You nailed the cameo this week. We do wonder if Martok will ever make a live-action appearance. Perhaps the third season of Picard will answer that question.
Though there were a few examples of novel science fiction in this episode, notably the “orbital lifts” a.k.a. “space elevators” and the reference that YouTube still exists in the future, there wasn’t much explored in the plot for the episode to truly be eligible as a genuine Star Trek episode. If the orbital lifts had some influence on the plot, then it would be a different story.
Synopsis Of “The Least Dangerous Game”:
On a tropical paradise planet, Mariner questions Commander Ransom on how he structures his away team. Boimler makes a bold career decision.
Disappointingly, this episode was light on the plot. The meat of the story was an arc for Boimler and hijinks for Mariner. While it’s important for characters to have some development so as not to feel like static automatons, what makes Star Trek Star Trek is a sense of adventure in a procedural paradigm.
Characters can learn about themselves through the course of these adventures, but the plot isn’t typically driven by character arcs. Of course, they can make Lower Decks however they choose but for these podcasters, if they’re going to nest these episodes deeply in the Star Trek universe, why not bare some fidelity to that legacy?
That being said, the show successfully embeds itself into the Star Trek world. There’s never a moment when it feels like a generic animation show with Star Trek decals, or a cynical cash grab leveraging the Star Trek symbology to lure fans in. That’s what makes the show fun for these podcasters and not necessarily the plot lines or characters.
