Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x4 “Moist Vessel” Review

rating: ***

the story: Freeman tries to alienate Mariner by promoting her.

review: The one thing Lower Decks hadn’t really done in its first three episodes was really emphasize what its concept was really supposed to be, the idea that it followed around junior officers doing truly mundane work. There were a lot of riffs on traditional Star Trek tropes (which really suggests this was a crew of complainers rather than a ship that did less interesting things than any other characters we’ve followed), and sure, we saw our main characters, the junior officers, doing routine work, but never to the point where it seemed they were really that different from the command staff.

But here’s Mariner to save the day again!

If “Temporal Edict” was a Boimler spotlight, “Moist Vessel” is Mariner’s, putting a hard focus on her relationship with Freeman (her mom), who has decided she’s had enough of Mariner’s lax attitude and will do anything to get her to request a transfer.

(We also get a subplot with Tendi concerning a colleague “ascending,” a spiritual development that’s interesting.)

Anyway, what this means is that Freeman tries two very different ways to achieve this. The first is to assign Mariner the very worst tasks. This doesn’t work because Mariner finds a way to enjoy them.

Then Freeman stoops even lower. She promotes Mariner!

This is actually the best element of the episode, in which we discover all the mundane duties Mariner is suddenly required to perform as a lieutenant, which are typified by the boring meetings she’s forced to attend. As viewers we’re conditioned to view meetings as dramatic events in which unique perspectives and brilliant decisions are the point. But meetings are meetings. So through Mariner we get a better sense of what being in Starfleet is probably really like.

criteria analysis:

>series - An excellent use of the central premise.

>franchise - Ever find yourself romanticizing Starfleet? Watch this!

>character- Mariner’s worst nightmare is career advancement. Apparently she’s successfully worked against it for years!

>essential - Insofar as we get to laugh about an admiral pronouncing “sensor” funny. Would have been a bigger statement by deciding something about Mariner and Freeman’s relationship.

notable guest-stars:

Haley Joel Osment