This week’s two-episode Star Trek: Lower Decks premiere week continues with “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee,” a touching and hilarious episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks that feels tonally similar to last season’s underrated “The Least Dangerous Game.”
 
Following on from last episode’s promotion ceremony that saw Boimler, Mariner, Tendi, and T’Lyn receive promotions to Lieutenant (junior grade), this week it’s Rutherford’s turn — while Mariner and Ransom continue to tussle and end up in a very good place. All three storylines in this week’s episode fire on all cylinders, and in some ways I think it’s a bit of a shame that this episode premiered alongside “Twovix,” because that episode is likely going to melt down the internet — and as a result, “I Have No Bones…” is not going to get the appreciative look that I think it deserves.
 
This episode really picks up and runs with the big changes from last week’s season opener to the Lower Decks dynamic, and solidifies them moving forward by proving it wasn’t just a one episode thing.
 

“I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee” is the first episode this season — and because Paramount+ released the first eight episodes to review in advance, I can say this continues beyond this episode — to absolutely nail the character of Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell).

Ransom is still his usual self in this episode; overly sure of himself and exercise-obsessed. But in this episode he becomes a first officer that you would want to serve under; a man who sees the best in his crew and supports them in the way that they need. Ransom is my MVP of Season 4 so far, and the reason why is absolutely encapsulated in this episode.

The Ransom/Mariner dynamic here also turns what could have been a frustrating snooze-fest — oh great, another episode where Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Ransom are going to be butting heads for a whole episode — into something sweet and funny, and signifies a real evolution in their relationship. It’s so welcome, and I think there’s a great Ransom/Mariner episode curation you could do to see how their relationship has evolved during the course of the series. Jerry O’Connell is also killing it this season, infusing Ransom’s typical characterization with all the right notes of support and leadership.

The menagerie storyline has a little too many shades of similarity to “Kayshon, His Eyes Open” for me, but that’s totally forgiven by the demented and hilarious creation of the Moopsy creature.

I also love the way this episode ties up the hanging thread from last episode’s promotion ceremony, which left Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) as the lone ensign of the group. It absolutely makes sense that he’s already been offered one multiple times before, because of all the Lower Deckers, he has been a critical lynchpin to the resolution of so many big stories.

To discover he is still an ensign solely because he didn’t want a promotion to alter his friendship with Tendi (Noel Wells) is very sweet. There continues to be something of a question mark over the nature of the relationship that Tendi and Rutherford share, but I am enjoying this exploration of a deeply sweet and seemingly non-romantic relationship that clearly goes deeper than friendship… but maybe not so deep as to reach the next stage.

Lower Decks always excels when it is doing “slice of life aboard a Federation starship” story, and so giving Boimler (Jack Quaid) the C-plot — struggling with his room assignments — is a joy. It is maybe a little too much of a sitcom trope that he has to be dumb enough not to realize he can change the brightness on the window in order for the whole plotline to work, but it gets a pass from me here to see some new parts of the ship and some of the less desirable quarters aboard the Cerritos.

(Plus, it’s a fun homage to the Seinfeld Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken sign.)

CANON CONNECTIONS

• The Remans get namechecked by Lower Decks for the second time this year after they were also briefly mentioned in Star Trek: Picard… but we still haven’t seen one for a while!
• Ransom and Shax’s workout outfits, and some of their exercises, are the same worn and performed by Doctor Crusher and Counselor Troi while discussing the unique charms of Devonani Ral in “The Price.”
• “Humans are always getting stuck in menageries,” is likely a fun little callback to the events of “The Cage.” Even though that wasn’t the episode that broadcast on September 8, 1966, as the true pilot of Star Trek it feels appropriate the joke broadcasts the day before Star Trek Day.

• The snakes emerging from a floating, glowing orb are the same creature as how Q first appeared to the crew of the Enterprise-D in “Hide and Q.”
• The humans in Narj’s menagerie are wearing the same outfits as the genetically modified children in “Unnatural Selection.”
• The Pyrithian swamp gobblers presumably share an ecosystem with the pyrithian bat, which was seen in “A Night in Sickbay.”
• Captain Picard, it seems, is not the only Starfleet officer with a penchant for Robin Hood!
• Boimler’s “Ad Astra Per Aspera” poster from “Those Old Scientists” is part of his belongings in this episode.
• The device Rutherford is tinkering with at the end of the episode is a miniature tractor beam, first seen being worked on by Wesley Crusher in “The Naked Now.”

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• This episode’s title is a play on Harlan Ellison’s classic science fiction story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
• The variant Romulan Warbird seen in the episode’s teaser — with wings in vertical rather than horizontal position — is based off a concept drawing of the Romulan Warbird from the early days of Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Andy Probert.
• Tendi hints at events we haven’t seen on screen, like the time cosmic rays caused the crew of the Cerritos to swap bodies.
• Where exactly is Boimler’s quarters on the Cerritos? The view of the nacelle through the window does not make it clear where his quarters are located because the secondary hull is set back from the bussard collectors. (Star Trek starship nerds, do your thing!)
• Genuinely, who would want to be in the rooms on either side of the holodeck? Not me, that’s for sure.
• Boimler has an action figure of mirror Jonathan Archer and Captain Spock, both action figures that I also want to own, thanks very much!

• The Moopsy is genuinely terrifying. I want a plushie.
• I love technobabble. Here are the ways Rutherford tries to earn his promotion in a day: decreasing vibration in the warp manifold by a factor of .05; increasing the power output of the Tucker Tubes by seven picocochranes; trying to defuse heat conduction by a few nanojoules; and speeding up the replicator by nine whole femtoseconds.
• The device that has never had a name but shows up in most Star Trek series — those two tubes with light running through them — finally has an official name: Tucker Tubes! What a fitting tribute to the Enterprise NX-01’s dearly departed engineer (#TripLives.)
• Boimler blocks out the light from the warp nacelle using the protective eyewear developed to protect Spock from the effect of seeing a Medusan.
• Rutherford turned down promotions for saving the Cerritos from the Pakleds (“No Small Parts”), and saving the USS Rubidoux from a space jellyfish (“Much Ado About Boimler”). He earns his promotion for the time he removed the Cerritos’s hull (“First First Contact.”)
• Ransom’s new teeth is the second biggest laugh I’ve had so far this season of Lower Decks.

This week Lower Decks served up a big — but messy — celebration of Voyager, and a fun character episode cementing the new dynamics for the show. I am really happy Lower Decks is back, and excited for the rest of the season ahead. There are fun new ways that the show can explore these characters’ new positions, and I am excited to see the direction they take it.

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns September 14 with “In the Cradle of Vexilon” on Paramount+.