Lower Decks’ second season has been a gift to fans of “traditional” Trek. While its contemporaries have focussed on scale, action, heavily serialised storytelling and end-of-all-life-as-we-know-it level stakes, Lower Decks has been a deliberate throwback, specifically to the ‘80s and ‘90s. Here, mission of the week, characters, and moralistic storytelling are the focus, and not every mission has to have the fate of the galaxy resting on its outcome.
And now we have another great throwback with another staple of that era of Trek – the season-ending cliff-hanger. While Discovery has ended its first couple of seasons first with the entrance of the Enterprise and then with the ship’s journey into the future, they were both more set-ups for the following seasons rather than classic cliff-hangers. Lower Decks on the other hand gives us the kind of cliff-hanger we’ve not seen in Trek since Enterprise – an epic (but not Discovery or Picard level) scale episode, tying up various story threads from the season, throwing a few spanners in the works, and a great cliff-hanger to leave us in anticipation of (the already in production) season three.
The “first” first contact of the title refers to the Cerritos being assigned to its first, first contact mission. Unusual for a ship of its status (the closest they usually come is second contact missions, essentially a follow-up mission where their most important duty is making sure Starfleet’s spelt the name of the planet correctly). This time though they’re on an actual first contact mission, albeit as a backup vessel to the main ship, the far more impressive U.S.S. Archimedes, under the command of Captain Freeman’s old friend, Sonya Gomez. Lower Decks has always liked its deep cuts, and in terms of guest stars, she’s the most obscure yet. A popular but short-lived Next Generation character, she appeared in two second-season episodes, Q-Who, which introduced the Borg, and Samaritan Snare which, appropriately, saw the first appearance of the Pakleds. She’s played by actress Lycia Naff, who would later go on to play the three-breasted prostitute in Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall, and her most notable contribution to the franchise was spilling hot chocolate all over Picard – a moment clumsily referenced here.
Besides somewhat improbably becoming a captain and making none-too-subtle references to previous appearances, Gomez also lets slip within earshot of Mariner that Freeman has been offered a promotion, becoming captain of a more prestigious ship, and that she can’t take her command crew with her. Mariner, who has only recently started getting on with her mum, is obviously distraught by this. The woman has spent the season building up their relationship, as well as overcoming her abandonment issues concerning Boimler’s temporary transfer. For once she’s let down her defences and let people in, and now one of them is leaving her again. So obviously she sets out to ruin it, by letting slip to the senior staff. They all take it personally, which is very un-Starfleet of them (especially when you consider their positive reactions to Rutherford’s attempts at advancement the previous season, which either indicates they didn’t care about losing Rutherford from their departments or inconsistent writing).
Speaking of Rutherford, him and Tendi are preoccupied, after the Orion overhears (lot of that going on in this episode) Doctor T’Ana saying she’s not suited for life in sickbay and deleting her from the medical roster. The insecure Tendi leaps to the immediate conclusion that she’s not suited to life on the Cerritos and about to be transferred, prompting Rutherford to take her on a goodbye tour of the best spots on the ship (which, even though they don’t get there, includes a mention of the “rubber ducky room” in possibly our favourite obscure TNG reference to date). Rutherford however has problems of his own. His implant is playing up, constantly displaying error messages (presumably it runs on Windows 71) which despite being annoying, is badly restricting his vision.
As for Boimler, well he’s busy making decorations for Captain Freeman day – a kids’ craft day (which considering there don’t seem to be any children onboard, doesn’t make sense, but heigh-ho), or, as Mariner puts it “a vanity holiday to trick kids into respecting authority.” You’d think by now he’d have learned that all he needs to do is impress is show his natural competence, but no, he chooses to make childish decorations instead.
All this is secondary though as, naturally things go (three) tits-up, with the mission when the Archimedes encounters a wave of magnetised ionic plasma. No, we don’t know what that means either, other than it’s bad, knocks out all power to the ship, and spends it spinning out of control on a collision course with the planet. And that it’s magnetic, meaning if the Cerritos attempts a rescue, the metal in its hull will attract the plasma, and the same thing will happen to them.
Fortunately, Rutherford and Tendi’s tour of the ship (during which the pair are still unable to confess their feelings for each other, projecting it onto the ship instead) leads to the captain’s yacht, where they overhear – there really is a hell of that going on this week – Mariner and Freeman arguing, which gives him an idea. They have to let their defences down “like how Mariner has to do with people,” (see, it’s a simile, this show’s cleverer than it appears). By removing the ship’s magnetic outer hull and relying on the non-magnetic but visually impressive inner hull, they’ll be able to pass the plasma and rescue the Archimedes.
