Over the last five seasons, Star Trek: Lower Decks he often had a lot to say about it power dynamics aboard a Starfleet ship, taking a page from the iconic Next generation episode which gave its name to the series. But it takes until there is only one handful of episodes left for the series to take that episode’s premise into consideration to begin with. In doing so, we may not get an episode as serious and touching as his TNG predecessor, but we get one perfectly Lower decks.
The “Upper Decks,” as the cheeky name suggests, move Lower decks perspective away from our Junior Lieutenants (who spend the episode carving pumpkins, a move that makes it seem like perhaps this episode could have taken place a little earlier in the season) and on Cerritos often supporting the senior bridge crew. But this is precisely where the similarities between it and TNG“Lower Decks” of “Lower Decks” comes to an end: while our heroes joke in the opening and closing scenes of the episode, the show is about Theyexcept this time it’s not. I’m only in those two scenes. This is an episode all about the main bridge officers, who all have moments where they shine both as characters and in their relationships with the crew at large, not just our regular stars.
That’s great, because that makes this a Lower decks episode, not just a reimagining of what “Lower Decks” has already done so brilliantly. AND Thatis great, because it makes “Upper Decks” a funny, sentimental love letter to itself and its characters for once, rather than a love letter to a Star Trekking premise. Even better? It’s the only episode so far this season that doesn’t resolve itself thematically identically around the the larger message of the series about communication and teamwork, so all in all it’s just a very fun and refreshing episode!
And that’s all it needs to be. Initially seemingly a series of vignettes focusing on each of the principal senior officers: Captain Freeman making his way through a tough day of meetings and outreach with Cerritos officers, Shaxs dealing with the pent-up anger of his time during the Cardassian occupation by astrally snapping the necks of some Cardassian ghosts, Billups keeping the engine room from exploding (again), Ransom recruiting bickering ensigns as they brawl with space bug-cows , and Dr. T “Ana tests her pain tolerance to prove her bedside manner in sickbay is awesome—it all comes together when it’s revealed that the various shenanigans aboard the ship they’ve been agitated by saboteurs in the form of Clickets, the insectoid race that can’t take a compliment since season one.
It’s a fun way to tie all these disparate plots together into something more cohesive as an episode, but it also manages to culminate all these vignettes around what makes the film more cohesive. Cerritos‘ senior staff such fun, if rarely explored characters. Sure, some are played for laughs, like Shax basically hanging around to get into a fight with himself that can only be resolved with his fists, and T’Ana’s is mostly an excuse for Gillian Vigman to give her best feline screams wild. But elsewhere there is a genuine, heartfelt care about what these officers do aboard the ship and their connection to the officers below them.
Billups teams up with a young midshipman who has no idea how dangerous (and fun) life in engineering can be. Freeman silently grits his teeth but manages to get through days where he finds time to be there to support his crew in their lives beyond their duties. Even Ransom has shown that he cares enough about making his midshipmen work together, giving them an annoying figurehead to rally against out of spite! It’s a gentle reminder that, for all the power dynamics the show has previously questioned in their relationship with the lower planes, at the end of the day, all of these people are Starfleet officers who got to where they are by taking care about their work, about their colleagues, about the generations of officers they inspire.
It’s a good thing Lower decks I had the chance to prove it before it reaches its final conclusion. It took a long road to get from there to here, but the show managed to hold onto its namesake as best it could and on its own terms, rather than simply through homage.
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