Screengrab
The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called ‘Much Ado About Boimler’, although it’s not really primarily about him nor is it remotely similar to the Shakespeare play. It’s an interesting take on storylines, as they are only two and they aren’t really tightly coupled at all. One is the silly one with Boimler, who accidentally becomes partially out of phase (a classic Star Trek malady) and Tendi’s genetic mutation.
Tendi’s constant misunderstandings of Earth dogs are consistently amusing, and two reveals specifically are very funny — The Dog turning into a sort of metal cube and clambering away, and The Dog suddenly talking but Tendi planned it that way. The actual storyline though is a bit of a mixed bag. They are all taken aboard the ‘Osler’ (which is a reference I couldn’t figure out) with creepy music, creepy lighting, creepy colors, and a captain with a creepy laugh.
Meeting the other ‘freaks’ is a fun little jaunt, with the various ridiculous shout outs to ‘things gone wrong’ (I believe one is a reference to the infamously hated Voyager episode ‘Threshold’ where Janeway and Paris turn into alien lizard things). But the overall vibe and mutiny is meaner than expected, and the resolution, that hey, maybe we should talk it out after all and the Farm is totally real — well it felt a bit pointless. One or two of those anticlimactic subversions can be funny, but the episode stuffed a few too many into the ending (e.g., Boimler’s problem also simply goes away).
Although it’s nice to have Tendi and Boimler in a storyline apart from the others, nothing much really comes of it — Tendi’s just being a bit crazy and Boimler a stickler for the rules as per usual, there’s no real conflict between them so it feels a bit of a wasted opportunity.
Screengrab
The other storyline has a bit more punch to it, where Mariner runs into the visiting ‘babysitter’ Captain, Amina Ramsey (Toks Alogundoye whom I know from the DuckTales reboot), as the two were old Starfleet vagabonds and troublemakers. Ramsey naturally has matured and become quite respectable, while Mariner hasn’t — although Ramsey wants Mariner by her side as first officer. Immediately we can tell from Mariner’s ‘eep’ face that it’s not so easy.
Mariner screws up in a sort of intentional/unintentional way, to the point where it’s being commented on by the other officers. When it legitimately comes down to saving the other ship, Rubidoux, from an alien reminiscent of TNG’s ‘Farpoint’ pilot, Mariner becomes competent like we’ve never seen her before — so she spells it out, she’s self-sabotaging partially because she doesn’t feel like she’s ready either. It recontextualizes a few things that make sense, as her mother is a captain and her father is an admiral — that could lead to a lot of her not feeling up to the same level.
It makes the now typical ‘Mariner doesn’t want a promotion’ ending a bit more understandable, and something I hope the show delves into more. Silly comedic situations are fun, but it’s always better if we care about them too — this isn’t Airplane! after all, you can’t go purely stupid for a television season and expect things to land as well. In general, the episode was a bit mixed, but there were always good things to find and funny moments.
Standouts include Boimler’s ‘Boim me up’, the reference to a mili-Cochran, more on Ransom’s photo on ‘Torpedo’ (whatever that is) and what appears to be a weird, loving set of references to character actor (including on TNG) Saul Ruibnek with the reference to Starfleet professor ‘Saul Rubinek’ and the ship called ‘Rubidoux’. It’s silly, but I noticed it — and I like the guy, so nothing wrong with it from my perspective.
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.
Share this post
