On Star Trek: Lower Decks, one antagonist looms above all others: Badgey (Jack McBrayer), the sentient (and insane) Starfleet comms badge! Originally introduced in Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 6, “Terminal Provocations,” Badgey was last seen on-screen in the series during the first season finale, “No Small Parts.” But in spite of a seemingly explosive exit in that episode, a beta version of Badgey has returned in a new mobile game: Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive.
Badgey was a homicidal holodeck character programmed by Ensign Samathan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and designed to be a training program. Unfortunately, Badgey was evil. In the most recent episode of Lower Decks, Season 3, Episode 5, “Reflections,” it was revealed that Badgey’s programming was intentionally corrupted by the subconscious version of Rutherford’s personality from a decade earlier, which had been suppressed by his involuntary eye implant in the interim.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
In The Badgey Directive, Badgey returns to the Cerritos… but it isn’t for a tearful family reunion with Rutherford, to whom he refers to as “father.” Instead, Badgey has returned to torment the beta shifters with demented holodeck training programs… from which there is no escape!
At the beginning of the game’s story, the rest of beta shift – Ensigns Bradward Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid on the show), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome on the show), and D’Vana Tendi (played by Nöel Wells on the show) join Rutherford on the Holodeck, where they’re to take part in some holodeck training under the orders of Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis on the series). However, a beta version of Badgey surfaces and refuses to let any of the crew members leave, in spite of any success achieved in his demented drills.
How to Play Star Trek Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive
East Side Games
In terms of gameplay, The Badgey Directive is a time-based idle game in which success is largely achieved by unlocking multipliers for automated payouts. Each level resets the number of points, but characters and auto-generating Holodeck simulation can be permanently upgraded to achieve success on subsequent levels with exponentially faster speed and point payouts. In addition to a sequence of main game levels, The Badgey Directive also features daily “event” levels in which players compete to unlock rare and legacy Star Trek characters and ships to display in the Cerritos bar (and potentially add more point multipliers).
While The Badgey Directive is free to play, Kynk the Ferengi will regularly appear, compelling the player to watch advertisements or pay money in exchange for necessary resources. Designed by East Side Games, it is available for download on iOS and Android now.
