Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Second Contact”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

On board the USS Cerritos, by-the-books Ensign Brad Boilmer attempts to do a Captain’s Log but is interrupted by the Ensign Beckett Mariner, who is a lot more liberal with the rules, smuggling alien drinks and weapons onto the ship. They and the rest of the “Lower Decks” crew are getting ready for Second Contact, basically a follow up visit after the much more important First Contact, with a newly discovered alien race. They also welcome new Ensign D’Vana Tendi, the audience surrogate character and new Medical Officer, and wish Ensign Sam Rutherford, a newly made cyborg, good luck on a date with another officer.

But before going to the second contact, Boilmer is given a special assignment by Captain Freeman: monitor Mariner and report if she acts out of line. This suspicion proves to be reasonable as Boilmer sees Mariner driving off with stolen Star Fleet equipment, which he assumes are weapons to be sold to the natives, but really they’re farming equipment. Mariner was on this planet for First Contact and noticed that the people there were lacking in being able to develop and so decided to fix that. It’s also part of why she was demoted. In his misunderstanding, Boilmer is sucked on by a giant spider, who covers him with slime. Meanwhile, a zombie virus gets onto the ship forcing Tendi and Rutherford to go through their own trials by fire to stop it, though it is eventually solved by the slime on Boilmer, which neutralizes the virus. Boilmer decides not to rat on Mariner, who turns out the both the captain’s daughter and the daughter of a Star Feet Admiral, so Mariner decides to mentor him to being a Captain like he wants.

OUR TAKE

Outside the numerous parodies, off-shoots, and a short lived series in the 60’s, the Star Trek franchise has not often taken official leaps into animation, which is part of why the announcement of this show was a surprise for some. Even more so that it would be helmed by Mike McMahan, best known for being one of the main writers of Rick and Morty and the co-creator of Hulu’s Solar Opposites. Knowing that detail feels both a promising sign of this show’s potential, but also an albatross that might spell it’s doom. McMahan has written a lot of great episodes for Rick and Morty, among them some of my favorites that would fit right at home in the Star Trek universe, so knowing that mind is behind this series gives me hope that it could reach those heights in its own way. But on the other hand, it feels like McMahan is pulling a bit too much from that show’s dynamics, at least in this first episode. It took me a little bit to put it together, but I started taking some of Boilmer and Beckett’s lines and thinking of them in Rick and Morty’s voices, where they felt disturbingly in character. Their dynamic is also a bit too close for comfort, though I imagine I’ll have plenty of time to go into that if it proves to be consistent throughout the season.

The other thing I should point out is that I am not what one would call a “trekkie” myself. I’ve seen the recent movies, most of Enterprise, and a couple episodes of Discovery prior to this. Though apparently that makes me the perfect audience for Lower Decks, which supposedly wants to attract a new audience. While that in and of itself is a perfectly fine goal, it also seems oddly defensive of preserving the dignity of Star Trek while ALSO having zany Rick and Morty comedy adventures. Apparently McMahan has made it a policy to not punch down to Star Trek, despite the fact that the franchise has so many dumb and contradictory stuff that could be worth exploring on a meta and in-universe level. And given that this apparently takes place after the Nemesis movie, a supposed low point in the franchise’s history, it seems like a perfect time to rip the previous nuttiness of five TV shows and ten movies for both old and new fans. It’s also weirdly apolitical for a Star Trek show, especially for a Star Trek show written by a Rick and Morty writer. All of this to say it seems that this show is holding itself back in some weird ways, but we’ve got nine more episodes to see how they grow from it.