Honestly I think this might be one of my favourite Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes so far,
whether it be the random adventures of the USS Cerritos, or Captain Riker’s combat onboard the USS Titan, Lower Decks is getting better and better!
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
This week’s episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called, "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", and is our second episode of Season Two.
with the episode name being a direct reference to the Tamarians,
a species encountered in Star Trek: The Next Generation, with the famous episode of “Darmok”.
Let’s dive in and see what’s in store for us!
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Straight off the bat with this episode, we’re reintroduced to a character who made his debut appearance in Season one of Lower Decks,
Lieutenant Jet.
Voiced by Marcus Henderson, he was previously seen in the fifth episode of the series,
now back once again to be a little bit of annoyance to Ensign Mariner.
Ever wondered how the lower ranks of Starfleet shower and use the bathroom facilities, well now you don’t have to.
Yes, they use communal sonic showers.
This was hinted at during last season, but now we view it in all its pixelated weirdness. Honestly, I did not expect that on Starfleet ships, but here we go.
Immediately we’re setting up this episode with Jet and Mariner fighting over who’s best in a manner of speaking,
along with seeing Mariner compare Jet to Boimler
and make constant references to her friend who abandoned her for the USS Titan.
Also, Sonic showers can be really dangerous, like damn, then again real showers can be dangerous if you don’t set the temperature properly, we’ve all done that.
The main plot of the episode is aboard a collector ship, as a Prominent collector of star trek merch has died.
That is a morbid thought to think of other trek fans scrounging through our beloved trek possessions, but hey that's what the episode is about!
Now as you can expect, this episode is chock full of trek references and easter eggs, so let's try and get through the ones we noticed!
I’ve also been told to try and read these as fast as i can, so for the sake of argument, we’ll put this in the comments or on Twitter somewhere where you can actually understand it.
Baseball bat, “The Game” Visor, Stuffed Salt Vampire, Trombone, Khan’s Delta Necklace,
Khan’s Delta Necklace, Terran Empire flag, SS Valiant Log Buoy, Inner Light Probe, Arcade Cabinet,
Various trek melee weapons, Picard’s Painting, Kadis-Kot Board, NASA Rover, Armin Shimmerman Gift Box,
Armus, Chateau Picard, Isomagnetic disintegrator, Kahless' Fornication Helmet… yep that's a weird one, Uhura’s Outfit,
The Mask from the best TNG episode, Baseball Hat, The Excalbian copy of Abraham Lincoln skeleton,
And finally BIG SPOCKS SKELETON.
I never thought we would see the Skeleton of Big Spock, but here we are!
Now before we get more into the collector ship, let's talk about the titular, Lt. Kayshon, the first Tamarian in Starfleet.
He is now the new head of security after the unfortunate passing of Shaxs last season.
As expected he does speak some metaphors, but that's only because the universal translator has a hard time with metaphor.
I am very glad he isn’t constantly using metaphor and also the show not using it too much as a joke,
as it would seem very un-starfleet to continually joke about manners of speech, so Lower Decks, as a primarily comedy show, still maintains that Star Trek air to it, which I appreciate.
Kayshon is going with the lower deckers to the collector ship, but alarms are raised and he accidentally gets turned into a puppet…
which makes sense as a defense mechanism for Star Trek collectors.
Though the defenses aren’t just sock puppet lasers, but also flying roombas, which dust the collections, giant claws, magnetic furnaces and a manner of other wacky devices.
With the magnetic furnace, you even slightly see Rutherford's implant being torn out his face, which must hurt!
And here we get to the crux of this plot, Mariner and Jet.
As stated previously Mariner wants to do bold plans, whereas Jet wants to do the safest plans,
two very different leadership methods. But how is this difference in opinion resolved?
By turning to a different leadership model, and asking others on the away team, such as Tendi and Rutherford,
which works really well, as Tendi and Rutherford use science, plus an excalbian corpse,
in order to help them escape the facility before they are all added… to the collection.
Now we saw last episode at the very end Boimler and the USS Titan,
so what are these people up to.
Well it seems starfleet believes that there is an unknown player pulling the pakleds strings, as they are going after places that don’t fit their m.o.
Boimler and some Titan officers are sent on a mission to infiltrate a mining planet that has been overrun by Pakleds.
Long story short, they get found out and have to escape. But how do they escape you ask?
Well by remembering the tale of Thomas Riker. Yes Thomas Riker, the transporter clone of Riker… I wonder where he is now?
Anyway Boimler is the one who manages to get the away team to safety, but in the process… accidentally Thomas Riker’s himself
and creates a clone, who adopts the name of William Boimler.
And this is how the writers manage to get Boimler back to the Cerritos, as it seems to be Starfleet policy to not allow clones to serve on the same vessel,
so it also lets us know this happens quite often.
I have to commend the writers for thinking of this way to get Boimler back to the Cerritos,
and not have it be his fault.
