9 Ups & NO Downs From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.7 — Fully Dilated
9. UP — Another Essay For Naomi Wildman
Without self-plagiarism, the galaxy's youngest captain's assistant can't re-use "The Weird Planet Where Time Moved Very Fast and So Did the People Who Lived There," or just "The Weird Planet Displaced in Time," to title a new report. 'The Dilation of Dilmer III,' perhaps? Either way, Fully Dilated made the link clear from the outset between its planet and that of Blink of an Eye. Inspired by, yes. Completely copying, no.
"It's like that planet Voyager went to," noted Tendi. That or Mariner's theatre analogy. Space-time differentials can also be a lot of fun. We never got to see The Doctor's three years on what is sometimes referred to as 'Kelemane's planet'. Fully Dilated, on the other hand, skilfully flipped the perspective, from seconds in the transporter room to the year-long intrigue down on Dilmer. Naomi Wildman would certainly have had just as much to write about!
The episode's title is itself a clever piece of word play on a time-tested Worfism. As the reluctant Klingon said to Keiko in Disaster, "You are fully dilated to ten centimetres. You may now give birth". Also in Disaster, one android memorably had his "cranial unit" removed and carried down to engineering like a chatty bowling ball by Commander Riker.