If it’s Thursday, it must be Star Trek: Lower Decks. It’s so nice to have Star Trek back into the weekly routine, if only for a while. This latest episode of Lower Decks Season 5 sees the crew of the Cerritos heading to a hotel and resort to sort out a nanite infestation. After the Moopsy incident last year, chasing down rogues inside confined locations is something of a standard for them. Although this is a substantial change in scenery, it is also a pile of loose, vaguely sentient metal instead of a bone drinker.
Can the crew stop the infestation before the systems are destroyed? Is Boimler (Jack Quaid) still desperately trying to grow a beard? Will the crew find any chance to relax at a dream holiday destination? Read on in this review of the latest Star Trek: Lower Decks adventure!
WARNING – Full spoilers below for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Five Episode Three “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”.
The Duchess
This week’s Lower Decks episode sees the crew arrive at the Duchess. As the title suggests, it’s one of the best hotel resorts in the galaxy. It sounds like a description of a summer lover’s actual paradise, with relaxation abounding around every corner. While I’m sure it’s no Risa, I’m sure there are worse ways to get yourself on island time. Although the Lower Deckers aren’t here on vacation, trust the Cerritos to always get the crazy missions.
The Duchess is infected with nanites, terrorising the residents and attacking a lot of vital systems. Sent down to deal with this problem is the usual Lower Decks gang, Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), Tendi (Noël Wells), T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), and Mariner (Tawny Newsome). The twist of course being that Mariner’s ex-girlfriend Jennifer (Lauren Lapkus) has joined the landing party.
A summer resort is sure to make the reunion more awkward, especially when they’re not entirely sure that they broke up with one another. Atmosphere of love, a job to do, a parasite to eradicate, and a breakup to actually make official. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, or perhaps one of the cutest and heartwarming episodes of Lower Decks yet. Thankfully, the episode ends up being far more of the latter.
Vacation Bros
In one of the cooler subplots, we catch up with Ransom (Jerry O’Connell), Boimler, and Billups (Paul Scheer) going undercover in a group they dub the “vacation bros”. They’re trying to find a Starfleet Admiral who’s gone AWOL, figure out why, and bring him back into the fold. Could there be something sinister afoot? Some kind of conspiracy? Is this place more alluring than meets the eye? Endless possibilities.
Weirdly enough, it ends up being nothing more than disillusionment. An officer so used to doing nothing of consequence that they feel like they’ve wasted their life. Like Boimler meeting his confident and secure doppelganger, this is another perfect mirror to his personality. Someone faced with the same sort of missions he was, but lacking in Boimler’s boundless excitement for minutiae. As he continues to try growing a beard, it’s nice that he’s facing his “demons” like this.
The humour of their scenes together was great. Ransom’s cavalier attitude toward throwing lower ranking officers into really dangerous situations was played for laughs in a really nice way. Billups attempt at undercover work, adopting a fake name and backstory for no reason other than theatrics was hilarious. Watching them try to justify why they find Boimler useful was hysterical as well. Overall, the Vacation Bros were a real highlight of the episode for me.
Icosahedron
The episode’s climax involves the nanites, affectionately dubbed “Glumpus”, turning into an icosahedron. If the name’s not familiar to you, it’s a 20-sided polygon. So basically, the final boss of the episode is a D20 that absorbs everything around it, trapping it inside. I had the biggest, stupidest grin on my face during the entire chase sequence. While not a Star Trek reference, it is something of a nerd culture staple through it’s use in tabletop gaming, continuing the series’ penchant for nerdy self-awareness.
Speaking of nerdom, we got to see T’Lyn fangirl about a musician who has some kind of residency on the Duchess, Krog. While a good reminder to support your local live music scene, it’s also cute to see a Vulcan actually have feelings the way they usually do. She really feels like one of the most faithful Vulcan adaptations the franchise has had in a while, gelling really well with the show’s emphasis on comedy with a deadpan delivery.
The problem being solved through music, played on fictional vibe tubes, was pretty creative. Represented visually pretty well, and was a little unconventional for the franchise to use music like that. Even more unconventional was the reveal of a micro-ship at the heart of the nanites, from another universe, much like the crossover we saw in episodes like “Dos Cerritos”. Is there something more to this connection? For now, I like to think so.
Lovers’ Reunion
The real emotional heart of this episode was the reunion between Mariner and Jennifer. For most of the episode, Jennifer is still acting as if the relationship is going strong. After all, they never officially broke up. Thus, for most of the episode, I figured this was going to end in heartbreak. It’s a fate too often reserved for queer relationships onscreen, and I cannot put into words how relieved I am to see something that resembles a happy ending here.
Basically, Jennifer knew what was going on the entire time. All she wanted was to end it formally and officially, goading Mariner into saying something about it. A weird, but respectable mind game for someone who just wants a sense of closure before moving on. With her reassignment to the Manitoba, a ship with a high Andorian population, it wouldn’t be surprising if we never saw her again.
It was such a wholesome and adequate split. Just two people who are still on solid speaking terms just drifting apart. Long distance relationships aren’t for everyone and life goes on. It’s a beautiful and heartwarming ending to an episode that featured a nanite infestation turning into a D20. Really shows how sweet this show can be. It’s genuinely such a sweet, realistic end for them that I almost hope it’s not touched on later in the season.
Conclusion
“The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” was the best sort of Lower Decks episode. Nothing particularly consequential, a gloriously absurd sense of humour, and heartwarming character interactions that really shouldn’t be so surprising this far into the show. Five seasons in and the show’s just as good as ever, if not better. It was also nice to see a drama-free, amicable breakup, where too often queer relationships in media are destined for tragedy.
I also noted some interesting teases of where this final season might be headed. While the series has been to Starbase 80 before, it has come up again this week, and quite prominently too. A return, if not some major revelation. there feels inevitable. The Endeavour’s explanation also calls back to a similar anomaly in “Dos Cerritos”, could the walls of the universe be a story element this season? We’ll just have to wait and see, it’s still very early days to make a formal guess.
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