Peanut Hamper

Story: No Small Parts

Written By: Mike McMahon

Series: Star Trek: Lower Decks

Year: 2020

 

Lower Decks concludes it’s first season with a big episode written by series creator Mike McMahon. Boimler reveals to Mariner that he knows her secret about her parentage, but in doing so he accidentally reveals to the bridge crew as well...and word gets around the ship fast. Mariner can no longer fly under the radar and everyone begins kissing up to her. It should be noted that last week Mariner seemed to learn so e major lessons about herself and the reasons she so often breaks protocol and acts out...but all of that has slid off her already. That is exactly what I expected and I think it is a shame. 

The episode really kicks in when the Cerritos answers a distress call of a sister ship. When they get there they are attacked by a big scary ship run by...Pakleds. It seems that since we last saw them on TNG they haven’t gotten any smarter, but they have stolen enough tech to become stronger and more dangerous. It would take a renegade mindset to take them down...so the Captain turns to her daughter! This plot point would have worked much better if following on from lst week, Mariner was genuinely trying to be a more model Starfleet Officer. But instead she is back to her rule breaking self from the onset and only begins to act like a serious officer when she is outed and wants to try and get a transfer to a ship where she can fly under the radar again. 

Meanwhile Tendi is acting as a guide to a new Ensign, an Exocomp (from the TNG episode “The Quality of Life”). It calls itself Peanut Hamper and when given the opportunity to save the ship it decides to just bail on everyone. As it is, Rutherford takes the virus needed to take down the Pakleds and downloads it into his cybernetic head thing, and Shaxs helps to get him to the Pakled ship...but when Badgey (who created the virus) decides to blow up the ship to kill Rutherford...Shaxs tears off his cybernetic head thing, gets him to safety and dies in the explosion. 

More Pakleds show up, but luckily the day is saved by an out of nowhere appearance by the Titan Captained by Will Riker...giving us a cameo of Frakes and Sirtis. It is fun to have them here, but from a storytelling point of view they cane genuinely out of left field. It is kind of weird. 

The episode has some big changes for the show leading into it’s next season. Mariner and the Captain find some common ground and decide it might be wise to work with each other rather than constantly butting heads. As mentioned, Shaxs has died. Rutherford’s cybernetic implant was removed and he no longer remembers Tendi or their friendship. Oh and Boimler decided to take a promotion and joined the Titan. He is no a Lieutenant J.G. And sporting the great TNG movie/later DS9 uniform. 

As Lower Decks goes, I do feel it ended on a higher note. I still don’t know if I consider it canon and I definitely never found this episode funny...but I found myself less bored or annoyed this time. I even had moments of sort of liking it! What a ringing endorsement!

 

NEXT TIME: Season 1 Recap