No cold open? We must be into the decent half of Season 2, finally! I can stop pre-ambling about Picard, how lovely it is to see the echoes of the Dominion War, and that it is nice that Patrick wanted to act this season. This is why I hate the writer’s room approach to TV, chances are it will be a block of an episode or two (or four) that are really boring (or good): The British/Doctor Who approach of one writer to an episode means it is rollercoaster every time. What’s weird about the quality is that it is Dave and David.

“An Embarrassment of Dooplers” was written by Dave Ihlenfeld & David Wright. They also wrote “Temporal Edict,” the one where Ransom has wood. Additionally, they left to create the psychotically unfunny NFT-based wrestling show that wears South Park‘s skin like a bathrobe. I’m sure someone would like me to drop in an apology for the writer’s room comment, but I honestly don’t know how much the writer’s room is involved with these two. I know M. Willis, Ben Rodgers, and Kathryn Lyn act as “executive story editors” alongside Garrick Bernard as the episode’s story editor, but I don’t know how much they are involved.

It could be very little and these two are secretly great when reined in a little, or it could be a lot and the writer’s room might have saved it from being dull. Then again, calling an episode with (as my notes state) “Richard – f***ing – Kind(!)” dull is an arrestable offense in my books. Everyone loves Lucius for some reason except for John, and John is a bit unlikable himself anyway. I said it is a good episode and I should stop talking about other shows.

This time the A story focuses on Carol as she tries to deal with guiding a Doopler to the station that just happens to be hosting the Met Gala of Star Fleet Command. It is the party for all the important captains and officers of ships important enough to be part of the IT crowd. Happenstance being as it is, the Dooplers are a race of people that will duplicate if they aren’t the perfect guest or companion, so they have hyper-anxiety. In a chat that Carol has on the bridge with a higher-up as the Doopler walks in, she mentions how annoying he has been.

The B plot this time focuses on Brad and Mariner trying to get into the captain’s party and the fray in their friendship since Boimler went to the Titan. This is what I’ve been waiting for four episodes, character development that means something to us. These two have been on the edge of talking about and resolving their problems for a couple of episodes. Finally getting to it and dealing with the emotion that hangs over the two is something desperately needed so we could move on. Is it an original plot to get us there? No, but it never needed to be for it to be done well.

The C plot, which is more of a B plot while the A plot bubbles in the background (more or less making it the C plot), focuses on the friendship of Tendi and Rutherford following Samanthan’s memory loss. Again, this is another story that has just been hanging there for some time and we’ve had little to no (desperately needed) progress. As the two are pushed throughout the ship thanks to Carol making the Doopler feel embarrassed for being such an imposition, they work away at building a Quark-brand model of the Cerritos. All the while Samanthan is frustrated with himself.

First off, it should be said, keep giving me Quark references and I’m giving you tens across the board, I love that little Latinum-obsessed Ferengi. Though with an episode as good as “An Embarrassment of Dooplers,” an episode that is nothing but character-motivated action, Quark and the references are the icing on the cake, especially that Terok Nor model. In fact, this was a very DS9-heavy episode all in all: Dabo, multiple references to Quark, and that model of the station made me smile with every one of them.

There were even a handful of funny moments throughout “An Embarrassment of Dooplers.” That includes the mention of some of the shampoo bottles actually being Lores instead of Datas and the bartender saying it was the blonde one that did most of the drinking (he would, the lush). Also the line “I’m sorry captain, the crowd has taken me” from Shaxs is great. Especially when the team figures out insults reverse the Doopler’s duplication effect and Shaxs’ insult is about the Doopler’s pah. Richard Kind’s wonderful “I don’t even know what that is” is indeed great.

This is what I was on about just an episode or two ago. I want a fun episode that doesn’t feel like it has been 20-ish minutes. Take out some of those references or a little bit of that character-motivated plot and it would be a fine episode. As a whole though, this is what Lower Decks is great at and the reason I keep watching and wanting more episodes. The Dooplers are just another Tribble trouble and the friendship-focused plots are more fray between our central cast. It isn’t anything new, but it is done well.

Ultimately, this is where the season should have been around episode 3 at the latest instead of the 5th episode. “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” is a desperately needed shot in the arm that Lower Decks needed following the season 1 finale in the brilliant “No Small Parts.” The fantastic Richard Kind plays a joyous take on an annoying but fun character that is common in sci-fi/Star Trek, making the Doopler a joy to be around. Now, who’s Latinum do I have to cheat out of their pocket to afford that Deep Space 9 model?

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Star Trek: Lower Decks "An Embarrassment of Dooplers"

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Yes, character-motivated fun.
• Richard f'ing Kind!
• I love that Ferengi.
• "Your Pah is weak and is disgusts me!"
• Dabo!

Cons

• T'ana's swearing tirade doesn't work from a viewer's perspective.
• The joke that Mariner has lived or been everywhere might be running thin now.