At first glance, Star Trek: Lower Decks seems to be about the wild adventures of the incompetent crew of the starship Cerritos. The command crew seems so far up their own butts with self-importance that they can’t see how little they actually matter in the grand scheme of things. And as for the titular lower decks crew, they seem more concerned with screwing around than becoming true Starfleet material. However, by the time the final credits roll on the season, it’s clear that there is far more to our heroes—and the show itself—than what you would expect from “Rick and Morty meets Star Trek.” At its heart, it’s a show about challenging assumptions—both those of the characters and those of the people watching the show.
Image source: Star Trek on Twitter.
Assumptions About the Characters
As the show begins, the characters treat each other as one-note caricatures—assuming each can be pegged into a simple slot. But as the show goes on, it becomes clear that the characters are actually multi-layered and complex—and often more than a bit damaged.
Mariner is not a totally irresponsible loose cannon—she’s a young woman living in the shadow of her famous parents who both loves what Starfleet stands for and hates the bureaucratic mess of rules that prevents her from doing the moral thing. Biomler, on the other hand, is not a model up-and-coming officer—he’s a person of all knowledge and no personal experience who is prone to learning how the real world works in the most painful ways possible.
Even the gung-ho kiss ass Commander Ransom is more than he appears. He is not Zapp Brannigan—he’s a man who believes in the enlightened philosophy of the Federation and truly cares for and feels responsible for those under his command (even those he personally dislikes).
As the season goes on, it becomes clear that while the crew of the Cerritos aren’t the best of the best, they are competent, normal people doing the best they can with the material they have.
Image source: Star Trek on Twitter.
Assumptions About Happy Endings
Classic Star Trek, in general, has followed a simple formula. Each week, there is a problem. By the end of the episode, the problem has been resolved and our heroes fly off toward their next adventure. There’s almost always a set conclusion—often a happy one.
But, that’s hardly realistic. In the real world, there are always a mess of loose ends. That’s the heart of Star Trek: Lower Decks—the story of what happens after the Enterprise flies off to the next final frontier.
In Lower Decks, we see how hard it is to pick up where the A-team left off. Each further step is full of similar pitfalls but contains none of the glory. But worse yet, we even learn that sometimes when the Enterprise moves on, there is no B-team sent in—no one checks in on what happened.
Until Lower Decks, Star Trek has been all about the novel: first encounters, newly discovered worlds, and pushing the very boundaries of existence. And it seems this is what Starfleet is mostly concerned with as well. There simply aren’t enough ships or people to make sure everything works out. Sometimes, without any further guidance from the Federation, people fall back into bad ways—or continue on unsupervised and become larger threats than anyone could have possibly imagined.
This is why Mariner can’t just follow orders in lockstep. She knows that true help is far more than simply showing up, dropping some gear off at a centralized location and trusting that everything gets to the people who need it. And honestly, it’s clear that her mother, Captain Freeman understands this too. The difference is that Freeman is in the place where she can do the most good but can’t break any rules while Mariner can do only the smallest amount of good but can break rules with near impunity. Together, they have a chance to obtain the best of both worlds—if they can change how they feel about each other, anyway.
Image source: Star Trek on Twitter.
Assumptions About Growing and Changing
By the end of the first season, many of the main characters have grown from what they began as—or have changed drastically in some other way. Mariner has come to understand who she is and is ready for the next stage in her life. Tendi has realized that her need to be liked is a problem that haunts both her career and friendships. Rutherford has lost all memories since he got his implant—leaving him to rediscover his friendships. And then there is Boimler.
Boimler’s arc is a bit more complex. He has come to realize that book smarts aren’t the same as experience and that the rules should be broken at times for the greater good. But more than that, he has come to terms with being on the Cerritos—that it’s okay for him to be there because he can still learn from those aboard her.
And then comes the twist ending: Riker offers him his dream job serving on the Titan. Boimler doesn’t even hesitate.
Mariner clearly reacts to this as a betrayal. After all, he had learned to be happy onboard the Cerritos—he had grown and changed. But just because you have grown and changed, that doesn’t mean you can’t backslide when offered something you’ve longed for. Change is not a one-way street—no matter how often fiction likes to pretend that it is.
But more subtly, there is no indication that Boimler is backsliding. Just because he was happy on the Cerritos, that didn’t mean he forgot his goal of becoming a captain one day—with the Titan a much better path to that goal. And on the Titan, he finds himself in Mariner’s role. He is now the one with experiences the others lack and the willingness to break more minor rules. It seems that Boimler has indeed grown and changed—just not exactly as Mariner had hoped. Now, all that’s left is to see if she will follow his example and finally start down the path of becoming the officer she was born to be.
Star Trek: Lower Decks can be seen on CBS All Access.
I just wanted to give out a big thanks to Joshua Ott for sponsoring this review with his Patreon donation. (At the $60 a month tier, you are allowed to pick anything up to an including a 13ish episode series to be reviewed–which is released in addition to the one article a week I normally put out here on BiggestinJapan.com.) So thanks again!
Top image source: Star Trek on Twitter.
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