Diana Keng
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First Orion, now Feringinar. Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Episode 6 takes us to another alien homeworld never closely examined in the franchise’s live-action offerings.
Meanwhile, Mariner hasn’t quite shaken the self-destructive compulsion, and Boimler discovers his Achilles’ Heel.
Also, it finally explores the question of whether Rutherford and Tendi could ever be more than friends.
But before the LTJGs’ antics distract us, let’s point out the tidbit of intel revealed in the teaser. The Ferengi lower decks crew member on the ship that encounters the mystery vessel has foreknowledge they were going to be taken.
Also, he doesn’t seem afraid, which is a strong indication that the abduction/collection theory has some credence. How this is a profitable endeavor is yet to be revealed.
Lower Decks continues to astound with the guest cast they are able to round up.
After the stunning appearance of comedic guest trio Wendie Malick, Janelle James, and Rachel Dratch on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Episode 5, the only way to top that is to enlist proper Star Trek royalty.
Enter Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson as the Grand Nagus Rom and First Clerk Leeta, respectively, the most loving couple to survive the Dominion War and Deep Space Nine.
As a unified partnership working in perfect synchronicity, they are the perfect foil to the dysfunctional pairing of the unnamed admiral of the USS Toronto and Captain Freeman.
(I’m not saying that the artistic geniuses at Titmouse Animation’s Vancouver office had anything to do with the USS Toronto’s commander coming across as an ineffectual mansplaining idiot with lame dance moves, but I’m not saying they didn’t either.)
When the writers need to include four separate storylines, it hints at a thinness of material, and that’s okay. Not every episode needs to have the groundbreaking nuance of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 9.
Tendi: What’s travel guide duty?
Ransom: Starfleet has travel guides for all habitable planets. The file for Ferenginar hasn’t been updated in years so…
Mariner: Starfleet’s gonna foot the bill for us to go to as many bars, restaurants, bars, hotels, pubs, bars, saloons, cantinas, and bars as we want!
Ransom: Also museums, historical sites, but basically, yeah, it’s mostly bars.
However, it’s an absolute crime that they left T’Lyn off the assignment. With her methodical data collection, she would’ve had every establishment on Ferenginar rated, labeled, and catalogued before Boimler had even gotten to his first commercial break.
Nonetheless, having the classic four approach this cushy mission from their unique perspectives and then blow it up in their own signature way, is highly entertaining, if somewhat cringy.
Boimler’s plan to overachieve to the point of turning Tour Guide Duty into a chore is a ridiculously high standard of jobsworth-ness.
That he is derailed by commercials and schlocky procedural programming is similar to how indigenous populations were often decimated by encountering settlers rife with diseases they had no biological defences against.
We’ve got the for-profit mini-bar, the for-profit toilet, the machine that charges you to pay for the toilet and the mini-bar.
Boimler
And yet who among us hasn’t “play next episode”-ed ourselves far past a reasonable bedtime?
I wonder if Federation Standard has an equivalent phrase to “binge-watch” or “product placement”?
Tendi and Rutherford’s covert couples assignment seems like a no-brainer on the surface. As they point out, they are a couple of Science officers who know each other incredibly well.
Also, they are probably the easiest couple to ship since Brandon and Kelly.
But their collective level of relationship chemistry is absolute zero.
Although Rutherford dates Barnes on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 1, and Tendi kisses O’Connor on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 4, neither is ever as excited as when they are fixing the ship or solving a scientific conundrum.
So to go from their nearly-symbiotic functionality to being thrust into an experience like the Dave Foley-narrated Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place VIP Couples package is a total submersion in sub-Arctic glacial run-off.
The whole ordeal may spark some curiosity later, but I doubt it. The charm of their friendship is in the purity of their bond.
No one doubts their affection for each other. Neither would hesitate to risk their life for the other. Their commitment to each other is total. It’s just not sexual.
Mariner, I love you, but you need to figure out whatever’s eating you up inside.
Quimp
Sort of like Mariner and Quimp.
We haven’t seen Mariner’s Ferengi buddy since Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 2 when they hoodwinked Boimler to give him the real hero treatment.
Pretty sure he wasn’t wearing a monocle when he was fleeing the Hoo-Mahns on Tulgana IV.
But despite the long separation, Quimp and Mariner clearly understand each other.
It would be interesting to learn how that trust and compassion developed. Mariner’s backstory has a lot of mysterious chapters, yet to be revealed.
Mariner, I love you, but you need to figure out whatever’s eating you up inside.
Quimp
While the respect she commands among Klingons is serious street cred, how she and a Ferengi became besties seems like it would be more unexpected.
I thought (hoped?) that Mariner had overcome her tendency to self-sabotage after Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Episode 2, but it looks like it’s more of a compulsion than previously thought.
Mariner: You know me, man. I’m a wild rogue, living on the edge of chaos. I sit weird in chairs. You can’t predict me!
Quimp: Usually, your chaos means something, but it’s weird this time. You seem angry about nothing.
Will self-awareness keep her from lighting up like the insubordination supernova that is her usual go-to?
Will the support of her Lower Decks posse be the magic bullet?
Quimp’s blunt advice — and the literal debt she owes him — is probably the most effective reality check she could get. It’ll not only stay in her consciousness with every installment she transfers to him, it’ll stand out as the first time her fight-first, regret-later strategy didn’t get her what she wanted.
As we approach the season’s final arc, what are your theories on the mystery ship?
Who is behind it? What is its purpose?
How many more ace guest stars do they have in store?
Set your phasers to stun and beam on down to our comments with your best and brightest ideas!
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond ’til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.