Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x4 "Mugato, Gumato" Review

 rating: ***

the story: An away team grapples with Ferengi poachers.

review: In the original series there were two notable attempts at full-body costume aliens: the Gorn and the Mugato.  Of the two, the Gorn have gotten plenty of attention, and thanks to Enterprise even a another appearance in the franchise.  Finally, it's the Mugato's turn!

Unlike the Gorn, the Mugato is an animal, kind of an ape with a horn, and so naturally the horn is what the Ferengi poachers are after.  That setup allows Lower Decks to once again spotlight for fans who never quite got the Deep Space Nine memo that the Ferengi aren't one-dimensional anymore.  Mariner had a friend in the first season who played off that ignorance, but in this instance the Ferengi are more or less true to stereotype until a successful negotiation turns the tide.  (There's a whole running gag in the episode about negotiations, making the resolution all the more clever.)

Tendi, for the second episode in a row, is out to prove herself, while Boimler and Rutherford are scared out of their minds that Mariner has another secret, a plotline that feels a little lazy, especially after two episodes where the series knew exactly what it was doing, but it involves enough elements (including a bartender of considerably less insightful banter than Guinan, and another of the many accents the season has been spotlighting, which for an accent guy like me has been easy to enjoy).  Although, I guess, it's nice to be worrying about Mariner for exactly the kinds of reasons we did at the start of the series instead of the business with her mom (y'know, Captain Freeman).

criteria analysis:

• franchise - It's nice to have throwbacks like the Mugato, the Ferengi, and even Denobulans (!) in the mix.  Just imagine if anyone ever gets around to all the background aliens from the original cast movies!
• series - Probably only an animated series could successfully the Mugato anyway, right?
• character - The season has been throwing up different combinations between the lead characters, which here is once again refreshing, with Boimler and Rutherford teaming up for a change.
• essential - But the stakes are fairly low.

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x3 "We'll Always Have Tom Paris" Review

 rating: ****

the story: The Cerritos hosts a visit from Tom Paris.

review: Unbelievably, after the first laugh-out-loud moment (for me) of the series in the previous episode, "We'll Always Have Tom Paris" does it again!  And thus, for me, another classic.  If you're going to do a comedy version of Star Trek, animated or otherwise, this is the sort of thing to absolutely treasure.

Tom Paris, Voyager's lovable rogue, doesn't even have a particularly large role in the episode (another commonality with "Kayshon, His Eyes Open"); actually, the b-plot with Mariner and Tendi is on the whole better and more memorable, while Boimler's hero worship itself is eclipsed by his refusal to simply adapt to new security measures and resultant crawling around access tubes...

And because the best line of the episode isn't even necessarily the best part of the episode, I'll here skip right to it: "Kazon!!!" That's when a disheveled Boimler finally meets Tom, and for the Delta Quadrant veteran who, unlike most fans, remembers the Kazon as something other than disappointing, vaguely bootleg Klingon villains, it's a hilariously terrifying moment.

Back to Mariner and Tendi, though, and especially because the next episode also has Tendi kind of trying desperately to prove herself, it's absolutely worth celebrating that the character the first episode of the series kind of introduced as more important than she ended up being, at least during the first season (taking a definitive backseat to Boimler and Mariner), the episode frames the story as Mariner realizing how little she knows about Tendi, which allows the audience to learn about her, too, and as I've already seen pointed out on the internet, giving us a deeper look at Orion culture in general than we've gotten previously in the franchise.  It's perhaps an even better character insight than we've so far gotten from Mariner, despite a pronounced effort in multiple episodes, another sign that although this is an animated comedy that spends a lot of time making references to Star Trek lore, it can build its own, too.

It's also worth noting that the name of the episode is the second time the franchise has nodded at its own episode titles.  "We'll Always Have Paris" is a first season Next Generation in which Picard reunites with an old flame.  There was also "Who Mourns for Adonais?" in the original series, with the later Deep Space Nine echo "Who Mourns for Morn?" (in which of course we still never get to hear the dude actually speak).  (Bonus points if you also thought of "The Emissary" from Next Generation and "Emissary" from Deep Space Nine, not to mention "The Muse" from that series and "Muse" from Voyager, or "Blink of An Eye" from that series and "Wink of an Eye" from the original series.  But you get my point.)

Less successful than all that is Rutherford's arc with Shaxs, not because of anything that actually happens but that it implies that Star Trek regularly randomly resurrects main characters.  Well, no, it doesn't.  I mean, weird things certainly happen to them all the time, but the only real outright resurrection would be Spock.  It just seems like a fan argument that is just taken for granted as a thing, when it really isn't.  Although maybe it's a talking point I simply haven't really thought all that much about.  Well.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - A visit from another series, which is often a highlight.
• series - Which surprisingly keeps most of the focus on Lower Decks itself.
• character - In a season making a thrust at putting Tendi in the spotlight, this is the best one so far.
• essential - Not every fan will get that punchline, but those who do certainly will love it, the mark of another classic.

notable guest-stars:

Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x2 "Kayshon, His Eyes Open"

 rating: ****

the story: Assisting the inventorying of a dead collector's ship proved unexpectedly complicated.

review: With a single laugh-out-loud line, "Kayshon, His Eyes Open" becomes a classic episode, the first time (and followed rapidly a second time the next episode!) Lower Decks provokes this reaction for me.  I don't always actually laugh at funny material.  It's more often a matter of a sudden joke, or punchline, that gets me.

