The 5 best episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks, ranked

After four years on the air and 50 episodes, “Star Trek: Lower Decks” finally wraps up this week with a finale as epic and thrilling as anything the series has ever done. Lower Decks had a rocky road to its triumphant moment; The show’s over-the-top humor and gentle ribbing of previous “Trek” properties rubbed some traditionalists the wrong way before it even started, and many fans spent its first few seasons judging whether the show had properly established itself as a piece of the “Trek” canon. Or not.

But “Lower Decks” never wanted to be like other “Star Trek” shows. The series is sillier than most of its predecessors, and lighter, too. For the most part, Gene Roddenberry’s style ignores moralizing in favor of fun, little adventures, and humorous commentary on the vast “Star Trek” universe, adventures that take particular advantage of its animated medium. Ultimately, the series gained a lot of fans thanks to its stellar voice cast, its delightful and sometimes envelope-pushing humor, and its commitment to the little kids who keep the world going.

“Star Trek: Lower Decks” has a lot of great episodes, but the /Film team has narrowed down our favorites to the top five. Each of the following episodes is emblematic of the show’s unique, goofy, surprisingly wholesome, and journey-loving spirit. If they were from the basement, we would have upgraded them, right away.

The first season of “Lower Decks” spent most of its time trying to prove that, as a satirical adult comedy about a beloved franchise, it was more than just a collection of satirical “Star Trek” references in a trench coat. By the end of the season, the series had earned our trust — and had the opportunity to fully mock the series that gave it life throughout one wonderful, bizarre episode. “Crisis Point” is colloquially remembered as the episode in which Mariner (Tawny Newsom) went too bad on the holodex.

“Lower Decks” makes some of the best uses of holodecks of any “Trek” show (Mark Twain’s conflict resolution bit from Season 4 is also excellent), and in “Crisis Point,” the sitcom briefly remakes itself as a high-brow epic . – Star Trek movie classes. Casting herself as the villainous Vindicta, the frustrated, self-styled Mariner sets up a parallel story with the non-classic Next Generation episode “Hollow Pursuits,” the decidedly classic “The Wrath of Khan,” and several other touchstones. From the past 60+ years of “The Journey”. Cinematic, meta, and funny with a hint of sarcasm, Crisis Point shows that Lower Decks can stick with the rest of the series when he wants to – even if he’d rather play with Lower Decks more often than not.

While “Crisis Point” paid homage to the “Trek” films of decades past, Season 3’s “Hear All, Trust Nothing” builds on a pre-existing segment of the “Trek” series — specifically the “Deep Space Nine” era — and brings it to Future with irreverent humor and due respect. The episode interweaves real character development (we see Mariner struggling to fit in with her friend’s friends and Tendi being too embarrassed to talk about pirates) with a very funny visit to Deep Space 9, where they encounter the money-loving Ferengi Quark (Armin Shimerman) and the Bajoran leader Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor). .

“Lower Decks” takes on the rocks of “Deep Space Nine” in part because the comedy knows how to highlight aspects of the shows before it that were never fully explored — from a comedic angle or otherwise. This will come up again later when, In his penultimate episodeThe Lower Decks website confirmed that Bashir (Alexander Siddig) and Garak (Andrew Robinson) are a couple. In “Hear Everything, Trust Nothing”, the show focuses on the kidnapping of Quark, who now owns an entire bar franchise. As Danielle Ryan pointed out in… A/ Film article about the episode“Hear All, Trust Nothing” features Quark’s shrill screams, the return of Morn’s regular tape, and references to Jake Sisko, dabo, and the “Deep Space Nine” dartboard. “Lower Decks” never aimed to make fun of its predecessors, and this relatable throwback to one of the series’ best shows shows that every joke the show makes is made with love and care.

It’s rare for a show to hit its comedic stride in a later season, but for my money, Season 4 of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” is the funniest of the entire bunch. The series’ penultimate season is full of unforgettable moments, from the encounter with bone-sucking cutie Mopsy in the zoo-themed “I’ve Got No Bones But I Gotta Run”, to Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi’s (Noel Wells) romance on a mission. A secret location in the “Heart of Barth Ferengi”. But few episodes of the entire series have reached the heights of comedy and creativity of “Caves,” a late-season outing in which Tendi, Mariner, Rutherford and Boimler (Jack Quaid) are trapped in a cave filled with moss and ever-growing memories. About all their other trips to suspicious caves.

