After last season’s patchy run of episodes, Star Trek: Lower Decks returns with ‘Strange Energies’, which hopefully sets things on a more stable course.
One thing has been clear throughout the episodes so far, and that is the writers know Star Trek and revel in ridiculing it in the way that only someone who loves it would do. This is the core strength of Lower Decks, as it adds more and more layers of interest as we go on. The flipside is that many of the episodes lean into some hoary old tropes maybe a little too often, but that is to be expected based on the approach.
So far, the show has managed to keep the reference count extremely high, and been genuinely funny most of the time, but its biggest weakness has been the central characters, especially Mariner (Tawny Newsome). This is particularly problematic when she has become essentially the main character, with everyone taking a bit of a back seat.
Carrying on from last season, when the finale included a few too many eye-rolling moments for my taste, the theme of having Mariner front and centre continues in ‘Strange Energies’, which yet again undermines the whole premise. This is in no way ‘lower decks’ and if they just wanted to do another Star Trek show, then just call it ‘Star Trek: Cerritos’ and get on with it.
To a degree the lower decks premise is catered for with the b-plot, with Tendi (Noël Wells) convinced that Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) has a fatal condition and that she needs to cure him. This gets overplayed though and reaches too much of a ridiculous height, without the laughs to support it. This seems less like a development of Tendi and more of behavioural break for plot convenience. It would probably have been better to have her insecurities ramp up over a longer period.
The shame of it is that ‘Strange Energies’ could have worked very well and there were more connections and references available to them than were used. It also just seemed an elaborate way to get out of the cul-de-sac they’d created for themselves by pushing the mother-daughter team up from the end of last season. Again, they’re obsessed with having these characters from the lower decks involved with bridge level activities, which is too often a flaw.
Sadly, the most intriguing part of ‘Strange Energies’ comes right at the end, where we learn what is going on with Boimler (Jack Quaid). His difficulties, and how people react to the minutiae or unexpected side of being below command level shows much more promise than extending this obsession with Mariner’s ‘bro’ persona.
Like last season, this episode shows flashes of brilliance and again, there is significant potential here, that just makes it more frustrating that it’s missing the mark. I will note though that all people who love Star Trek are able to rip it to shreds lovingly, and that extends to this show too. For some these criticisms may be considered too harsh, but ultimately we know the heights that Star Trek can reach, so any flaws are picked up on. Altogether, the conclusion is that it is basically doing a good job, but could be improved, and will be given a bit more time to come good.
