Wooster

It’s kinda odd in retrospect. There are many words to describe Romulans… but violent isn’t really amongst the top ten.

But the mystery ship is already built… implying they’ve had him for quite a while now. Why search for something they already have?

Hmm… according to Freeman’s intel… the Mystery ship was seeking out Lorcano… but as far as I can tell… he’s the mastermind.

Why would he want to find himself?

My problem with ship designs in general, canon and not, is that they all tend to be so flat. Like… vertically speaking. Flat.

As a filthy casual with little to no knowledge of comics outside of a few cartoons…

… I’m incredibly confused and distracted by retro-cyborg’s design.

Huh… never knew that tidbit.

It’s easy to imagine if that reality had come to play, we’d get the Tom Paris treatment… but I can’t help but wonder if we might’ve gotten a Captain Brahms.

I remember reading an article in “Star Trek: The Magazine” that fans were convinced it was practical effects, but the sequence was actually CGI.

The fact that the CGI was indistinguishable from traditional methods is honestly really really impressive for the era.

It was nice to see a somewhat T’AnA centered story. Assuming she appears at all, she’s either making out with Shaxs or doing cat things.

Surprised it took so long to meet Levy. It played out as one might expect.

Glad we got some quality time with Delta Shift. We’ve had a few episodes featuring them, but they’re mostly off screen or limited to short exchanges.

As a whole package, I don’t think this episode worked as well as Veritas. There wasn’t a central story tying the four tales together. You could probably cut the hub tale, and possibly Tendi’s turbo lift tale, and not lose anything of value.

The Parliament class we first see in Cupid’s Errant Arrow is 2D illustrations. It’s not until Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place that we get a 3D model.

The chaotic battle we see in the opening credits are mixed. The Romulans and Borg are 2D. Starting in S2 we add 3D Clumpships and Birds of Prey. S3 adds 3D Crystalline Entity. S4 adds 3D Breen ship, and 2D Whale Probe.

The Parasite scene is mixed. The Cerritos is 3D. The Parasite is layered 2D giving the illusion of 3D.

Is it extremely powerful though? The ship doesn’t begin its attack until after an inside job has been completed, not unlike in Star Trek: Generations.

You do bring up an interesting point with the lack of Federation ships being attacked. Though the BIA and the Bynar ship throw half a wrench into that idea. Not technically Starfleet, but not unaffiliated either.

My personal suspicion as to why we haven’t seen a Starfleet Vessel being attacked yet is because the Cerritos is ultimately going to be one of its victims… and that’s best saved for the finale. My second guess is that a Parliament ship will be a casualty. We saw a CGI model for the first time in the Ferengi episode, but the CGI models are typically reserved for fan service (Titan, Crystaline Entity, Voyager, DS9, Soverign Class), have a lot of use (Cerritos, Shuttles), or are engaged in combat (Bird of Prey, Sh’Val, Clumpship, Texas Class, Breen Vessel).

Also note the CGI Bird of Prey being added to the LD intro in S2, which foreshadowed the CGI battle in 3 Ships.

The Parliament class, to date, has not really fulfilled any of those roles—which has my attention in a conservation of detail sense.

An odd number of Binars… and we find the missing pair operating a bridge console at the time of the attack.

Certainly fits the profile of the other acts of treachery followed immediately by betrayal.

I have to admit, with the revelation that the ships are all being stolen with fake debris left behind… I’m at a loss as to what the endgame is.

• I seriously doubt they’re being salvaged for parts. Lower Decks has already done that with the Pakleds.

• The ships don’t really fit a profile. We have the huge vertical warbird to the tiny Orion vessel. The militant Bird of Prey to the sciency Binars.

• Only the Orion and Ferengi vessels could be argued as sharing a mission—with their sorting of random weapons. But even if the ship is after weapons, there are better targets.

• Taking the crews prisoner seems impractical.

Really, the only things the ships all have in common is a lower decker that is vindictive and gullible enough to commit treachery. But that’s not an objective, that’s a means to an end.

They’re still in the process of genetically engineering the bacteria, so their efficiency is still a work in progress.

There’s also the issue that economies of scale tip heavily in plastics direction,

It’s not a carbon neutral process. There’s significant both heating and cooling involved.

And, it doesn’t really solve the issue of retiring plastics.

The last update I read on the bacteria, prior to the genetic engineering, mentioned that the bacteria didn’t actually like the plastic and would only really break it down for want of something more practical. Presumably that has been solved, but I didn’t see it brought up in the article.