Come on, roll daddy some double sixes and let this war continue. I’m next on the ICC’s list, aren’t I? Directed by Bob Suarez, best known to us for directing multiple episodes across four of the five seasons, including “Something Borrowed, Something Green.” This time the writing credit goes to Keith Foglesong, a newbie to the realm of Trek to this point, but has worked on other shows, such as Bones. Foglesong most notably being a story editor for the annoying Emily Deschanel-led show. How that character doesn’t get kicked in the head more is beyond me.

Continuing from where we left off last time, the Orions and Or-ions are having a catfight about who the better pirates are. Neither of them wears eye patches and do a mess of a Brummie accent. Meanwhile, the crew of the Cerritos are off doing something I wish I could join them in doing: Burning lots of money after the fall of capitalism in a newly formed post-scarcity society that values actual humanity rather than promises on a piece of paper. While once again Rutherford is a bit depressed as a result of Tendi’s departure from Starfleet.

Set to be dressed down by the syndicate’s pirate queen, Sabor, the House Tendi and the House Azure are set to have a race using solar sail ships which are even older than the mammoths of ships used 300 years ago. The winner gets to keep their house’s fortune and take the other’s for their own. While Becket and Boimler are on currency-burning duty, the ensigns below them get kidnapped by the 1% so they can keep their wealth instead of being the same as the povoes lifted up by this post-scarcity society.

I think what needs to be said about “Shades of Green” off the bat is that it is a good episode, written well from a technical level, tells a couple of good stories, and doesn’t feel as messy as “Dos Cerritos.” However, it is also everything I find frustrating about watching Lower Decks for five seasons. This is also an episode I can’t avoid spoilers on because I’ve already reviewed it, multiple times it feels like, and I said my peace on it last time out too. It is the second episode in the season reset for Lower Decks, again.

What I believe in Baldur’s Gate 3 would be a critical fail, the interesting war doesn’t continue, the continuation of Tendi’s Orion adventures simply doesn’t, the exploration of who Rutherford is without Tendi is gone, and we’re back to square one. Why? Well, it kind of goes into what we already know. Season 5 is the final season and if we’re being honest about how TV production works, especially animated TV, chances are the production team didn’t fully know Lower Decks was about to be canceled.

My problem with “Shades of Green” isn’t so much the fact that it is Tendi, the fact we’re resetting the story back to zero by the end, or whatever. It is the fact that (at this point) nothing comes of Tendi leaving Starfleet. Maybe in extended media or later in the season there is a glimpse of repercussions, however, as I’ve said before especially about “Kayshon, His Eyes Open,” the relationships don’t change because of this. We can sit and speculate about the end goal of the season with whatever arc is being told, but Tendi leaving for two and a half episodes feels like it takes away from better, more important stories to be told in that arc.

Does any of this mean that I hate “Shades of Green?” No, far from it. Once again we’re blasted in the phase with references big and small from throughout the entirety of Star Trek, most notably the Solar Ships of DS9. Hammock time! Though I think the more interesting stories are about, well the little character development we’ve got to work with. Boimler is growing a rat on his face since the mirror universe Boimler had the Bill goatee, Mariner is trying to be more of a leader, and Rutherford is still a mess.

Maybe I’m a bit disappointed about this sudden reset because right now, at this moment, Rutherford is how a number of us are feeling right now. Either through seasonal depression or otherwise, it is refreshing to see such a character feeling lost in direction and I think it would have been a much more interesting story to follow that through than quite literally reset us back to nil. I’ve seen it proposed that when T’lyn is offering to help Rutherford with the shuttle repairs he and Tendi were doing, that was possibly her pushing past Pon Farr.

It’s also worth noting that it seems T’lyn added a 5th figure onto the hull of the Sequoia, which confirms something else I think is true, she’s our 5th Lower Decker. I love that she realizes why Rutherford didn’t want her help, but at the same time, I like this reflective character who is depressed Rutherford. I also really like that T’lyn even notices and reacts to it, trying to pull him out of the pit he’s in. It’s a nothing-story in the scheme of the episode, but it is one I love nonetheless.

Meanwhile, as I’ve said, Lower Decks is using stories it has done before, and in the case of Mariner and Boimler with his Bointers, it actually works well. “Shades of Green,” the second episode of season five, is also a reference itself back to season one, episode 2, “Envoys.” Bringing the story of Mariner and Boimler on an away mission that goes wrong and they don’t want to report back that it has gone sideways. In fact, in “Envoys” it was Boimler who reported that there was an issue, whereas here it is Mariner.

Again this goes back to what I said about character development and we’re seeing a follow-on from “Dos Cerritos.” Mariner is now looking to take things a little more seriously and developed somewhat of an understanding of when to report issues, while Boimler is still Boimler, he’s trying to be cool Boimler, here have a fun-sized Twix. It shows a maturity from Beckett and a sense of relaxation from Boimler, as much as either character can without feeling like they’ve Freaky Friday’d themselves.

All the while on the USS Space Wind, Tendi has found out that D’Erika has gotten pregnant, thus she’s trying to coddle her sister on the super dangerous and not at all exciting race to get some treasure Sabor wanted. It is another episode to say that Tendi’s Starfleet training is antithetical to what the Orions believe in. Resulting in the race being called a draw and both houses being stripped of their wealth, as you do when both teams arrive at the same time without the thing you wanted because the green one destroyed it. It is a fine story, but not very interesting.

Maybe if you cared a lot about the original series animated show, then yeah, you’ll get a kick out of the Or-ions or the House of Azure fighting with the green ones, but that’s it. The Cutiny was an interesting idea, and the fact that Tendi was doing things outside of the Orion code was interesting, but clearly, no one wanted it to last. Honestly, it feels like an idea that was pushed to the end of a season so we can have some sadness about someone leaving, only for those ideas to run dry far too quickly for them to make an impact.

I get that in 25-minute sitcom writing, the standard is to reset the world: Bart has maybe grown 3 years in 37 years of airing and Lisa has maybe grown 2 years in that time, for example. However, Lower Decks has almost always had a sense of a ticking clock. Some episodes note the Stardate and everything. I don’t want to say this was a step backward or all-out regression of character, but at the same time, it feels like we’ve side-stepped a sense of progression so we can get back to normality. I wish I could do that, but we can’t just side-step the difficult, hard stuff.

Ultimately, I need to wrap up before I make this a thesis paper on how animated TV writing needs far more warning of cancellation so we don’t get these reset episodes. “Shades of Green” is a fine episode that works well if the show was just continuing on and we didn’t have the hope of something long-lasting happening. I don’t hate “Shades of Green,” nor do I love it, instead I’m looking at Peter O’Hanraha-hanrahan when quoting German finance minister Reinhardt, “I don’t like it, but I’ll have to go along with it.”

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Lower Decks "Shades of Green"

5.5

Score

5.5/10

Pros

• Depressed Rutherford is the most interesting character right now.
• T'lyn's understanding and ability to help a friend.
• Beckett and Boimler's story is quite fun.
• Solar Sails.

Cons

• Lovely, another reset back to 0.