Movies & TV Star Trek: Lower Decks “This is gonna be Klingon as hell!” — Star Trek: Lower Decks: “A Farewell to Farms” Boimler and Mariner help a Klingon get his groove back, while Rutherford and Tendi battle Klowahkan food critics… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on November 7, 2024 Credit: CBS / Paramount+ Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: CBS / Paramount+ Klingon episodes in Star Trek tend to be Very Serious Indeed. Some of the most powerful pieces of drama in the franchise have been Klingon-focused, from “Errand of Mercy,” “A Private Little War,” and “Day of the Dove” on the original series to episodes on the spinoffs ranging from TNG’s “Reunion” to DS9’s “Blood Oath” to Voyager’s “Day of Honor” to Enterprise’s “Judgment” to Discovery’s “Will You Take My Hand?” to SNW’s “Under the Cloak of War.” But Klingons and humor can mix just fine. After all, the most popular comedy episode of the franchise, the original series’ “The Trouble with Tribbles,” was a Klingon episode, and DS9 did some great Klingon comedy in “The House of Quark.” LD has already mined the Klingons for humor in the past (“Envoys,” “wej Duj,” “The Inner Fight”), and we get it again this week with half the storyline, which takes place on Qo’noS. Boimler and Mariner are sent there to investigate another of the quantum fissures that has opened, and Mariner takes advantage of their little side quest to catch up with Ma’ah. Introduced in “wej Duj” as a junior officer with aspirations, who then became a captain, only to lose his captaincy following his own junior officers taking over his ship thanks to Nick Locarno in “Twovix.” Ma’ah is now back on the family farm with his brother. Malor is the quintessential younger brother: a bit of a layabout, always making fun of Ma’ah, doing as little work as possible, spending more time putting decorative horns on the ship than working. (The horns are from an animal he slew in battle. When Ma’ah points out that he just ran the beast over, Malor bellows, “that counts!”) In particular, Malor takes great glee in his brother’s fallen state, reduced to making and delivering bloodwine, as well as wrangling targs and harvesting gagh. In addition, Ma’ah is ignoring Mariner’s multiple attempts to contact him, as he has no interest in letting her see him in his reduced state. Eventually, though, she finds him at the Warrior’s Pit, a bar to which Ma’ah is delivering bloodwine. Boimler is, of course, having the time of his life getting beat up by Klingons in a bar. Mariner wants to help Ma’ah get his groove back, as it were, and Boimler finds a tradition—the Klingons, after all, have tons of traditions and rituals, which was also a source of humor in “The House of Quark”—by which he can have his captaincy restored by the Oversight Council. Credit: CBS / Paramount+ The makeup of the council is a good news/bad news thing. One member is Mariner’s old friend K’Orin, whom we met way back in “Envoys.” He’s on the council now because he threw his back out disemboweling a Romulan spy. The head of the tribunal, unfortunately, is Bargh, the brother of the captain Ma’ah killed, and he will continue to deny Ma’ah’s petition to be restored as long as he’s in charge. Boimler, however, pulls a ritual out of his ass, by which a petitioner can be restored via an endurance test. However, he has to have a minyan—er, that is, a quv beq of four taking the test. And so Ma’ah, Mariner, a very reluctant Malor, and a very enthusiastic Boimler go through a gauntlet of painstiks (similar to what Worf went through in TNG’s “The Icarus Factor,” and which they survive by all jumping on top of the very large Malor so the painstiks are only hitting one physical form at a time spread out over four bodies, yay science) and then have to subdue a very very very very very large targ. The final test is the tricky part: they have to pick someone in the party to sacrifice. Boimler—who is way too much in the spirit of all this—actually volunteers, but Ma’ah would rather sacrifice himself. This is not a surprise, as he’s obviously just going through the motions and has lost his will to live. The only reason he’s done this much is because Mariner bullied him into it. He finally admits that he doesn’t want to be a captain again, because it would be in Bargh’s fleet. Luckily, there’s another solution, helped by the fact that the other two members of the council don’t like Bargh much, either. Ma’ah invokes the Rite of Forced Conscription, and forces Bargh to become part of his minyan—um, quv beq. And then Ma’ah chooses Bargh to be the one sacrificed. This, of course, results in a big fight between the two of them, with betrayals and reversals and lots and lots of purple blood, before Bargh finally winds up dead, and Ma’ah winds up captain—of his truck, with Malor as his first officer. He doesn’t want anything more than that. Credit: CBS / Paramount+ The other plot gives us some insight into Dr. Migleemo, as we find out that the Klowahkan people are epicures, and food critics occupy the highest social class on Klowahka. The Cerritos is escorting two of the most renowned food critics back home from a tour of alien restaurants. Migleemo is falling all over himself to treat them well (he’s so nervous, he’s molting). Disaster strikes when the critics hate every bit of food he brings them. He even tries to prepare a meal himself rather than rely on the replicator, but they hate that, too—so much so that they are forced to arrest Migleemo for feeding them poor food, which is a high crime on Klowahka. Freeman objects, but doesn’t really do anything to stop one of her crew from being arrested, which seems to