Tag Archives: Carl Tart

Star Trek: Lower Decks: The New Next Generation & Season 5 – TV Review

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TL;DR – I am sad that our time with Lower Decks is over. However, I am glad that it went out on such a high note.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

The USS Cerritos.
The USS Cerritos

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

One of the many wild swings this new era of Star Trek undertook was jumping back into the animated world with a show that would be more farcical and self-referential than ever before. Playing off one of the most famous episodes of The Next Generation, Lower Decks rode the line between being a love letter to Star Trek fans and telling a good story in its own right. Now we have come to its final episode, and the question is: did they stick the final landing?

So, to set the scene, after William (Jack Quaid) poured all the rift energy into his universe, our Prime-Star Trek world, there was only one chance to stop it. Well, after Boimler (Jack Quaid) has had an acceptable freakout, he lets Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) know, and while Starfleet Command would have preferred any ship but the Cali-Class USS Cerritos to be the ones to fix it, time is not on their side, and the Cerritos is already near the Klingon border. The only problem is that The Federation might not be the first one to find the rift. We will be looking at the episode, season, and probably series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Star Trek Lower Decks: Upper Decks Review: A Love Letter to the Crew of the USS Cerritos

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TL;DR – This episode feels like a love letter to the crew of the USS Cerritos, and as such, it was honestly moving in a way I was not expecting.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

The rings of Bhungar V

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

One of the things that has always made Lower Decks stand out in the vast landscape of the Star Trek Universe is that much of its focus is not on the command crew of the ship. Of course, they are all still there, but they are more side characters and foils for our core cast. Over time, those lines started to blur as we had space to explore characters more, and the Lower Deckers spent more time on the bridge. However, today, we put that all aside to give a love letter to the crew of the USS Cerritos.

So, to set the scene, in the Buhgood Feeding Grounds around the rings of Bhungar V, the USS Cerritos crew are steeling down to explore an old Earth ritual, Halloween. As Tendi (Noël Wells), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), and Boimelr (Jack Quaid) all dig into their gourds in a carving session. Mariner (Tawny Newsome) got stuck in painting. All the good things only happen to the bridge crew, which, as fate will have it, is who we will be following today. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Star Trek: Lower Decks: Of Gods and Angles – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is a solid, fun episode that makes the most of its silly premise.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

The USS Cerritos in the Veraflex Nebula.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

There are many ways in which Star Trek Lower Decks can shine, and one of the best of them is when they decide to go on a deep dive into the lore to find something to explore. Sometimes, that can be expanding on Orion culture for the first time since Enterprise, and other times, it can be a love letter to Star Trek’s fondness for caves. Today, we dive all the way back to the era of Those Old Scientists, with some demigods and a fight over angles.

So, to set the scene, the USS Cerritos has been positioned next to the Veraflex Nebula for weeks as it hosts peace talks between the Orbs and the Cubes, the photonic species that live there. It is hard to get people to talk when they complain that the ship has too many edges or that article ten is wrong because ten has an o in it. But as this goes on, Mariner (Tawny Newsome) is put in charge of an ensign, Olly (Saba Homayoon), on their last chance and gets some home truths when one of the diplomats turns up dead. They have to investigate because they are not high enough status to arouse suspicion, which, of course, went down as well as you would expect it to. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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