I’ve said before that this series, an animated comedy about Star Trek, is the best Star Trek series on the air today and you would think that I would change my mind at some point.
But I won’t.
It is and episodes like this prove it.
While on a long warp, the crew of the Cerritos are given the day off and, with his friends pairing off with a member of the senior crew for recreational activities, Boimler becomes desperate to find his own, “bridge buddy.” Meanwhile, on a Klingon ship, a young lower decker tries to get noticed to move up in the ranks and, on a Vulcan ship, a junior science officer shows some attitude in ways only a Vulcan can.
Lower Decks seems to find no small amount of glee in pushing the Star Trek formula to new and exciting areas and it’s episodes like “wej Duj” where that kind of gamble really lands. Seeing the goings on in two alien ships as the Cerritos goes about her day was such a welcome breath of fresh air and, strangely enough, saw a long-running storyline come to a head and seemingly get resolved.
There was so much to enjoy about this episodes including numerous call backs to early Star Trek, some fantastic writing with the characters on the Vulcan ship, and making the Klingon lower decker someone you could really root for.
More than that, this episode was hilarious. Who would have ever thought we would get more Pakled episodes or that the Pakled episodes would be the episodes I would most look forward to?
Red alarm! Red alarm!
Utterly delightful from beginning to end, I’m beginning to think that Lower Decks can do no wrong.
Jason Gaston 