In “Shades of Green,” Star Trek: Lower Decks returns to exploring some of its favorite topics in a fun episode that continues threads from the season opener with Lower Decks staples — like the importance of friendship, getting comfortable with who you are, and the responsibility of command — as Tendi helps her house navigate a war with the Blue Orions and the Cerritos helps a planet transition to being a post-scarcity society.
 
Some of Lower Decks’ best worldbuilding has been of the Orions, and that continues in “Shades of Green” as Tendi (Noel Wells) and D’Erika (Ariel Winter) work to ensure that House Tendi ends up on top in their expanding war with the blue Orions — House Azure, naturally!
 

The political structure to Orion society is interesting, and the solar sailship race is action packed and exciting. It’s also really nice to see D’Vana and D’Erika bond in this episode as sisters, rather than the more adversarial relationship we saw them have in Season 4.

This feels like a great wrap up to the Mistress of the Winter Constellations subplot that really got going with Season 3’s “Hear All, Trust Nothing,” as Tendi prepares to hand over that title to her new niece and returns to Starfleet more comfortable with her Orion heritage but more certain than ever the path that she wants to take. Tendi’s own exploration of and reconciliation with her heritage might be different from Worf’s embrace of Klingon culture, but it’s no less interesting and fulfilling of a storyline.

We also see in this episode the impact that last week’s encounter with the alternate Cerritos had on Boimler (Jack Quaid). After stealing the alternate Brad Boimler’s PADD, our Boimler appears to be slowly aping his counterpart, right down to beginning to grow the thinnest wisps of a beard. Fake it ‘til you make it, right?

Boimler’s story seems to be setting up to be going in a different direction from Tendi’s, with Boimler trying desperately to become something he’s not rather than authentically accepting his true self. I wonder how well that’s going to work out for him long-term.

The Rutherford/T’Lyn subplot is also a nice one, once again highlighting the importance for Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) of his relationship with Tendi but also giving T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) a good insight into human culture and the bonds formed through a collaborative exercise. Her realization that the joy of fixing the Sequoia for Rutherford wasn’t in completing the task, but rather in sharing it with a friend — and her dismantling the shuttle even further to make the task even more challenging, was a sweet act of friendship from T’Lyn.

I loved the comedic bits this episode around the Cerritos supporting a planet transitioning into being a post-scarcity society. The little jokes about abandoning currency and embracing having replicates that can make anything you could desire was a lot of fun, even if this larger subplot didn’t ultimately go anywhere particularly interesting.

The capitalist terrorists were a cool idea, but the storyline is basically just dropped for time to get to the end of the episode. I would have liked a little more from it, and a slightly less convenient resolution… but the comedy beats were on top form.

TREK TROPE TRIBUTES

• The Orion solar sailship race in this episode is like combining the sail ship elements from Deep Space Nine’s “Explorers” with the race plot from Voyager’s “Drive.”

CANON CONNECTIONS

• Rutherford says the shuttle Sequoia is “an older model” and you can’t treat it like it has sarium krellide cells. Sarium krellide is established in “In Theory” to be a material that stores energy, kind of like a battery.
• The Pyrithian bat was part of Doctor Phlox’s menagerie and seen most prominently in “A Night in Sickbay.”

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• I wonder how similar Boimler’s Bointers are to Lefler’s Laws, another junior officer with a set of rules she lived by in “The Game.”
• Boimler’s observation that “It is possible to do everything right and still get your away team kidnapped by the corporate elite” is very similar to Picard’s observation to Data in “Peak Performance” that “it is possible to do everything right and still lose.”
• There is a brief Goodgey sighting at the end of the episode, cowering inside the newly dismantled Sequoia shuttle.

“Shades of Green” appears to bring a satisfying end for Tendi’s Orion adventure and puts her back on the Cerritos — with a deeper appreciation for both her heritage, and for her unique identity that makes her different from other Orions. Coupled with some really funny jokes in the Targallus IX plot, and this makes for a fun and funny episode!

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 continues next week with “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel,” premiering October 31 on Paramount+.