Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks “Grounded”

Overview

Mariner enlists her friends on a rogue mission to exonerate her mother because she faces a military tribunal for the destruction of the Bakled Planet and Beckett wants to put a stop to it at all costs, much to the chagrin of the rest of her family.

With her family out of the way, Mariner revisits all of her USS Cerritos shipmates and enlists them to help get her mom out of harm’s way. The crew ends up spending most of the episode getting back to their ship then getting into a big ol’ slug fest over who knows what. The rest of the Starfleet hears about the Cerritos going nuts and pulls over the ship for questioning only to be saved by the recently exonerated Captain Freeman.

Our Take

Lo and behold, Star Trek: Lower Decks makes it’s long-awaited season three bow and does so in a pretty decent fashion. The irony, creator Mike McMahan’s Rick and Morty did a parody about character reveals that would be part of a heist, and I couldn’t help but giggle when I thought, “wow, this is exactly that”. Like EVERY beat that “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty” was accounted for aside from the cheesy cutaway music.

Still though, the episode left enough skin on the bone to give some originality. I honestly thought the twist ending was something we were going to have to wait for weeks to get, only for it to happen in under 30 minutes and all in one episode. Fortunately, the comedic sensibilities were still all there, and D’Vana Tendi’s trick alibi had me laughing my ass off.

A bit of cliche, sure, but a solid start to Star Trek: Lower Decks season three. Let’s just hope the rest of the season steers clear of pickles and vats of acid, just to be on the safe side.