The newest “Decrease Decks” episode, “Higher Decks”, reveals what the command crew will get as much as when Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn aren’t hogging all that major character vitality.
So, because the lead quintet will get busy “mutilating gourds” for Halloween — everybody however T’Lyn would describe it as carving pumpkins — “Higher Decks” reveals that the bridge crew does not simply “fade into the background” when the junior officers are elsewhere. It seems that alien invasions, potential engineering disasters, and metaphysical crises are all in a median day’s work, in an outing that is additionally a intelligent nod to a 30-year-old episode of “The Subsequent Technology”.
Spoiler warning! Warning is suggested should you’re but to observe this week’s episode.
If the Decrease Decks is about junior officers, why is that this episode concerning the Cerritos’ command crew?
The title of this episode, “Higher Decks”, does not simply reference this specific “Star Trek” present.
“Decrease Decks” took its title from a traditional episode of “The Subsequent Technology”, which — for one week solely — put a quartet of ensigns underneath the highlight. This episode flips the dynamics of that 30-year-old “TNG” story.
“Decrease Decks” is exclusive among the many armada of “Star Trek” TV reveals in that it does not deal with the higher echelons of starship/area station administration — that is the one TV present within the franchise the place a narrative about bridge officers could possibly be an anomaly.
What occurred within the authentic “Decrease Decks” episode of “The Subsequent Technology”?
“Decrease Decks” arrived within the second half of season seven, when “TNG”‘s writers’ room was keen and capable of get somewhat extra experimental.
Within the chilly open we met 4 bold younger officers sharing a drink within the Enterprise’s Ten Ahead bar. Two of them we might met earlier than: Alyssa Ogawa (Patti Yasutake) was a semi-regular character in Sickbay, who’d go on to seem in big-screen outings “Generations” and “First Contact”; Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) had, together with Wesley Crusher, been concerned within the Starfleet Academy stunt that received a fellow cadet killed in “TNG” episode “The First Responsibility”. Finishing the quartet have been cocky Sam Lavelle (Dan Gauthier) and Vulcan engineer Taurik (Alexander Enberg).
Over the course of the episode, every of the ensigns labored intently with a member of the senior workers on completely different facets of a mission so categorized they could not talk about it with one another. It turned out that Joret Dal, the Cardassian that the Enterprise recovered from a broken escape pod, was really a Federation operative who wanted to get again to Cardassia Prime.
Sito was then handpicked for probably the most harmful mission of all. As a result of she got here from Bajor — a planet that was occupied by the Cardassians for a few years — she was the best candidate to pose as Joret Dal’s prisoner. Sadly, Sito was killed as she tried to return to Federation area.
Her dying had vital ramifications for Beckett Mariner’s story arc in “Decrease Decks” (the TV present). She and Beckett Mariner attended Starfleet Academy on the identical time, and Mariner subsequently skilled survivor guilt after the loss. Her earlier want to spend her whole profession as an ensign was successfully a tribute to Sito, as that rank had been “adequate” for her good friend.
Shannon Fill later reprised the function in a flashback in “Decrease Decks” season 4 finale “Outdated Buddies, New Planets”.
Are the command crew’s days as dominated by paperwork as Sam Rutherford makes out?
Mariner believes that, “with out us Decrease Deckers there’d be nothing to see”, however the bridge officers have lots to be coping with — even when Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’Lyn are sculpting pumpkins.
For instance, Captain Carol Freeman’s day entails: watching a sousaphone recital from an officer who’s concurrently developed and de-evolved due to a mysterious virus (a reference to “The Subsequent Technology” episode “Genesis”); attending a fertility occasion through which a male (not as human as he appears to be like) member of the crew provides start to a squid; watching a pretentious one-man present; averting a ship-wide invasion from a race of hostile insectoids; and being on time for an anniversary dinner along with her husband.
“Maybe our commanders are the leads of their very own tales when we aren’t observing them,” T’Lyn suggests on the finish of the episode.
Can we be taught something about Twenty fourth-century administration methods?
Solely that, as within the current day, everyone has a barely completely different method to getting the most effective out of their workers.
Chief Engineer Andarithio “Andy” Billups likes to guide by instance, wholeheartedly throwing himself into his work to encourage others. “All people dies,” he factors out when his younger apprentice asks concerning the risks of the retro-fitted plasma canisters they’ve simply found, “however it’s the engineers who actually get to dwell.” (He additionally reminds the ensign that calling senior officers by their first names ought to be reserved for life-or-death conditions — good recommendation.)
First Officer Jack Ransom, in the meantime, exploits the truth that everyone on board thinks he is a “doofus”. So, because the bitter rivals of the Beta and Delta Shifts wrestle to wrangle a herd of extremophile buhgoons (basically floating area cows), he pauses the operation to lecture the ensigns on the advantages of train, whereas taking the chance to elevate some weights — “Bodily health clears the thoughts,” in any case.
Remarkably his technique works, because the bickering groups are united by their mutual disdain for the clueless Ransom — they even end the episode by arranging to satisfy for a drink.
Do the senior officers have demons to overcome?
Within the case of Bajoran safety chief Shaxs, these demons are literal — or maybe metaphysical, relying in your perspective. He spends the episode confronting “an astral projection of my resolved rage from the [Cardassian] occupation” — in different phrases, a youthful, angrier ghost model of himself — as he tries to regain management of his thoughts.
Chief medical officer T’Ana, in the meantime, has bother coping with constructive criticism, particularly that she’s not nice at managing her sufferers’ ache — an issue for a physician, particularly one with such an irascible bedside method. She spends all the episode exploring the boundaries of her personal extraordinarily excessive threshold for ache.
What about that ship-wide invasion from a race of hostile insectoids?
They’d be the Clickets, a species who beforehand crossed paths with the Cerritos within the season 1 episode “Veritas”. They’ve turned up within the neighborhood of Bhungar V to seize buhgoon, harvest the distinctive organ that offers the interstellar cattle a pure cloaking potential, “and perhaps eat what’s left, relying on texture and taste.” The Clickets consider that the power to cloak will assist them unfold their affect by the Alpha Quadrant, however their dastardly plans are foiled by a combination of fine fortune and the short considering of Captain Freeman.
Within the column labeled “Fortuitous”, Shaxs confuses Clicket troopers for the demons he is battling in his thoughts, a frazzled T’Ana leaps on the primary Clicket she encounters, and Lt Bingston, instigator of the aforementioned dramatic monologue, stamps on a Clicket head as a part of some form of routine.
However, like all good commanding officers, Freeman has additionally finished her homework, and remembers that Clickets have severe points dealing with reward. Just a few strategically deployed compliments are sufficient to ship the invaders on their approach, and unencumber the captain for a romantic dinner in holodeck Paris.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Decrease Decks” season 5 debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.
