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The following article discusses the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks and older Treks. Theres no such thing as dead in Star Trek, the sprawling, perpetual opus that has thrived in spite of itself for almost sixty years. What started as a cornball space-ships and punch-fights show for atomic-age kids and their parents has become (gestures around) all this. So Im not writing too much of an obituary for Star Trek: Lower Decks despite its fifth season being its last. Given Paramounts fluid leadership right now, I can easily imagine that decision being reversed in the future. So this isnt so much of a goodbye as a farewell for now. Lower Decks fifth season picks up not long after the fourth left off, with Tendi still repaying her debt to the Orions. I dont think its a spoiler to suggest the status-quo reasserts itself soon after given, you know, all the other times this has happened. The crew of the Cerritos is then thrust into the usual sort of high-minded, lowbrow yet full of heart hijinks that weve come to expect. Naturally, Im sworn to secrecy, but the fifth episode where its title alone is a big spoiler is a highlight. Ive seen the first five episodes of the season and as with any sitcom, there are a few misses in between the hits. One episode in particular is trying to reach for an old-school Frasier plotline, but it falls flat given the thinness of the characters in question. Thankfully, Lower Decks is able to carry a weak show on the back of its central casts charm. Sadly, as it tries to give everyone a grace note, some characters youd expect would get more focus are instead shunted to the periphery. You can feel Lower Decks straining against its own premise, too. A show about people on the lowest rung of the ladder cant get too high. As a corrective, both Mariner and Boimler use this year as an opportunity to mature and grow. I wont spoil the most glorious running gag of the season, but their growth comes in very different ways. If theres a downside, its that the show still relies too much on energy-sapping action sequences to resolve its episodes. But thats a minor gripe for a show that grew from the would-be class clown of the Trek world to the most joyful interpretation of its ethos. Ive always loved how, when the chips are down, Lower Decks delights in the bits plenty of newer Treks would rather ignore. The show is, and has been, a delight to watch and something for the rest of the franchise to aspire toward. Paramount+ Ive been looking for a way to describe Lower Decks target audience for years, but only now has it hit me. Its a show written by, and for, the people who grew up watching Star Trek in the VHS era. Creator Mike McMahan is just four years older than me, barely a teenager when The Next Generation went off-air. So while hed have encountered Deep Space Nine and Voyager as first-run, everything else would have been discovered through re-runs and tapes. You can almost track that timeline of discovery as Lower Decks broadened its range of hat-tips each year it ran. Of course we got a parody of the first two Trek films in the first season both were ever-present on Saturday afternoon TV when I was a kid but its not until the third that we get a nod to First Contact. As Enterprise ran out of gas, you can feel McMahan and cos delving into the behind-the-scenes lore and convention gossip about those later series. If youve seen the series five trailer, youll spot the gag about Harry Kims promotion, something the character never got on Voyager. If youre fluent with Treks behind-the-scenes drama youll know the handful of reasons why, and why its funny to nod toward that now. But thats not the only subtle gag that points a sharpened elbow into the ribs of major figures from the series creative team. Im sure if you dont spot them all, Reddit will have assembled a master list half an hour after each episode lands on Paramount+. Paramount+ I wont indulge in theorizing as to why a popular and successful show like Lower Decks is ending (its money, its always money). But, as weve seen countless times before, its not as if its hard to revive a successful animated show when wiser heads prevail. Hell, even McMahan told TrekMovie hes prepared for that, and even has some spin-off ideas in the works. But for now, lets raise a toast to Lower Decks, the animated sitcom that became the cornerstone of modern Star Trek. The first two episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks season five will arrive on Paramount+, Thursday, October 24, with an additional episode landing each week for the successive eight weeks. The series and season finale will air on December 19.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-bows-out-on-business-as-usual-200017641.html?src=rss
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DJI has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense over its addition to the Pentagon list that designates it as a "Chinese military company." In its filing, shared by The Verge, the company said it's challenging the designation because it's "neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military." It described itself as the "largest privately owned seller of consumer and commercial drones," mostly used by first responders, fire and police departments, businesses and hobbyists. The company claimed that because the Pentagon has officially proclaimed it as a national security threat, it has suffered "ongoing financial and reputational harm." It also said that it has lost business from both US and internal customers, which terminated contracts and refused to enter new ones, and it has been banned from signing contracts with multiple federal government agencies. DJI explained that it tried to engage with the Department of Defense for over 16 months and submitted a "comprehensive delisting petition" on July 27, 2023 to get the agency to remove its designation. However, the agency allegedly refused to engage in a meaningful way and to explain its reasoning behind adding the company to the list. On January 31, 2024, the DoD redesignated the company without notice, DJI wrote in its complaint. DJI alleged that the DoD only shared its full rationale for its designation after it informed the agency that it was going to "seek judicial relief." The company claimed that the DoD's reasoning wasn't adequate to support its designation, that the agency confused people with common Chinese names and that it relied on "stale alleged facts and attenuated connections." DJI is now asking the court to declare the DoD's actions as unconstitutional, describing the Pentagon's designation and failure to remove it from the "Chinese military company" list a violation of the law and of its due-process rights. DJI has long been at the crosshairs of various US government agencies. The Department of Commerce added it to its entity list in 2020, which prevented US companies from supplying it with parts without a license. A year later, it was added to the Treasury department's "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" list for its alleged involvement in the surveillance of Uyghur Muslim people in China. And just a few days ago, DJI confirmed that its latest consumer drones are being held at the border by US customs, which cited the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The drone-maker denied that it has manufacturing facilities in Xinjiang, the region associated with forced Uyghur labor. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/dji-challenges-its-chinese-military-company-pentagon-designation-in-court-120036412.html?src=rss
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Its been over a year since Peter Parker and Miles Morales joined forces for their epic crossover adventure game on the Sony PlayStation 5. Now they are swinging their way to PCs early next year. Sony announced at New York Comic Con today that Marvels Spider-Man 2 is getting a PC release on January 30, 2025 on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The fans who got to hear the news first also witnessed the new trailer for the games PC remake. The new release of Marvels Spider-Man 2 will come in two different versions and both have plenty of extra features and perks for those very patient PC players. The Standard Edition comes with the full game and all the PS5 updates such as 14 new suits, Ultimate Levels, new styles of symbiote suits and an action figure mode in photo mode. The Digital Deluxe Edition also comes with five exclusive new suits for Peter and Miles each, early unlocks for Peters Arachknight suit, Miles, Shadow-Spirit suit and the web grabber gadget and additional items for photo mode. Marvels Spider-Man 2 features the two most famous names from the Spider-Verse (not counting Stan Lee) in an expanded version of the Big Apple taking on one of the longest lists of villains in just about any comic book based game. The two take on bad guys like Kraven, Black Cat and Scorpion without giving away too many appearances. Of course, the one most of the fans looked forward to seeing is that deep voiced, slimy symbiote Venom.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/spider-man-2-will-crawl-onto-pcs-in-january-223143137.html?src=rss
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