Last week I got a new office chair because the previous one was old and a bit broken. Anyway, this new thing has adjustable armrests, which I never had on the old one because I ripped them off. They were fixed in their position which is awful for someone with a guitar. Why am I talking about this and not Ben Rodgers’ “Crisis Point?” I’ve found that I sit in a chair one of four ways: Picard, Pike, Sisko, and Riker, and no, I don’t bang my clacker off of headrests. It is always one of those cross-legged numbers with arms and hands in those odd “I’m thinking/smart” ways.

So the episode where the kids simulate playing captain due to therapy, Ben Rodgers’ “Crisis Point” is another example of solidly poking fun at the franchise while also showing love. In essence, the episode itself is about characters trying to understand their love or gain it from someone else. Once again Beckett takes up the A story as she “wrongfully” frees some lizard people from a Rat-kind that finds the lizards delicious (and not in the bedroom). This results in being ordered to undergo therapy for her destructive and distracting behavior, which intersects with Brad’s goal of brown-nosing the captain ahead of an interview, again.

Thus far it is a simple tried-and-tested story: Mariner pushes against authority but learns she’s just doing it all in her own way, and Bradward is an annoying professional about everything. Tendi and Samanthan are around, but as is fairly evident by this point, we’ve made them secondary leads. Rutherford gets his C story as this overly excited nerd, continuing his very present character growth of being excitable about all the tech-talk. “Crisis Point” isn’t breaking new ground in terms of storytelling or even parody of a franchise from within. Rodgers’ tale of simulator-based lessons is just a simple story told moderately well.

This episode is not in the top 10 of all of Star Trek, but top 10 of Lower Decks? Possibly, but it is a shame that it is followed up by perhaps one of the best episodes, not only of the season but also of the series/franchise. I keep saying it and I keep wondering if I’m sounding like a broken record, but this is where Lower Decks shines. The eventual scene where Beckett is fighting her holographic self that is programmed from private notes Boimler stole and eventually telling herself what has already been said but needs to be heard is wonderful. Even the parallels between Beckett and her mother in therapy show so much character.

Once again, the attention to detail makes the world, as Mariner writes the script for “Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta” we see the Final Draft version on the Lcars. Even Toby the Targ gets a mention, continuing what we saw with Hana Hatae’s version of Molly O’Brien on that Cardassian death trap, Terok Nor. Anyone that suggests Molly’s Piggy isn’t Toby can climb in a bin! As can the wonderful Gabrielle Ruiz’s Lt Lemont enjoying Nolan North’s poetry in slow motion. Of course, this isn’t the only thing that tied back to an early episode. Boimler also finds out why the captain wanted notes on Mariner.

Boimler discovering the captain’s daughter is aboard and the holographic Mariner telling Vindicta are the two points elevating “Crisis Point.” Otherwise, we have a typical episode with 30 solid seconds of ship pornography, right down to the JJ-Trek shine as the camera pans and the runabout swoops about the drydock. The only thing that stands out among all of this is the relationship between Tendi and Beckett. The latter bases all of their understanding of Tendi’s race on stereotypes, using that to assume everything about their friend.

On the one hand, we have the cartoonish episodic resetting of the board to get us back to an A point for the next episode. On the other hand, we have Boimler knowing who Beckett is. Similar to Beckett and Tendi’s relationship being frayed and then reset when they make up, the gayest tech-talk followed by “Godspeed you crazy f**ks!” gets us growth for Rutherford but not Billups. Arguably it is Billups that moves the furthest in that relationship as a mentor and lonely engineer that we don’t really focus on.

I don’t dislike “Crisis Point,” I just think it is a neck-breaking shift in tone to go from a heavily redacted testimony in what was thought to be a courtroom but turned out to be a birthday, to an episode where our lead snaps and is brought back to reality by her holographic self. The shift between “Much Ado About Boimler” and “Veritas” isn’t as pronounced as it is here because both had their heavy (sometimes overdone) comedy segments. However, in Rodgers’ story of Mariner trying her best and snapping, it is a lot more serious with a few jokes (and a lot of references) sprinkled throughout.

I love that for some reason Da Vinci is here playing skeet, like it is the mid-point of an Assassin’s Creed game. Sure, let’s have a historical character join the team for a short bit before going back in the box for a while. I think another high point is the overall gore of the mess hall being painted red and when Mariner is still in her “I’ll show her” phase of therapy she holds up holo-Shaxs’ Bajorian earring and a small piece of ear. The line “It’s the 80s, we don’t have psychiatric problems” is great, because we had cocaine and neon, as I saw in this documentary called GTA: Vice City.

Ultimately, “Crisis Point” certainly has its high points and plenty of fun with the IP to deserve the phrase “almost parody” that Lower Decks aims to be. Though that darker, slower, more serious tone that is opted for is a result of being the penultimate episode in the season and consequentially has to do a large part of the heavy lifting. Lower Decks isn’t necessarily serialized but there is a point of growing character through these 25-minute episodes of Star Trek fun, and that’s where we’re going. One more week and we’ve got a dead member of the bridge crew as well as Mariner’s secret being known.

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Star Trek Lower Decks "Crisis Point"

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Toby the Targ
• 30-ish solid seconds of ship porn.
• Beckett and Tendi's relationship being frayed.

Cons

• A somewhat neck-breaking tone from straight comedy to drama with comedy.