Envoys

The second episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks definitely kept the same general tone as the first episode, but felt just a bit more polished to me.

Boimler and Mariner are stuck together in an alien city when a drunken Klingon makes off with their shuttlecraft. Meanwhile, Rutherford considers a department transfer to be able to spend more time with Tendi, trying brief stints in other areas of the Cerritos to varying results.

In many ways, "Envoys" felt to me like a second pilot episode of the series, in that it had a similar story structure and rang most of the same bells as "Second Contact." Had the revelation about Mariner's relationship to Captain Freeman been in this episode, rather than the other, this almost could have been the first episode -- and in my view might have been a better choice. "Envoys" felt to me a little less manic in pace, and a little more successful with the jokes.

We got another A story about Boimler's uptight "book learnin" clashing with Mariner's freewheeling experience, with the two ultimately reaching a balanced resolution -- almost literally repeating the first episode's "Mariner is going to be Boimler's mentor" thesis statement. But it was a fun enough journey through plenty of Trek trivia, with obscure references to the animated series, easily-accessible jokes about Klingon naming conventions, and appropriate mockery for TNG-circa-season-one Ferengi characters.

I think this episode highlighted a bit more the different ways that Mariner and Boimler are real characters with a "cartoon character" streak. For Mariner, it's something of a toggle-switch; she's a devil-may-care, cartoonish agent of chaos until the moment to be serious comes. Then it's quickly made clear that she really does care, and will personally sacrifice to help someone she's chosen to help. She becomes a more typical live-action Starfleet paragon. Boimler is more of an "average" of the two poles. Characters as uptight as him actually do exist on live-action shows (he's, say, a bit "Sheldon-y" to me), with the concession to animation being in the performance: Jack Quaid is clearly being directed to stand back from the mic a foot and yell all his lines.

I was actually more engaged in the B story line, that saw Rutherford on a grand tour of all the divisions of the ship. I felt the comedy here was more naturally integrated with the Star Trek-iness of it all, with affectionate needling of Star Trek tropes about security officers, medical officers, and more. I also liked the way that Gene Roddenberry's TNG-era "no conflict between Starfleet officers" edict was deployed here for comedy: when Rutherford requested a transfer and braced for a scene, everyone was instead all too happy to see him "be true to himself."

I'd say "Envoys" was still probably a B- like "Second Contact," though it maybe moved from the lower end of that range to the upper. I hope the series keeps moving in that direction.