TL;DR – Not all the story worked, but jumping back into this world was still a delight.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

After a stellar final season of Star Trek: Picard and a stunning follow-up season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, surely there is nothing left of Star Trek in 2023 … right? Well, hold on to your horses because Lower Decks is back and committing to changing one of its core features, changing the tone of the show … okay, not that much.

So to set the scene, the USS Cerritos has been sent on its most secretive mission so far. No one knows why they have been sent to this starbase until the lights turn on and everyone witnesses the joy that is the USS Voyager [Insert theme song here]. They have to escort the now museum ship to its permanent resting place. This should be a breeze, but Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) lets Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) know he is up for a promotion, just as long as he fails spectacularly. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

If last season’s Hear All, Trust Nothing was a love letter to Deep Space Nine, tonight’s episode shows Voyager some profound love. Before we get into the episode proper, there are some deep dives into Voyager lore for an episode that does not feature any of the original cast. I must admit that having Chaotica (?) appear brought a smile to my face, as was the justification behind why they are there, regarding preservation theory.

When people look back at USS Voyager, there are three issues that people will talk about. How Endgame felt like a rushed conclusion? Did Janeway commit murder with Twovix, and why in the hell did Threshold happen? Today’s episode dives head-first into two of these, and while I don’t think they have much to say about them, I am glad they did not ignore some of the show’s issues. While the Twovix part of the story was meant to be the main takeaway, I ultimately found it to be underwhelming.

I think the macro-virus escaping and then getting accidentally assimilated was more robust because it had more weight on the show’s narrative. Having Boimler lose his confidence because of a promotion is interesting. However, having Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) be the one who put him up for the promotion was the step the show needed to have. As was Boimler and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) coming to the rescue. It was also important that they stuck with the promotions at the end. This is a significant change for the show, and I hope they don’t walk it back.

In the end, do we recommend Twovix? Well, I am not sure both of the stories worked, and it was odd that an episode championing Voyager, didn’t have a connection to it. But when it worked, it was a delight, and I liked that, unlike Harry Kim, there are promotions. If nothing else, the end tag shows where we will be going this season.        

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Lower Decks
Directed by – Barry J. Kelly & Jason Zurek
Written by – Mike McMahan
Created by – Mike McMahan
Based Upon – Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – Secret Hideout, Titmouse, CBS Studios & Amazon Prime.
Starring – Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore & Gillian Vigman with Troy Baker, Jon Curry, Nolan North, Andy Richter, Gabrielle Ruiz, Paul Scher, James Sie, Carl Tart, Paul F. Tompkins & Kari Wahlgren