Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “A Few Badgeys More”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Boimler and Tendi are called to the Daystrom Institute, Tendi to oversee Peanut Hamper’s parole and Boimler to talk to Agamus about possible intel about another lost ship. What they don’t know is that Peanut Hamper and Agamus have been scheming since she got there to escape and conquer planets…only it seems Peanut Hamper has had a change of heart and decided to take her rehabilitation seriously. Realizing he would rather be with his best friend than rule worlds, Agamus decides to go back and stay until he can go where she is.

Meanwhile, Badgey makes his own glorious return, having taken control of a Drookmani ship and directly attacking the Cerritos. Rutherford makes a last ditch attempt to try and convince his creation to stop, though while this only delays Badgey’s wrath, it does make him split his personality; first into a good half called Good-gy, and later a logical side named Logic-y (who is later killed). Unfortunately, all of these antics only aggravates him, making him escalate his plans to sending himself into subspace and hacking into all of the Federation! Unlimited power is at his command…but now he sees his search for vengeance is pointless. So, he decides to explore the vast unknown on his own and departs. Goodgy is still around though!

OUR TAKE

So far, we’ve had a season leaning full on into inter-franchise references that I think I’ve made my point about by now. If that tickles your funny bone, I obviously won’t judge you there, but I think Lower Decks has gained enough on its own to reference itself for humor, or, ideally, to show growth and character development. And we have a clear example of that in this week’s episode, which seems to close out two ongoing subplots about recurring characters who are both artificial intelligence AND started out in Season 1. Badgey first started out as a riff on the Trek cliche of a hologram going awry that went rogue, killed Shax (he got better) and seemingly was destroyed at the end of Season 1, at least until a post-credit scene at the end of last season. Peanut Hamper is a little robot who originally worked for Starfleet but went AWOL, also at the end of Season 1, but then popped up again part way through last season, proving to be a selfish manipulator who was locked up with Jeffrey Combs’ Agamus (another minor threat from Season 2), with the hint that they would be a major threat down the line.

Fast Forward to this week’s episode and all three are suddenly appearing once again, in two completely separate plots with one big theme: rehabilitation. While Peanut Hamper was never much more than a crappy person overall, Badgey and Agamus were literal cackling villains with goals of seizing power and destruction, with all of them actually seeking something more in their attempts to use or control others: compassion and understanding. Once Peanut Hamper was given a productive structure to focus on, she realized that avoiding work and purpose were actually keeping her from a positive life. Likewise, Agamus spent a lot of his debut episode trying to manipulate Boimler and Mariner, only to have the tables turned as he underestimated their friendship, but now finds that he was looking for friendship of his own as he let go of his would-be conquering ways to work towards being with his own friend. And finally Badgey got closure with Rutherford and realized he could turn his abilities towards his newfound Dr Manhattan-esque omniscience. All of this points toward Star Trek’s hopes of achieving a utopian society where even those who were once the worst of the worst have a chance to change themselves for the better. Also, any Star Trek with Jeffrey Combs is an instant plus. Three episodes left and then…I guess wait for Prodigy Season 2?