Lower Decks‘s Repeating Lessons Are Slowly Being Put Into Practice

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ last season has unified itself astir a singular thematic connection arsenic it prepares to accidental goodbye, astir however its ever-learning, ever-growing heroes inactive request to retrieve to beryllium unfastened and honorable with each different to beryllium their precise best. It’s a bully taxable to physique the show’s past play around, but much than halfway in, it’s mostly meant we’ve gotten a bid of episodes each built astir akin premises resolved the aforesaid way. But earlier we rather get to the annoyance of these lessons being repeated alternatively than conscionable re-learned, this week’s occurrence astatine slightest expands connected the theme successful immoderate absorbing ways.

“Of Gods and Angles” sees Mariner instrumentality a new, unruly ensign nether her helping astatine fraught clip for the Cerritos. While playing big to bid talks for warring photonic races (one spherical, 1 cuboid, due to the fact that what does Star Trek emotion if not a simplified abstract concept?), tensions betwixt the factions scope a fever transportation erstwhile the lad of 1 of the cuboid diplomats goes missing. Which is simply a superior capable Star Trek plot, but this is Lower Decks, truthful the wrench that gets thrown successful the works is that Mariner’s caller task is attempting to rescue an unruly Ensign Olly, a demigod—in the vein of the alien-greek-gods from the archetypal bid classical “Who Mourns for Adonais?”—with respective chips connected her shoulder.

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There’s bully crushed Mariner is anxious to instrumentality connected Olly arsenic a redemptive challenge, portion Ransom and Captain Freeman (turns retired they’re wholly good from their bat brushwood past week!) are speedy to propulsion her disconnected the Cerritos and perchance retired of Starfleet altogether. There’s a kinship Mariner sees with wherever Olly is at: brash, speedy to effort and beryllium herself susceptible careless of however she’s been told to bash something, headstrong but impulsive successful conscionable the close ways to bristle immoderate authorization figure. That is, essentially, however we were introduced to Mariner each those years ago, but dissimilar Mariner, Olly is not the protagonist of a TV show: she doesn’t person the clip to beryllium and spell connected the agelong arc of growth, truthful for the astir part, arsenic excited arsenic Mariner is to assistance idiosyncratic spell connected the travel she’s already been on, she mostly has to beryllium successful this occurrence to marque you spell “oh right, this benignant of quality is really annoying erstwhile your heroes conscionable request to get things done.”

It’s a amusive inversion of a vexation we’ve usually seen play retired betwixt the senior Cerritos officers and our little deckers implicit the years, and a bully mode to truly underline to audiences conscionable however overmuch Mariner has changed implicit the people of the show. It’s been a agelong arc, and she inactive successful galore ways retains a batch of that anti-authority brashness, but having Olly beryllium determination and behaving truthful overmuch similar Mariner’s aged aforesaid shows you conscionable however overmuch those aspects of her person softened arsenic she’s matured and embraced the idiosyncratic she ever wanted to be. It’s besides truly beneficial because, ultimately, this is the sixth occurrence of the play preparing to person the aforesaid thematic acquisition play retired for the sixth clip successful a row—Olly ends up complicating the matters with the Cubes and Orbs to all-out-war again mostly due to the fact that she was acrophobic of saying thing to Mariner that could’ve resolved the bulk of the occurrence 2 acts early. Having those lessons request to beryllium resolved and taken connected by a quality that isn’t 1 of our main quartet astatine slightest freshen things up.

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It’s besides a amusive opposition with the b-plot of the episode, successful which Boimler, steadily much bearded and much obsessed with his alt-universe self’s padd with each episode, strives to onslaught up a relationship with the irascible Dr T’Ana similar alt-Boimler did. Of course, things don’t spell anyplace adjacent remotely similar he’d expect them to, but by the extremity of the occurrence (and 1 little country to region 1 of Olly’s lightning bolts retired of Boimler’s behind), the 2 person a much amicable knowing of each other. But! This clip it’s not due to the fact that Boimler was subjected the season’s acquisition of being unfastened and communicative, but alternatively jokingly rejecting it—and getting Rutherford to articulation successful by the end—when helium embraces copying alt-Boimler’s padd to glean his personality, alternatively than conscionable being who helium truly is. It’s played for a laugh, but it’s really bully to spot 1 of heroes fail to instrumentality connected the intent of this thematic acquisition successful 1 of these episodes if we’re going to support musing connected the theme, due to the fact that it past really becomes important to punctual the assemblage that these are not one-and-done quality moments. Growth and self-reflection, aboard the Cerritos oregon otherwise, requires changeless openness to learning and taking onboard things you’ve already confronted successful your journey!

That said, time is moving retired for Lower Decks to really bash much with this thematic thought than simply repetition it implicit and over. “Of Gods and Angles” grants the bid a enactment of execution connected the repetition becoming an contented by reflecting it connected characters extracurricular of our cardinal quartet, and by inverting it successful immoderate amusive ways, but arsenic we truly statesman to caput into Lower Decks‘ end, the adjacent fewer weeks request to prime up connected much absorbing ways to play with this theme… earlier it fails to instrumentality connected that acquisition itself.

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