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You know I think this show might be going places. The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called ‘Moist Vessel’, which is another ‘jokey name’ like last time that is a reference to something in the episode. Naturally the words themselves are never mentioned, but as soon as they mentioned a mysterious alien ‘molecular fluid’ that generates life on non-organic surfaces, it was pretty clear that the ship was going to become ‘alive’ in some way.
The cold open was a tease for the episode this time, with Mariner yawning uncontrollably at the boring other Captain Durango and infuriating her mother. The episode had two storylines, one the mother-daughter dynamic between them, and one on Ensign Tendi and her own conflict.
Tendi’s storyline was pretty funny, even if the ‘she’s a klutz!’ characterization is pretty passé. After accidentally screwing up a crew member’s ascension into a new energy form (so it is claimed), he’s understandably annoyed with her. But Tendi has a pathological need to be liked, and so she keeps bugging the dude. Of course, by the end of the episode they connect and actually make out — so naturally he begins to actually transcend into a new form.
That extended, painful transformation is the funniest part of the episode, a subversion of the classic ‘uplift’ often used in Star Trek, including a bizarre note about a koala at the center of the universe — ‘Why is he smiling? What does he know?’ That was great, especially because the koala did look pretty smug. Her pal Rutherford mainly had a few small jokes, but otherwise wasn’t really in the episode.
The main storyline of Mariner and Captain Freeman in general worked pretty well. It continued the petty, borderline irresponsible nature of the captain when her emotions get involved as she tries to get her daughter to transfer off the ship by making her life miserable. Naturally that includes a censored joke about holodeck waste removal, because what else do people use it for? So the captain’s final plan, to promote Mariner and give her a life of boring procedures, seems more effective.
Except that of course Mariner knows her mom is doing all this, and as she points out, it’s pretty ‘sick’ — she’s right, despite Mariner being a screw up and disrespecting authority, the captain is flagrantly acting out of ethical boundaries. We see some typical ‘mom’ jokes like treating Mariner like a little girl still, and even trying to clear her face with spit. So just like Tendi, the two end up getting closer because of the danger, and the captain finally recognizes that her daughter is actually competent. Growth.
Even if it can’t last — Mariner’s face in the final scene when the admiral mispronounces ‘sen-sores’ is hard to also not laugh at. She can’t stomach the fakeness, even when she should — she still has immaturity too. One of the odd moments of the episode was Durango simply being dangerously irresponsible and petty himself and causing the ‘moist vessel’ in the first place. It felt a little out of character with what they had already established for him — more no nonsense, more boring. Although I do wonder where they’re going with Captain Freeman being pretty bad as a captain — even in this episode, Commander Ransom has to pretend she didn’t steal his idea.
Some other standouts were the forced recreation, like the ‘vocal jazz’ and that one crew member’s one man show — even in the future, those things are insufferable. I also did like the follow-up joke about sarcastically using the Vulcan peace salute, interesting because the first instance didn’t work — bringing it back was better, especially as it was Boimler, forced to watch Mariner get everything he wanted merely because of a ‘game’ between family members.
Hardly fair, but how common is nepotism in Star Trek? Hard to be sure, I feel like it’s not commonly referenced, but even in the ‘utopia’ of Starfleet, it’s hard to imagine that it’s been eliminated. Overall, a pretty fun, funny episode that left me pretty optimistic about where the show is going.
Star Trek: Lower Decks streams new episodes every Thursday on CBS All Access.
What did you think of the episodes? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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