Starbases are presupposed to be a house away from residence for starship crews, a sanctuary the place they’ll take a time-out in Starfleet-approved environment. Starbase 80 is completely different, an area station so riven with neglect that many officers imagine 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 out a functioning warp drive, the ship is pressured to make an undesirable detour to Starbase 80 to choose up the nav pc it must proceed its mission. The zombie infestation they encounter on the station appears to substantiate all their prejudices about Deep Area 9’s discount basement cousin — however there’s extra to Starbase 80 than messed-up gravity and corn canine.
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 on the lookout for repairs, provides or just someplace to hang around.
Farpoint station in “The Subsequent Technology” pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint” suits the invoice, although 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 often called Terok Nor), which lent its title to its personal long-running TV sequence.
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 areas for everlasting settlements throughout the galaxy (“Star Trek: Enterprise”).
What’s so dangerous about Starbase 80?
Starbase 80 might do with happening a critical 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 customary 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 grow to be 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 filth 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 folks into “whole 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 in opposition to 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 usually are not secure for “natural use”, that means that the crew must journey there by way of conventional docking procedures. No transporters means no biofilters so, to be able 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. “Verify 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 rather more than anybody ought to.
Is Starbase 80 actually that dangerous?
That depends upon your standpoint. Whereas diplomatic liaison Kassia Nox sees Starbase 80 as a spot for “second probabilities”, few outsiders would describe station’s critical 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 seems like a relic of the previous, with “Enterprise”-era uniforms, turbolifts operated by hand slightly than voice controls, and corn canine distributors rather than Starfleet-standard meals replicators. With no holodecks on board the crew spend their time enjoying arcade video games, and — due to some localized points with the gravity plating — issues tend to get a bit topsy-turvy. That is why chief engineer Gene Jakobowski cons Freeman and Ransom into finishing up on-the-fly station repairs, making them look ahead to 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 means again to the ship.
Making an attempt to impress its superiors by speaking with corporeal life varieties, Clem in the end unfold themselves too thinly, turning the whole crew into senseless zombies as they zapped their means from officer to officer by way of their combadges — gadgets the involuntary luddites of Starbase 80 had been by no means issued.
Clem’s in the end 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 underneath a bucket. The bothered crew are immediately cured.
Why had been the whales on board the Cerritos within the first place?
It is customary apply 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 Technology” 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 skilled Gillian Taylor in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Dwelling”) in “Star Trek: Prodigy“.
Regardless of the plain 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.
