“Star Trek: Decrease Decks” shall be sorely missed when it concludes for good on the finish of its fifth season, because the grownup animated sequence has managed to search out the proper stability between its crass humor and being a genuinely good “Star Trek” present. It is managed to achieve success largely as a result of it is made by whole “Star Trek” nerds, from super-nerdy (in a great way) creator Mike McMahan to star Tawny Newsome, who performs the rebellious decrease decker Beckett Mariner and is a large “Star Trek: Deep House 9” superfan. Between them and the unbelievable writers and animators, they’ve made “Decrease Decks” an exquisite tribute to all the pieces there may be to like about “Star Trek,” and that features a lot of foolish little deep cuts and Easter eggs.
One of many many enjoyable issues about watching “Decrease Decks” is catching these references and feeling such as you’re in on the joke, nevertheless it’s additionally fairly nice when the references are so obscure that they ship you on a analysis deep dive and also you be taught all new, nice issues about this expansive franchise. It is nearly unimaginable to choose a favourite Easter egg from the sequence to date (though the season 3 reference to the concept Deep House 9’s Chief Engineer, Miles O’Brien, is an important man in historical past is unquestionably up there), however season 5, episode 4 has given us a critical contender for probably the most obscure. In “A Farewell to Farms,” there is a joke that requires not simply data of “Star Trek,” but in addition of one in all its most weird items of spin-off merchandise.
A deep-cut joke from the Star Trek VHS board sport
In “A Farewell to Farms,” the sequence provides followers a style of the Klingon-centric “Star Trek” some have wished for years, and there is a ridiculously obscure reference certain to please probably the most hardcore of Trekkies. Throughout a short interstitial sequence, two Klingon bikers on their dwelling planet of Qo’noS have a little bit of a near-miss and one raises his fist and swears on the different, “Expertise bij!,” to which the opposite replies, “YOU expertise bij!” (That is pronounced kind of like smidge or ridge, for what it is price; Klingon spelling is a complete factor.)
It is a tiny second that is simple to overlook, nevertheless it’s additionally a hilarious reference to the lengthily-named 1993 VHS board sport “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology Interactive VCR Board Sport — A Klingon Problem.” “Decrease Decks” already riffed on “A Klingon Problem” as soon as earlier than within the season 3 episode “The Least Harmful Sport,” during which the decrease deckers performed a board sport known as “Bat’leths & bIHnuchs” that had a video part hosted by the Klingon normal Martok (J.G. Hetzler), however now they’re truly quoting the sport’s most well-known little bit of dialogue. You see, in “A Klingon Problem,” a Klingon insurgent named Kavok, performed by Robert O’Reilly, commandeers the Enterprise when it is docked and the crew is on shore depart, and he spends the vast majority of the sport taunting the gamers. His favourite taunt? “Expertise bij!,” in fact.
Expertise bij! is now formally a part of Star Trek’s TV canon
Within the sport, Kavok basically taunts and torments the participant at each flip, and O’Reilly is clearly having a blast taking part in him. (He additionally performed Klingon Chancellor Gowron on each “Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology” and “Deep House 9,” for those who’re questioning why these extensive, indignant eyes look so acquainted.) He often tells the participant some model of “expertise bij” to the purpose the place there are complete YouTube compilations of him doing so and “expertise bij” has change into a form of super-deep “Star Trek” in-joke. However what the heck does it imply to expertise bij? In line with the Klingon dictionary, “bij” means “punishment,” so “expertise bij” is kind of like saying “get punished!” It is a fairly fundamental curse, however works nice inside the context of a cranky Klingon telling off Starfleet, and now “Decrease Decks” has made it an official a part of the tv canon.
Over its 5 seasons, “Decrease Decks” has given us references to characters as random and obscure as “The Subsequent Technology” detective Dixon Hill and even the “Authentic Sequence” villain Harry Mudd, however dropping a fast half-Klingon phrase from a VHS board sport from the Nineties is likely to be the very best, deepest lower of all of them.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Decrease Decks” drop Thursdays on Paramount+.