Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x10 “No Small Parts” Review

 rating: ***

the story: The secret’s out!

review: It wasn’t just viewers who didn’t know upfront that Freeman is Mariner’s mom. Boimler accidentally found out last episode, and just as accidentally leaked it to the rest of the Cerritos. The result? Now everyone treats Mariner differently, sucking up to score favor with the captain, and of course she hates it!

It’s really the only way the season could have ended, but there are a few unrelated twists, and one related one, that keep it lively. Tendi mentors an exocomp (secret origin from Next Generation’s “The Quality of Life”), who has joined Starfleet, which leads to any number of unexpected developments, while Rutherford gets his best spotlight of the season when he learns there’s a switch in his implant that can change his personality. Eventually the funny bits lead to a sad bit, as well as the sacrifice of the ship’s aggressive Bajoran chief tactical officer, Shaxs.

And Pakleds! Surely the most hilariously pathetic legacy of Next Generation’s second season, the Pakleds blunder their way into be formidable again. 

But then Boimler is promoted and transferred to the Titan. Riker! Troi! Again! No one has shown up in the modern franchise more than these two, and here they continue their impressive stature. Will they be here all next season? Well, where then would be Mariner? And Tendi? And Rutherford? Technically also the canonical first appearance of the Titan, referenced as Riker’s new (and first!) command in Nemesis, and apparently considered quite a prestigious assignment. Of course!

criteria analysis:

>franchise - Riker and Troi! Again!

>series - A fitting season finale.

>character - Big moments for Mariner and Boimler, and yet somehow it’s Rutherford who shines brightest.

>essential - Close!

notable guest-stars:

Jonathan Frakes (Riker, sounding as natural as ever in animated form)

Marina Sirtis (Troi)

Jack McBrayer (Badgey)

Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x6 “Terminal Provocations” Review

 rating: **

the story: Another junior officer totally screws up.

review: Weirdly, I’m actually feeling less patient these days with modern Star Trek that feels too much like classic Star Trek. The second episode of Discovery’s third season, “Far From Home,” for instance, has a subplot that would have substantially played exactly the same way in nearly every other TV incarnation of the franchise, and now this, the second time in this inaugural season of Lower Decks, I find the results to be a little too standard. This is the “holodeck malfunctions” episode.

It would actually be a little more interesting than that, since Rutherford and Tendi are the lead characters in that half of the episode, based off of Rutherford creating Badgey, an instructional aide much like the paperclip from Microsoft. But it sort of becomes far more about Badgey’s glitch descent into cartoonishly murderous intent than any real insight into Rutherford, Tendi, or their relationship.

Boimler and Mariner, meanwhile, have a friend who turns out to be a huge screwup, which is the source of the holodeck malfunction. I was actually hoping he’d at least turn out to be a secret agent of the aliens the crew desperately tries to contend with (as represented by J.G. Hertzler, most familiar to fans as Deep Space Nine’s one-eyed General Martok; he’s the other bit of fun casting this episode features, along with Jack McBrayer as Badgey, just the opening salvo of a tide of familiar voices in the second half of the season).

criteria analysis: 

>franchise - Casual fans might enjoy the animated version of the holodeck trope.

>series - Boimler and Mariner’s friend is a sort of cautionary tale, and his fate will in hindsight foreshadow the end of the season.

>character - I don’t think any of our the four main characters particularly shine this time.

>essential - Nope.

notable guest-stars:

Jack McBrayer (Badgey)

J.G. Hertzler