Lower Decks: Empathological Fallacies

One new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks was released while I was on vacation. Before I fall behind with the release of another, let me catch up with my thoughts on "Empathological Fallacies."

When the Cerritos hosts three Betazoid ambassadors, things quickly get out of hand as the crew begins indulging out-of-control emotions. Signs point to the Betazoid visitors -- who are indeed harboring a secret. Meanwhile, T'Lyn is frustrated in her efforts to contact her Vulcan superiors about being reinstated. And Boimler gets to spend time with the security team... only to find it nothing like what he'd hoped.

This episode feels like a bit of a commentary on how Star Trek actually re-uses its plots, particularly from one franchise to the next. The main plot turns on the belief that these Betazoid ambassadors have the same condition Lwaxana Troi psychically unleashed on Deep Space Nine in the (not very good) "Fascination." Spoiler alert, it turns out to actually be the condition Sarek psychically unleashed on The Next Generation instead (in a much better episode).

But the best Lower Decks episodes don't just bring the funny, they actually find a way to squeeze in some commentary in the way a live-action Star Trek episode usually does. And I'm not quite sure what this "you ever notice how many emotional outburst episodes there are?" observation is really getting at, if anything. For a little deeper meaning, you have to look to the otherwise slim Boimler subplot, where Shaxs is reminding Boimler (and us) that mental health is connected to physical health.

Ultimately, though, I don't think a Lower Decks episode has to be "deep" to be good. The question is, are there laughs here? Sure. This isn't top-shelf Lower Decks, but there are funny recurring gags about Dr. T'Ana and her feline hunting nature, good sight gags in the games off-duty security officers play, and a fun subversion of the Lwaxana Troi character archetype into (another spoiler here) badass spies.

Plus, Captain Freeman actually gets to solve a problem this episode rather than be the cause of one -- a nice change-up for her character. And T'Lyn is integrated even more fully into the mix.

Overall, I'd give "Empathological Fallacies" a B. It wasn't a favorite, but it was a better "psychically-caused emotional outbursts" episode than some.