WHY WE LIKE IT: Which means Jeffrey Combs is back as AGIMUS, and Jack Brayer as Badgey!
WHY WE DON'T: But also... Peanut Hamper?! Again!?
REVIEW: With all the A.I. talk in the real world lately, the return of the show's A.I. villains was sort of ordained, but it's not like Discovery and Picard haven't pursued A.I. storylines in the past few years before the issue became so mainstream. Indeed, the climax with Badgey taking over the Federation like a virus is right out of the Prodigy Season 1 finale, and up to a point, Picard Season 3's. So it's really about enjoying the return of these villains and closing the books on them (at least, that's how it feels). Jeffrey Combs is Star Trek royalty and is always welcome as AGIMUS (or any other role), but I think Badgey's story has been told and this should be the end for him. That's even more true of Peanut Hamper who a part of fandom finds especially irritating.
With all these bad guys around, each of them having an axe to grind with the Lower Decks characters, A Few Badgeys More is the most Upper Decks adventure imaginable for our Junior Lieutenants. They're all asked to be at a briefing (with just Freeman and Ransom). Mariner and Rutherford serve on the bridge and sacrifice themselves for the ship. Maybe Tendi having to attend Peanut Hamper's parole hearing is "menial", but Boimler accompanies her to the Daystrom Institute (or Institution, as it's presented as a place where boxy A.I.s have group therapy and other rehab activities, providing nice absurd images) to get information out of AGIMUS about the mystery ship and its wave of destruction. Even the Cerritos itself getting to investigate the latest ship attack is on a higher pay scale than usual (even if it's just because they happen to be close by). Breaks the premise a little bit, but as long as what happens is then absurd and silly, it's fine. And it is.
Investigating the destruction of a Bynar ship gives us the chance to see more of this species beyond their one episode (and the S.C.E. series of ebooks). The ship is not a great design, but it's got two hulls, so it works, and because they only speak in binary bleeps and bloops, there are no real jokes to be had, so it goes by quick. I do like that we STILL start on a lower deck, and find that on the bridge, it's two people per station, including the captain's chair. In any case, Badgey is in control of a Drookmani salvage ship (they were the ones who saved him at the end of Season 3) and he's using the Bynar wreckage to draw the Cerritos and his hated father, into a trap. Good "boop" jokes as the ship gets a beating. Rutherford beams over and tries to give his creation love, which creates an unresolvable error that splits Badgey into different parts, the villain rejecting his good part, and then his logic into separate beings. There's a lot of the Soong family in all this: Badgey is Lore fighting Data and maybe B-4. He succeeds, spreads himself across subspace, to the entire Federation, now evil and illogical, wanting to destroy everything, not just his father... and he ascends (again, see other NuTrek series for A.I. transfigurations) to the great Kosmic Koala in the sky. When you become omniscient and omnipresent, there doesn't seem to be a point to petty schemes. Though the LD crew don't trust Goodgey much, that last scene seems to say he won't befall the same fate as the OG program. So it's a pretty good ending for Badgey, and it's not unlike the fate of the other two villains.
Peanut Hamper and AGIMUS both evolve towards good as well. They've bonded in prison and their schemes (faking remorse, escape, dominating a world where willpower doesn't seem to exist) are really just an excuse to hang out. Not romantically, just as good friends. And over the course the episode, they become more sincere. P.H.'s speech at the hearing is a big fake until she hears herself saying the words and finding she means it. We get to see her back at home, at the Tyrus VIIA station from that original Exocomp episode, truly rehabilitated. AGIMUS kidnaps Tendi and Boimler and gives it the old try, but his initial "forcing" of a blue light (reserved for good robots) becomes real and unforced when he admits he's been doing all this for friendship. Like Badgey, their logic circuits eventually make them realize that petty schemes are pointless. Humans should be so logical. Of course, he still laughs diabolically when he's in good spirits. That should never change.
LESSON: You can't give up until the scientific method has done its thing.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A bold pair of exciting adventures for Lower Decks. Plenty of weirdness if not huge laughs.
Comments