Alerted to the universe destroying rift that’s been isolated to their timeline, Boimler and Mariner lead the charge in convincing Captain Freeman of the threat. To their surprise, there’s no argument from her as she trusts her ‘best officers’ and informs command who then deliver the bad news. There’s no other ship in range. It’s time for Cerritos to step out of their comfort zone and save the galaxy.
Lower Decks doesn’t always hit a home run for me. But when it does, it’s in a finale.
For an animated comedy that seems to thrive and get put on a pedestal for it’s multiple callbacks and references, it’s a show that shines when it goes beyond the nudge and a wink to let it’s characters grow. Very quickly this episodes hammers how how that growth has carried the show beyond expectations. And it all hits home early with one line. “You’re my best officers.” A line from Freeman that shows the massive turnaround from Mariner and being losers and misfits into what they are now; proven and valued crewmembers.
Although the Cerritos has seen it’s share of high profile missions, this is the first time they’ve been tasked with ‘Enterprise level’ work which brings a lot of comedy but lets the series show off what it’s achieved, putting everyone in prime position to showcase that behind the comedy and emphasis on being the background workhorses of the fleet, there’s still some Starfleet in them all. Not only that, but it feels like it brings the show together for one last hurrah similar to how the Picard crew got their last big adventure.
Mixing the lower and upper decks as an ensemble, having everyone work to their strengths, kind of feels like a fitting way to close the show. It’s a race against time with some Klingon interference helping to close off a sub-story of the show, with everything thrown in. Rutherford realises his implants are holding him back, Mariner takes charge in the middle of a crisis… even Ransom, who’s often a one note joke, it elevated to a heroic level as he shows he’s smarter than the gym-bro caricature.
For everything thrown in there, it doesn’t feel too packed and it’s paced perfectly. Even preparing Cerritos with new upgrades from Starfleet, or searching the ship for missing Klingons doesn’t slow anything down. If anything it all adds to the tension that comes with the unique brand of storytelling to give both drama and comedy a chance to come to the forefront as they show the Cerritos and it’s crew to be their better selves working as one.
And as it all came to an end, they gave us a satisfying conclusion tot he series and not just a season with Starbase 80 becoming a key outpost and new home for Captain Freeman, and Jack Ransom taking command for new adventures as he mentors his new command team with Boims and Mariner now in charge of the lower decks; T’Lynn and Tendi staying as co-science officers and Rutherford falling back in love with the Cerritos as he enters life without his implant guiding him.
It’s a joyful episode that shows the best of what Lower Decks was and even if it left the door open for more adventures, the New Next Generation was a wonderful way to close the book on the series final chapter.
About the author
Resistance Is Optional: Sunday 8th February
We've trialled, we've tested and we're ready for nonsense! This weekend we're inviting the fleet to come together and just enjoy talking Trek, general life, throw questions at Admin and generally misbehave in our Discord server while we run a live first run on the server. For those who've never used Discord before, we're migrating what we can from our social platforms to the Discord server in the coming weeks and months due to it's versatility as a desktop app, web-based client or mobile app; having multiple methods of communication from voice chats, to hosted events, to simple forum and live forum style discussions and of course – aside from them occasionally promoting their Nitro features – it’s ad and payment free with privacy controls to suit you. Also it lets us run video and voice chat - both of […]
“There is no greater enemy than one’s own fears”; ‘Vox In Exelso’, Starfleet Academy S1E4
When an existential crisis threatens to wipe out a beloved but infamous Star Trek species, a cadet is forced to confront his past and strained relationship with his family. As he pursues an unexpected method of coping, Nahla races against time to save this species from extinction.... Writers: Gaia Violo & Eric Anthony Glover Director: Doug Aarniokoski Ever since Discovery took the jump to the future, there were questions that were left unanswered. A few hundred yeas of changing cultures and political landscapes combined with the galaxy-devastating effect of the Burn gave us a familiar surrounding that had undergone massive change. We found out what happened to the Federation. We found out the Orions took advantage of the power vacuum. We even got to meet an isolationist Earth and see the reunification of Vulcan and Romulus. But for a […]
Revenge Of The Nerds; ‘Vitus Reflux’, Starfleet Academy S1E3
Proving yourself at Starfleet Academy always seemed to come down to competitive rivalry. Whether it was Sisko failing to win over Solok, Finnegan's constant pranks on Kirk, or Georgiou drinking everyone under the table, even the most professional stand up Captains have spent their youth in a knife fight with a Nausican. Vitrus Reflux get it all out the way as cadets Lythe and Raymi get locked into a battle of the ego's while the War College next door pops up to assert their dominance! Writers: Alex Taub & Kiley RossetterDirector: Doug Aarniokoski As the more militaristic war college use their current standing as the primary source of Starfleet for the past hundred-plys years to prove the revival of the Academy is a failed experiment, tensions begin to bubble over through mixed physical training leading to conflicts, a war of words and […]
[Q2&A] Positively Positive.
