Welcome back to Subspace Radio, listeners. It is me, Rob, and joining me as always is the delightful Kevin. How are you?
It's me, the delightful Kevin.
He's here. I told you he'd be here. We don't break our promises here at Subspace Radio. Another episode of Star Trek is out there. We need to discuss it and then deep dive into a theme related to said episode. We're up to episode five? Oh.
Five. We're halfway.
Halfway through, oh my god, really? Come on. That, that cannot be so. We are near the end, we're halfway, we're over the hump, uh, we're nearly gonna say goodbye to the crew of the Cerritos. But let's focus in on episode 5, it is Starbase 80, oh yeah, we've gone there people.
80, question mark, exclamation mark. Um, which apparently broke Paramount Plus's content management system because on, on their streaming service, it's just got the question mark and it's like, Ooh, you can't have a question mark, exclamation mark in an episode title or something. Anyway, it's, it's, I think it's probably at least tied for the most, uh, punctuation on the end of a Star Trek episode title. I'm pretty sure it's the winner though.
I think, yeah, well, I think across movie titles in general, take that, Oliver. Exclamation mark. We see your exclamation mark and raise you a question mark. Um, so
said at the start we keep our promises here and one of the promises that Lower Decks has been making to us that I didn't quite realize was we would get to see Starbase 80 someday.
It's just been referenced and uh, we got to see the shuttle, the, the rickety old shuttle pod carry Mariner off to Starbase 80 and we've, we've heard that Captain Freeman in an alternate universe runs the place, but it's always been this like boogeyman, this, this creepy thing, uh, held, held just out of sight and, uh, we got to go there this week.
and that is the one thing that I got out of this episode, Kev, as we deep dive into the episode, is the tone of horror.
Yeah, this felt like a Halloween episode that they didn't quite manage to air on Halloween.
But yeah, well, the, the Halloween season is all of October, so,
It is, sure,
Uh, as is, as is the Christmas season in our household starts as soon as Halloween finishes. No Thanksgiving here in Australia, sorry. And Canadian Thanksgiving is even earlier.
Mmm, yes it is.
Um, but yes, all those elements, traits, uh, components of a horror movie, a suspense film were thrown
light, creepy music, zombies, you know, pretty clear tone shift there when the zombies entered.
There's, there was a lot of licking in this episode, Kevin. There was a lot of tongue action here.
I noticed the licking, and I was like, they're gonna have to explain the licking, and I don't know, I don't know if "they were the alien's fingertips" was satisfying to me as a justification for the licking.
How did you find the episode in general?
Uh, I would say not my favorite of the season, but like fun. I would say inoffensive fun. I did enjoy the, the pastiche of different eras of Star Trek with the, uh, Enterprise uniform that our guest Kassia Nox was wearing. And the, the wall comms which are commented on and the general original series decor of the sets on Starbase 80. That, that was a lot of fun to see. Um,
grabbing the pole in the turbo lift?
Yeah, there were, there were people that, yeah, there was a fire pole or two in the corridors of the original series for sure.
I think like you hit the nail on the head. It was very Halloween esque style episode. And it did remind me, especially with the zombies, not zombies of an episode of Community, one of the best episodes of community with their Halloween dance and they start eating the food supplies from a, from a military base and this starts turning everyone into these zombie esque characters, um, and it felt very much like that in, uh, in, um, Lower Decks form.
I think in earlier episodes this season, I remarked on how the bridge crew was being kept a little more off screen and they were back in full force this episode, I thought. Because we had like, Captain Freeman and Ransom off, like, chasing Gene Jabba, Jabba, Jabbakowski, was that his name? The chief engineer, it turns out, chasing them around the, uh, the star base and, and Freeman going, this place isn't going to win. I, like, I'm better than my alternate universe self. I won't get stuck here.
And yeah, just centering those characters in this story. Um, I, I, I think that's part of what I didn't love about it is that our main crew were just one of several stories going on here and it just felt like a loss of focus to me.
