‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Recap – ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’

9/29/2023

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Tawny Newsome and Gabrielle Ruiz as Lieutenant Beckett Mariner and Lieutenant T’Lyn in Episode 405 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ - ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’. (Photo Courtesy of Paramount+.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 405 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’. To revisit the previous episode, click here. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

One particular aspect of the Star Trek Universe that is quite lovely, is the sheer fact that new shows in the franchise always finds ways to pay homage to the shows of the past. Something that is sometimes achieved by way of epic crossovers, which The Next Generation pulled off on several occasions with the cast of The Original Series. Or there are outright sequels to stories told elsewhere, akin to what Star Trek: Discovery did with ‘Unification III’. But what the franchise stayed away from for the longest time, was offering criticism of the storytelling mistakes the franchise sometimes has made. But the arrival of Star Trek: Lower Decks, on Paramount+, changed all that. For nothing was off limits from a satire perspective from this show, and it has indeed poked fun at some of the franchise’s more dubious moments and inspired others to go after other mistakes.

After all, Terry Matalas and the writing team of Star Trek: Picard, fixed many of the wrongs that were imparted upon the crew of the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E. But what’s amazing about this new twist to the connective tissue of the franchise, is that Lower Decks is showing no signs of slowing down regarding its satire of those goofier moments, as evidenced by this week’s episode. For ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’ was a story that had no qualms poking fun of the ‘The Naked Time’ and ‘The Naked Now’, while also pointing out how some of the Lwaxana Troi related stories from TNG were a tad over the top. A feat that it accomplished by accelerating concerns regarding the mystery ship that has been blasting starships out of the cosmos over the past few weeks. Because there was concern at Starfleet that such attacks could serve as an opening salvo to something greater… so special orders were put into play.

For instance, ships that were conducting diplomatic missions had to observe communication blackout protocols to keep the diplomats safe and well, those orders brought cut off the crew from quickly solving some wild times aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos. For they were escorting three ambassadors from Betazed and well, their desire to party and keep everything loose, seemingly inspired trouble. Because just like that, the crew was releasing their inhibitions, a la those aforementioned episodes, and that led to some hilarious moments all over the ship. The kind that saw crewmembers just give into temptation and silliness and well… that was the perfect way to pay homage and satirize those episodes, since some of those moments were over-the-top and reminded us of how silly those episodes were in the first place, and the homages and satire didn’t end there. Because those ambassadors were in many ways, Lwaxana Troi at her worst since their actions here, leaned into the more obnoxious aspects that Lwaxana put on display back in the TNG days, and this spoke to how unnecessary that was from a storytelling perspective.

The Party Gets Out of Hand Aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos in Episode 405 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ - ‘Empathalogical Fallacies’. (Photo Courtesy of Paramount+.)

But all of that satire was handled in a classy manner, and truly pointed out correctable flaws in both plot points that could have given them gravity and longevity. But while that would have been enough Trek lore to satisfy us… it still had more homages to send our way. Courtesy of Lieutenant T’Lyn. Who as it turned out, was responsible for the wild nature of the crew’s actions because of her own concerns regarding her future in the Vulcan fleet. For she felt inadequate and abandoned with her Starfleet assignment, and much like Sarek did in his TNG run, she was able to project emotion out into the world and bring about havoc. But thanks to Mariner, she was able to find control and came to understand that she needed to work on herself before returning to the Vulcan fleet. And well… that’s precisely where this episode bid farewell to the homages and the satire of Trek gone by and thrust the crew of the Cerritos into the thick of this plot involving that super-powered mystery vessel.

For it turned out, that the Betazed delegation was acting silly and loopy to maintain cover. For they were the Betazed equivalent of Starfleet Intelligence and were working to learn more about that ship to protect their people from its reach and well, with the captain poking into their business, they felt they needed to blow their cover and go for broke in getting back home. Which meant commandeering the ship, a move that proved to be… a poor choice. Because while the majority of the crew was letting inhibition take control, Boims was hanging out with the security teams, to learn about what they do during downtime. Which is focus on their mental health and the mental health of the crew. That is until Red Alert sounds. Then it’s all karate chops and kicks set to stun, and thanks to their Zen and their preparedness, they retook the ship and saved it from sneaking into the Romulan Neutral Zone. Giving rise to a happy ending for all, and more intelligence on the ship in question.

A surprise that might make the Cerritos the point vessel on this matter since they have the most information. But before we ponder too deeply upon that, we can in fact, celebrate one fun and intelligent tale. One that really did offer up constructive criticism of some of the franchise’s weaker moments in a manner that was respectful, and silly enough to keep us laughing, and it is just nice to know that this show will continue to both highlight and scrutinize dubious moments while celebrating the best parts of the franchise, and now that we’ve reached the end of this delightful tale, we can indeed ponder upon that mystery ship and ask all kinds of questions. Such as who is behind these attacks? And why? Is it a new species to be revealed? Or are the Moopsy taking revenge over the fact that their leader is still locked up in the Menage? Time will tell of course, and it will be fascinating to see this concerning plot thread expand as season four of this brilliant series continues along. Until next time.

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