Last week Starfleet Academy debuted and something odd happened. If you're a regular to any Trek news or discussion site, you noticed a spike. Even our usually sleepy Facebook profile went from a handful of likes to over 2,000, am good chunk of which got deleted. It wasn't a normal spike, certainly not normal for a debut show, not normal to be everywhere and – to be frank – not normal in terms of comments. It was a mix of disturbing and sad. Disturbing for the high amount of bigoted and sexist memes and commentary that seemed to mock murdered US citizens. For a subculture of fandom that grew up praising – to the point of gloating – that Star Trek was about intellectualism and inclusion, it certainly showed that as a fandom, and a united international culture, we've taken more […]
[Retro Review] Where No Man Has Gone Before….
During a search and rescue mission that takes the Enterprise through the Galactic Barrier, ships captain James 'R' Kirk has another problem. During the trip through the barrier, Kirks crewmate and long time friend Gary Mitchell takes a blast of weird energy that slowly transforms him into everyone's best friend, to a telekinetic megalomaniac proving that old parable about absolute power.... By this point, everyone knows the story of Star Trek's two pilots. The Cage was filmed, rejected and the show got a rare second chance. That second chance as Where No Man Has Gone Before. Same ship, different Captain and crew aside from a green blooded alien... This year marks the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, so it seems only fitting we should start, where the show began on screen with the pilot that saw the idea become a […]
Everything Whale Be Alright; ‘Beta Test’, Starfleet Academy S1E2 Review
Rebuilding after being torn down by 'The Burn', Starfleet and the Federation are getting back on mission, rekindling old alliances, developing new technologies and now ready to re-open Starfleet Academy to raise the next generation of explorers... Writers: Noga Landau & Jane Maggs Director: Alex Kurtzman Whether it's seeing hios potential, or just sheer guilt, Captain Ake is bending over backwards to integrate Caleb into the Academy. Trouble is, he's not putting in the same effort. Fighting against his own inflated ego and distracted with his quest to find his mother coming to a dead end. Spiralling following an argument with instructor Jet Reno, Caleb tries to run, but instead he runs into Tarima; a visiting Betazoid who can see right through his bravado. Following the Burn, Betazed isolated itself from the Federation and now their president has an […]
Related
Fissure Quest: Lower Decks S5E09 Review
Side stepping the Lower Deckers for the episode, Fissure Quest instead focuses on Boimlers not-so-dead-transporter duplicate William. Following faking his death in season three, Billy Boims is now captain of Section 31 ship the Anaximander. While Cerritos has been sent to close the subspace fissures expoising them to alternate realities, the Anaximander has been sent into that multiverse to find out who's causing them.
Upper Decks: Lower Decks S5E08 Review
This is an odd episode that see's a lot going on, but also feels like nothing of note really happens. It's basically a day in the life of the command crew that makes the job seem more chaotic than the low level tasks of the Lower Deckers while making fun of the idea that only the important command crew have all the fun.
Lower Decks: The Final Season Begins…
Mariner, Boimler and the lower deck crew are back this October as the Second Contact specialists take on a new mission to investigate the mundane for the Cerritos' final flight!
Starfleet Academy Welcomes It’s First Class!
The first batch of cast announcements for Academy focused on veteran actors Paul Giamatti and Holly Hunter, the latter in the role of the new Academy Commandant, but now we're getting a full look at the shows first class of cadets as the first five are ready to enlist!
Paul Giamatti joins Holly Hunter for Starfleet Academy!
Looking ahead to the next generation of Star Trek shows, Paramount and Secret Hideout have already began announcing new cast members to lead the Starfleet Academy series coming to the streaming platform in the near future. News of the show has already turned heads with notes that the new academy campus will be the largest seen on TV so far, being filmed in Pinewood';s largest stage in Canada, though in terms of what to fully expect from the young adult drama, things are largely being kept under Red Directive secrecy. However we now at least know who will be leading the new class ahead of the shows production...
Strange New Worlds Renewed: Lower Decks Cancelled.
After an era of being spoiled for choice when it came ot Star Trek shows, Paramount+ has announced the future of two of it's most popular streamed series as Star Trek's first animated comedy comes to an end whilst Captain Pike gets another season to explore Strange New Worlds with Spock and his Number One.
