Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x09 "Fissure Quest"

Logline

Fissures must be closed before they get inflamed.

Written by: Lauren McGuire

Directed by: Brandon Williams

23 comments

There was so much joyful “Eeeeee”-ing during this episode.
One of the best episodes of Star Trek I've seen in a long time. Loved it!
- I agree.
  
  The recipe for this show is just so good. I'm really not into most of the newer stuff where they're trying to one-up every previous series in scope and stakes. I'm thinking particularly of Discovery here. It's fine for those who like these things, but I think having a show that's blasse about the routineness of life-threatening adventures and also presenting characters that seem like Trekies themselves as audience proxies is such a refreshing way to both enjoy the adventures and take the pressure off of the expectation that each show somehow has to out-do all the previous adventures of all the previous crews of all the previous Enterprises.
I liked how William Boimler was so done with Multiverse fatigue. Felt topical given the current Hollywood trend.

"Sodium is not a full life" "Maybe it is for me, dammit!" Felt this in my soul.
- I liked how William Boimler was so done with Multiverse fatigue. Felt topical given the current Hollywood trend.
  
  Agreed - it was nice to see them tackle multiverse fatigue head-on. It was even nicer to have Lily(!) provide a bit of a rebuttal to it, and argue that such stories don't have to be hacky.
  
  Still, there was such a catharsis to his eye rolling dismissal. I don't have the exact quotes, but when he remarks that the bad guy is certain to be this or that or this or "human Worf" or some other shocking known character I really had to smile. Also his description of it as an endless parade of lazy rehashings was just on point.
  
  Obviously, I still enjoy it, because here we are enjoying it. But at points his weariness and sarcasm were reminding me (favorably) of Rick and Morty. With way less cynicism, but with a lot of the same remarkably well-executed self-aware snark.
So Andrew Robinson finally got his wish. Love it.
- Can you give the context? I can infer a bit, but I don't know the specific wish you're referring to.
  
  Andrew Robinson's vision of the Garak's character was that he was sexually attractred to Bashir right from the start. Playing this openly would have been way too much for 90's TV, so he stuck to the idea but downplayed it. Which most likely is the reason why the interaction between these two characters was so great.
  
  He said in an interview that he always considered Garak to be gay as all get-out, and thought that it was perfectly obvious, and that Garak should've had an affair, preferably with Bashir.
I've found the season to be a little lacklustre, but I really liked this one. The gags seemed like more than just gags, and the story was more engaging than I thought many of them have been recently.

Having Jolene ~~Blalock~~ back was a real treat.
- Mike McMahan had an idea that S5 could be the last season before the news was announced, so there was probably some pressure to tie some loose ends instead of focusing on the season arc.
I just started this one and have to keep pausing it to calm down every time he introduces a member of his crew.
That was fucking epic.

Also, she goes by Jolene now?
- Mike McMahan said on Reddit that that's how she wants to be credited. He didn't say why tho
- I don't care what she goes by, lol, I'm just shocked, amazed, and grateful they got her to reprise T'Pol (I just finished an ENT rewatch). She retired and hasn't acted since 2017. She's also Mrs. Ticketmaster so she definitely doesn't need to work. Glad she's a Trekkie otherwise it probably wouldn't have happened.
  
  That was for certain the surprise guest star.
Holy crap, that was amazing. I guess the power of the multiverse is that, to quite 3 the Cole Porter standard, anything goes...
I absolutely loved it
Annotations for 5x09 up at: https://startrek.website/post/17237470

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