with Jim Moorhouse and Ken Reilly

“Terminal Provocations” kicks off the back half Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ first season with a classic holodeck malfunction episode… and by showing us that there are some lines that even Mariner will not cross.

As the Cerritos faces off against Drookmani scavengers intent on plundering an old derelict Starfleet ship, Boimler and Mariner test the limits of just how much lower deckers should stick together. Meanwhile, Rutherford and Tendi find themselves caught in a malfunctioning holodeck – with the safeties off!

In a solid, but not standout entry for the season that gives the Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi (Noel Wells) duo a bit more to do than recent episodes, each story unfolds with the backdrop of the bridge crew’s standoff with the Drookmani. And we have our first returning Star Trek alum to voice a character on Lower Decks, and there are few better or more deserving than J.G. Hertzler — best known as Deep Space Nine‘s General Martok — who voices the Drookmani captain.

It feels extremely appropriate for the Lower Decks vibe that their version of Moriarty — the malfunctioning hologram who knows he’s a hologram — would turn out to be a demented version of Clippy the Microsoft Office virtual assistant, now known as Badgey in the 24th century.

And Lower Decks scores another comedy casting coup by securing Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) to voice the role. It has not been appreciated yet how much comedy talent Lower Decks has brought to the Star Trek universe so far this season, with McBrayer joining Matt Walsh (Veep), Paul Scheer (The League), and Sam Richardson (Veep) to the franchise’s cast list.

I hope that, like Moriarty, Badgey will return as a foil for Rutherford. Though this episode continues the long running question about why Starfleet allows holodecks in the first place, since the technology is clearly not safe!

Meanwhile, Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) find themselves in a difficult situation after one of their fellow lower deckers, Ensign Fletcher (Tim Robinson), offers to cover for them so they can attend the coveted Chu Chu Dance. When they return, Fletcher has apparently been attacked and an isolinear core is missing, though it turns out Fletcher used the core to try and make himself smart and in the process created a technological nightmare.

It turns out Fletcher is not a particularly good Starfleet officer. He’s perfectly affable, but prone to deceit, blaming others for his own mistakes, and he’s incompetent. Fletcher makes a great counterpoint for Mariner, and it almost feels like the writers room decided that after several episodes of Mariner occupying the role of a renegade Starfleet officer that it was necessary to show there are some lines she does not cross.

Fletcher being so bad at his job, and clearly not caring about it, reminds us that while Mariner might chart her own course, she’s ultimately still a Starfleet officer who genuinely believes in the institution. I think that was a good reminder at this point in the season.

Trek Trope Tributes

• Like Worf in The Next Generation, Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) finds his recommendations to use force and escalate the situation with the Drookmani is consistently shut down by Captain Freeman for most of the episode.
   
  • “My recommendation of full assault has been ignored in favor of a more diplomatic approach.”
  • “Permission to destroy the alien ship?”
  • “Please, please let me shoot their warp core. I have been very good this month!”
•  Derelict ships and debris have been found adrift in space many times on Trek previously (“Space Seed,” “Booby Trap,” “The Royale,” “The 37s,” etc.) and we’ve also seen a handful of disputes over salvage rights before (“Day of Honor,” “Extreme Risk,” etc.).
   
• The Rutherford and Tendi storyline on the holodeck is one extended trope tribute, drawing upon many holodeck malfunction episodes complete with malfunctioning safeties (“A Fistful of Datas” etc.), instantly changing environmental settings (“The Big Goodbye,” etc.), and a malevolent holodeck character (“Elementary, Dear Data,” etc.). I love it!

Canon Connections

Warp Sounds

The cold open includes the ensigns discussing their favorite background starship hums caused by the warp core. Up for discussion are the Cerritos, the Enterprise-D at warp four, and the USS Voyager — and you can see if any of their impersonations were even close by checking out our Star Trek audio clip library.

Antares-class Freighters

The derelict ship whose ownership is disputed by the Drookmani is an Antares-class ship, seen in The Animated Series episode “More Tribbles, More Troubles” and in the remastered Original Series episode “Charlie X.”

