'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Episode 5 Review: Mariner goes over the edge to prove Boimler's love is fake
Spoilers for 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 1 Episode 5 'Cupid's Errant Arrow'
'Star Trek: Lower Decks' is a show that is, essentially, about nerds and for nerds. It has largely been a celebration of sci-fi nerd culture, straying away from conventional put-downs, but there are some tropes that are apparently too hard to resist falling into. When Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) introduces Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to his new girlfriend, it sparks off a "she's-out-of-your-league" story that's one of the most tiresome of the series so far.
Brad Boimler is a nerdy, authority loving stickler for rules, but he's not exactly an uncharismatic monster. Even so, Mariner goes right off the deep end in a paranoid attempt to prove that there is no way an attractve woman can genuinely care for Boimler. Though we're given a glimpse into Mariner's past to provide motivation for her actions, the episode largely reads like one that has decided that there it's just not possible for someone like Boimler to find love if the object of his affections is good looking.
As such, the A-plot is one of the most by-the-numbers stories of the season thus far, culminating in the reveal that pheremones from a parasite was responsible for Boimler's girlfriend's interest in him in the first place. One interesting thing did come out of that storyline, however – the flashback to Mariner's past, which has been teased before but never explicitly shown. Mariner's past seems to be a big part of her character, and we can no doubt expect to see more of the USS Kido going forward.
The B-plot, meanwhile, sees D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) all but drooling over the prestigious high tech engineering ship, the USS Vancouver. It's a fun exploration of the characters, who are besotted with the ship's vastly superior technology but are aghast at the thought of actually being transferred to the ship.
They're loyalists to the USS Cerritos, no matter how outdated its techonology might be, and that is the 'Star Trek' fandom in a nutshell when it comes to the classic series.
This episode manages to fit in a C-plot, which is honestly the highlight of the episode, as Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) attempts to convince a group of aliens that their moon needs to be imploded in order to prevent millions of deaths — a seemingly straightforward decision that is opposed by all for a variety of reasons in a thinly-veiled climate change reference.
While Carol finally manages to get everyone to agree to the moon's implosion, the process of getting there and the ridiculous anger with which the aliens voice their objections is hilarious.
It's definitely a mixed bag of an episode that could have benefitted from switching the C-plot and the A-plot around in terms of importance. As it stands, however, it's a fairly forgettable episode in what has been a generally enjoyable season. The next episode of 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' airs on September 10 on CBS All Access.