me to be a jurisdictional issue that should’ve gotten more screen time. However, Rutherford and Tendi are on the case, and they figure out that the problem must be with the critics. Upon arrival at Klowahka, visitors are given a dish of oysters. Rutherford and Tendi swap the oysters for excrement, and the critics don’t even notice, proclaiming it the best food they’ve ever had. Upon revealing that they’ve just sung the praises of eating shit, they admit that their taste buds have atrophied due to the pressure of providing constant criticism, and they’ve been bullshitting their way through eating for months. Migleemo is freed, the critics are disgraced, but Migleemo offers them therapy to help them get over their issues and get back to tasting food properly. The critics—who have viewed Migleemo’s becoming a therapist the way that wealthy people view sanitation workers—are suddenly sucking up to the doctor. (When Tendi questions if helping them like this is ethical, Freeman waves it off. “They’re punks, let him have his win.”) This is a delightful episode, giving us a deeper look at Klingon life, with Ma’ah’s family farm, and exploring the Klowahkan culture, all with the show’s trademark humor, but never bleeding over into ridiculousness. Everything we see of Klingon culture is consistent with what we’ve seen before, and everything we see of Klowahkan culture is, as usual, a bit too planet-of-hats, but enjoyable for all that. Credit: CBS / Paramount+ Random thoughts One of the guest voices is Mary Chieffo, marking her second time voicing a Klingon. She had the recurring role of L’Rell on Discovery’s first two seasons. Given that she’s in charge of the Klingon Empire, it’s disappointing that we haven’t seen her on SNW, but good on LD for having her be Klingon again. At one point, two Klingons flying airbikes nearly crash into each other. “Experience bIJ!” they yell at each other, a deep-cut reference to the Star Trek VHS Interactive Board Game. In a very clever bit of world-building, the Klowahkans’ silverware are tiny beak-like tools that “bite” off tiny bits of the food that they can then put on their tongues. It’s exactly the kind of tool a bird-like species would develop, and bravo to the production staff for thinking that through. (Now if only they’d realized that a species with a beak for a mouth wouldn’t be able to form M or P sounds, so the name “Migleemo” doesn’t really work…) Boimler now has a pencil-thin mustache and more stubble (which he insists on calling a beard) as he works his way toward the beard his alternate-universe counterpart had in “Dos Cerritos.” He also describes his transferring from Titan back to Cerritos in a way that doesn’t entirely match how I remember it happening in “Kayshon, His Eyes Open,” but whatever, he was trying to motivate Ma’ah… Your humble rewatcher showed life on a much larger Klingon farm in his novel Star Trek: Klingon Empire: A Burning House. The scenes on that farm were among my favorite to write in any of my works of fiction. The vibe of the farm in this episode is very similar, which was extremely cool to see. The post “This is gonna be Klingon as hell!” — <i>Star Trek: Lower Decks</i>: “A Farewell to Farms” appeared first on Reactor.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The long quest to produce a competitive, viable phone/phone OS alternative to Big Tech’s Apple/Google duopoly, that above all meets the needs of privacy and security-oriented users, continues. A new effort in this direction comes in the shape of collaboration between Apostrophy OS (AphyOS) – an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) -based mobile operating system – with end-to-end encrypted messaging app Threema. Operating systems building on AOSP are also known as “de-Googled” Android – that which out the gate lacks the Google Mobile Services (GMS) package, the heart of Google’s grip on your phone’s data. But this also means the absence of handy features like easily accessing apps on Play Store – and this is one of the reasons Google works so hard to keep third-party stores out, and also, a major obstacle to overcome by the said privacy-first operating systems. By entering into a partnership with Treema, Apostrophy is clearly trying to make its OS a more attractive proposition by building in an end-to-end encrypted messenger, that is, the “Libre” (a reference to free software) version that does not rely on closed-source, proprietary libraries. To those running Apostrophy on a select number of phones that are fully compatible with the OS, this open version of Treema is available for “free, as in beer” – i.e., without the need to purchase a license. (For anybody interested in using this version of Treema on another OS/device, it can be found in the free and open source alternative to Play Store, F-Droid). Meanwhile, Apostrophy, that is marketing its endeavors as, “privacy meets usability,” comes pre-installed and tested for compatibility on a number of phones, notably Punkt MC02. To mark its partnership with Apostrophy, Treema said it was giving away ten of these devices. All three companies are based in Switzerland, stressing a minimalist approach to both hardware and software, which helps delivers on the usability and privacy promise, combined with Apostrophy’s stress on privacy. Beside excluding Google Mobile Services, the OS also offers a built-in VPN, and what it says is a “unique and intuitive” way for users to grant permissions to apps, called “Data Ledger.” If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Apostrophy Android Partners with Threema Libre for Free, Privacy-Focused Messaging appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in