We’re nearing the season finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks. This week saw the crew welcome a reporter on board as they embarked on a new type of mission that deviates from their “second contact” usual ventures and into a new “swing-by” mission. They are visiting a planet from The Next Generation’s past, with some terrible consequences. The Cerritos is attacked, but not before the dismissal of Beckett. Captain Freeman believes Beckett has told stories of all the terrible misadventures of the ship. Freeman sends Beckett to Starbase 80, which seems like a trash collector posting. In the end, it is the rest of the crew that has divulged all the stories, and Beckett resigns from Starfleet. Now that what happened is out of the way, here is the review…
Music
Mr. Daps: “This episode continues the trend of having a solid soundtrack accompanying Lower Decks episodes. For the most part, it was solid music but not super memorable. The best moment was towards the end when the action was happening.”
Murray: “The orchestration that stands out the most to me is during the battle toward the end. It was a good, epic soundtrack that fit with the show and what was happening. But, otherwise, it was not a huge musical episode in terms of what there could have been.”
Design
Mr. Daps: “There were definitely some hits and misses throughout this episode. In general the hits revolved around Starfleet and the misses are some of the other things. There wasn’t anything super bad or super great on either end I didn’t think. Even the drone ship I would like to have seen in a bit more detailed manner, maybe that will come later.”
Murray: “There were some design problems I had with this episode. First was the mural on the planet, which I know was supposed to be comical, but it was just a little ineffective to me. There could have been a different art style for the middle section (which is probably my art history coming out). The other design problem is with the Onara. Their facial features were a little too prominent and not too believable for them. Though those were two flaws, the ships in this episode were well done. There was a great variety that made them very intriguing as Trek canon ships. I’d like to see more of the drone ship in particular.”
Story
Mr. Daps: “The story for this episode was decent. It was a bit predictable on multiple fronts. I think I would have liked to have been surprised a bit instead of getting exactly what I expected. While this didn’t make the episode bad, it just made it predictable.”
Murray: “I did like the story and its flow. It had a nice resolution to it, even though it is also a cliffhanger. The new type of mission was a great comedic frame to have the more tense family issues. It also showed Beckett has grown a lot since the first season. My problem was with how predictable it was. I could tell it was not going to be Beckett in the end, and that she’d leave Starfleet.”
Hit or Miss?
Mr. Daps: “I’m conflicted on this one. I think at the end of the day its a miss. There were some funny moments and some good action moments. There were also some moments of redemption that were good. However, at the end of the day, this one was not one that I would rank as one I’d go back and watch… or perhaps even think about again. It was too predictable and after last week’s episode, just didn’t hit the mark.”
Murray: “This was a fun episode with a very epic space battle, in my opinion. It had some fun, comedic elements to it. But, it just fell flat with me overall. It felt more like a stepping stone to the season finale than a good, solitary episode. That being said, I give it a miss. And it also has to do with having some other episodes that are up there as far as overall Trek episodes I will remember. This one I don’t think will be too memorable to me.”
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