Star Trek: Picard‘s third season has a lot of answering to do when Mike McMahan comes knocking. “Reflections” is what I’ve been saying about Lower Decks. It is character-based comedy that sometimes makes fun of the whole franchise. Not only does the showrunner and the writer’s room give us that, but we’re finally getting a Rutherford-focused backstory episode while Brad and Mariner do the seemingly ancillary story with Cara Lroft. Stupid sexy English-accented independent archaeologist, it is like I can see her wearing nothing at all (nothing at all, nothing at all!). I hope you get that reference.

Plot-wise, “Reflections” is simple in the set-up: Samanthan has more bugs than Cyberpunk 2077 and has Tendi clear his cache, Presto! He wakes up a whole new man, kind of. He wakes up as his old self which is in fact his younger self, younger by about 10 years and thus prior to the implant. Meanwhile, as the ship is doing the paperwork for Starfleet on Tulgana IV, Brad and Mariner are assigned clipboard duty. Unlike those annoying people shouting about charity, they are at a booth, but still, it is “sign up here!” as said with a very painted-on smile one step down from a Bat’leth-wielding clown.

I feel myself saying it too often about shows or films: Strip the story back and do the character work before the set pieces. Otherwise, the set pieces don’t work. Furious 7 has two things, you have The Rock taking out a drone with the ambulance and you have the subsequent piece where he takes the mini-gun from the drone. The first piece doesn’t work because there was no set-up for him to know that information. However, I wholeheartedly believe the big dude with a private military background would take the mini-gun from the wreckage. “Reflections” has the set-up for its set pieces.

Both Howdy Doody and Ezra Miller here have their entire characters on display: The Rutherford we know is “gosh darn” and nice, while the younger version swears like he’s finally heard George Carlin without understanding swearing. Maybe I just don’t get what is funny about it, but censoring swearing deflates the punctuation that it can put into a sentence. It disarms the tension less here in “Reflections” than in other episodes. Nonetheless, it takes away from the anger. That’s exactly what we’ve got, an angry young man and a gentle older (young) man.

Similar to the Data-Lore scenes we saw as the two battled it out in Picard (spoiler!), Samanthan has a talk with himself about growth. There aren’t many ways to mince words there, it is all about knowing who he was and seeing how far he’s come. Done with a play on that Data-Lore chemistry, it is a fight for the consciousness of our do-good cybernetically enhanced fun-loving Rutherford. It is fun, reinforces our friendship dynamics, and lets us see what Sam would be like if he was part of the crew in Discovery.

Meanwhile, Mariner is continuing her hatred of Ransom as he assigns her and Brad to clipboard duty at a festival. It is a great, fun, character-based piece here but there is something I’m going to ding as a missed opportunity. Why wasn’t the cardboard cut-out standee photo-op thing with the original Spock and his Snogger-in-chief them holding hands? Or better yet, have two aliens standing in the face hole bits smooching. If Terry Matalas can basically confirm it via Paramount’s Reddit account, I want it on screen. It will really rile up the people who miss the point in the first place.

Of course, it isn’t the only reference I can pull on and say I love. Brad is out here fondling a Stargazer like that has no significance. All the while Mariner is having a lesbian ratatat with the lady Lroft and getting agitated by Sisko-truthers. I want to know that too Paramount, why aren’t we seeing Sisko when you are doing so much with Wolf 359? You probably all have butt-bugs controlling your brains and I’ll never see Avery back on screen in that uniform or get DS9 Blu-rays.

I get that we’ve got to reference it at least a little, but we all know Tom Parris isn’t “The Most Important Person In Starfleet History.” I’d put him right down there with Rick Berman and Michael De Luca for that “Threshold” business. Personally, if I were Rutherford, I’d have gone for the Defiant. It doesn’t have the speed-to-weight ratio (probably) or the needless aerodynamic design that a shuttle would have, but it does have the cloke so you could probably get through the Romulan sector of the race between the two Sams.

The fact Brad is the one cracking under all the pressure that Mariner is putting up with is brilliant. He cares too much. I agree with Cara Lroft about the pseudo-military thing and this is where I think the jabs at the franchise work more than the previous episodes. They feel more cutting to the characters than just a joke for us as an audience. They are something for characters to respond to instead of just taking them in the face. Especially the line about the uniforms, which is what everyone asks the first time they cross between shows.

From Shaxs saying “Baby bear,” Sam’s sigh of resignation as his old self dies, and hell, even the Grand Nagus’ staff which the Tomb Raider stole, there’s a lot to love. Ultimately, “Reflections” does all that I want from the series as a whole and just a little bit more. I love the mind palace Scrapheap Challenge and faux-Croft. Though what is that little bit more? We have so many references to DS9 and it is only the beginning, as next time it is “Hear all, Trust Nothing.” Skip that one so I don’t have to criticize my lovely Terok Nor, we’ll just say I gave it a 10.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks "Reflections"

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• A tale of two Sams.
• Cara Lroft and her stupid cute independent archaeology.
• So many DS9 references.

Cons

• The swearing deflated more than punctuated.