Review: Star Trek Lower Decks “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Boimler tries readjusting back into life on the Cerritos, which proves difficult due to the computer not having him in the system anymore. Even worse, famed Lieutenant Tom Paris (known for being on Star Trek: Voyager) is coming and Boimler wants him to sign a commemorative plate. Also, Tactical Officer Shax is somehow alive, which confuses Rutherford, since he was with Shax just before he died in the first season finale. Also also, Mariner and Tendi have to go pick up something for Chief Medical Officer T’Ana, giving the two a chance to bond for the first time ever.


OUR TAKE
You know how I constantly point out when Lower Decks is starting to go up its own ass with reference to other Trek shows to the point that newcomers like me feel out of the joke? Well, that happened again. Shocking, I know. It’s not exactly so bad that it completely locks me out of the story, but it’s still pretty distracting. In the Boimler plot, it doesn’t seem like you necessarily need extensive knowledge of Tom Paris to understand why Boimler is nerding out about him, and the antics he gets into to get to Tom Paris are entirely Boimler-centric, but on the other hand, I don’t feel like I got a good sense of Tom Paris’ character or personality with how little he’s featured. And that might be fine for people who are just happy to see more of the guy post-Voyager, but it ends up feeling like it could have been anyone from Voyager and it would’ve worked fine. Just more fanservice for the fans, I guess.

Meanwhile, Shax is apparently suddenly back to life with no apparent explanation…which is apparently a reference to a lack of continuity in previous shows where characters killed off would suddenly just come back, sometimes with no explanation. I had notice his voice actor still in the credits in the first two episodes, so I wondered how he would be used, but I guess he’s just back now, on top of making a bunch of references to other Trek shows. So…ditto what I said earlier, only this time with the added fun of completely negating a surprisingly touching death from the end of last season, as well as establishing that anyone in the show could die and have it not mean a goddamn thing. Look, I know this is an episodic comedy show, but it meant a lot to be able to have serious moments and what seemed to be lasting consequences.

So, thank the gods for the Mariner and Tendi plot, because it basically saved the episode for me. It has references, of course, but they’re used naturally and relevant to the situation instead of just being fanservice for fanservice’s sake. It also finally pairs these two up in a story, which is something I and at least one Youtube reviewer I follow have been wanting for awhile. We get to know Tendi’s connection to her people, the Orions, who are a Trek mainstay but are important here because of how they’re connected to Tendi. And it’s a damn funny story, along with getting to see Tendi in a pretty hot Orion outfit. So, with all that said, I’m still having fun with the show and still see it growing and developing with each episode, but I still find it unfortunate that I’m probably going to feel a bit walled off from fully appreciating the show until I consume just about every piece of canon Trek media. Which I’m TRYING to do, but because *I* want to!