Yeah, yeah, it did seem like, this is the thing I'm getting about Lower Decks Season 5. You kind of get a sense with a show, I guess in the olden days, it starts to feel like it's wearing down or going through the motions or whatever, but with this season, it just feels like another season. So it has highs, it has lows, but it seems like they're in this momentum, this momentum of going, we can keep going. Like, and it's, it's that this brave new world is, um.
is really messing with, uh, the, the flow of how, you know, these type of shows are done. For me, the most intriguing part of it was how this comedy show shaped this episode in the style of a horror movie and did it quite well. So these comic scenes had a different, had a different tone to them
So it was like two steps removed from straight Star Trek. It wasn't just straight Star Trek. It was comedy Star Trek. It wasn't just comedy Star Trek. It was horror comedy Star Trek.
Exactly,
how flexible the formula is that it's still recognizable as, uh, as Star Trek despite those two steps of remove. Yeah, I take that point. That, that is enjoyable to, to notice.
But yeah, those elements of, it's like what you'd expect to be in a Starbase 80 episode is sort of like, the character leading Mariner around is sort of like trying to justify that there is good and there's a heart of gold within this Starbase. There's the deceptively, you know, uh, bad at their job member of the crew leading them on a wild goose chase just so they can fix everything.
Um, all those type of elements you kind of, you know, paint by numbers of a episode and you tick that off and you go, color it in, tick it off, go, yep, we got everything we expected. No real surprises there.
Yeah, it felt to me kind of like a season one episode is that they were back to just throwing a bunch of jokes and references at the wall and, and rushing us through a plot that justifies them loosely. Um,
think we've said that about another episode this season as well, very season one.
Yeah, yeah. And by the end it, uh, it just kind of like everything is resolved and, uh, normality is restored. So yeah, this didn't have the heart of some of the other episodes. Like, going back to, you know, Boimler crying foul that he was the canary in the coal mine, I thought, was equally preposterous, and, and, uh, comedy first, and yet it was grounded in, um, something consequential to the character, and I, I just didn't see that in this one.
If anything, like, Mariner was a little too evolved. Like the, this episode starts with Tendi remarking just how far Mariner has come and Mariner going, Oh yeah, I like algae planets. You know, I'm actually a model officer. And then the whole thing is, no, I will not be pulled back into my, the Starbase 80 era of my life.
But I'm not sure I buy that because even, even at the point where she was sent away to Starbase 80, she had already kind of made peace with being an officer on the ship and was doing the right thing. It was just all of her, uh, her crewmates who assumed she had done the wrong thing. So I, I, yeah, I, I just don't think it hangs together. I did enjoy the decon gel scene though. Watching Ransom like put the thick layer of gel through his hair was a great visual gag.
Yes. It was, yep. I, I was feeling feelings that I never thought I could feel in a, in an animated comedy Star Trek show, so.
I appreciate the nice reversal of expectation that it turns out the plague or the alien influence, it turns out is on the Cerritos. They brought it to Starbase 80 with them, and they retake the Cerritos with the help of the Starbase 80 misfits. And that is a nice reversal. Still, I couldn't quite buy into, uh, what was the guy's name, slinging the corn dogs in the hallway. That was just a little too,
Yes, I can't remember his name, but yes, that tied everything together a little bit too.
Gene, the chief engineer. I don't know if you, if you name, uh, a middle aged white guy with a certain roundness in his figure Gene, I can't help, like, feeling this is an avatar for Gene Roddenberry, and yet they didn't do anything with that if that's what was, uh, intended, and so I, I can only assume Ha ha ha ha!
That's the type of research we need to do here in Subspace Radio.
Yes, uh, Gene Jakobowski, Again, yeah, just, uh, kind of a weird red herring that, that kept our characters busy. And in the end he was like, Oh yeah, I was just stringing you along so you'd fix our star base for us. But they did that at the end anyway. So yeah. Anyway, yeah, it was disposable this episode.
Yes, I agree. So, we've talked about this particular starbase that we've been waiting to see for, you know, four and a half seasons. So let's,
know I love a starbase, Rob.
