Star Trek: Lower Decks Is Growing the Beard in More Ways Than One

Made celebrated by Jonathan Frakes’ glorious facial hairsbreadth successful The Next Generation, “growing the beard” has go a synonym for the infinitesimal a Star Trek amusement truly settles into its imaginativeness of itself, knowing what its strengths are, and is acceptable to turn up and settee into a groove. To beryllium clear, Lower Decks recovered its assurance and its imaginativeness a agelong clip ago, and has mostly stuck to it. But now, in a last season that has truthful acold been astir its heroes re-navigating the lessons they’ve learned successful their Starfleet careers, the amusement is proving again that it itself inactive has things to learn—the maturity to admit erstwhile it’s screwed up, arsenic well.

It helps that this week is besides astir Boimler rather virtually increasing a beard, too. This show’s got layers! And astir of them are very, precise silly.

“The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” keenly splits our heroes into 2 absorbing parties. The Cerritos has been sent to the Cosmic Duchess Hotel, a elephantine abstraction edifice presumption connected a two-fold mission: Tendi, Mariner, Rutherford, and T’Lyn person been tasked with capturing a rogue clump of nanites causing chaos astatine the station. Meanwhile, the patchily scruffed Boimler has been assigned a overmuch much important task with Ransom and Billups, to find and detain an AWOL Starfleet Admiral who’s neglected his humdrum enactment of work to unrecorded a beingness of relaxation.

Boimler’s storyline is the least-explored of the 2 here, due to the fact that it mostly plays with a communicative format Lower Decks has masterfully done before, utilizing the connection spread betwixt elder and inferior officers to make a drama of misunderstandings. Boimler, arsenic assured arsenic he’s grown crossed the show, inactive fears that Ransom sees him and his chap juniors arsenic chattel to sacrifice and maim connected unsafe missions.

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Again, this each plays into what this play is already saying astir our heroes needing to pass openly and honestly with each different and themselves. Boimler’s anxieties implicit whether oregon not he’s achieving his goals been portion of his quality from the get-go, but he’s evolved from a perpetually anxious worrywart to idiosyncratic who knows however to woody with those anxieties (if not afloat propulsion them aside, arsenic we saw during the premiere) arsenic he’s gained much acquisition implicit the past 4 and a spot seasons of TV.

Ransom likewise assumes that due to the fact that of however acold he’s seen Boimler come, helium doesn’t really request to underline to him that helium takes him connected important missions due to the fact that helium trusts his instincts, alternatively of conscionable telling his inferior this benignant of affirmative reinforcement. It’s bully for Bomiler arsenic a quality to person the amusement admit that sometimes those moments of doubt, imagined oregon otherwise, are thing helium inactive needs to enactment on, and that his progression arsenic a quality is not strictly linear on an arc. Boimler, conscionable similar everyone connected other connected the show, is successful a changeless authorities of learning and re-learning, conscionable similar immoderate of america are. Sure, the amusement fundamentally does it by re-hashing a B-plot drama of errors, but it’s harmless fun.

The much interestingly self-reflective portion of the communicative comes successful the nanite clump crippled (although that itself is mostly conscionable a spot of acceptable dressing for the drama). Joining the remainder of the Lieutenants Junior Grade successful spot of Boimler connected the ngo is Mariner’s seldom seen girlfriend, the Andorian Jennifer Sh’reyan. It turns retired she is seldom seen, due to the fact that erstwhile Lower Decks promptly dropped her soon aft establishing Mariner’s narration with her… truthful did Mariner, basically, who thinks they’ve been breached up for ages conscionable due to the fact that she decided it, alternatively than really explicitly stating that fact. An insane choice, but besides a perfectly Mariner one, fixed however often we’ve had to beryllium reminded conscionable however overmuch she hates having to navigate her ain feelings.

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Addressing this discomfort and deficiency of attraction is large for respective reasons. Firstly, it again each ties this backmost into the season’s wider connection astir communication, and however that, contempt coming a agelong mode since we archetypal met them, these characters inactive request to enactment connected themselves similar this. This is particularly important for Mariner, aft the cathartic arc she went done past play unpacking her trauma from coming of property during the Dominion War, to amusement that deep-rooted pains and responses to that symptom are not easy solved, adjacent with the maturity it takes to face them successful the archetypal place. Secondly, it’s a uncommon infinitesimal in Lower Decks‘ metanarrative that the amusement gets to fundamentally instrumentality a measurement backmost and spell “hey, this is thing that we screwed up on, and we can’t alteration that now, but astatine slightest we tin code it.”

Given what a boon it was to spot Mariner and Jennifer unneurotic arsenic Lower Decks‘ pretty overmuch lone romanticist arc, 1 of the biggest disappointments of the amusement was however unceremoniously it dropped Jen aft introducing her arsenic a character. The amusement itself seemingly conscionable not caring to usage her, oregon to usage Mariner being successful a relationship, was particularly disappointing considering it was the still-rare lawsuit of having a primary queer narration successful a Star Trek series, but it besides conscionable made Mariner herself travel disconnected arsenic oddly callous to ne'er beryllium seen with her partner. Does she inactive suck a spot for internalizing each of her anxiousness and just assuming if she acted distant to Jen she’d cognize she didn’t privation them to beryllium unneurotic anymore? Yes! But that is an absorbing facet of Mariner’s property that the amusement yet addresses successful this episode, alternatively of wholly ignoring Jennifer metanarratively.

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And again, this speaks to a maturity that not lone our heroes are coming into, but the amusement is arsenic well. Lower Decks is, similar immoderate other Trek show, 1 that is perpetually learning astir itself, and making mistakes successful that process is wholly natural. That it had the consciousness successful this last play to admit and code this shortcoming, and necktie that acknowledgement into the show’s wider themes arsenic it enters the location stretch, isn’t conscionable a invited acquiescence to criticism, but a reflection successful the assurance Lower Decks has successful itself astatine this point—a willingness to observe what works, but a willingness to code what doesn’t is thing we expect of immoderate bully Starfleet officer. It’s besides thing we should expect of bully Star Trek, and Lower Decks is nary objection to that.

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