S03.E07: A Mathematically Perfect Redemption

[tessaray]

Air Date:  October 6, 2022

A wayward Starfleet ensign struggles to find a path to redemption.

[dwmarch]

I like that this show is confident enough about itself to give us an episode mostly set outside of the ship and featuring a one-off character who was not particularly important in her first appearance.

The Cerritos actually got to throw down in this episode! That was nice to see.

I'm not sure why all of the megalomaniacal computers are stored together and able to talk to each other. That seems like a recipe for disaster. 

There was another interesting take on an old Star Trek trope here, the "why don't they use the obvious solution to fix this problem?" In this case, Peanut Hamper could have called for help at any time but chose not to. That might be a callback to a DS9 episode where the crew was stranded on a "farmer's paradise" planet where the person in charge had deliberately cut off communications. The pre-warp society but it's okay because they know about warp was in Insurrection along with old technology coming back to haunt the current inhabitants. Probably quite a few more Insurrection parallels now that I think about it. I'll wait to see how many TrekCulture picks up on when they do their review.

[Chaos Theory]

The episode was really inventive and everything but I had pretty much forgotten about Peanut Hamper and to focus an entire episode on the possible but not quite redemption of an unlikeable character didn’t really work for me.   I didn’t really like the episode until the Cerrrios showed up.  The episode was t bad.  It had its moments but I doubt it will go into my top ten episodes list.   

I am curious if Peanut Hamper and the other robot in robot prison will form an evil duo.   That will retroactively change my opinion if this episode.

[starri]

5 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I'm not sure why all of the megalomaniacal computers are stored together and able to talk to each other. That seems like a recipe for disaster. 

At the Daystrom Institute no less.  Home to the Federation's most advanced tech.

[johntfs]

6 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

The episode was really inventive and everything but I had pretty much forgotten about Peanut Hamper and to focus an entire episode on the possible but not quite redemption of an unlikeable character didn’t really work for me.   I didn’t really like the episode until the Cerrrios showed up.  The episode was t bad.  It had its moments but I doubt it will go into my top ten episodes list.   

I am curious if Peanut Hamper and the other robot in robot prison will form an evil duo.   That will retroactively change my opinion if this episode.

Badgey for a triple threat.

[QuantumMechanic]

Mostly a waste of 12.5% of this season. Not a fan of this one.  If this were a 15 or 20 episode season it would have bothered me less.  But we get so little time with the real characters that sidelining them for an eighth of the season really grates.

You want to set up some "evil computers fight back" story?  Fine.  But how about doing it in a way that actually uses the cast.

Edited October 7, 2022 by QuantumMechanic

[QuantumMechanic]

21 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I'm not sure why all of the megalomaniacal computers are stored together and able to talk to each other. That seems like a recipe for disaster. 

"Evil will always triumph because Good is dumb."

[Tachi Rocinante]

A Strategically Imperfect Turd is more like it.

[marinw]

Epic episode. They resemblance to Avatar was notable.

[arjumand]

On 10/7/2022 at 5:10 AM, QuantumMechanic said:

Mostly a waste of 12.5% of this season. Not a fan of this one.  If this were a 15 or 20 episode season it would have bothered me less.  But we get so little time with the real characters that sidelining them for an eighth of the season really grates.

You want to set up some "evil computers fight back" story?  Fine.  But how about doing it in a way that actually uses the cast.

Am with you. I mean, of all the one episode characters we met, we're going with Peanut Hamper's journey? Seriously. I'm starting to think the introduction of the 'emotional' Vulcan Lower Decks character was just a red herring.

I just watched it an hour ago and I'm still shaking my head. Peanut Hamper, like come on.

[johntfs]

I liked what this episode represented - that the show is willing to experiment, break the format and try new stuff.  I'd have preferred checking in with the Cerritos crew a little earlier, but screw it.  Setting up Peanut Hamper in a "Dances with Avatar" story and then revealing that no, she's still the same selfish, vapid person she's always been was hilarious.

[xander874]

I laughed quite a bit in this episode. I thought the end was a bit of a mess and all over the place but I enjoyed it. I had forgotten about Peanut Hamper but I like world building and seeing what goes on in other places.

I'm fine with the divergence from the Cerritos. Maybe because I'm binging so I didn't really miss the crew.

[Quickbeam]

I loved this episode and laughed a lot. So many throw away snarky bits about Trek lore. 

[marina to]

I love that this episode looked like it was setting up a classic redemption story, only to take a hard right turn and say, "Gotcha!". I didn't mind the break from the Cerritos crew. I liked seeing something different. I had fun.