Is it fair to say that Brian D Bradley’s “Mining the Mind’s Mine” is one of the few “duds” of the third season? It is not terrible, but it is one of those attempts at sci-fi horror via hallucinations, similar to The Orville‘s “Firestorm” and “Morality Paradox.” I don’t know why, but I almost always have problems with these episodes. They lean too heavily into horror without bringing the quality of a good horror episode. With about 22 minutes on the clock, there isn’t much time to explore.

So we have drug rocks, competition, and ageist sentiments. Lower Decks has had a couple of duds before and some of them I even enjoy despite their lack of overall quality. “Mining the Mind’s Mine” in its short time explores the desires and nightmares of the lower deck’s crews. It arguably does more to further Mariner than anyone else (Tendi is second), especially given we see a blue lesbian that no pansexual would want to refuse. Meanwhile, Carol is fighting a perceived ageist belief in another, younger captain while Tendi tries to support her during her senior officer’s training with Migleemo.

As usual, misunderstandings are at the core of the attempts at comedy. We have a Borg snake that spits basketballs, Bat’leth-wielding Pennywise in multiples, the lower decks crew of USS Carlsbad (another Cali-class) are standoffish with our Cerritos crew, and so on. The concept isn’t bad and neither is the reveal of who’s behind it like an episode of Scooby Doo, but something always feels off. I would say the pacing makes everything effective but the reality is, most episodes have had (and will have) these rapid-fire beats. The problem lies in that it can’t be used as an excuse because the final reveal to the captains doesn’t feel satisfying.

Carol being freed from jail isn’t wholly satisfying and brings an end to a story we’ve been building too. Ransom talking the Valcano-Supercomputer-telepathic baby regime into freeing Samanthan and Andarithio, wasn’t part of a bigger story beyond Mariner liking him but it got us somewhere. Bradley’s “Mining the Mind’s Mine” settles the fact Mariner and Jennifer are together, gives us a fairly typical drugged-horror episode, and the closing moment is basically “we worked together once the answer was thrown in our faces.” Quite literally, the discovery of the mindreading palace is an “and then” instead of a “therefore.”

I’ve mentioned in a review before, I’ve even linked Matt and Trey’s process showing it online. Basically, if your story can be explained by “and then X happened” it isn’t very good: If “therefore,” “but,” or “because” can be used between beats and segments, you’ve got the foundations for a story. For the most part, there isn’t that lack of “therefore,” and I think there could have been a joke used to cover that up. I noticed it more here but “Mining the Mind’s Mine” made a few attempts for “Aren’t these typical things of Star Trek to do?” followed by some loud eye-rolling.

T’ana’s little pep-talk to Tendi is great because it is the words of someone who’s a professional but needs to cut through someone’s ego/personality. It is also the words of someone who is busy at that moment and needs to get back to hacking a guy’s leg off. There is enough throughout “Mining the Mind’s Mine” to be a typical episode of Lower Decks, though the landing in those few minutes before the end takes a stumble. Ultimately I can’t fault the attempt to do something different, but the execution of Borg snakes, Bat’leth-wielding clowns, and Jennifer as a Furry that is committed to settling down doesn’t do it for me.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks "Mining the Mind's Mine"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Seeing everyone's fears and desire manifested is nice.
• Time to snort some drug rocks!
• A blue lesbian in a bikini.

Cons

• A really rushed feeling ending.
• No one needs a Borg snake or Bat'leth clowns in their life