the UK is now reportedly producing mass surveillance on a truly massive scale – cameras are capturing number plates close to 44.5 times per second. That translates to more than one billion times a year, privacy and civil rights group Big Brother found out via freedom of information act (FOIA) requests, that concerned eight local or regional authorities. This makes for “one of the biggest surveillance networks in the world,” is how the group summed up the situation. APNRs are there to enforce green driving schemes (Clean Air Zones, CAZ; in London, this is known as the Ultra Low Emission Zone, ULEZ) by deploying mass surveillance and collecting data on drivers that can be retained for up to a year. And this comes on top of the police capturing number plates for their own purposes, said to be happening billions of times per year. The declared reason for the use and proliferation of surveillance cameras in these ULEZ-like schemes is to control how much emissions drivers are allowed to create. The authorities have the right to charge penalties – but in thousands upon thousands of cases, reports say this is based on erroneous data. Data hoovered up by APNRs is connected to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). One of the fears privacy advocates have is that this data will be used for purposes other than protecting the environment and that this is already happening as some of it is available to the police. According to Big Brother Watch, Birmingham City Council had struck a secretive, and apparently ongoing deal with West Midlands Police before the 2022 Commonwealth Games which let the police access the Council’s ANPR network. The response to this FOIA request, however, did not specify how much data was given to law enforcement thanks to this agreement, which the privacy advocates say, provided “unfettered access to number plate data.” Meanwhile, Transport for London (TfL) data captured from 163.2 vehicles driving past its live CCTV cameras was requested by the Metropolitan police between August 2023 and June 2024. “Millions of innocent people’s car journeys are captured by automated cameras every day and this level of surveillance is a threat to everyone’s privacy,” warned Big Brother Watch Head of Research and Investigations Jake Hurfurt. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Surveillance on the Road: Why Britain’s Massive Camera Network Has Privacy Advocates on Edge appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

On 25 October 1415, Henry V of England took on the mighty French forces at the Battle of Agincourt. Despite being heavily outnumbered, his troops won. It would become one of the most legendary victories in English history. But how much of the story we know today is true? In Agincourt: The Real Story, historical conflict analyst Dr Mike Livingston journeys through northern France in the footsteps of Henry V and his army, from Harfleur to Agincourt. Sign up to watch Livingston argues that the traditionally recognised site of the battle incorrectly locates the English position in the French position. Additionally, he wonders if Henry’s strategy alone won him the battle – or whether forces beyond his control proved pivotal. In the battle, Henry arranged his archers into low long wings either side of his centre, where his dismounted men-at-arms stood between further groups of archers. “As the French approached, they would be shot at from both sides while the surrounding woods and stakes would prevent his archers from being overrun,” Livingston explains. Livingston reconstructs the battle with Dr Marina Viallon, medieval arms and armour expert. Ultimately, it saw Henry win a total victory against the French, losing just hundreds of men compared with the thousands of French losses. Although the French men-at-arms facing them would have been eager and fully protected, wearing a combination of mail and plate armour, and the distinctive pointed helmet known as the pig’s nose bascinet, they had a problem. “The Dauphin had not yet arrived on the battlefield,” explains Viallon. “Instead the French were being led by various dukes of the realm, and they didn’t always get along. So a lot of other factions were actually fighting for power around the king and so you have four or five different leaders in this army.” This was their biggest problem, says Viallon. “The English had a clear and strong leader. And the French basically had too many cooks in the kitchen, but no chef.” Dr Mike Livingston meets with master arrowsmith and fletcher Will Sherman in Agincourt: The Real StoryImage Credit: History Hit The result was confused command, and commitment to a foiled plan even as conditions on the battlefield turned muddy and difficult. In this light, victory at Agincourt was not a foregone conclusion for the English, but almost a fluke. “Henry did not even want a fight,” says Livingston. “He tried his best to avoid it but the French caught up to him.” In Agincourt: The Real Story, Livingston explores the vital role of Henry’s archers, and works with master arrowsmith and fletcher Will Sherman to explore the finely honed technology that helped win the day. He also investigates whether Henry was seeking battle or running away, exploring whether illness among his troops motivated a return home. Livingston considers how Agincourt permeated as a tale of bravery and triumph against all the odds, inspiring Shakespeare and thereafter everyone from Churchill to Kenneth Branagh. Sign up to History Hit to watch original documentaries and ad-free listening to History Hit podcasts. Sign up to watch

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