7 Ups & 1 Down For Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.10 - The New Next Generation
In Star Trek: Lower Decks, it's not over until the Schrödinger field Sovereigns.
Last week was a tough act to follow, Fissure Quest being the best of the season, if not the series. The penultimate of Lower Decks can still boast that title, but The New Next Generation is a highly accomplished finale, a fitting send-off to all the crew of the Cerritos. It is action-packed, meditative at times, and as ever, always downright funny. It is both a reminder of what we'll be missing and of our good fortune to have something to miss.
Taken as the second of a two-parter, The New Next Generation does an admirable job of wrapping up the season, of wrapping up the series. In that sense alone, and though far from flawless, it's certainly up there with the best. Ultimately, it serves well as a tribute to the eccentricities that made us fall in love with the show and its characters in the first place. There is even a rather touching montage for that!
What will be missing, therefore, is a uniqueness of humour, of the imperfect — of the ones who get there second, but still do a damn good job. As someone from another Next Generation once said, "This is the end, my friend," until it isn't! We can only hope for more in one form or another. After all, there are whole new universes, and the rest of this one, to explore!
9. UP — The Beckett-Bradward Effect
The more things change, the more they facial hair. The un-bearded Brad(ward) Boimler we met in Second Contact was pretty fresh out of the Academy, eager to please, but lacking in confidence. The Beckett Mariner who burst in on his faux Captain's log was a brash rule-breaker, already on the Romulan whiskey, and quick to wield a bat'leth. As T'Lyn would say, Mariner was more "chaotic". Boimler put his foot in it and was misremembered by centuries of history.
Both have changed quite dramatically over the course of five seasons. One is more hirsute, the other has worked through trauma. Each is a lieutenant. Neither have lost their "edge". Boimler still 'freaked out,' gloriously so, in the re-take of the end of Fissure Quest from the perspective of the Cerritos. Mariner still pranked the unwitting cadet. Only now, when they took the information from William up the decks, it didn't take half as much convincing.
"You're two of my best officers," Captain Freeman replied as she swung into action. "After all we've been through, I think I know enough to trust you". That is some GREAT captaining, but it is first and foremost a testament to that fantastic character development described above. Trust is earnt, so is fandom. In that, in both, Lower Decks, the series, has had the desired Beckett-Bradward effect.