Lower Decks goes back to very early TOS. Spoilers.
Generally a pretty strong return to form, although the Tandi/Rutherford plots continue to be a relative weak point,
There’s a bit of a rest feeling to Mariner and the Captain’s relationship by the end of the episode, in a way that I don’t know we needed. If we’d started from ‘it’s a bit more understanding, but some tension’ it would have been a reasonable transition from where we left Season 1. After all, ‘Lower Decks’ requires some distance from the Captain.
But the A-plot with the references to the TOS beings of god-like power (with direct reference to Gary Mitchell and ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ from the second pilot of TOS). It’s nicely done, and has a good mix of callback and humour. Also fun to see the continued tradition of the bonkers A-plot being in the background of B-plot scenes that pay it no mind.
But if they continue to tease cetacean ops without showing it on screen I shall be very disappointed…
812 down.