This week’s ‘Lower Decks’ engages in old-school Trek tropes | Engadget

This submit comprises minor spoilers for season two, episode 4 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks.’

If you had been a Star Trek beginner, right this moment’s episode of Lower Decks, “Mugato, Gumato,” isn’t an excellent place to begin. It’s packed filled with references throughout the franchise, together with Beckett Mariner, Sam Rutherford and Brad Boimler participating in a not-so-friendly match of , the looks of and even the episode title, which references how nobody can appear to agree on learn how to pronounce the creature whose title is spelled “.”

However, after a season and a half, the present has already , and as a streaming program there’s no purpose why “Mugato, Gumato” can be anybody’s first episode. Paramount+ would solely pull up this one if final week’s “” had not too long ago been watched. With much less must be accessible, that leaves a present like Lower Decks free to dabble in .

Fan service is usually derided for being gratuitous at greatest, and an act of gatekeeping at worst. After almost 55 years and over 800 episodes aired, Star Trek has a variety of baggage that may be intimidating to a newcomer. The Abrams reboot in 2009 tried to wipe the slate clear however was nonetheless slowed down by many years of cultural information, with even Trek casuals anticipating to listen to phrases like “beam me up” and “I’m a doctor!” It discovered itself attempting to appease a number of teams of followers and in the end thrilling few.

And but, regardless of its deep dives into Star Trek lore, Lower Decks can nonetheless be a fantastic entryway for brand new followers in the way it chooses to subvert so many long-time franchise tropes. Both newcomers and hardcore Trekkies get to be on the identical web page on the subject of the all-important query: What comes subsequent?

In that vein, “Mugato, Gumato” is a enjoyable experience. The primary plot revolves across the re-discovery of a uncommon species solely beforehand seen in a quite forgettable TOS episode, with the USS Cerritos charged with discovering out how the animals obtained so removed from their residence planet. It’s not essentially the most thrilling journey on the floor, which makes it an ideal project for the crew of the lower-tier ship. Boimler and Rutherford are assigned to the away crew, which might usually for a pair of chronically unfortunate ensigns.

Instead, the remainder of the group is captured by a gaggle of Ferengi poachers, leaving Brad and Sam within the unlikely and awkward place of saviors. But quite than have them step into the function of “action-oriented leading men,” they as an alternative embrace their distinctive abilities as “nerdy supporting characters.” Meanwhile, it’s the captain and bridge crew who get caught with the b-plot of serving to out a stranded dealer whose ship they by accident destroyed.

After Boimler and Rutherford save the day with a well-thought-out PowerPoint (sure, actually) it finally ends up being the senior employees who isn’t absolutely knowledgeable of what occurred on the planet. This is in direct distinction to a the place Boimler has identified that it’s not their place to know what’s occurring. Captain Freeman simply shrugs the entire incident off as some “environmentally conscious Ferengi,” apparently unaware of the 2 ensigns’ key function in getting the ultra-capitalist Ferengi to alter their methods in favor of a extra worthwhile path with out resorting to violence.

It additionally finally ends up being good for continuity, in the way it reconciles the 2 variations of Ferengi we’ve seen all through the franchise. Here, it argues, they are surely the identical species ultimately, simply that the offensive, retrograde Ferengi from “The Last Outpost” hadn’t discovered a much less overtly evil method to earn a living.

“Mugato, Gumato” could have trafficked in outdated tropes, however it additionally twisted them in a method to train the characters and viewers one thing new about themselves and the franchise. Or, as Boimler and Rutherford would say, “If we’re both unhappy, it means we’ve reached… a compromise!”