The Lower Decks Revisit an Old Lesson for Relearning.

From the beginning – even when some fans grumbled at the start about an episode that dared to poke fun at Starfleet not being able to say anything meaningful whatsoever Star Trek at all — Lower Decks has been intrigued by communication. The nature of power dynamics between senior officers and their juniors, the human need and frustration that comes when people can’t express themselves to those close to them, the same idea of the need for good Starfleet officers and good people has been open and honest with their friends and peers has long been “the objective heart” Lower Decks. Now, the show is back for one last ride, and it really needs you to remember this lesson, just as its seasoned young heroes do.

The opening of the final season five episodes of Lower Decks, “Dos Cerritos” and “Shades of Green”, largely tell two separate stories united by this specific thematic direction as well as one of the usual dramatic weaknesses in the show: the need for a season-ending resolution that changes the current situation cliffhanger as quickly as possible to bring us back to the aforementioned current state above. In this case, Tendi is sent to work with her sister in her family’s Orion crime syndicate to settle the demands that were made to D’Erika in the conclusion of the fourth season. And at least, in this case, we can not only spend a considerable amount of time with Tendi across these two episodes in the B-plot of the first episode (and perhaps the A-plot of the second) before she is ready to return to her friends even though she is separate in narrative, the whole thing comes back to this overarching message about the core lesson Lower Decks has about communications. Again, this seems ultimately to reflect to what extent that Lower Decks has grown itself during these five chapters: it attempted this kind of narrative mixing before and rarely felt that it succeeded, but with time and confidence, the series finally managed to achieve one of these resets to the current situation without right away feeling somewhat contrived.

This sense of maturation is another line in these first two episodes. “Dos Cerritos” is something else Lower Decks prefers as garbage on the classic journey idea, when the ship tries to fix a “space hole” that creates rifts in other parallel realities, they accidentally drift instead and face an alternative face-to-face. Cerritos. Our reality Cerritos finds the crew themselves in just a tiny fraction of the different percentage journey the main universe (which becomes his assignment as a continuous major screw-up), a world with enough differences to be noticeable, but close enough to become less tied to an alternate reality, and more to the potential future of our heroes.

Rutherfurd in this reality, like our Rutherfurd, suffers from the absence of his best friend Tendi, to the point where he allows a large part of his body to be replaced by cybernetic control that suppresses his emotions and memories in exchange for a better work performance. Boimler in this reality is a gruff man and a close confidant of the second man in command, the pinnacle of what Boimler aspires to achieve after crash-landing in the captain’s chair at the height of the fourth season. The navigator of this reality is all our navigator hoped to become and fears happening across the show: designing herself to be captain Beckett Freeman, holding her mother’s legacy to be a Starfleet captain who rules with strength and confidence… and as we’ve learned, maybe little too much of the former and not enough of the latter.

The double arcs of Mariners are what we truly sink our teeth into with “Dos Cerritos”. It quickly becomes clear that even if Beckett has achieved the status Beckett knew she was capable of, she did so at great personal cost: she has become cold and distant from her friends and colleagues, and controls through fear and the ability to use violence leading to a smooth but tension-controlled ship. No one on the alternate Cerritos are fulfilling their duties not because they have a passion for the principles they hold dear in Starfleet, but because they are terrified of stepping out of line, getting slapped, and sent to the brig by a captain they serve out of fear rather than duty or compassion. It’s everything Mariner hates about the power systems at play in Starfleet, but it’s also everything she fears about herself due to years of the trauma she experienced as a Starfleet member in the Dominion War era, which has led her to lose parts of herself she once valued, to alleviate the burden of losing people in a battle for survival.

Fortunately, Mariner has absorbed the aforementioned lesson of the ability to communicate and express herself with her friends and colleagues, and is quick not only to rally against Beckett and tomorrow for her crew, but when her counterpart in the alternate reality reveals that she wants to try and supplant Mariner Cerritos for the better life of no-worry rebellion, she is quick to intervene and talk to the alternate-Cerritos crew in time to ensure her return home is as desired, and Beckett is detained on charges of mistreating her crew. This is the actual growth Mariner has achieved in action!

If “Dos Cerritos” revolves around this familiar lesson reflected through Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford, “Shades of Green” dedicates much of itself to making Tendi relearn it. Starfleet crew has some fun in the second episode reinforcing this message – Mariner and Boimler (who, after hiding a panel from Boimler from the alternate reality, have been using it essentially until now to learn that he needs to pull off a Riker maneuver and start growing facial hair) visit a planet in the process of abandoning capitalism to join the Union as a member of a post-scarcity society, and Rutherford gets a nice but simple subplot with T’Lyn trying to calm him about Tendi’s ongoing absence. But all this largely forms a quieter subplot focusing on Tendi. Eager to return to her friends on Cerritos, Tendi takes on D’Erika’s mission in “Dos Cerritos” to retrieve a missing Orion warship, but runs into a group of Blue Orions (a great callback to their silly appearance in the animated series). When Tendi wins the ship back by listening to her crew of pirates after they almost betray her to save the life of a Blue Orion, things take a turn when the parental community declares war on House Tendi because she “does not behave like a pirate”. A confrontation ensues, leading to a wild space race commissioned by Orion’s ruling powers to settle everything.

It’s an enjoyable introduction for the reflection “Shades of Green” undertakes – it’s the most we have to explore how Orion society works, going beyond the stereotypical depiction of a mercenary culture that gives other species a smattering at best, but allowing Tendi to embrace her own Orion heritage in ways she been hesitant to throughout the show to date. Plus, who doesn’t love a space race for treasure that feels like a Disney meets Treasure Planet voyager“Leading”? Yet again, the true strength Lower Decks finds here is not in journey mocking everything, but in advancing its characters. Tendi and D’Erika carry off a wonderful little story in this second episode that flips the script on the antagonistic relationship we saw between them last season,evokes this core message about the importance of openness and communication.

Before the big race begins right away, Tendi learns that her sister is pregnant with a child who could be her ticket back to Starfleet: a new heir to inherit her title, but also a new life that could be in danger if D’Erika takes charge. in this dangerous mission. At first, neither of the sisters was ready to talk about this with each other, leading to Tendi’s increasingly comedic attempts to ensure that D’Erika faces as little tension as possible during the race, even if it means the crew starts to fall farther behind. But ultimately, they both realize that they need to be honest with each other about their feelings, and in turn they come out of the other side of the race more prepared to part ways but closer than ever, as siblings and as people who have come to respect their differing life paths.

There have been variations of these kinds of thematic story archs throughout the time Lower Decks has been “life so far”, but by returning to these messages again as they prepare to start the final season of adventures, this is a reminder that as much as all the heroes have come as people, as friends, as Starfleet officers, there are still core lessons that we must revisit as we change and grow as individuals. Star Trek has always been about sitting down and talking, understanding different perspectives, and making sure you have enough faith to stand and voice your case. Lower Decks, despite endearingly poking fun at this privilege we all love, has always understood that: and wants to teach you that even as it prepares to say goodbye, it will continue to understand that as well.

The premiere of the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is now streaming on Paramount+.

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