8 Ups & 1 Down For Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.8: Upper Decks
If you're carving Clickets, you'll miss all the smashing pumpkins!
"We're sort of the stars of the show around here," Boimler — beard ever bearding — put it to Mariner. In quintessential fourth wall tipping-over fashion, he's right! The clue's in the title of the series. With only this and two more episodes to go, Boimler is equally and unknowingly admitting that they are soon the stars of the show no longer.
The clue's in the title of the episode. This week, they're changing things up to spend time with the bridge crew, which, for Lower Decks, is oddly a change-down. That's not to anyone's detriment, but it is the point. Upper Decks is certainly a strong episode in and of itself. And it was probably about time a whole one was dedicated to the other stars of the show. Time, and the hindsight it affords, will also ultimately tell if Upper Decks suffered from its late placement in season five.
Upper Decks is a little (too) chaotic in places, and it's also competing with the standout episode from last week. All the same, it is filled with its own worthy moments, not least all those logs, Clickets, compliments, a visit from Admiral Freeman, and a 'joke' from T'Lyn to end all 'jokes' from T'Lyn. Not quite a mic drop this week, but, as always, it comes in swinging (and carving) and goes out on a "boom".
9. UP and DOWN — Upstairs, Downstairs (With Turbolifts)
According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Lower Decks — the seventh season episode of The Next Generation — was partly inspired by writer Ronald Wilkerson's "love of the BBC classic Upstairs, Downstairs". Stairs are a rarity in space, as Ransom reminded us in Starbase 80?! There's certainly no class system in Starfleet and the Federation either, except for the one which has been replaced by rank.
By its very nature, Lower Decks has focussed on the 'downstairs'. It was certainly a great idea to reverse the impetus of the premise and go 'upstairs' (up the turbolift) for an episode. What goes on with the higher-ups when the lower-downs aren't looking? Or, to quote T'Lyn, "Perhaps our commanders are the leads of their own stories when we are not observing them". It is, however, no doubt a great idea that could have been had a lot sooner.
Then again, proper preparation is a luxury — an impossibility — when cancellation is thrust upon you. The switch in perspective to the bridge crew would have worked well in previous seasons, but it's also a bit late for that now. Judging the episode by its own merits, and not just its place in the larger shape of things, Upper Decks is a success. It's only a positive — an UP — that we got to spend more time up there with the senior staff.