Look, I know you're going to talk about it, so let's just get straight into it. Let's talk about our love, each have our own favorite starbase that we want to talk about. Mine, mine is, uh, it goes by two different names. Uh, yours has been seen in multiple films. Um, let's, let's, let's, let's just, let's just share our, uh, our love of our favorite starbases.
Well, yeah, I'm, I'm actually going to surprise you, Rob, because I have, I have waxed lyrical about that beautiful kind of curvy, mushroom shaped Starbase that has appeared in the, the original series films and through reused footage, many, many times since, and I do love that thing, but we've talked about it. So I went back to what for me was the most memorable first appearance of a star base.
And, uh, so I'm taking us back to the original series, an episode that comes up a lot, but not for this reason. Season two, episode 13, The Trouble with Tribbles, which takes place on Deep Space Station K-7.
I was gonna, I was, I had yeah, K-7 in my, uh, collection as well, because that was like my first contact of an original series space station through Deep Space Nine. So I was gonna do the double effect of going Deep Space Nine through K7, but uh, you pipped me at the post.
Yeah, so it's not even quite a starbase like ships don't seem to dock at it or go inside of it
They just orbit around it.
around it. So we might just broaden our definition to space stations here if you'll accept it
But it is a stationary, it is a stationary object in space that people are on. It doesn't travel. Yeah. Space stationary. It's not a space station. It's a space stationary.
Um, the original series had a lot of starbases named and a few starbases seen. A lot of them were actually on planets, so they were matte paintings of futuristic looking buildings that the, uh, the landing party beamed down in front of and then went inside and it was a set.
Um, K-7 stands out in my memory because of one little visual trick that almost was not necessary, but in the first scene when they, they beam into the administrator's office of K-7, there is a window, and out the window is a tiny little Enterprise going by. And in the 60s, one can only assume the, the only way they could have done that is to actually put together a model kit of the Enterprise, light it, and hang it there by a string. Maybe two strings, you know, it was pretty, pretty high tech.
They had, they had, you know, enough budget to be a little bit, uh, you know, adventurous and advanced in their technology.
Yes. This is what I love about Starbases and Space Stations is they are, at the end of the day, just more sets, but they give the feeling of a location based episode. Just like beaming down to a planet at Vasquez Rocks or wherever they took the crew that week, to me, going to a space station feels like going on a field trip, being somewhere else that makes the galaxy feel a little bit bigger than the four walls of our starship.
And it's a, it's a remarkable magic trick that it's, in many cases, they're just using relit pieces of sets from the, the starship that we're on every week itself. And yet it feels like we're going somewhere. And this choice at K-7 to go a little above and beyond and actually show us the Enterprise out the window, give us that sense of scale, that feeling that we're in a room.
There's a pane of glass and vacuum of space, and then the home we're used to seeing, to me as, you know, a 12 year old kid watching Star Trek in the basement for the first time, I, I, was really struck by that sudden, like, investment in the reality.
And the one thing I, like, that's stuck with me from seeing it for the first time through Deep Space Nine is just how functionary it is as a space station. It's not this grand, um, Starfleet type of station, like what we've seen before with ships docking and diplomats arriving and people from different planets and this sort of like hub of activity. This is sort of like a, uh, you know, a stationary object that's there, like we talked about it.
spot. Yeah, for sure. You almost get the sense it's, it's about the same size as the Enterprise,
And it's there for like moving grain and it's in storage while it goes from one place to another. So it seems to be this way station as opposed to this center of thriving, of a thriving hub, which, uh, which
the name K-7. It's like, Oh, so it's just the seventh, there's one through six as well. And they're all, they all look the same. They all just do their job as, as ships come and go. Um, yeah, in, in this episode, like you said, they are, they are the, the place where the Quadrotriticale grain has been put in storage bins, awaiting transfer to a colony that desperately needs it. And the, the, the entire place is like three sets.
Uh, it is that administrator's office that has a transporter pad in the corner. There is the bar where Cyrano Jones sells, um, tribbles. And, and there is a bar, bar room brawl with the Klingons partway through the episode, very memorably.
