The Cerritos pairs up with the starship Vancouver for the the controlled demolition of a decaying moon that threatens the population of an alien planet -- but it turns out to be more of a diplomatic mission, as Captain Freeman struggles to negotiate the demolition in a way that satisfies conflicting opinions among the aliens. Meanwhile the meeting of this ships gives Boimler face-to-face time with his girlfriend, Brinson... and Mariner is convinced there's something off with her. Meanwhile, Tendi and Rutherford compete against each other to please Vancouver senior officer Docent, in hopes of receiving an exclusive bit of technology.
I wrote last week about how the sitcom formula often calls for one character to be the Idiot of the Week. Another trope of sitcoms is often that friends and family often treat each other like crap and dunk on each other constantly; in these shows, you can never let too much sympathy develop for one character, or you'll resent the other characters too much when they get mean. For a Star Trek comedy, this feels to me like something that needs to be avoided altogether, something unfitting for the universe.
And so, the Boimler/Mariner story line of this episode really rubbed me the wrong way. They've been an "odd couple" all along and that's been fine -- Boimler straitlaced and fastidious, Mariner easy-going and worldly. But this plot is premised on Mariner finding it so impossible to believe that Boimler could be loved by someone that she spins endless conspiracy theories to explain it. Yes, the references are great; yes, many of the jokes do generate laughs; yes, Mariner is right(-ish) in the end and something is wrong in the relationship.
But it all starts from a place of Mariner assuming that no one in the universe could possibly be in love with her "friend" -- which is a place so dark that I don't think the flashback attempting to explain her concern even begins to paper over it. This is Mariner dunking on Boimler hard, and because this is a Star Trek show that's been working to make us like all the characters, it is not a good look for Mariner. On Rick and Morty, there's a lot of humor in dunking on Jerry -- but I don't want Boimler (or anyone else) to become the Jerry of Lower Decks. (Even in trade for admittedly hilarious lines like "That guy's like a Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles.")
The Tendi/Rutherford story line did end up in a fun place, once Docent's secret motivations were finally revealed. Up until then, there were weird questions you had to shove out of your mind, like "why can't they just replicate one of these T88s they covet so much?" and "what kind of scanning is a medical officer doing in a Jeffries tubes?" But I did laugh when the subplot finally reached its conclusion, revealing that some people would prefer not to be involved in a high-stakes adventure every week.
It's the Lower Decks formula that whatever story would be most important on any other Star Trek series is of least importance here, and that holds for Captain Freeman's negotiations over the alien moon. Still, "pound for pound," I actually found this to be the funniest plot thread of the episode. Trying to resolve this kind of conflict is so Star Trek, and people focused so intently on the wrong things when their whole society is in jeopardy is so 2020. Freeman dispensing with it all using an impulsively fired torpedo was just plain fun. (And hey, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.")
I was laughing more at this episode, even as I didn't like some of the choices made in constructing the narrative. Add that all up, and this falls for me in the same fairly narrow band all Lower Decks episodes so far have: pretty good. Not great. Not bad. Solid B.
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