One of the more divisive aspects of Lower Decks’ first season was its love for dropping a plethora of easter eggs into every episode. It was peppered with numerous obscure aliens, props from throughout Trek’s history, and frequent verbal references – Mariner, in particular, seemed to drop at least one Wrath Of Khan reference per episode. For some fans, it was all part of the fun. For others, overly self-indulgent and alienating for those not in on the joke.
The season two opener, Strange Energies was noticeably lighter on easter eggs than previous episodes, and you may have been forgiven for thinking they were going to tone it down this season. Then along comes Kayshon, His Eyes Open, containing more easter eggs than Tesco a couple of weeks after Christmas, and guaranteed to keep fans freeze-framing for years to come (and no we’re not talking about that shower scene, you perverts.)
The episode’s plot itself riffs heavily on three Next Generation episodes. When Kerner Hauze, a notable collector of valuable objects (along the lines of Kivas Fajo from The Most Toys) dies, the crew of the Cerritos are roped in by a rival collector to search his ship for anything potentially dangerous. Leading the mission is new security chief, Lt. Kayshon – the first Tamarian in Starfleet (the race introduced in one of TNG’s best episodes, Darmok). The metaphor-speaking aliens haven’t been seen since, and their unusual speech patterns make them ripe for comedic gold.
It’s this A-story that is a reference-fest, with the former collector’s ship stuffed with memorabilia from Trek’s history. Although there’s way too many to list here, we’ve got to mention a few of our favourites, so in no particular order – the salt vampire; Khan’s necklace; Neelix’s chef outfit; Data’s poker visor; Abraham Lincoln’s skeleton (alongside an Excalbian); a Betazoid gift box; a case of Chateau Picard wine; the probe from The Inner Light; and of course, the giant Spock skeleton from The Animated Series episode The Infinite Vulcan. Oh, and the never seen before but definitely one of our favourites – the sex helmet of Kahless.
There’s enough deep cut easter eggs here to keep fans looking for years. Crucially, and unlike season one, getting the episode’s jokes don’t rely on recognising a single one of these. They’re all background and largely inessential to the plot. It’s more accessible than the first season, where many of the jokes relied on a lot of Trek knowledge.
As for Kayshon himself, the Tamarians’ metaphor-rich language could quickly wear thin if played for laughs. Fortunately, the time lapse between their previous appearance and Lower Decks has allowed them time to learn English (or Federation Standard as it’s known in Trek), the universal translator finally getting to grips with their language, and the fact that two minutes into the mission, the ship’s defence systems turn him into a puppet.
This means command unofficially falls to Mariner, who comes up with a typically reckless plan. This puts her at loggerheads with Boimler’s replacement, Ensign Jet Manhaver. The two butted heads from the moment Jet was assigned as their new bunkmate and they all took a shower together (lower decks crews have communal showers. Who knew?) Mariner still has huge issues with Boimler leaving for the Titan, and takes things out on their new team member, not aided by Tandi and Rutherford preferring his (far less dangerous) escape plan to Mariner’s.
While the well-meaning Jet and Mariner’s confrontational relationship is fun, in the end, it’s the team’s two nerds – who normally play second fiddle to Boimler and Mariner – who come up with a solution to their problem, returning the team – along with their puppet Lieutenant – to the Cerritos.
As with the season opener, Boimler is serving under Riker on the much cooler U.S.S. Titan. Yes, he’s still having trouble fitting it, and screaming every time the ship’s in danger (so about every two minutes). This doesn’t help when Riker assigns him to a dangerous away mission, going undercover on a planet that’s been targeted by the Pakleds. While the rest of the gung-ho team take it in their stride, Boimler longs for a career like Riker’s on the Enterprise, with lots of exploration, multiple on-board daycare centres, and recreational string quartets.
It’s easy to interpret Boimler’s reminiscing as a longing for ‘80s and ‘90s Trek, as opposed to its more action-orientated recent outings (we’re looking at you Kelvin-verse and Discovery) on the part of the writers and showrunner Mike McMahan. It’s a fair interpretation, and intentional or not, seems to have struck a chord with fans. But Trek’s a versatile enough format to support multiple interpretations of its core concept, with plenty of room for both fighting and string quartets (although yes, we also prefer the latter of the two).
In true Trek tradition, brains, not brawn provides the solution, with Boimler taking inspiration from one of Riker’s former adventures (TNG’s Second Chances) to allow the team to escape. Unfortunately for him, it also has the same outcome, with the transporter creating a duplicate of the hapless Boimler. The result of this is Riker (who’s ready room contains a few nice easter eggs of its own) has to send the original Boimler back to the Cerritos, while his cooler duplicate gets to remain onboard the Titan. Fans had been speculating for months about how Boimler would make it back to his friends. The general consensus was that he’d not be able to cut it aboard his new ship. Who’d have guessed that it would be the result of transporter duplication? Rutherford apparently.
Kayshon… is a glorious episode of Lower Decks. There’s two fun storylines, genuine growth for our core characters, more easter eggs than every previous episode combined, a Mariner/Boimler reunion, a great new character in Kayshon, and of course, gratuitous nudity. Hopefully we’ve not seen the last of either Kayshon or the Titan (we suspect both will be back soon). Despite being the scrappy underdog of modern Trek, Lower Decks continues to be a joy, pulling off the tricky task of combining great Trek storytelling and humour with ever-increasing confidence, If it continues blending the two with this level of success, it’s in serious danger of eclipsing its more serious contemporaries. Darmok and Jalad on the ocean if you will.
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