Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Empathological Fallacies”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the Cerritos hosts some Betazoids while investigating the mystery ship, T’Lyn tries in vain to contact her old Vulcan ship. These attempts are interrupted by a sudden emotional spike in nearly everyone on the ship, which is at first thought to be a telepathic virus caused by the Betazoids, but is actually T’Lyn’s own frustration and unresolved internal conflict radiating into everyone. After a pep talk by Mariner, T’Lyn decides to commit to staying on the Cerritos, at least for the time being. Also, Boimler learns more about the Security Team.

OUR TAKE

We’re halfway through the season now and we’ve finally gotten our first episode truly centered on T’Lyn. She had her segment of her debut episode back in late Season 2, and has been an active participant in most of the episodes in this season so far as she bounced off the other main cast members, but here’s where we actually get to get in her head. Since being let go from her old ship for thinking with her instincts instead of cold hard logic, T’Lyn has clearly seen being assigned to a Starfleet vessel as a punishment for her lack of being a proper Vulcan. This is actually a pathos she shares with the OG Vulcan crewmember Spock, but she’s one hundo of her species (I don’t remember seeing this be an issue for T’Pol on Enterprise and I haven’t seen Voyager), so this is not a matter of dueling with her mixed genetics. It seems, like Tendi and her Orion heritage, she does not fit snuggly into the platonic ideal of a Vulcan. Thankfully she came to the right ship to find out that’s actually not a bad thing to be at all.

Lower Decks as a show has mainly been about a batch of odd ducks who have the least amount of power or control over their lives and find themselves among comrades who help them accept each other. We’ve seen that plenty with Boimler and Rutherford in the past few seasons, as well as with Tendi as mentioned and Mariner earlier in the season. Each have or probably have felt they didn’t quite fit in with what people were telling them they should or needed to be, whether among their race or among their peer group. In fact it’s probably something that just about everyone has felt at one point. But simply feeling you don’t fit in doesn’t mean that’s necessarily true, or that even if it is that you can’t still find people who accept you and help you to do great things, even if others don’t quite appreciate it. As T’Lynn learns at the end of this episode, it’s not about folding and shrinking yourself for the sake of those who rejected you, it’s to be amongst others who will let you be who you’re meant to be. So far, this season has ranged from solid hits to certified bangers. With another half left to go and the Writer’s Strike finished, we’re likely to have a lot more awesome Trek in the near future.