TL;DR – A tail of two parts, one fascinating, the other frustrating.   

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

It is the penultimate of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ fifth season, and I wondered if the show could pull all those different threads together. Since the revelation at the start of the season about a mysterious ship destroying non-Federation vessels, it felt like we were barrelling towards something. Now it is time to see if that something was worth barrelling towards.

So to set the scene, we open in on Persioff IX, where a pair of Outpost Scientists are observing a local creature that spits acid and is covered in neurotoxin, and when things go wrong, Mariner (Tawny Newsome) rushes out to fix the problem herself. Her friends, Tendi (Noël Wells), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), have become concerned about this risk-taking behaviour, even the command crew. When Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) is concerned about your risk-taking behaviour, you know there is a problem. All they need to do is distract Mariner because they must pick up notorious risk taker Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) before he influences Mariner to do even more risky behaviour. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Okay, I have some mixed emotions about this episode, and because of that, I will talk about what didn’t work for me first before I jump into the highlights. I didn’t enjoy any of the cutaways to New Axton. Don’t get me wrong; this is not because it is terrible. I liked that Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) was good at her job and running a distraction scheme. I liked the jokes about them attending their Hoodlums and Racketeering seminar at the Academy, which turned out to be true. But the tonal shift between this B-Plot and the A-Plot we are about to talk to was so great that it detracted from the episode. It’s a good story in the wrong episode.

On that front, let’s dive into the big chunk of the episode, the crash onto Sherbal V. One aspect I have been frustrated with this season is how they have reset Mariner, removing much of her character growth. This episode goes a long way to fixing that issue by exploring why she does not want to be anything more than an ensign and why she engages in self-destructive behaviour. Part of this is her experiences during the Dominion War, something I wish we could have gotten some more exploring outside of some references in Picard’s Season Three.   

More than that, her experiences with her friend Sito from the Academy shaped her worldview. Putting aside for a moment that I sincerely wished we would have gotten some references to her before now, so it didn’t come as entirely out of the blue and probably would have been an odd reference for people not familiar with TNG to get. It fits the motivations of the self-destructive behaviour we have seen Mariner engage in. I liked her friends trying to support her the best they could. But after multiple Starfleet members and even a Ferengi took a crack at helping Mariner face her demons, it finally took a Klingon Ma’ah (Jon Curry) to break through. This felt right for the character, and it took a fight to bring it to the surface was the right choice.

In the end, do we recommend The Inner Fight? Well, it was clear that I did have some misgivings. However, when it worked, I think this was one of the better episodes in the series. Now, while I was not too fussed about the Nick Locarno reveal, we are at least placed very well to jump to the season finale next week.   

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.

Have you seen Star Trek: Lower Decks yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Lower Decks
Directed by – Brandon Williams
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 Robert Duncan McNeill, Gabrielle Ruiz, Eric Bauza, Jon Curry, Paul Scheer Lauren Tom, Kari Wahlgren & Paul F. Tompkins