Decrease Decks Is Rising the Beard in Extra Methods Than One

Made well-known by Jonathan Frakes’ wonderful facial hair in The Subsequent Era, “rising the beard” has turn out to be a synonym for the second a Star Trek present actually settles into its imaginative and prescient of itself, understanding what its strengths are, and is able to develop up and settle right into a groove. To be clear, Decrease Decks discovered its confidence and its imaginative and prescient a very long time in the past, and has largely caught to it. However now, in a final season that has thus far been about its heroes re-navigating the teachings they’ve realized of their Starfleet careers, the present is proving once more that it itself nonetheless has issues to be taught—the maturity to acknowledge when it’s screwed up, as nicely.

It helps that this week can be about Boimler fairly actually rising a beard, too. This present’s acquired layers! And most of them are very, very foolish.

“The Finest Unique Nanite Resort” keenly splits our heroes into two fascinating events. The Cerritos has been despatched to the Cosmic Duchess Resort, an enormous area resort station on a two-fold mission: Tendi, Mariner, Rutherford, and T’Lyn have been tasked with capturing a rogue cluster of nanites inflicting chaos on the station. In the meantime, the patchily scruffed Boimler has been assigned a way more essential job with Ransom and Billups, to find and detain an AWOL Starfleet Admiral who’s uncared for his humdrum line of responsibility to dwell a lifetime of leisure.

Boimler’s storyline is the least-explored of the 2 right here, as a result of it principally performs with a narrative format Decrease Decks has masterfully finished earlier than, utilizing the communication hole between senior and junior officers to create a comedy of misunderstandings. Boimler, as assured as he’s grown throughout the present, nonetheless fears that Ransom sees him and his fellow juniors as chattel to sacrifice and maim on harmful missions.

Once more, this all performs into what this season is already saying about our heroes needing to speak overtly and truthfully with one another and themselves. Boimler’s anxieties over whether or not or not he’s attaining his objectives been a part of his character from the get-go, however he’s developed from a perpetually anxious worrywart to somebody who is aware of how one can cope with these anxieties (if not totally push them apart, as we noticed during the premiere) as he’s gained extra expertise during the last 4 and a bit seasons of TV.

Ransom likewise assumes that due to how far he’s seen Boimler come, he doesn’t truly must underline to him that he takes him on essential missions as a result of he trusts his instincts, as an alternative of simply telling his junior this sort of constructive reinforcement. It’s good for Bomiler as a personality to have the present acknowledge that generally these moments of doubt, imagined or in any other case, are one thing he nonetheless must work on, and that his development as a personality isn’t strictly linear alongside an arc. Boimler, similar to everybody on else on the present, is in a continuing state of studying and re-learning, similar to any of us are. Positive, the present primarily does it by re-hashing a B-plot comedy of errors, but it surely’s innocent enjoyable.

The extra curiously self-reflective a part of the story comes within the nanite cluster plot (though that itself is essentially only a little bit of set dressing for the drama). Becoming a member of the remainder of the Lieutenants Junior Grade instead of Boimler on the mission is Mariner’s hardly ever seen girlfriend, the Andorian Jennifer Sh’reyan. It seems she is never seen, as a result of when Decrease Decks promptly dropped her shortly after establishing Mariner’s relationship together with her… so did Mariner, mainly, who thinks they’ve been damaged up for ages simply because she determined it, moderately than truly explicitly stating that truth. An insane selection, but additionally a superbly Mariner one, given how typically we’ve needed to be reminded simply how a lot she hates having to navigate her personal emotions.

Addressing this discomfort and lack of consideration is nice for a number of causes. Firstly, it once more all ties this again into the season’s wider message about communication, and the way that, regardless of coming a good distance since we first met them, these characters nonetheless must work on themselves like this. That is particularly essential for Mariner, after the cathartic arc she went via final season unpacking her trauma from coming of age during the Dominion War, to indicate that deep-rooted pains and responses to that ache should not simply solved, even with the maturity it takes to confront them within the first place. Secondly, it’s a uncommon second in Decrease Decks‘ metanarrative that the present will get to primarily take a step again and go “hey, that is one thing that we screwed up on, and we are able to’t change that now, however at the least we are able to handle it.”

Given what a boon it was to see Mariner and Jennifer collectively as Decrease Decks‘ pretty much only romantic arc, one of many largest disappointments of the present was how unceremoniously it dropped Jen after introducing her as a personality. The present itself seemingly simply not caring to make use of her, or to make use of Mariner being in a relationship, was particularly disappointing contemplating it was the still-rare occasion of getting a primary queer relationship in a Star Trek series, but it surely additionally simply made Mariner herself come off as oddly callous to by no means be seen together with her accomplice. Does she nonetheless suck a bit for internalizing all of her nervousness and simply assuming if she acted distant to Jen she’d know she didn’t need them to be collectively anymore? Sure! However that’s an fascinating facet of Mariner’s persona that the present lastly addresses on this episode, as an alternative of utterly ignoring Jennifer metanarratively.

And once more, this speaks to a maturity that not solely our heroes are coming into, however the present is as nicely. Decrease Decks is, like every other Trek present, one that’s consistently studying about itself, and making errors in that course of is totally pure. That it had the notice on this remaining season to acknowledge and handle this shortcoming, and tie that acknowledgement into the present’s wider themes because it enters the house stretch, isn’t only a welcome acquiescence to criticism, however a mirrored image within the confidence Decrease Decks has in itself at this level—a willingness to have a good time what works, however a willingness to deal with what doesn’t is one thing we count on of any good Starfleet officer. It’s additionally one thing we must always count on of excellent Star Trek, and Decrease Decks isn’t any exception to that.

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