It is time again for another look at Lower Decks and this time during the week of Star Trek Day. In Mining The Mind’s Mines, the Lower Decks crew tries to clean up some orbs that bring about people’s fantasies before turning them into statues. It does result in some hijinks and revelations for the crew. And here we go with the review!
Music
Mr. Daps: “This week’s episode’s music was solid. Multiple times as I was watching it I was reminded of The Next Generation, which really knew how to write and perform a solid soundtrack I think. I had a hard time not comparing this week’s score with that of TNG. This is a high compliment as I really am starting to think that The Lower Decks is building one of the strongest Star Trek musical catalogs with its weekly episode scores.”
Murray: “This episode had some great epic music that did not take away from scenes at all. It just shows they know how to make a great soundtrack.”
Design
Mr. Daps: “I definitely had mixed feelings on some of the designs this week. Some of them were interesting, and others… not so much. I had to wonder if due to the nature of this episode and the varied amount of characters and races that were made if the team making LD simply ran out of resources… or perhaps got more interested in some of the peripheral characters than the main antagonists? The end result is it felt like one of those episodes where production ran out of either time or money.”
Murray: “The new aliens were a little disappointing in design. I know one race is just made of rocks, but it was a little strange to have them so generic. The best design was with the Borg snake. That was a great hybrid alien.”
Story
Mr. Daps: “This week’s episode was definitely very reminiscent of other Star Trek episodes and series. It seemed to nod back a lot to both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: The Original Series. There were some fun variations and character-building as the episode moved on. Overall, there wasn’t anything super surprising (although they definitely tried) but it was an enjoyable story that felt very true to Star Trek.
Murray: “I found this to be a rather classic Trek plot, but with some fun twists that were more personal to the characters. The idea of having the dangerous orbs be more of a crime situation with the aliens and scientists was a nice twist. Overall, a little generic for me with the idea of revelations from mind reading and fantasy, but still a very fun storyline.”
Hit or Miss?
Mr. Daps: “I’m actually quite conflicted on this week’s episode. There were parts I really enjoyed, but other parts that just seemed like not enough effort was given. I would say this is either a really enjoyable miss or a not-quite-there hit… which I guess counts as a miss or a bunt that doesn’t get the hitter on base if we are using a baseball analogy. Overall, this series is becoming more and more enjoyable and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes. This episode was just not their strongest.”
Murray: “I have to give the episode a miss. It was very fun and advances a little bit of storyline for characters. But I thought it relied too much on Trek clichés and even comedic clichés.”