With, uh, with Miles O'Brien and, and Bashir.
Yes! Of course. They were there the whole time. And there is the storage grains where, uh, the piles of tribbles fall down on Captain Kirk's head. And all three of those are, like, they are recognizably in the world, but they are all three kind of very, I guess, grand for the time, um, one off sets that, uh, that have a different configuration and you get the sense the Enterprise doesn't have storage bins like that. The Enterprise doesn't have a bar like that.
And, and yet they, they, through production design consistency, they fit in the world. Uh, and it's just a really, for me, a really delightful expanding of the picture of the canvas of, uh, the Federation at this time.
Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was great to, to, to go from what I was, you know, used to with a, with a Star Trek starbase format, whether it be a Cardassian starbase or a Federation one, to then be taken back to the 60s and see it from, you know, with 1990s eyes, uh, was, was fascinating to see and to see that consistency connecting with the 1960s decor of the Enterprise and how that fits in with the decor and, uh, architecture of, uh, K-7.
There's another episode of the original series that, uh, prominently takes place, at least partly, on a starbase. It's at Starbase 11. This is Season 1, Episode 14, Court Martial.
martial. Yeah, I
Yeah, earlier on. And, um, this is where Kirk goes looking for, um, a legal defense when he is accused of the murder of one of his crew members. Uh, we've talked about this one before.
Yeah. And so, yeah, again, a lot of just like slightly redressed Enterprise sets and, uh, and yet it, it feels like a new place, but despite the fact that this is a true Starbase and I guess you can therefore believe it is much bigger, um, the, the K-7 to me has that Enterprise out the window feeling of reality that, uh, that, that, uh, I had not seen before in the original series. Uh, anyway, where would you like to take us,
Um, well, I think I've talked about it many times before. Let's just have a little deep dive into Deep Space Nine because what we have with that
Deep Space
Deep Space Nine itself,
Woo-hoo!
Terok Nor. I think we have in some, well, I think I've always talked about it and we go off on tangents about it. Uh, well, I do at least, but the, the most exciting thing about it is it's not a Federation space station. The architecture, the design is clearly Cardassian.
So having that be our base for seven years on, uh, uh, for Deep Space Nine, there's a fascinating concept that we're not used to how we see the Enterprise laid out, or, you know, when we go back to the Federation or in San Francisco, the, the architecture is consistent. So how we have that Bajoran culture blend in with the Deep Space Nine crew and the architecture of, um, of the Cardassians and yeah, the space of it.
Like you talked about with, with Deep Space Nine, it feels like a location, even though it's a set, because you have like the, the bridge area, you have Quark's bar, you have the Promenade, which is just this staggeringly beautiful opens set on multiple levels, um, that they could do so many different shots with and different angles and different heights and all that type of stuff to really make it fill out and fill it with a huge base of extras as well.
That was one interesting thing watching Trials and Tribulations, that moment when they arrive on the Enterprise and it sort of like starts close in and then it expands out and they walk through the corridors of the Enterprise and there's like hundreds of ex, it looks like hundreds of extras that, that was never there in the
Way more than they could have ever afforded back in the 60s.
In the sixties, um, yeah, in the sixties, you'd have like three or four extras walking around, um, but in Deep Space Nine you're going, Oh no, they've got more money now that I can have like 20 or 30, you know, even at least walking around these corridors and like frammed and trying to get through, but yeah, the amount of extras fill out and it becomes lively. So you have Bajoran culture and religion and temples in Cardassia design space.
You've got Quark's bar, you've got the Federation trying to fill it all out. It's a wonderful amalgamation from the, from the pylons that you just got to circle around, just circle around.
The Promenade itself, just, um, the, the scale of that set was unprecedented for, for TV at the time, is my understanding. Um, it, it really was a, an end to end set. It wasn't made of parts that they stood up or, or packed down or, or reconnected or, or reused. The, the Enterprise and most of the starships, famously, they have like one curved arc of corridor so you can't see around the corner. But if they need to walk a long way, they'll just see it.
