Observations and thoughts as I watched (initially posted at the other place):
We begin with “Twovix”.
Holodeck waste material, AKA jizz, poop, and god knows what else.
Oh, hey, T’Lyn!
DAT VOYAGER THEME!
Oh, hey, the probe from the one with the whales!
Neelix cheese!
Shit did get freaky.
Oh shit, they’re going to Tuvix Billups and T’ana!
“Janeway straight-up murdered Tuvix.”
MACROVIRUS.
The Pike Thing, of course.
“Back in the 70s”
“Captain, I caution against socializing with the organism.”
So many VOY deep cuts.
“Holy shit. Janeway didn’t mess around.”
Macrovirus of Borg. And robotic warp salamander of Borg.
“Water, room temperature.”
This is definitely T’Ana’s side of T’Llups.
Oh god, they tuvixed the Matt the whale! Wait, what about Kimolu? Is he alright? Is he okay?
A Tuvixy meatball!
Heh, the real solution to the Tuvix conundrum was just to keep merging until it’s a nonsentient blob of meat so there is no murder, so to speak.
Oh god I just realized that we’re going to get so much Tuvixy fanart.
Bizarre series of Voyager-themed obstacles.
SHE GOT A PIP
Beckett Mariner receives the fate worse than death for her: promotion.
Nothing ever good happens “somewhere in Klingon space”
RIP Klingon lower-deckers.
And now, episode 2:
Heh, Romulan lower decks.
Goodbye, Romulan lower deckers!
Heh, those 80s workout stuff.
Oh, cool, Boimler still has his Tom Paris tplate!
Please tell me Denty has a Memory Alpha page.
The Nacelle is right there!
Non-botanicals
I have just met Moopsy but I would die for it.
Oddly enough, this is the SECOND time this year that a Jack Quaid character looked at a VERY bright light. Shoutout to my boy Richard Feynman, the one man crazy enough to watch a nuclear test without goggles.
Okay, I would no longer die for the moopsy.
Tucker Tubes! Good old Trip got stuff named for him!
The Ad Astra Per Aspera poster!
I do feel like Starfleet would have better soundproofing, but then again this is the Cerritos.
RIP corn guy.
LIVIK!
Aww, D’Vana Tendi giving orders.
Teeth as bread crumbs.
Heh, the humans really are the worst.
Hah, he could have just used the viewports.
Overall, I think I liked this second episode more, even though I loved the VOY fan service.
Nice of them to have a colony modeled after an Earth town. Saves on budget.
“SIGNAL LOST.” In space, a dropped call can mean only one thing: Invasion.
Oh, we’re doing the Independence Day thing?
Telling a Starfleet captain to just do reconnaissance is basically telling them to go weapons free.
Nice little tinge of one of the TOS scores at the end of the cold open. Someone more geekier than I can probably place it.
If you ever feel like you are useless in life, just remember that there is a “skip intro” button during a “Space, the Final Frontier” monologue.
Is the “Gorn Protocol” a hand-cannon with with a diamond?
She flies the ship!
I’d like to imagine there is a deleted scene where they glue every piece of junk they have onto the shuttle.
If they’re going to do a “is someone still alive in the wreckage” storyline, they probably should have flip-flopped Batel and Chapel’s spots, given that we obviously know she’s going to live.
They keep giving Jenna Mitchell lines! FREE MITCHELL! Give that actreess a cast credit, cowards!
Ah, a good old fashioned beam into the sky.
Oh, look, a Gornzooky!
And… vaporized.
More Gornzookies!
Oh my god, it’s young Scotty. Hopefully this means Keenser is there. I always loved Keenser and his ability to sit on things he isn’t supposed to.
Doesn’t seem like Keenser is there :(
Of course Scotty would engineer a way to save people. He truly is a miracle worker.
Smashing a piece of space debris is a very… brilliant idea.
Pelia continuing to harass Una for her poor academics in engineering.
Why do I get the feeling that whatever plan Spock has to put the rockets on the hull will also allow him to check for survivors?
Wow, imagine that, Chapel is alive! Imagine that! Whoever would have thought! (Seriously they should have flip-flopped her and Batel if they were going to do this)
USE THE MORSE, CHRISTINE!
Oh, now she grabs the spacesuit. Although I guess she didn’t need it yet.
WARNING: GORNZOOKY
COMMAND CODE INVALID’
That looks like a bigger Gorn. An adult? Or at least like a teenager.
So incredibly Alien.
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HIM, YOU BITCH!”
Oh shit, she’s been impregnated with gornzookies. A very zombie movie trope.
“There’ll be time later.” Before or after you get engaged to Dr. Korby?
“We need to abort some Gornzookies.”
Yeah, Scotty would be a shitty student despite being brilliant.
OH FUCK THE GORN KIDNAPPED THEM
TO BE CONTINUED?!?!!?! Okay, who wants to drive to Hollywood and personally beat up some billionaires? I want this strike over NOW and I want a conclusion WITHIN A YEAR, A YEAR AND A HALF MAX!
One thing that I loved is that the fact that that is so WEIRD is actually one of the major parts of the plot. I know other places like Buffy have done similar, but I feel like poking fun at the tropes of musical theater kind of enhances it for some people like me (I don’t HATE musicals, but I don’t love them either.)
I kind of thought playing the TOS theme was like meant to be the music played after the final curtain as the actors take their bows and people start leaving the theater.
Where will this stand in the long history of Star Trek gimmick episodes? After all, this is the franchise that gave us “Trials and Tribble-ations”, “Take Me Out To The Holosuite”, “In a Mirror, Darkly”, the OG “Lower Decks”, and most recently… “Those Old Scientists”. Holy shit, that was just two episodes ago and in between we got the darkest Star Trek thing in years!
Uhura having to be the operator sounds like the most stressful thing to do that doesn’t involve imminent danger.
“Even if it’s not fully necessary.” That basically sums up every contrivance to get Kirk on board.
KORBY ALERT
Ah, spatial distortions, the cause and solution to everything.
The facial acting as they enter musical-land is priceless.
Acapella theme song!
“So… that happened.”
“Quantum uncertainty field”. That’s some Hitchiker Guide type stuff.
Ah, they brought back the Gilbert and Sullivan stuff.
I like how they are hanging a lampshade on just how BIZARRE it is that people sing out their biggest secrets and deepest feelings in musicals.
Good save, La’An.
“Surprisingly beautiful baritone”
It could have been worse for the crew. Imagine if Uhura had broadcast opera into it, then they’d ALWAYS be singing.
Shaxs would suggest blowing it up by ejecting the warp core.
Gratuitous zero-gee is gratuitous.
Oh god, singing Klingons.
Yeah, the Klingons would also like the “let’s just blow it up” plan.
Wait were those extras twins?
Apparently the improbability field also affects the lighting of the bar.
Isn’t K’tinga the later type of Klingon ship? Ah, screw it, musical rules.
“I don’t love rules but I think you’re about to break a big one.”
This totally is going into Temporal Investigations Kirk file.
CAROL MARCUS REFERENCE
Oh shit, David Marcus reference!
“I’m the Ex” standing as if X in a math question is a good bit of workplay.
Kind of surprised it took this long to give Celia Rose Gooding a full-on solo.
Grammy-Award winning singer!
A grand finale. How meta!
Boy Band Klingons was not on my bingo card.
Lol, playing the TOS theme as a curtain-closer
“You sang about lying to me.”
“Sorry, Earworm.”
All-and-all, it was a good enough gimmick episode. But it was no “Take Me Out To The Holosuite.” (“DEATH TO THE OPPOSITION!”)