Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x07 "Fully Dilated"
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x07 "Fully Dilated"
Logline
It’s a pre-warp society undercover Girls Trip!
Written by: Andrew Mueth
Directed by: Megan Lloyd
I enjoyed this one more than last week's - I think I'm calibrated to prefer the more heartfelt episodes over the sillier ones. And this one added "the purple D" to the lexicon, so that's...a real legacy, is what it is.
The Mariner subplot was pretty thin, and probably could have been cut entirely.
I second many of your points. And, also...
"the purple D"
Had me immediately thinking, "Well, STO vanity shields are canon now, I guess."
Heartfelt usually but not always equals The Tendi Effect on LD to me hah. I agree about the subplot being weak - both for Mariner and also Boimler/Rutherford which was pretty much a slapstick sketch.
I would've liked to see something like Boims struggling to think of a first book to take to T'Ana's book club, with Ruthie enthusiastically but haplessly trying to suggest things (usually engineering related)
"We'll have to lick it off" had me reeling.
I found the lurkey quite funny this episode, even if it was a bit of an embellished and exaggerated character.
And my goodness, I love the guest star that they found on the time dilation planet in this episode: The Vasquez Rocks.
Much more affordable at animation rates!
I'm loving the friendly beard-off between Boimler and Rutherford, who just casually between episodes has grown a stubble that is more impressive than Boims' shaggy growth.
It's especially nice that their differences didn't evolve into an episode-long, passive aggressive competition between comrades over who's is the better — oh, hello Tendi. Didn't see you there.
"Y'know, I havent!" Was so good.
I have this headcanon now that Boimler met his purple universe self once, and that's why he started dying his hair.
Wait a minute now, is he actively dying his beard as it grows in? That's pretty weird, isn't it? Did he lie in his own personal log about dying his hair, or does the hair dying occur at a follicular level?
Maybe all you have to do is wave a light over it...
This one combined a favorite sci-fi trope (timey wimeys) with pure unadulterated ridiculousness. It might be a series favorite for me!
Damn, I guess the ship doesn't clean itself after all.
Annotations for 5x07 up at: https://startrek.website/post/16832667
What’s weird is in the IDW comics, Data has become a severed head again as well.
I’m a little sad. When I saw a time dilation plot, I was honestly expecting an unexpected romance to begin between Mariner and one of the other two (probably T’Lyn) - not like it fully develops, but like something weird to show up in the possible future we better get in the finale.
I was thinking something kind of similar - if they had left Mariner out of it entirely, we could have had a Tendi/T'lyn "Janeway and Chakotay build a bathtub" plot.
That would seem to be a pretty big leap out of character for Mariner. She only acts like she doesn't have boundaries, but she actually sets pretty rigid limits on where she's willing to go with people she considers close friends.