Just stop them, make an edit, and they'll walk down the same corridor times, and the Promenade was not that. The Promenade was a fully wraparound set. You could look in 360 degrees and it fully surrounded you. Um, and, uh, my only regret about the promenade is that the geometry, that, that Cardassian architecture was so, like, it, it, I don't know if it had the same effect on you, Rob, but the lack of right angles made it really hard to get my head around, um, the shape of the place.
So even though it did have a shape and there was a full like layout watching the show for seven years, I never managed to form a picture in my head of, you know, where the Replimat was in comparison to Quark's Bar Where the main, um, uh, entry door, that big roller door, where that was compared to Odo's office. All those things were situated in space relative to each other. Uh, but I never quite got a feel for the, the, the shape of the place, even it was there on screen to see.
And I believe, I believe the Promenade was an inner circle because the outer circle was the docking
Yes, that's right. So yeah, when you see the, when you see Deep Space Nine, it's like an outer ring and then an inner ring and then a tiny circle and the promenade, my understanding is it's in that circle. Um, it's in the, uh, it's actually the little, uh, crown around the top of the circle. So, uh, you can see on the model the little windows around the top where
Oh, that's the Promenade. Cause I thought that was the, um, I thought that that was, uh, the bridge area. It was the bridge area on
There's, there's the bridge area on top. Then there is the Promenade, then there's just like kind of like decks and things. And then there's the two docking rings. There's the inner docking, and the
the outer docking ring.
Yeah. And the outer docking ring has the docking pylons on it. So a lot going on. And the, the place that looks so big on screen on the inside is rather tiny, uh, on the, on the model. Uh, so there, it, it does give a sense of scale.
And we do still, yeah, for most of it, like you said, we focus mostly on one section where Quarks is downstairs and the sort of like, and then the temple leads there and there's other, you know, Odo's office is close by as well, but yeah, so despite the size of the set in real time, it's quite small in its relation to the size of the Promenade, but the
Something that has helped, and I'll put this in the show notes for anyone else who wants to go on a tour, is the Roddenberry Archive has been like recreating all the ships and all the bridges from the various series in 3D that you can then, in a web browser, move around and explore. The entire Promenade is created, so you can, you can click around the Promenade and freely explore it and get a sense of the shape of the space.
And it was like a revelation to me because I'd never seen it all in one place with the ability to get a feel for it before. The main thing that struck me, that I'd never appreciated before was the, the very, very 80s carpets. The carpeted floor, like half of it looks like it's a patchwork of, uh, material off of Quark's clothing. It's, it's so, so bizarre. It doesn't even quite look Cardassian. It just looks kind of, um, 80s, 80s kitschy alien.
I do appreciate in, uh, Picard when they went in season three when they finally got, you know, the original, uh, Enterprise from the Enterprise D,
Yes.
Um, and, and they, they talk about the carpets on the
Yeah, where the carpet's always this color. Heh
Um, but yeah, one thing I particularly liked about Deep Space Nine as a, as a star base, a space station, is those docking bays. And so we could see the mechanics of how ships dock, what angle they need to go in, where their docking place is. And despite whatever culture they are, they need to be able to sync in with this similar technology, which has always been on my mind of going, how do these, you know, different technologies, um, blend and how they connect, how do they communicate.
Um, because a big part of watching, um, Star Wars since it's expanded out, um, one of my favorites in Star Wars franchise is Rebels, but Rebels do a lot of, you know, ships in space docking with each other, but the designs are so weird and going, how do they, so we've got ships turning on their side to dock, going underneath to dock, it's quite complicated to see how these two pieces connect together. It's a little bit sexual.
Deep Space Nine does a remarkable job of, uh, despite those constraints that you just called out, never, never breaking that weird convention that all ships share the same direction upwards. No, no matter what they do, like they, they might be on the docking pylon, they might be on the ring, they might be landing and going inside the shuttle bay, they all face the same way up, for no particular reason other than it looks good on screen.
