Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “A Farewell to Farms”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Since the end of last season, Ma’ah has resigned himself to a simple life on a farm…until Boimler and Mariner show up and try to help him become a starship captain again.
OUR TAKE
This week on Lower Decks, lots of Klingons and lots of callbacks! If you’ve been watching this show as long as I have, you may remember first meeting Ma’ah in the seconds season episode “weJ duJ”, which is also the first appearance of T’Lyn and went on to be the show’s first utterly brilliant episode. Like T’Lyn, Ma’ah would reappear at the start of Season 4, but then not again until near the end of the season when he was captured by Nick Lacarno, met and befriended Mariner, and was a crucial part of the remaining events of that season. So, it’s a pleasant surprise that we’re checking back in with him so soon, and possibly for the last time before the series ends. Just like Vulcan characters often struggle with the meaning and value of logic, Klingon characters tend to do the same with the idea of honor, and it seems that Ma’ah is still dealing with the consequences of what he considered an honorable act: killing his former captain when he attempted to start a new war with the Federation. Well, turns out that captain was the brother of a higher up Klingon who then kicked Ma’ah out of their fleet. Will they get him back to flying in the starry sky? I’ll give you three guesses.
Though, while watching Boimler and his porn stache get zapped a bunch is funny and all, there’s also the subplot with Rutherford, Tendi, Freeman, and Dr. Migleemo. Despite covering most of the previous seasons, I’m not sure I’ve ever had much reason to mention Migleemo, whose main character traits consist of looking like a bird therapist and having a lot of food based puns. Still, even with such a seemingly simple gimmick, he’s never felt like an out of place addition and is usually the source of some of the show’s best jokes, helped greatly by being voiced by comedian Paul F. Tompkins. This subplot, centering on him trying to impress some food critics from his own planet seems like a good enough place to send him off at least. Oh yeah, worth mentioning that, aside from the weJ duJ callback with Ma’ah and the brother of the captain he killed, we also see the Klingon ambassador from the second episode of the entire series, so once again we kind of have a full circle moment even though this was never meant to be the final season! Next time: the halfway point!
