Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Of Gods and Angles”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Mariner mentors a rowdy Ensign with familiar tendencies while dealing with a negotiation between some spheres and cubes (hence the title), while Boimler tries warming up to Dr T’Ana.

OUR TAKE

We continue to barrel ever closer to the end of Lower Decks, with only a scant few episodes left, so how about we get another unintentionally full circle moment, this time with Mariner? If you’ll recall, as I did from watching every single prior episode before this season began, Mariner began as the rebellious and rogue one, always prioritizing her own goals and never really caring about the next day because she might get transferred for being insubordinate. While she hasn’t totally kicked these habits, as seen in this episode, she has definitely come a long way in terms of learning to get over her insecurities and be a part of the team. So, what better way to test that progress than seeing just about the same patterns in a new Ensign, one who also has issues with their parentage (in this case being a descendant of a race of beings from TOS who took on the guise of Greek gods) and is also at risk of being kicked out of the fleet. But even though this Ensign is a handful to deal with, much like Mariner was, she takes lessons from those who had faith in her to learn and grow, like Freeman and Ransom knew she could.

Meanwhile, Boimler continues to grow his weird beard with the plan of copying the progress of his alternate self, which was less obvious early on but I guess is now the main character arc of the season. Like Mariner, Boimler has also been on an arc all across the show, though his has been more about building his own identity as an aspiring officer. However, seeing another version of himself so far along must’ve broken his brain as he’s now trying to copy everything that version did from his log of events. I get this to an extent, as I’ve also wanted to see what the best version of my future self was doing and just copy those answers so I wouldn’t have to make any decisions for myself. But while this ends up working for Boimler this week, it’s worth pointing out that other version of him isn’t actually HIM, and I have a feeling future episodes will give Boimler a choice of whether to be himself or follow in someone else’s footsteps. Three episodes to go before we say goodbye, so let’s hope they make it a good one.