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Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x01 "Dos Cerritos" & 5x02 "Shades of Green"

"Dos Cerritos"

Logline

A spatial anomaly forces the Cerritos crew to face their own faces.

Written by: Aaron Burdette

Directed by: Megan Lloyd

"Shades of Green"

Logline

Tendi races to stop a conflict while Boimler & Mariner race to stop capitalists. Rutherford fixes a door.

Written by: Keith Foglesong

Directed by: Bob Suarez

27 comments

My favorite little easter egg is that the LOWER DECKS font in the title card now has those blue streaks in the background. Because it's the 5th season. Just like TNG added those blue streaks in its 5th season.
OMG they've added a green hand to the intro.
- Also, you know the Borg are horrifying when they're even putting up a fight with Apollo.
- And the Tholian web!
- What is it?
  
  The green hand? That's the hand of Apollo. The actual Greek god Apollo. TOS got weird lol.
- And V'ger!
As a fan of mysteries, my mind tends to clasp onto details that writers felt important enough to mention, but had no bearing on the plot up to this point.

The fact that the ship Tendi recovered was a “medical frigate” triggered such an alarm in my head. Yes the ship was able to gas the Blue Orions, but that’s hardly a feature unique to medical ships.

We Know:

Tendi wants to come back to help raise her niece.

Tendi wants to be a captain

The finale is going to have some tear jerking moments

This is the last season.

I think we’re being prepped for the main cast to go their separate ways, not unlike the DS9 finale.

We’ve had some foreshadowing with Freeman and Starbase 80. I wonder if the finale might end with her being posted there, as an admiral. Fix it up, that sort of thing, rather than an exile.
- In the Mike McMahan interview TrekMovie ran yesterday, he said they knew it was going to be the final season fairly early in the writing process, so you could be on to something.
I think for Dos Cerritos the B plot with Tendi carried the episode. I honestly felt like they missed the classic Lower Decks balance of seriousness and humor on the A plot and played it slightly too straight in a way that made it seem too much like a run-of-the mill multiverse episode. The two T’Lyns jokes were fun, though.

Shades of Green also did great with the Tendi plot, and the overthrow of capitalism part was enjoyable enough.

Now the big question is: Will Boimler single-handedly cause Starfleet to create a multiversal prime directive after that PADD makes him do something spectacularly wrong? 😈 (Though I guess based on PRO events, probably not.)
- they missed the classic Lower Decks balance of seriousness and humor on the A plot and played it slightly too straight in a way that made it seem too much like a run-of-the mill multiverse episode.
  
  Yeah...it feels somewhat intentional, as showing alternate versions of the characters that really weren't that different was kind of the point, but that's not exactly a comedy latinum mine.
- Not 100% sure our T’Lyn isn't the other 'verse T'yln. Auntie Tendi 😍
  
  Remarkable.
So, is anyone else anticipating some crossover with Prodigy and the events that affected the Prime Universe in it's Season 2?

Because that's exactly where my mind went when they did the whole foreshadowing of "someone sure is opening a lot of time rifts lately". (I might have that quote off a bit from Captain Freeman but I'll edit once I get a chance to rewatch.)
- It didn't cross my mind, but that would certainly be a treat. I can't recall off the top of my head exactly how the timelines line up.
- The events of Prodigy largely involved wormholes across spacetime in one universe (and incursions into that universe by bad guys).
  
  The quantum fissures in Lower Decks are connected to other universes. While this season of Lower Decks does canonically occur in the same time period as season 2 of Prodigy, I doubt the two are related.
  
  That said, with the specific call-out, I definitely see them having some significance later in the season.
  
  I was more surprised that the crew of the other Cerritos weren't responsible for opening the fissure in the first place. The setup felt like it was leading toward a reveal that Captain Becky's crew had ulterior motives.
  
  It was a bit disappointing that the twist only turned out to be Captain Becky opportunistically trying to swap universes. I was expecting something more like Stargate SG-1 9x13 (Ripple Effect) wherein an alternate-reality SG-1 is after ~~me Lucky Charms~~ a ZPM.
I hate to bring this up, but giving all the treasure to Tendi's family is pretty definitely a Prime Directive violation.
- Arent Orions already a warp capable species?
  
  The Prime Directive forbids interference with the internal affairs of any society.
- They are hiring them to handle the disposition of unneeded tokens of currency. I don't see how that violates the prime directive...
  
  That's one way to spin it, but another is that they're elevating a particular Orion house back into prominence immediately after they were stripped of their wealth by their government, which should most certainly be considered interfering with internal affairs, no?
- What if that is exactly what puts Freeman on Starbase 80?
- Wouldn’t that only apply if the Orions were pre-warp? Probably still a violation of 100 different Federation laws and Starfleet regulations, though.
  
  Nah, the PD also prevents Starfleet from, say, rigging a Romulan election.

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