The cocktails make me think he might be doing a "fuck it" and simply being lazy with shaving. Regardless, it will be funny when he grows a better beard in a single episode.
Also, I find it rather funny that the prewarp civilization kind of just looks like a bunch of bargain bin Andorians. I bet Mariner will say my words almost verbatim.
I like it when we get new aliens that look very similar to established aliens. There’s so many species out there, especially in TOS, and early TNG, that are just humans with a silly hat. When we see Mintakans (Vulcans/Romulans), or DS9 Trill (Kriosans), or even Denobulans (Cardassians), it makes me glad to know that evolution does not just make a bunch of different humans with an occasional one off.