“Caves” takes a narrative structure and uses it to deliver four entertaining, stand-alone stories, all of which play with Star Trek’s long legacy of alien organic life forms found in caves. Boimler’s story involves an unpleasant journey he has with Lieutenant Levi (Fred Tatasciore), a madman whose plot proves true when the Sellers, the unorthodox octopus-like creatures not seen since “The Animated Series,” appear again. In Mariner’s story, she befriends the misunderstood Delta Shift, a basement group that runs parallel to the heroes we know and love. But it’s Rutherford’s story that really takes the cake. In it, he is impregnated by a mysterious mentor, gives birth to her cloned child, and raises him with Dr. Tana (Gillian Vigman) as the pair wander the cave.

The fact that Rutherford is so laid back that he hasn’t bothered to mention it to anyone yet is funny, but the episode has just as much humor. Tendi tells the latter story, reminding the bickering team, seemingly on the verge of collapse, that they bonded when they were stuck together on her first day of work. “Caves” is a classic: wholesome, funny, weird, creatively structured, and perfectly in tune with the “Trek” favorites that came before it.

As the only “Trek” show to feature a cast encyclopedically obsessed with past “Star Trek” heroes, it’s sometimes difficult to pinpoint what “Lower Decks” itself is like — regardless of its many references. If the show’s inquisitive, sassy, ​​and pure essence could have been perfectly captured over the course of a single episode, it might have been “Fully Dilated,” the breakout fifth season that sees Mariner, Tendi, and Tylin (Gabriel Ruiz) trapped on a secret mission for an entire year. the reason? Boimler and Rutherford poured their micheladas onto the front of the conveyor two seconds after the group went down.

“Trek” has done time dilation — the idea that the passage of time is different on one planet than another — before, but the show makes the concept its own with a flawlessly executed shrimp cocktail fiasco. As the three Starfleet officers wait for transfer from Dilmer III, develop scientific projects (in T’lyn’s case), become increasingly paranoid (in Tendi’s case), and spend time in prison (Mariner, naturally) in the meantime, we’re constantly shown… It’s back to the transport room, where the foolish boys are wasting precious seconds wiping sauce and drinks on the control panel in their own shirts. The premise is both ambitious and stupid in the best way.

It’s great, but “Fully Dilated” has something even better up its sleeve: the severed head of Data (Brent Spiner), a “Next Gen” favorite whose presence always elevates any “Trek” project he appears in. Paramount+-era “Trek” tends to be fanservice vignettes, but that’s not the case. Instead, Data is beautifully woven into Tendi’s story, giving her reassurance about her concerns about a potential promotion and telling her that he knows how it feels to be the first of his kind to break new ground. Spinner brings his voice role to a sense of quiet comfort (even when Tendi is full of Dr. Frankenstein), and the duo’s consolation as marginalized people in spaces that weren’t designed for them is one of the most profound moments in the entire series. . “Fully Expanded” acknowledges the power of time to push people apart or help them grow together, and in the end, the women of Cerritos choose to support each other. This is Star Trek: Lower Decks (briefly) at its finest, and it’s a joy to watch.

After spending the better part of two seasons with the Cerritos crew, “Star Trek: Lower Decks” has finally expanded its scope to other lower decks across the galaxy with “wej Duj.” This massive episode examines the lives of the underlings working aboard the Klingon IKS ship Che’Ta’ and the Vulcan cruiser Sh’vhal, providing a rare shift in perspective to remind viewers that Starfleet is not the beginning and end of life – or workplace politics – in the “Star Trek” universe.

“Wej Duj” is not just a one-off experimental film; The episode culminates in a climax that has ramifications for the three space crews, and demonstrates the interconnectedness of all the beings in the “Trek” universe — from the beloved Vulcans to the rarely incarnated Klingons. Nominated for a Hugo Award for Achievement in Science Fiction, the episode is the rare “lower decks” outing that expands on the “Trek” canon in a serious way. In Che’Ta’, warrior Ma’ah (Jon Curry) bucks the series’ existing stereotype of the savage Klingon by advocating for more reasonable and honorable ways of engaging in combat – an idea that gets him dubbed a Vulcan wannabe and almost killed. Meanwhile, on Sh’vhal, T’lyn is rebuked for seeking wisdom outside the principles set forth in Vulcan tradition, and she causes a stir by citing a Klingon concept.

More than just a simple story of cultural exchange and solidarity, “Wej Duj” is an interesting episode full of alien battles and encounters, Vulcan idiocy and global idiocy. Tellin is A lovingly written anchor to the story About violating the status quo. While her colleagues’ insistence that she seems overly emotional when she seems completely monotonous is funny, there is also something powerful and melancholy about her journey away from inflexible conventions and toward a dynamic way of thinking. Vulcans and Klingons are two of the most frequently used species in “Trek” history, but there are still blind spots and inconsistencies in their lore; “We Duj” fills those gaps with a thoughtful, well-written, cinematic story that, dare I say it, boldly goes where no “Trek” has gone before.