'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 1 Episode 9 Review: Mariner sorts out issues through the spectacle of film
Spoilers for 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 1, Episode 9 'Crisis Point'
There's a lot of love for the 'Star Trek' franchise that's apparent in 'Lower Decks'. It's the special kind of love that embraces both the good and the bad, the tacky and the earnest sincerity. Even the current blockbuster era that 'Star Trek' is in now, started with J.J. Abrams' lens-flaring reboot films, finds that there's a place for it amongst the fans. While on the surface, this episode of 'Lower Decks' might seem like a parody of its various movies, the show is just as comfortable playing it straight, making for a wonderfully entertaining episode that thrills just as much as it amuses, playing to the show's unique strengths.
After a tense argument about Starfleet bureaucracy and the Prime Directive, a frustrated Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) orders her daughter Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to therapy - enraging Mariner even more than the idea of a promotion. Naturally, Mariner does things her own way and hijacks Brad Boimler's (Jack Quaid) training simulation to create a movie where she gets to be the bad guy and work out her rage issues by taking out a simulation of her mother. The simulation she creates goes all into the movie premise, complete with credits, widescreen formatting, and saturated colors everywhere.
Nine episodes in, and 'Lower Decks' has mastered the art of setting up a compelling story that can make fun of itself without undermining the story it's telling - something that's no easy feat. Mariner's issues with her mother have been bubbling away for a whole season now, and when they finally boil over, it's with a rage that's scary to behold, made all the scarier by the episode's movie-like aesthetic. Somehow, though the stakes are as low as they can possibly be - with a holodeck simulation on a comedy cartoon show - all the episode's dramatic elements manage to hit him. The opening credits. The glamor shots of the USS Cerritos. Mariner's frustrating but epic confrontation with her mother, and then herself.
The drama manages to make the jokes even funnier. While everyone knows how much fun it is to ham up a villainous character, Tawny Newsome must have been having the time of her life parodying a 'Star Trek' villain hamming it up. Her role as the vengeful Vindicta doesn't just chew the scenery so much as swallows it whole, in a dramatic monologue that gleefully wrecks all-natural speech rhythms. Not everyone is having as much fun, however.
One of the show's weak points has been its tendency to pair Mariner with Boimler for the A-plot, and Sam Rutherfod (Eugene Cordero) and T'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) for the B-plot. The last episode mixed things up a bit, with more of an ensemble episode, and this episode continues to do the same. While Brad continues to try the find the best way to brown-nose his superiors in the midst of a simulated crisis, D'Vana takes offense to Mariner's portrayal of her people like pirates. Sam has a wonderful, heartwarming scene confessing his true feelings of admiration to his simulated superior officer - a romance that comes out of nowhere but is deeply felt nonetheless.
Mariner, of course, takes center stage, and the episode finally lays out clearly the question that's been raised all through the season - why does Mariner, someone who's clearly competent and who cares deeply for her life onboard Starfleet, continually confine herself and her responsibilities to the lower decks? Finding answers in both her Mother and her simulated self, it turns out that Mariner is afraid of responsibility, and has taken on the role of the "bad guy" because it's easier to live that way.
With her answers, and with the cliffhanger of Boimler discovering Captain Freeman and Mariner's relationship, this episode seems to finally put Mariner in a place to take on the responsibility she's been avoiding not just all season, but all of her life. The finale will tell all, letting us know once and for all whether Mariner is ready to step up - and whether her friends will be coming along with her.
The next episode of 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' airs October 8, on CBS All Access.