Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel
November 1, 2024 8:30 AM - Season 5, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Most of the Lower Deckers go on an away mission to an orbiting resort, which should be fun, except that Mariner's ex is also going along, and doesn't seem to realize that they're exes. And is Boimler's separate mission with Ransom too Bold?

For maybe the first time in I can't remember how long, there's no Memory Alpha article to link to, not even a placeholder. Hmm. Can't imagine what they might be distracted by, this week. Anyway:

- The title is obviously riffing off of the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The resort itself is, if not exactly Risa, kind of Risa-adjacent.

- The Kreetassans were previously seen in episodes of ENT; given their view of openly eating as grossly obscene, you gotta wonder what they were doing on a resort station. (Unless their protestations of being offended were just for show, maybe for the benefit of the one Kreetassan who really was a prude. Kreetassan Pornhub is probably just a lot of mukbang videos.)

- Ransom's away mission is an homage to Apocalpse Now; Admiral Milius' name is an homage to screenwriter/director John Milius, who cowrote Apocalypse Now.

Poster's Log:

A fairly chill and fun stroll through Lil' Risa, although we do have the giant rolling D20 of Dooooom (excuse me, icosahedron) and that one guy who lost both arms (even though we know that Trek has pretty good replacement body parts). Sad to see Jennifer go; glad to see her and Mariner being adults about it. And the whole Apocalypse Lite Now thing was pretty funny, what with floating down the Space-Mekong in inner tubes and the "cultists" being too chill to be culty-murdery. Oh, and of course, T'Lyn winning the day with the Power of Vibe.

Poster's Log, supplemental: I won't have access to the episode again until later tonight, so if folks want to add their favorite quotes or whatever, that would be cool.
posted by Halloween Jack (9 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I liked Ransom noting that Boimler's disturbingly well prepared. All that hard work's paying off!
posted by Spike Glee at 8:33 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]


I liked this more than the first two episodes. It seemed to have a smoother melding of the A and B stories, and was just a breezy little 22 minutes…
posted by wittgenstein at 8:48 AM on November 1


I liked Ransom noting that Boimler's disturbingly well prepared. All that hard work's paying off!

Seems like a coping mechanism for being extremely bad at improvisation, which is like, a core skill of under cover agents. Though I guess he was able to improvise an escape using sun tan oil, so maybe that shows some growth, but as you say, the dialog suggests everyone instead sees him as well prepared.

Anyways, it's not hard to see Boimler's broad arc as "incompetent yet self-important white dude fails upwards." His beard is continuing to grow out (poorly), as he tries to emulate the confident version of himself he saw in the mirror (universe). Based on the episode's conclusion deliberately mentioned finding a way to reopening mirror universe rifts, I suspect they will re-encounter the mirror crew, and he will become disillusioned as Boimler cracks under pressure.

More predictions for that episode:
- A visit to starbase 80 so Captains Freeman can enjoy a nice evening wine and quietly decide there's nothing to learn from the other
- Pirate Tendi meets Star Fleet Tendi
- Mirror Boilmer's beard is revealed to be glued on and his magazine cover story exaggerated
posted by pwnguin at 10:13 AM on November 1 [6 favorites]


It sure would be great if Prime-Freeman found out that Other-Freeman turned Starbase 80 around.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:52 AM on November 1 [2 favorites]


MONTH OF HELL!!!! A MONTH!!!!
posted by danhon at 2:41 PM on November 1 [5 favorites]


The Memory Alpha entry is up.

Best line goes to Mariner; "It's a onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten...Icosahedron!"
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:58 PM on November 1 [9 favorites]


Nice Walter tags Jack B)

I suspect they will re-encounter the mirror crew

Same, and I'm getting a, well, vibe that this season is also prioritizing "give every tertiary character a scene or two," which makes sense. Sort of a compressed-for-time version of what Voyager did in its last season, what with Joe Carey returning and the ostensible first officer actually getting an A-story.

The tiki bar was reminiscent of the actual on-Risa content from Star Trek Online, but I'm thinking that was basically coincidence.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:28 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]


I think my biggest issue with the Ransom and Boimler thing was the idea that Ransom would just send junior officers into life threatening situation because it was "too dangerous." I've never picked up that vibe from Ransom (didn't he turn into a giant floating god head in season 1 or 2 because he dashed into a dangerous situation?). So it felt like this B storyline was a little forced. Another aspect was Boimler's behavior at the Admiral's hide out. I felt that Boimler was supposed to be faking his way through the Admiral's entreaties to join him, but that it wasn't presented that well and Boimler only turned things around after Ransom clarified why he had chosen Boimler in the first place.

The Mariner/Jennifer break up felt so much more natural, and I appreciated how both characters identified their own flawed behavior and were able to move forward on an amicable standing.

Didn't the guy who lost his hands lose his leg or legs in the cave episode? Am I just making that up?

Same, and I'm getting a, well, vibe that this season is also prioritizing "give every tertiary character a scene or two," which makes sense. Sort of a compressed-for-time version of what Voyager did in its last season, what with Joe Carey returning and the ostensible first officer actually getting an A-story.

The showrunner stated in the lead up to the final season that they were going to try to get every funny person they knew back on the show one last time, so you're vibing correctly!
posted by Atreides at 8:12 AM on November 4


I think my biggest issue with the Ransom and Boimler thing was the idea that Ransom would just send junior officers into life threatening situation because it was "too dangerous."

It was clearly riffing on the 'redshirts are expendable trope'
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:25 PM on November 5


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