Freeman assigns the entire crew to removing hull panels, during which Rutherford confesses to Billups that ever since his memory was wiped, he’s been making multiple backup copies of all his experiences with Tendi, and consequently filled up his hard drive. Which begs the question, shouldn’t 24th Century hard drives have more than a couple of gig storage? Billups points out that there’s no point having memories if you’re incapable of making new ones. Rutherford takes Billups’ advice and wipes the redundant files, which result in a series of flashbacks, and ending with an ominous one where he sees a couple of shadowy figures installing his implant, their dialogue suggesting that there’s a nefarious purpose behind it.
Still no time for him to worry about that now. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s one last panel that won’t come loose, and can only be released from inside the ship, down the end of a long corridor, and which happens to be underwater. Poor ship design and slightly clumsy attempt to inject peril aside, this is basically an excuse to finally pay a visit to Cetacean Ops. Originally proposed during The Next Generation, the idea that starships would carry whales onboard to aid in navigation was – the occasional brief reference aside – never used, presumably because: a) in the ‘80s it would have been really expensive to do in live-action, and b) it was a stupid idea (although no stupider than the idea that Tardigrades could navigate a mycelial network which can instantly transport your ship to any point in the universe. As if Trek would ever do that!)
Still, stupid is part of Lower Decks’ DNA (in a good way), so the gang visit a pair of Beluga Whales – Lieutenants Kimolu and Matt (who, as some wags online have pointed out, both outrank Harry Kim) – who besides not understanding how human anatomy works, rip the piss out of Boimler about Captain Freeman day being “for calves.” As they’re, well, whales and too big to fit down the perilous corridor of death, and the gang dispatch Mariner to the bridge for some ill-timed making up with her mother, it’s up to Boimler to swim through whale pee and release the panel. Which he does, almost drowning in the process, only to be rescued at the last second by the whales.
Panel released, the rather naked Cerritos successfully rescues the Archimedes. Captain Freeman takes the lead in first contact; party ensues; captain gets drunk; captain decides to turn down the promotion; Mariner finally makes friends with Jennifer the Andorian (and with more than a hint of sexual chemistry); and Tendi discovers that the reason T’Ana thinks she’s unsuited for sickbay is that she’s too capable just to be a medical assistant, putting her in for science officer training. Everyone’s happy. Except Boimler, since Freeman is unaware that he made the decorations. Roll credits, see you next year.
Except it isn’t. Representatives from Starfleet arrive, and Freeman naturally assumes they’re there about her promotion, so she heads off to the conference room, escorted by her senior staff to turn down the job, only to find herself arrested instead. The bomb that the Pakleds were given to attack Earth with in wej Duj seems to have gone off on their homeworld, effectively destroying it. And, due to her (presumably innocent) interactions with the various Pakleds and Klingons throughout the season that Starfleet believes are behind the bombing, they believe she’s involved. They escort her off the ship in irons, much to the shock on the crew, who had lined the corridor waiting to congratulate her on her promotion.
It’s a shock ending to the episode, and one where the seeds have been carefully sown throughout the season (even further back really, the Pakled threat and the possibility that someone was controlling them was introduced in season one). What will happen to Captain Freeman? What’s up with Rutherford’s implant? How will Tendi cope with her new position? Is Mariner about to get some? How will the ambitious Boimler feel about one of his colleagues getting ahead when he’s still stuck below decks? And will anyone realise that he’s been making banners?
Although not as funny as some episodes, First First Contact is a great episode of Lower Decks, and a good old-fashioned Trek season finale. There’s some great visuals with the stripped-down Cerritos looking especially impressive, as does the Archimedes. The crew stripping the ship, and Boimler’s descent into the depths of Cetacean ops adds impressive scale, even if the latter is a little cliché. There’s added intrigue with the mystery behind Rutherford’s implant, some nice emotional beats, particularly between both him and Tendi, then Mariner and Freeman, and then that cliff-hanger ending leaving Freeman’s future in doubt, with some added Pakled/Klingon intrigue. We can’t wait for next season.
STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS is available in the UK on Amazon Prime Video
For our previous STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS reviews, click below:
Season 2, Episode 1 – STRANGE ENERGIES
Season 2, Episode 2 – KAYSHON, HIS EYES OPEN
Season 2, Episode 3 – WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE TOM PARIS
Season 2, Episode 4 – MUGATO, GUMATO
Season 2, Episode 5 – AN EMBARRASSMENT OF DOOPLERS
Season 2, Episode 6 – THE SPY HUMONGOUS
Season 2, Episode 7 – WHERE PLEASANT FOUNTAINS LIE
