Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Reflections”

Overview

Mariner and Boimler are working the Starfleet booth at an alien job fair hoping to recruit others to work on the least important ship. It doesn’t take long before the duo encounters some competition from other booths leading Boimler to go nuts and destroy all of the other booths at the fair. This causes potential recruits to apply in droves. But, does Mariner have other suitors in the ever-competitive workforce of space?

Meanwhile, Rutherford is having a sort of a Me, Myself, and Irene bit and, as a reflection, has to challenge himself to a race but also learns the truth on how he got his implant. He loves his crew, but does Rutherford trust Starfleet after all of this?

Our Take

Ah yes, the hooks are starting to set in for Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is what every good sci-fi does…pose questions about the future. In this case, it’s the future of both Rutherford and Mariner, but really the franchise has displayed its best strengths this week in a number of different facets. For starters, recall that this show was pitched as a Star Trek meets The Office in the early run-ups to the show’s premiere, and this episode encapsulates that perfectly. The Office also featured an episode revolving around a job fair and a booth having trouble getting applicants, but I would argue “Reflections” is the funnier of the two options by a lot.

The far more Treky storyline involved Rutherford’s internal dichotomy which not only proved hilarious but also gave us the show’s other strong element, technical prowess, and it was here in droves. The climax featuring the action-packed race was pretty excellent in its execution, and nobody but maybe Titmouse could’ve pulled that off. It’s ironic that this episode is called “Reflections”, because this week the franchise made us all look in the mirror to see how good it looks.