The set-up is in the title, the use of a Tamarian for the first time since their introduction in the classic (for an entirely different reason!) Next Generation episode "Darmok" as temporary new chief of security aboard the Cerritos, in which we learn the universal translator has mostly been able to compensate for their language's peculiar penchant for allegory.  

Dayshon isn't even the focus of the episode.  He isn't even the secondary character with the biggest spotlight.  That falls to Jet Manhaver, who's a kind of substitute Boimler (more on him in a moment) as a counterpoint for Mariner on the away mission aboard the collector's ship (which itself is stuffed with even more easter eggs than the series already regularly features, including a far less glorious memento of Kahless the Unforgettable than the sword Worf and Kor fought over in Deep Space Nine's "Sword of Kahless" which nonetheless is a subtle link to the Abrams films, which feature Klingons in helmets).  Jet isn't exactly a Boimler, but his penchant for protocol still rubs Mariner the wrong way.

Anyway, long story short, Kayshon gets turned into a puppet.  The line that got me isn't exactly complicated (it's literally "Kayshon, when he was turned into a puppet"), but it's such a succinct, distinctly Lower Decks punchline, it's a perfect way to explain the appeal of the series, something Lower Decks hadn't previously nailed.

(Though, again!  Somehow the very next episode does it, too!)

The episode also gives Boimler's time aboard the Titan actual airtime, and at once takes a subtle jab at modern live action Star Trek (all action! all the time!) and nods at Riker lore (Next Generation's "Second Chances" and Deep Space Nine's "Defiant," the existence of transporter duplicate Thomas Riker, whom I wish we had also gotten an update on, as last we heard he was headed to a Cardassian prison of some kind, and that was DS9's third season, well before the Dominion War even started!), a funny way to get Boimler back aboard the Cerritos.

(This is also a reminder that Lower Decks takes place between Nemesis and Picard, and in fact significantly closer to Nemesis than Picard, as by Picard Riker is in fact mostly retired.)

criteria analysis:

• franchise - There are fans who consider "Darmok" to be one of the best episodes of any Star Trek series (including a good blogging friend of mine), so this nod is long in coming.
• series - A spotlight that ably demonstrates everything that makes Lower Decks work as a comedy version of the franchise.
• character - All four main characters of the series have something to contribute to the episode.
• essential - And, for me, the first real laugh-out-loud moment of the series.  Counts for a lot!

notable guest-stars:

Jonathan Frakes (Riker)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x1 "Strange Energies" Review

 rating: **

the story: Ransom gets zapped with weird energy and develops godlike powers.

review: Welcome back, Lower Decks!  The second season opens with a fairly unambitious episode that nonetheless grounds it in traditional franchise lore, a plot device demonstrated previously in the original series ("Where No Man Has Gone Before," "Charlie X") and Next Generation ("Hide and Q"), although played very differently in Deep Space Nine (Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets, a series-long arc that never sees him develop special powers, unlike his rival Dukat, who does when he becomes emissary for the Pah-wraiths).

And while Ransom, a key member of the command staff voiced by the biggest name of the regular cast, Jerry O'Connell (as a reminder, I list O'Connell as a guest-star when Ransom has a significant part, even though he's generally in every episode), certainly deserves an odd spotlight every now and then, that "Strange Energies" devotes its time to a supporting character in this situation is a little disappointing.  Boimler, locked up as a member of another crew (Riker's Titan) at this point, would have been the obvious choice, and it almost seems as if everyone realized what a terrible mistake it was, as he's barely even in the episode.

Tendi and Rutherford instead have the significant spotlight, although nothing much comes of it except to highlight that they're pals.  Even more surprising is that even Mariner doesn't have much to do!

The whole experience seems calculated just to make sure someone popping in for the season premiere doesn't feel too bogged down in series specifics, which is kind of funny, as Star Trek traditionally holds premiere and finale slots to make bold series-specific statements.  Well.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - The familiar plot device is a nice reminder of the kinds of things Star Trek has done in its rich history.
• series - My quibbles aside, it's genuinely nice to see Lower Decks return with new material regardless of its overall merit.
• character - I don't think there's a significant spotlight for anyone here, with Tendi coming closest (although the four episodes I've seen as of this writing suggest there was a specific push for her, and this was merely a soft start).
• essential - Not at all. The kind of episode you can enjoy but not worry too much about.

notable guest-stars:

Jonathan Frakes (Riker)

Jerry O'Connell (Ransom)