In classic Trek tradition, there’s always a filler episode (or three) in any given season, and at least one is a classic clip show.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Episode 8 manages to give the trope of a clip show a twist in that its clips are all new scenes.
No, there’s no development in the mysterious vessel’s long-arc plot, but our Fab Four get to bond and revisit what makes them such great friends to begin with.
It’s a fact that before Mariner ever moans about their away mission, there are over THIRTY separate cave-based adventures in televised Trek history (including Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 8 AND Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Episode 3.)
Furthermore, caves have played major roles in multiple Trek motion pictures. So Mariner’s got a point. Caves are kind of over-represented as far as landforms go.
Clip shows are a great device for bringing back recurring characters by rehashing old footage.
Lt. Steve Levy, the conspiracy theory-obsessed science officer, hasn’t been seen since that trash reporter attempted to take Captain Freeman down on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Episode 9.
His return as part of Boimler’s Kyron 4 mission is elegantly placed as the first of the clips, introducing the Vendorians as another plot device while expanding on the knowledge base of the species that originally appeared on Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Boimler: Please let us go! I thought you were just a paranoid anxiety made up by people who needed an imagined enemy to simulate order on unrelated disasters so life doesn’t feel so random and chaotic.
Vendorian: Ha! That is what we wanted you to think.
Proving the adage that crazy doesn’t mean wrong, Levy’s encyclopedic knowledge of Vendorian culture saves their lives.
Mind you, if he wasn’t so annoying, they probably wouldn’t have failed the morality test in the first place.
Boimler really should have a chat with him about Koalas and the Black Mountain. That would give Levy’s boards so much fuel for their fanaticism.
Of the three cave clips, Rutherford’s mission to Balkus 9 with Dr. T’Ana is the most outrageous.
I have so many consent issues with the whole impregnate-the-nearest-organic-lifeform-through-touch method of survival.
What if T’Ana hadn’t been there to surgically deliver the baby? Rutherford’s factory-issue body certainly doesn’t come with a birth canal. Would it have burst out, xenomorph-style?
While T’Ana is a more regularly occurring character, we rarely see her in anything but a medical/sickbay or kinky sex context/Shaxs context.
Rutherford: I call dips on first babysitting shift.
T’Ana: Good. Because the only thing I hate more than engineers are babies.
Having her hang out with the most easy-going of the Beta Shift Lt JGs while caring for a newly-birthed baby permits a glimpse at an unexpectedly tender side to the Caitian.
I have a poor sense of the chronology of the Balkus 9 cave exploration. How long were they searching for an exit?
And when did Rutherford have enough opportunity to record the graflax to create a translator?
T’Ana: You’d make a not completely terrible father.
Rutherford: Wait, are you saying I’m the first engineer you like?
T’Ana: Shut the f*** up.
Also, what the heck kind of ration did they feed the baby?
Mariner’s away mission with the dreaded Delta Shift ensigns feels a bit more contrived than the other two.
While most encounters with Delta Shift occurred in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, they have always stood as the antithesis to our heroes.
Seeing Mariner commanding the Delta Shift ensigns informs us that Lt. JGs are no longer bound to the shift rotation they served as ensigns.
Boimler: You chanted with them?
Rutherford: Chanting’s our thing!
Mariner: I can… I can chant with other people.
Although Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford still identify as Beta Shift, they really aren’t anymore, so the arch-rival feeling towards Delta Shift has probably faded.
Having the opportunity to air grievances is nice, but really, is that how they’d spend their time as their bodies rapidly age and their colleague’s broken bone is exposed?
On Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 6, Tendi describes Delta Shift as boastful. Caravetos’s description of how the higher-ups never see their work because they work when the commanders sleep may explain the boasting.
On the other hand, how likely is it that there are no commanders during Delta Shift? Not sure that totally scans.
Mariner: Any, uh, unspeakable evils in here? Can we skip past the waiting and just attack us now?
Boimler: Will you stop it? I’ll just call for an evac. [clicks communicator futilely]
Mariner: Bunch of rocks always beats centuries of technological progress.
Although Tendi’s story isn’t technically a cave scenario, it is the only one that comes close to being a true clip.
The rage virus occurs on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 1, the series premiere of our favorite animated comedy Star Trek.
The turbolift incident occurs after the actual episode, so the scenes are still novel.
I’m curious if they were trapped for four hours or nine hours. The time stamp cards are a little ambiguous.
Tendi: I think this was actually one of the best days of my life.
Mariner: Uh, you mean with the zombie outbreak, then getting stuck in here and peeing in the corner?
Tendi: Well, I didn’t love peeing in the corner.
Trust Tendi to lean in on a story of togetherness when the others focus on individual experiences.
Like any good filler episode, we’re left with some good vibes, a thoughtful chaser, and no real repercussions.
The Vendorian revisit in the final scene is cute.
Now, are they and the sentient, carnivorous moss in cahoots, or did they just happen to be hanging out in the same cave?
Fun fact, Boimler’s now had more interactions with the Vendorians than Kirk’s animated crew.
Combined with the Vendorian he tries to rescue on Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Episode 2, his mission with Levy and this moss incident mean they’ve intersected his life THREE times in four years.
Ultimately, filler clip shows are light-hearted excuses to trot out some characters and tropes that aren’t necessarily vital to either narrative or world-building.
But, sometimes, it’s worth a little detour to recall why we stick with an animated irreverent half-hour sci-fi comedy.
We like them, and that’s enough.
What are your thoughts, Fanatics? Did this trip beam you up, or should it be sent to the brig?
Hit our comments below with your impressions!
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond ’til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.