Starbases are imagined to be a house away from house for starship crews, a sanctuary the place they will take a time-out in Starfleet-approved environment. Starbase 80 is completely different, an area station so riven with neglect that many officers consider it is cursed.
Starbase 80 has been talked about on a number of earlier events in “Star Trek: Decrease Decks” — Mariner was briefly exiled there, whereas Captain Freeman’s doppelganger is the station’s commander in a parallel universe. Now, in new episode “Starbase 80?!”, we get to see what life is basically like on the Federation’s least fascinating pitstop.
When a routine mission to Piskes 9 leaves the USS Cerritos with no functioning warp drive, the ship is compelled to make an undesirable detour to Starbase 80 to select up the nav pc it must proceed its mission. The zombie infestation they encounter on the station appears to verify all their prejudices about Deep Area 9’s discount basement cousin — however there’s extra to Starbase 80 than messed-up gravity and corn canines.
Spoiler warning! Warning suggested if you have not watched this week’s episode.
What’s a Starbase in “Star Trek”?
A Starbase is basically a everlasting Starfleet set up. It may be an area station, a base on the floor of a planet or moon, or perhaps a Spacedock for mooring starships. They supply a secure haven for Federation members, whether or not they’re in search of repairs, provides or just someplace to hang around.
Farpoint station in “The Subsequent Era” pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint” suits the invoice, though it was constructed on a large house jellyfish, whereas Yorktown (within the various Kelvin timeline of “Star Trek: Past”) is successfully a large floating metropolis. Essentially the most well-known instance of a Starbase is Deep Area 9 (initially a Cardassian base referred to as Terok Nor), which lent its title to its personal long-running TV collection.
In canon, Starbases date again to the earliest days of Starfleet, when Captain Jonathan Archer and his crew of twenty second century explorers sought out potential places for everlasting settlements throughout the galaxy (“Star Trek: Enterprise”).
What’s so dangerous about Starbase 80?
Starbase 80 may do with happening a severe PR offensive, seeing because it’s extensively considered “the worst Starbase within the quadrant”.
It is a vacation spot the place one-size-fits-some uniforms come as commonplace and, if its residents are to be believed, a basic odor of rubbish and sweat lingers on the air. It is status is so dangerous {that a} posting to Starbase 80 has turn into a punishment for underperforming Starfleet officers. That is precisely why Beckett Mariner discovered herself banished to the station after her mother, Captain Carol Freeman, mistakenly believed the junior officer had dished the dust to a visiting journalist (“Trusted Sources”).
Mariner was so haunted by the expertise that she believes floating in house indefinitely, ready for a rescue which will by no means come, could be preferable to visiting Starbase 80. Briefly, she thinks Starbase 80 is cursed, with the power to show common good individuals into “complete buffoons”.
Captain Freeman additionally has her causes for giving Starbase 80 a large berth. When the crew met various variations of themselves from a parallel universe 0.327% completely different from their very own in “Dos Cerritos“, she discovered that her alternate self had been stationed there towards her will — a destiny she’s determined to keep away from for herself.
Why do the Cerritos crew have to use gel earlier than they land on Starbase 80?
The Starbase 80 transporters aren’t secure for “natural use”, which means that the crew must journey there through conventional docking procedures. No transporters means no biofilters so, with a view to keep away from the switch of dangerous substances, the crew are required to cowl themselves in decontaminant gel.
It is a nod to the process repeatedly carried out on Archer’s Enterprise 200 years earlier. “Examine me out, I am a complete T’Pol over right here,” says Bradward Boimler (whose facial hair continues to progress properly), referencing Archer’s Vulcan second-in-command.
Cerritos first officer Jack Ransom enjoys making use of the gel way more than anybody ought to.
Is Starbase 80 actually that dangerous?
That relies on your viewpoint. Whereas diplomatic liaison Kassia Nox sees Starbase 80 as a spot for “second possibilities”, few outsiders would describe station’s severe bat infestation as a promoting level. Finally, nevertheless, most of Starbase 80’s points boil all the way down to a scarcity of funding from Starfleet.
As such it appears like a relic of the previous, with “Enterprise”-era uniforms, turbolifts operated by hand quite than voice controls, and corn canine distributors rather than Starfleet-standard meals replicators. With no holodecks on board the crew spend their time taking part in arcade video games, and — due to some localized points with the gravity plating — issues generally tend to get a bit topsy-turvy. For this reason chief engineer Gene Jakobowski cons Freeman and Ransom into finishing up on-the-fly station repairs, making them watch for the nav processor the Cerritos requires to proceed its mission.
The traditional Starfleet communication badge by no means made it to Starbase 80 both, however that individual oversight could have been a blessing in disguise…
Why do the Cerritos crew begin turning into zombie-like creatures with a penchant for licking partitions and triggering self-destruct mechanisms?
Regardless of Mariner’s assumption that her crewmates have been contaminated by the curse of Part 80, Cerritos really introduced the pathogen with them from Piskes 9. It seems {that a} younger anaphasic entity named Clem had “possessed” one of many Cerritos’s beluga whale crew members throughout an away mission to the watery world, and hitched their manner again to the ship.
Making an attempt to impress its superiors by speaking with corporeal life varieties, Clem finally unfold themselves too thinly, turning your entire crew into senseless zombies as they zapped their manner from officer to officer through their combadges — units the involuntary luddites of Starbase 80 have been by no means issued.
Clem’s finally faraway from the unique host when Starbase 80’s medical officer, Dr Horseberry, resorts to some old-school “bonking”, whacking the contaminated whale with a fishing web earlier than trapping the luminescent contaminant beneath a bucket. The stricken crew are immediately cured.
Why have been the whales on board the Cerritos within the first place?
It is commonplace observe to make use of whales to help with navigation on Starfleet vessels, and has been for years — there is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to Cetacean Ops in traditional “The Subsequent Era” episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise”.
Cerritos belugas Kimolu and Matt are commissioned Starfleet officers, and seem like valued members of the crew, finishing up their duties in bespoke aquarium-like work stations. We additionally met the USS Voyager-A’s resident humpback whale Gillian (a nod to cetacean knowledgeable Gillian Taylor in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Dwelling”) in “Star Trek: Prodigy“.
Regardless of the apparent similarities, nevertheless, there is no purpose to suspect that these whales have any connection to Darwin, the speaking dolphin in ’90s submarine drama “Seaquest DSV.”
New episodes of “Star Trek: Decrease Decks” season 5 debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.
