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The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called ‘Room For Growth’ which I suppose is a double meaning about growing as people but also the one-off gardening joke scene. The episode is split into two entirely disconnected storylines, both with their pluses and minuses. One of the storylines starts off after the Captain has put on a mystical mask (like the old TNG) and is possessed by some weird ancient deity.
After the Captain is correctly told by the overworked engineers that she was the cause, she demands that they all (meaning her and the engineering team) have to go on a mandatory relaxation retreat. This storyline is a little broad but it does have a lot of fun moments. They go to a relaxation spa ship called the ‘Dove’ which offers various sorts of typical relaxation techniques, even including a Klingon one that only they’d find relaxing.
Of course the problem is that the engineers (being engineers) can’t help but keep tinkering and fixing things — there’s a funny little moment where we pause to see that the engineers have been busy during the last minute fixing an entry door. All of their unwillingness to fully let go and ‘relax’ in the traditional sense has the opposite effect on Captain Freeman, who starts getting increasingly out of her mind and stressed out.
Honestly it’s not really investigated that much, other than maybe it’s the Captain who needs therapy (maybe to deal with feelings from her arrest and trial) and that the engineers didn’t really do anything wrong at all. Their little magically created de-stressing machine was a cute idea, even if the concept is a little much even for a Star Trek show — I mean if that technology was possible it would solve a lot of episodes’ problems, including ones on this show.
It was a decent little storyline, even if I’m concerned that it’s not really thinking things through. The other storyline took up the most time but was a very ‘A to B’ type of one, as Tendi, Boimler, and Mariner plan to cheat to get access to their own rooms on the ship to prevent the sinister Delta Shift squad (and they are really painted broadly too as bad people) from cheating first.
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So we get a series of scenes of the three going through odd parts of the ship, including an actual swamp and inside the deflector dish. There was also a little aside with probably the funniest moment of the episode where we catch up with Kayshon again finally, who accidentally prunes his flower and wistfully chuckles a line about someone getting his throat slit by his mistress. More of Kayshon please, those Tamarian lines always land.
Ultimately the trio realizes that there’s only one room available and thinks that it would tear the other shift team apart by not being able to decide who gets the room. It’s a sweet moment that’s immediately countered when they realize that the Delta team has picked the room for all four of them which makes perfect sense.
There’s not much otherwise from a continuity perspective, other than Boims is continuing his ‘Boimler the Bold’ thing where Mariner is jokingly (and not jokingly) concerned that he’s going to get himself killed soon. It’s the sort of final moment that is nice enough, and the actual button, the ridiculous joke about Ransom making a fake wife out of churros, was silly but not offensively so. Still, it’s a pretty light episode all things considered — I was hoping for something a bit more substantial, but it’s still a fun, entertaining episode.
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