TL;DR – A weird little fun episode that gets to put the cap off the running joke of Starbase 80

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

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

One of the recurring jokes on Star Trek: Lower Decks is that no one ever wants to get transferred to Starbase 80. The very joke of it is enough to put a pause on any dubious activity. We have known how bad it was since way back in Season One and now it is time to find out if the legacy lives up to the reality.

So, to set the scene, after cataloguing a bunch of algae on the ocean planet Piskes 9, the USS Cerritos was meant to head to a Captain’s Conference on Casperia Prime. However, after a navigation malfunction, the ship had to drop out of warp because they were flying blind. That is no problem. There is a Starbase they can reach by impulse. The only problem is that base is Starbase 80: Insert creepy music here. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

I am at a bit of a lull with this one because I have talked to a lot of people who loved this episode, yet even though all the individual components are there to make it work, however, this episode just didn’t come together for me. In some respects, this might be the densest episode of Lower Decks when it comes to references. I think there is one shop alone with so many different props that I would assume it gave the people over at Memory Alpha a headache. Also, I think this was an essential step for Mariner’s (Tawny Newsome) growth, as she does not relapse into her past.

However, while it was fun to laugh about Decontamination gel, the idea that the curse was coming from the Cerritos was a strong one. The licking zombie-like infection just did not work for me on a conceptual level. It felt like we were walking over well-trodden territory rather than having a story anew. It also distracted from the core interesting part of the story that for all the rubbish that Starbase 80 gets, it is just the product of people forgetting about it. A cautionary tale about what would have happened if they had never found the wormhole in DS9.      

In the end, do we recommend Starbase 80? It still is an okay episode. It just did not reach the heights that it could have for me. But it is interesting to hear how everyone got something different from the episode.   

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 – Bob Suarez
Written by – May Darmon
Created by – Mike McMahan
Based Upon – Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – Secret Hideout, Titmouse, CBS Studios & Paramount+.
Starring – Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore & Gillian Vigman with Paul Scheer, Nicole Byer, Liam McIntyre & Stephen Root and Oscar Montoya