Jealous of a fellow officer's unlikely promotion to captain, Boimler becomes convinced he isn't saying "yes" to enough opportunities for social climbing -- and winds up being hunted by a frightening alien as a result. Ransom tries to teach Mariner to follow the chain of command by giving some deliberately dubious commands; they wind up repairing a space elevator orbital lift while Rutherford and Billups get into a tight diplomatic spot on the planet below.
Most episode of Lower Decks are built by taking a stock Star Trek plot and exploring it through the series' unique comedic lens. "The Least Dangerous Game" doesn't raid the "Star Trek plot" pantry so much as the "sitcom trope" pantry. It works just as well, though it feels familiar in a different way.
I feel like "say yes to everything" has been done on multiple sitcoms (though perhaps the most memorable version of it had a twist: George Costanza's pledge to "do the opposite" on Seinfeld). But just because it's been done before doesn't mean it's not funny here. Once a character has been built as sharply as Boimler, having him behave out of character makes for great comedic fodder. And that's even before he winds up being chased through the ship by a vicious alien trophy hunter (with a delightful comic twist of its own).
But when it comes to cartoon characters, keeping everything the same is usually the mandate. In this episode, Boimler likes the results of his "say yes" experiment, and doesn't seem "reset" by the end to revert to his regular self. Clearly, this approach can be just as funny as what has come before, so I'm intrigued to see Lower Decks give us a Boimler who is trying to change for the better.
Changing character was a theme connecting the B-plot, which involved what felt like another sitcom trope: one character's efforts to deliberately annoy another bouncing back on themselves. Perhaps the semi-serious lesson in here is that you can't really teach character building "at" someone. But mainly, Ransom's efforts to challenge Mariner were the means to give us great jokes -- from one-liners like "Starfleet isn’t all about being fed fruit by erotic aliens with slightly different nose ridges" to the societal mash-up of a ruling sentient volcano, telepathic baby, and evil computer.
And of course, I must not overlook the delightful cameo by J.G. Hertzler as "Martok," the digital game master of a hilarious Klingon RPG.
As usual, Lower Decks made me laugh constantly even as it was serving up a character-based story with a dash of serious Star Trek morality mixed in. They make walking that tightrope look easy. It's another episode I'll give an A-. Season three is off to a great start.
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