Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Caves”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Our usual suspects finally get sent on a mission together after so long being apart in order to survey a cave. They soon become trapped and find themselves talking about other times they were trapped in caves with other people. And one story about a turbo lift.

OUR TAKE

Another solid vignette style episode for Lower Decks, this time focusing cave stories within a cave story. Boimler’s sees him finding common ground with the conspiracy theorist who was usually just for a couple funny bits in Season 1, Rutherford joins the Mpreg tag as he gives birth to a clone of an alien tour guide, Mariner makes peace with a former rival ensign team, and Tendi fondly remembers her first time stuck in an elevator with her future friends for life. Similar to the trial based faux-clip show from Season 1, this harkens back to the Star Trek franchise’s love of cave sets and stories set in caves, often with the same set just used in a way to make it seem different. This is a detail that thankfully is not required to get into the episode, and merely frosting for fans who are already in on the gag. Beyond that, and putting solely in the show’s own context, it actually shows how the now LJGs have found that their higher ranks have gotten them more work but less time to work together…which you wouldn’t really be able to tell by watching this season, but the thought is there.

The strong bonds of friendship between the four Lower Deckers has been a key part of the show and how it’s been able to develop, so it’s nice to see an episode focus on that as well as show that each member is having smaller side adventures with others and forming connections of their own. I doubt we’ll ever see these characters get to very high ranks until maybe the end of the series (in fact with the show’s fate past next season up in the air, it’s possible this past promotion is all we’re going to get), but this is the sort of lesson that can apply to any friend group born from a job. Eventually everyone will move on to other things, and that will be a true test of how strong the friendship actually is. Your friends are going to have other bonds, adventures, and lives outside of you, and that’s okay. Now, with this wholesome little detour out of the way, hopefully the remaining three episodes will focus on finally unveiling who the mystery ship is. The fact they’ve hidden it for so long with next to no hints means it has to be someone who they expect us to know, once again building my suspicions that it will be just another deep cut…but I would very much like to be wrong. And once again, once this season is concluded, Paramount only has Season 2 of Prodigy and the final season of Discovery left before it runs out of already finished Trek stuff.