“Kayshon, His Eyes Open,” written by Chris Kula, gets us right back to the powerfully funny, deeply reverent, and engaging stories of the back half of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ first season — and may give “Envoys” a run for its money as the episode with the most Easter eggs tucked away in the background.

This episode sees the crew of the USS Cerritos cataloguing the extensive holdings of a deceased collector, while Boimler and the USS Titan infiltrate a mining colony that has been taken over by the Pakleds, in the first plot to focus on the new Alpha Quadrant adversary.

Amid all of the Easter eggs in the Cerritos storyline and the action of the Titan story, there are two important messages that shine through this episode. First, Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Jet (Marcus Henderson) — who seems to be filling the open slot in the lower decks’ gang left by Boimler’s departure —  gets an important lesson teamwork and really listening to the advice of others.

Both Mariner and Jett make a series of rash decisions based off their own judgement which puts the away team at increasing peril, but only once they start listening to Rutherford  (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi (Noel Wells) do they find a safe way out of an increasingly dangerous collection.

Then, over on the Titan, Lt. j.g. Boimler (Jack Quaid) teaches his fellow senior officers of that ship an important lesson about what it means to be in Starfleet. Despite the Titan getting a lot of important security assignments from Starfleet, Boimler reminds his colleagues – through words as well as his actions – that Starfleet’s original mission of exploration, and Captain Riker’s (Jonathan Frakes) previous assignment aboard the Enterprise-D, is just as cool and noble as all the action stuff.

“I signed up to explore, “Boimler tells his fellow officers as it seems like they might be killed by the Pakleds. “To be out in space, making new discoveries and peaceful diplomatic solutions… that’s boldly going,” says the jittery officer, seeming to please the case for Lower Decks’ throwback nature (compared to the modern whiz-bang storytelling on Discovery, Picard, and the three Kelvin Timeline films).

In addition, this episode introduces a new security officer in the form of Lt. Kayshon (Carl Tart), the first Tamarian in Starfleet. The Tamarians, who first appeared in TNG’s “Darmok,” now seem to be able to mostly manage Federation Standard through the universal translator, though Kayshon is still learning and sometimes slips into metaphor.

I really like the Kayshon character, but I was also hoping for the translation jokes to land just a little harder given all the potential — though “Kayshon, when he became a puppet” is an all-time hilarious line.

It’s also nice to get a return for Doctor Migleemo (Paul F. Tompkins) who joins the ranks of funny recurring characters on Lower Decks; the birdman doctor also served as inspiration for one of our favorite cosplays from last week’s Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.

TREK TROPE TRIBUTES

• This episode pokes fun at Star Trek’s many rank pip inconsistencies — such as Sisko losing a pip in “Rules of Engagement” or Geordi’s pip mix-up in “Man of the People” — when Jet blames his ‘extra’ pip on “delicious street corn.”
   
• Boimler’s return to the Cerritos — which was expected — was handled in a funny way, as he got his own “Second Chances” experience and then lost his promotion to his own clone. (Classic Boimler.)

CANON CONNECTIONS

• Boimler’s transporter clone is created the same way as Riker’s clone Thomas Riker: using a second confinement beam to strengthen the transporter lock.
   
• Riker’s ready room includes a model of his first posting, the Oberth-class USS Pegasus, along with a Risian horga’hn statue, a number of jazz records, and his trusty trombone.
   
• Riker also has a Union Army hat on his desk with the number 102 beneath it. As revealed in the Voyager episode “Death Wish,” Riker’s ancestor was Thaddius Riker, who commanded the 102nd New York Infantry during the US Civil War — and who he would name his son after in just a few short years.

• As our Brad Boimler exits Riker’s ready room and Captain Riker remains within with the transporter clone William, he asks for the computer to play “Night Bird” – a song which Riker himself never mastered.
   
• In the second gallery aboard the collectors ship — home to a number of fossils and skeletons — the primary exhibits include the massive exposed skeleton of Spock Two (still wearing a tattered Starfleet uniform), the bones of Space Lincoln and an Excalbian (each from “The Savage Curtain”), and a Gorn (as seen in Lorca’s menagerie), and a tusked creature which could be a a Vulcan sehlat (“Yesteryear”).

• Finally, in the main collection, we spotted a whopping number of Trek props from years past, including:

• •  A clay bust of Captain Picard from ‘Captain Picard Day’ (“The Pegasus”)
  • A Ktarian addictive game (posed on the Picard bust) (“The Game”)
  • A Betazoid gift box (“Haven”)
  • A salt vampire (“The Man Trap”)
  • Khan Singh’s broken-delta necklace (“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”)
  • Disaster recorder from the SS Valiant (“Where No Man Has Gone Before”)
  • The flag of the Terran Empire (“In a Mirror Darkly”)
  • A crate of Chateau Picard wine (“Remembrance”)
  • A stuffed Alfa 177 canine head (“The Squire of Gothos”)

• • The Kataan probe (“The Inner Light”)
  • A Logicians baseball cap (“Take Me Out to the Holosuite”)
  • A kadis-kot game board (“Infinite Regress”)
  • A rare Kurlan naiskos (“The Chase”)
  • Admiral Kirk’s bifocals (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
  • Masaka’s mask (“Masks”)
  • Neelix’s apron and chef’s hat (“Phage”)
  • Picard’s bad painting (“A Matter of Perspective”)

• • Data’s painting of Spot (“Inheritance”)
  • Odo’s bucket (“The Storyteller”)
  • A Horta egg (“Devil in the Dark”)
  • The Howard family candle (“Sub Rosa”)
  • A classic Star Trek women’s red uniform (“The Man Trap”)
  • Worf’s shoulder-mounted isomagnetic disintegrator (Star Trek: Insurrection)
  • A collection of weapons, including the Vulcan lirpa (“Amok Time”), a Klingon bat’leth (“Reunion”) and mek’leth (Star Trek: First Contact), a Jem’Hadar kar’takin (“To the Death”) and an Andorian ushaan-tor (“United”).

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

• It’s fun to see the often-mentioned sonic showers again, seen in action here for the first time since “Juggernaut.” In a seeming homage to Starship Troopers, we see the lower-decks crew sharing a communal shower facility — and using the sonic waves as a blurring mechanism for the “communal nudity” was a clever touch.
   
• The crew of the Cerritos call back to Kivas Fajo and the events of “The Most Toys,” as they misremember deceased collector Kerner Hauze as “the one whotried to collect Data.”
   
• In addition to the classic Tamarian metaphors from “Darmok,” a few new additions can be added to the vocabulary this week:
  • “Rapunki, when he joined the Seven.” (Greetings!)
  • “Arnock, at the race of Natara.” (One who runs.)
  • “Zinda, his eyes red!” (This hurts!)
• The Spock Two joke is so hilarious because it’s never explained in the episode — either you know where that giant skeleton hanging from the ceiling came from, or you don’t. Bravo, Lower Decks team.

“Kayshon, His Eyes Open” is a great episode that hits all of my pleasure points for Star Trek: Lower Decks, while making the case that both versions of today’s Star Trek storytelling have their merits.

There are fun characters, funny jokes, a bit of a message, tons of Star Trek references and fun little asides. This episode returns to the show to the heights of Season 1, and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes next!

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns on August 26 with “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” on Paramount+ in the United States and CTV Sci Fi Channel in Canada, followed by Amazon Prime Video (in select international regions) on August 27.