Just did a rewatch:
Commander Nox is 'just' the diplomatic liason.
So does that make Gene the station commander?
Commander Nox is 'just' the diplomatic liason.
So does that make Gene the station commander?
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 5x05 - "Starbase 80?!"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Honestly, I hate the idea of Starbase 80 just being another version of the Cerritos. We don't need a bunch of scrappy underdogs after already having a ship of scrappy underdogs. Can we actually have a place where the genuine jerks of Star Trek go?
It was the premise for Starbase 80. I feel cheated if they change it to Cerritos lite.
It was the premise for Starbase 80. I feel cheated if they change it to Cerritos lite.
So what atmosphere are you looking for here? As I see it the Cerritos and other such postings are considering the dregs of the fleet. As in 'you arne't up for the actual big boy work so we stick you here.'
How is SB80 diffrent?
It's the place were dregs of the dregs wind up.
Looks like that's where we got. Gene is literally the station commander and he's the guy out doing basic repairs with tools he doesn't have. There seems to be like... ONE shuttle. The Cerritos was at the secondar ydocking ring instead of housed inside the primary ,suggesting it either doesn't work or the Acamerians have parked all of THEIR stuff there....
Plus everything is just plaine.... grimey looking. Like.. I can't even begin to imagine the smell outside of 'a small city's wort hof people crammed intoa tin can with the air blowing around constantly.'
I'm wit hmariner here on getting told they have to show up. The moment any shit pundocks there's cleanup crews to change the air scrubbers andm ake sure the airlock the umbillical was clamped to gets a scrubdown.
Remember. Nox's entire JOB is positive spin. So she's going to try selling 'her' people as quirky and scrappy.
I mean for Q's sakes most of the uniforms shown aren't clean. By the way missed opportunity to make a joke at how hard it is to get velore clean.
There's a difference between remedial and reform school. One's a place for lesser lights and those that don't fit in anywhere, and the other is a punishment for bad behavior. Starfleet jail, your last chance before a court martial.
Not to dispute, as I do agree. I'm simply trying to figure out from a practical upshot what that looks like.
Discussion elsewhere kinda points at SB80 being in a non-priority sector that's nowhere near any major border, has few real internal issues with the largest non federation players being like... colonizing their own star systems or barely reaching beyond. So. No stakes if anyone screws up.
At the same time it's almost like whoever is sent there has technically already been discharged and exists as starfleet on paper given how little if any actual backing they receive and how.... dilapidated everything from the station to even the support shuttles look.
Again there is 'mend and make do' and then there is, in a post scarcity society, letting a population go without basic tools and equipment.
Basically, I'd see Starbase 80 as populated by Starfleet people who are like Fletcher from "Terminal Provocations."
If it took all of Mariner's screw ups to get assigned there, it's a place to put people who are not criminally liable for court martial but are just flat out terrible at their jobs and attitudes.
It is the Antarctica they reassign people to.
When we saw our first glimpse of it, I thought it was also a waste recycling center or ship decommissioning yard.
Eh, everyone else has a rock bottom. I see no reason why Starfleet should be exempt from that truth.
Gene's only a Lieutenant, so obviously not the station's CO. Nox is a full Commander. And despite being introduced as the diplomatic liaison, Nox does record the Station Commander's Log at the end of the episode.
Maybe they share it/take turns.
Starbase 80 isn't important enough to assign an actual commanding officer.
I just don't agree on this point. It is extremely weird.
It's only weird if you believe Starfleet is made up of a bunch of ubermneschs with no place for Barclays or Mariners.
Where are we getting the idea that the Cerritos is some sort of "dumping ground" for "dregs", slightly better than SB80? It's less prestigious assignment than a Galaxy or a Sovereign and it's mission profile isn't that glamorous, for sure. But other than Mariner, no one is there as a last chance. It seems to be a stepping stone for bigger things. (or ships).
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i don't think that at all and i think it's weird that SB80 is basically next door to a 40k hive city more than a starbase. The actual personnel are all grimey and slovenly. The EVERYTHING is gross and disgusting.
Why did the cerritos have to dock in the secondary docking ring? Was the primary full?
We don't have enough information but this feels less like an official starbase and more a bunch of people found an old decomissioned hulk complete with castoffs and salvage and with 'we're a starbase!' and the federation just ran with it.
Eh, I feel like they handled it very poorly either way.
I'd have been much more interested in a 23rd century starbase and its reasons for supply issues/not being updated than the idea they're secretly a bunch of good hearted oddballs.
Same. Like... there are so many plots that can be toyed with and explored there. that they're all oddballs can simply be assumed. It's the literal state of everything and just how CASUAL Kassie is about A DOOR OPENING AND CLOSING WITH ENOUGH FORCE TO CRUSH A PANEL COVER.
That is not normal... That it is seen as normal to me is heavily concerning.
So it's like Starfleet intentionally allows Starbase 80 to deteriorate? I guess that works.
Although it does sorta beg the question, how can the kind of personnel that typically wind up at SB80 even be allowed into Starfleet in the first place...I mean, how'd they even pass the entrance exams, let alone get all the way through the Academy?
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