Star Trek: Lower Decks: Reflections

September 22, 2022 12:04 AM - Season 3, Episode 5

Mariner and Boimler work the Starfleet recruitment booth at an alien job fair, Rutherford challenges himself.

Memory Alpha episode page

This may be the first time a Star Trek show has referenced the bugs that infiltrated Starfleet admiralty back in Conspiracy, the surprisingly gory TNG season one episode that was never mentioned again.

Tendi's also keeping a spore plant from Omicron Ceti III, last seen in TOS episode This Side of Paradise.

posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit (11 comments total)

Noticed this priceless artifact at the Collectors' Guild booth.

Big Rutherford episode, obviously; referencing Paris and Torres' space-hot-rodding from VOY, not to mention the Delta Flyer. Looks like they're going with making Those Mysterious Figures From His Past And What They're Up To more of a serious character arc/plot thread, which is fine. Also, both the A and B plots (whichever one is which) reinforce the idea that there's a lot more to the Trekverse than Starfleet, which also suits me just fine. Not that I think that Mariner should take Young Vash (or whatever her name is)'s offer, although, to mention That Other Franchise, a Doctor Aphra show would be pure awesome.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:04 AM on September 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

Jörg Hillebrand often goes into deep-dives for references in episodes. This is one that I missed—the M5 computer display.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 7:35 PM on September 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

I’m so grateful that the nerd they hired to run this show and write this episode loves and respects Star Trek enough to make fun of it this well.
posted by Uncle at 11:08 PM on September 22, 2022 [13 favorites]

I was so so happy at the Move Along Home aliens getting theirs.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:23 PM on September 22, 2022 [10 favorites]

We very nearly high-fived at the mention of Sisko’s fate
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:58 AM on September 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

Can anyone explain the "trapping people in caves" reference?
posted by kyrademon at 9:57 AM on September 23, 2022

Do you mean trapping people in games? That would be from the aforementioned DS9 episode Move Along Home.
posted by dumbland at 10:48 AM on September 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

I thought they were Ktarians, but yeah, they were Wadi.
posted by Etrigan at 10:54 AM on September 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved this episode. I loved the archeologist lady. She is exactly who I would want to be in Star Trek & I would get the same sick thrill out of sitting around & heckling them all day haha. Boimler's impassioned defense of the spirit of exploration was also very enjoyable.

I was a tiny bit disappointed to find out that Rutherford's personality wasn't really "him" because I liked him & I just feel like I've seen this entire storyline before. But I liked both of his personalities.
posted by bleep at 7:44 PM on September 23, 2022

I was annoyed that the show gave the upper diss-hand to the independent archaeologist and the outpost scientists. With the latter, especially, I wanted to Mariner to say something like, "Outpost scientists? Jesus, you guys have a life-expectancy of like eight months, assuming you don't go insane and merge yourselves with an ancient machine intelligence or whatever. Listen, on three separate occasions I've had to clean up outposts full of poor fucks like you (wearing those same tragic jumpsuits) who'd been mysteriously transformed into powder. You might want to rethink your choices."
posted by The Tensor at 1:29 PM on September 27, 2022 [3 favorites]

At the part where Older Rutherford showed that he'd brought his friends along for the race, I started crying and basically continued for the rest of the episode. They are really getting good at throwing some heartfelt in with the humor. And I am EXTREMELY interested to learn what the deal is with Rutherford!

Young Rutherford is like a smart and angry Pillboi. (For those who don't know, the voice actor Eugene Cordero also played Pillboi on The Good Place.)
posted by rednikki at 10:32 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]