Logline
Season finale where lots of wild stuff happens!
Written by: Mike McMahan
Directed by: Megan Lloyd
What a perfect finale. It really shows what I most loved about Lower Decks. The crew - aside all comedy - is formed by professionals which are capable of working together and advancing beyond their single capabilities. There is no drama or trying to hide important info from each other like in PIC or DIS. This is what I always loved about TNG, DS9 and VOY and it is great to see it still works - even on modern television.
One silly, little joke got me out of nowhere (maybe I was a little bit emotional about the impending end): Ransom: Mr. Rutherford, a little birdie told me you made some pretty inspired updates to the plasma injectors. Rutherford: Was it Dr. Migleemo?
I think most of this show’s jokes are great moments rather than lines, but there were definitely plenty of lines, too.
I loved “Science besties!”; “What is the viscosity of the goo?”/“Does it have anything nice to say?”; and of course “Engage the core!”
I can’t help wondering if this gets renewed.
This was a pretty solid episode with some very good jokes (the thing about creating a warp field with one nacelle was fantastic, for example), but I left feeling underwhelmed because of the bizare “the first officer is two LTJGs” thing. Lower Decks has had a shockingly strong track record of not doing things that strike me as immediately stupid, but this is really silly. “Ransom must be pulling another twisted prank, because he’s not this bad at his job” level silly. I think it’s still better than promoting Tilly to XO, but that’s a bar I had hoped this show would remain well clear of and a close shave is disappointing.
I think I understand why they did this: there’s no obvious non-specialist XO candidate of an appropriate rank in the main cast (arguably Shax, but he’s “only” a LT and does not seem ready for the job), and they didn’t want to just trot out a handwave and say they’ll be picking up the XO at the next starbase or something. I’d also theorize that they had planned to have two more seasons in which to work Mariner and Boimler into positions where they might actually make sense for an XO billet. But they aren’t there yet, and they both know it.
Also, gosh would that alternate universe explorer thing have been useful in DISCO S3. And probably Prodigy too. It’s also a dangerous can of worms to open for future stories, because having reliable access to random slightly different universes, apparently at different points in their timelines, is incredibly useful for both anticipating and solving problems in the “prime” universe. There’s also cool stuff they can do with it and I’m sure they will, so I’m trying to keep an open mind.
Finally, props to them for coming up with a more plausible reason for our heroes to literally save the universe: because someone connected to them got unwittingly thrown into a position of enormous influence, and deliberately picked them. It’s Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.
It’s Zeus and company antagonizing Hercules, not Michael Burnham being central to solving five (?) entirely unrelated but galactically significant disasters, apparently by pure chance.
Yeah, there’s a lesson in good writing right there.
I think another way to approach this is demonstrated in The Expanse series and in a lot of Captain America stories: after you save the world, more big world-ending events get brought to you by people looking for help and enemies looking for revenge.
I can’t believe it’s already been five seasons… that was a great show.
Unexpectedly really relatable too, as a young working professional (well, less young than when it started…)
Yeah. Also: there has been throughout the show a nice little undercurrent of labor consciousness that was often lacking when we only follow “leadership” in stories.
This has been my favorite Trek in a long while. I like these characters a lot, and their personal and professional growth was well written.
Was this the story I expected? No.
Did I enjoy this? I thought it was awesome.
I am very displeased that they left the Rutherford and Tendi relationship hanging.
The showrunners said from a very early point that the two would not get together during the shows run, and I get the distinct impression that they actively enjoy trolling shippers. So this is pretty much exactly what I expected, and I’m perfectly happy with it.
(Also, look at Tendi in that last scene, when she gets a scan of Rutherford during a conversation about them being “just friends”. She saw something on that Tricorder which she didn’t expect, and then when Rutherford gets up and has his back turned, she’s clearly checking him out. Draw your own conclusions.)
Honestly, for me, the finale covered it enough. It’s obvious they like each other. I don’t think it needs to be directly confirmed in dialogue for it to be legit. :)
Yeah, Also, this really lets people make their own future for the characters.
Those two don’t need to necessarily fall in love and having a conventional monogamous romantic pairing. Just seeing a best friendship evolve is fun, and who knows? Maybe they have a fling and decide to remain platonic. Maybe they have a down-low FWB thing. This one little moment where they both see each other in a new way lets people imagine anything.