In Star Wars Rebels, they're flipping over, they're doing all this type of stuff, whether they're on their side docking, whether they're going in backwards, whether they're going front ways, but they're always, yeah, they're always facing upright. None of them have to flip over.
Yeah.
And especially, like, the bigger ships are on the pylons, and the smaller ships can go on either the inner circle or one of the outer little docking ports. That, for me, is always fascinating to see, like, where the, where the Defiant would land, where the Enterprise would go, um, where the, where the, um, whenever a, you know, Ferengi ship when, you know, when, when, um, the Nagus was there or with a, you know, Klingon ship and how they would dock.
I just love those, that establishing shot at the start of every episode that would show us, yep, we're back at Deep Space 9 again, just like we always are, but the configuration of docked ships was always slightly different, and I, I loved those little details when they gave them to us.
Well, that's the best part also about the opening titles from Season 4 onwards. They made, uh, Deep Space Nine more active. There were so much
a bustling. Yeah.
much more bustling. Whereas in Season 1 through to 3, it was like this, the isolation, lonely place, but I love that
here.
Like a wild, yeah, like a wild west town out there. It's that whole, you know, Star Trek is, you know, uh, wagon train in space, um, and Deep Space 9 is, uh, the town at the edge of the wilderness.
It, well, it, it literally looks like a wagon wheel, doesn't it?
It does. Eat the wagon wheel.
A lot has been said about how the designers went through a lot of concepts and the, the, um, the mandate, much as it was for the original USS Enterprise, was to create something instantly recognizable and iconic.
Yeah, I
needs to look like a star base, at least needs to look alien, but first and foremost, it needs to be the iconic star of the show that, uh, when people see it, within half a second, they go, oh, that's Deep Space 9 in the same way you go, that's the Enterprise.
I adored the design. I think it's absolutely beautiful. I never got into Babylon 5, um, um, and hardcore people go, oh Babylon 5 is far much more serious. Um, uh, but yeah, the design of Babylon 5 always got me as a little bit bland, but I just love the, the, the striking nature of the Cardassian design for, uh, for Terok Nor, Deep Space 9.
they went beyond what would be a realistic concept for a space station, like scientifically, which I feel like Babylon 5 is that. These are all the features. How would they actually work together in a sensible configuration universe we're trying to get you to buy into.
Whereas Deep Space 9 does feel like it went an extra step and went, what is a work of art we can create that will lend an air of mystery and, and newness to this show that will rejuvenate Star Trek that has, after seven years of The Next Generation, been feeling the limits of, uh, of starship based, uh, storytelling.
Exactly. And I think it did rejuvenate it just, uh, decades later when, uh, television finally caught up with, uh, arc storytelling over multiple seasons.
Yeah, yeah. I love how the, there were so many details along the, the hull of that, that were there from the beginning, that were then later paid off as they, they go, well, here's what this panel does. Here's what that round thing does. Like, uh, Way of the Warrior, when those little round things pop out and become gatling photon torpedoes.
And the first time a runabout kind of emerged from one of the landing pads, those kind of things really tickled me because they're like, Oh, it was there all along. And now we it does. And it immediately makes you believe that all the other details, arbitrary as they may be, that are on that the surface of that thing, they all do something. Yeah.
Because, yeah, and that's basically something that was introduced to something that we weren't expecting. We just assumed it was defenseless or to have shields, but to be, you know, packed to the gills or, you know, loaded for bear, um, as much as it was and how it defends itself, not just with, you know, lasers, but photons, gatling guns, whatever they are, um, Yeah, certainly, uh, they added little elements each season to really expand it out to being a living, breathing, uh, part of the show.
What a great pick. I'm glad we got to nerd out on on the design of that thing. Surprised we never did before.
I think we've talked about it a little bit, especially like when they went to the other, uh, the other, uh, there's a, like, another space station to go get stuff. I think the, the, The Magnificent Ferengi has to go to the, to the other, you know, shut down,
Yeah.
uh, Cardassian space station. But yeah, going into further detail and talking about all that type of stuff, um, was very exciting. You've warmed this Deep Space Nine fan's heart.