In fact he is the reason why Titan Personnel were saved and how they remembered why they got into starfleet.
But with that being said, who went back to the cerritos? The Original… or the clone?
I also have to mention the small references found within Riker’s ready room, as it has Romulan Ale, Jazz Vinyls, and a Trombone.
But the two most interesting parts of Rikers Ready room are a model of the USS Pegasus,
Riker’s First assignment out of the academy, which made him into the man he is today.
But most fascinating is a Civil War hat which would belong to one of Riker’s ancestors,
Thaddius Riker, Colonel of the United States 102nd New York Infantry.
. This is fascinating, because it's a small thing from a Voyager Episode,
but also Riker’s future son is called Thaddeus, which would be a nod.
This could also explain Troi’s absence from this episode, as Thaddeus Troi-Riker would be born around this time in 2381.
It seems like this might be the end of the road for us following the USS Titan, at least this closely.
So before we go, lets get some more Jazz References in! Following in Star Trek tradition of naming shuttles,
the shuttles of the USS Titan are named after famous Jazz Musicians, from Dizzy Gillespie (Gill-ess-pee) to Thelonious (Feh-Low-Knee-Us) Monk, both now represented with the shuttles Gillespie and Monk.
Before Boimler returns to his natural habitat alongside the other lower deckers, replacing Jett from the team,
I just wanna say the group thinking Jett being promoted because he got a piece of sweet corn on his collar,
is absolutely hilarious, and a great way to explain away any rank errors that not only appear in the show, but in any star trek show.
But before Jett can get too comfortable with his meta jokes about rank incontinuity, he swiftly gets replaced by Boimler.
Boimler is asked about his time on the USS Titan with Captain Riker, and what adventures they got up too, his response -
“It was a bunch of complex characters thrown into heavily serialised battles which always ended in mind blowing twists and made me question the basic tenets of my reality”
This quote alone just seems like Mike McMahan pitching a USS Titan show, and I am all for it!
Quite frankly, a show with William Riker aboard the USS Titan would be fantastic, it is something that not only Trekkies have wanted,
but also Jonathan Frakes himself.
Though he might be a little old for it now, but then again, we did get Sir Patrick Stewart back for Star Trek Picard, so anything is possible!
The episode ends with Kayshon attempting to flirt with another officer of the USS Cerritos, and failing miserably at it.
Honestly i think we can all relate to Kayson at this point, no matter how hard you try with someone, it always comes down to drinking and being alone… Shaka when the walls fell...
Let’s talk about our opinions on this episode!
While the first episode of Season Two was a fantastic start for the second season, this second episode itself was much better personally.
Not only did we get more time with Captain Riker and Boimler, but we’re also introduced to Boimler returning to his Ensign friends aboards the Cerritos.
While this episode is about Boimler returning to the Cerritos, it also shows more insight into the character of Ensign Mariner
and her dealings with command authority which has been a constant theme throughout the series of Lower Decks.
Her butting heads with Lieutenant Jet, but then discovering they’re on a similar wavelength was a nice touch, especially how it ended with Boimler replacing him
and Mariner likely going back to her original ways anyway.
The details and references in this episode were fantastic, from minor little references that only some Trekkies will understand,
to the common ones like Captain Rikers Trombone in the Titan’s ready room!
Speaking of which, one thing I loved with this episode was the fact we got more of the USS Titan.
Previously we’ve only seen the exterior of the starship and the bridge, which is similar to that of the Enterprise-E.
Now with this episode we’ve seen the shuttle bay, transporter room, Riker’s ready room and more!
The Enterprise was mentioned a few times inside this episode, which makes sense as it is Lower Decks.
Though referring to the Enterprise-D as “The D” was funny, honestly while it’s a bad joke, this did get a laugh out of me.
Sometimes I personally find that while Lower Decks is interesting and a good watch, it does struggle to keep my attention with certain episodes.
However this episode grabbed me all the way through, whether that be due to how it was structured with a focus both on the Titan, but also on the Cerritos, it will remain to be seen.
While I hope we haven’t seen the last of Captain Riker and his Titan crew members,
it is important to remember that this show is about the Lower Deckers of the USS Cerritos, not the adventures of Captain Riker and the USS Titan, as much as we want it.
Overall, this was a great episode of Lower Decks, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves more going forward.
Especially as we seem to be getting a small background story with the Pakleds being an annoyance in the Star Trek galaxy,
, that will be interesting to watch, as well as waiting for other cameos.
Don’t forget you can watch Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Two every Thursday on Paramont+ and Crave / CTV Sci-Fi, or on Fridays via Amazon Prime Video for International viewers!
Once again that is our review of STAR TREK: Lower Decks Season Two Episode Two,
make sure to let us know your thoughts and opinions on this episode in the comment section below,
because if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it!
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For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!