Sonic Shower

Dr. T’Ana, after being accidentally pushed into her plate of nachos, asks Mariner “Do you know how hard it is to get cheese out of fur in a sonic shower?!” And given we see in the ‘Voyager’ episode “Juggernaut” that the sonic shower does not use water – we can believe it!

Nausicaans

While in the Academy, Ensign Fletcher helped Boimler avoid a difficult situation with some Nausicaans. The surly race — “You convinced them just to spit in my face!” — have been seen a number of times in ‘The Next Generation,’ ‘Deep Space Nine,’ and ‘Enterprise.’

Clamshell Communicators

Tendi says she hopes the cargo containers under dispute contain “old communicators” and references her love for “the original clamshell design.”

Holodeck Notables

Rutherford mentions just about every notable historical figure to appear in the holodeck in previous Star Trek adventures — and even a few who didn’t, like Robin Hood.

“Yeah, you know it’s not just for hanging with Sherlock Holmes (“Elementary Dear Data”) and Robin Hood and Sigmund Freud (“Phantasms”) and Cyrano de Bergerac and Einstein (“Descent”) and Da Vinci (“Scorpion”) and Stephen Hawking (“Descent, Part I”) and Socrates (“Darkling”)…”

Holodeck Malfunctions

When the Cerritos is attacked, the safety protocols in the holodeck malfunction allowing Badgey to indulge murderous rage against Tendi and Rutherford. Later in the episode, the program begins degrading, and the holodeck grid begins appearing, similar to what was jokingly called ‘The Sign of La Forge’ in TNG’s “Homeward.”

Bajor

The Bajoran marketplace has similar geography to the city seen in the establishing shots of Bajor in ‘Deep Space Nine.’ The temple that Rutherford and Tendi head toward can be seen in the background at the top of the hill, the same as in the holodeck program.

USS Titan

Fletcher is reassigned to the USS Titan. While not mentioned in the episode, the ship is under the command of Captain William T. Riker at this point, just a year after the events of ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’. Fletcher doesn’t last very long before he is reassigned off the ship.

Captain’s Yacht

Mariner tells Boimler she has the keys to the captain’s yacht. This is one of only a handful of references of the most seen, but rarely mentioned part of many starships. The Enterprise-E captain’s yacht was used in ‘Star Trek: Insurrection.’

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Other Observations

• The crew of the Cerritos have a fondness for Mexican food. After tacos in a previous episode, Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman) is enjoying a plate of nachos in the Cerritos bar.
   
• Starbase 80 is apparently an undesirable assignment for Starfleet officers. “You want to goof around? Go work on Starbase 80!” (To which a sad forlorn voice echoing in the distance can hilariously be heard saying, “Damn. Starbase 80?!?”)
   
• Rutherford wonders if the old Starfleet cargo contains cryo-frozen princesses, a potential reference to episodes like “The Perfect Mate” from TNG and “Precious Cargo” from Enterprise.
   
• Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) uses evasive pattern “Sulu Alpha” in combating the Drookmani.
   
• Another reference to Q — who we know we’ll be seeing soon enough!
   
• The Captain’s Yacht has a tribble key ring.
   
• Mariner previously saw the Zebulon Sisters perform the Chu Chu dance on Deep Space 3, a station was previously referenced in the TNG episode “Interface.”
   
• Through six episodes, the following named crew members have been seen in multiple episodes of Lower Decks: Fletcher, Jet, Vendome (a Bolian), Jennifer (an Andorian) and Barnes (a Trill).

We haven’t gotten a classic holodeck malfunction episode since the later days of Voyager almost two decades ago, and so the Lower Decks take on the standard Star Trek trope is very welcome.

The added comedic talents of Jack McBrayer leaning into an unhinged performance make this a hilarious side story for the week. Meanwhile, it’s nice to see Mariner stay (mostly) within the lines, and honestly, good riddance Fletcher!