‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Recap – ‘Mining the Mind’s Mines’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 303 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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​The crew of the Cerritos find themselves on Jengus IV, a planet inhabited by the Scrubble. These rock-like creatures were discovered when scientists went missing, encased in rock themselves. Turns out, the Scrubble have Mines that read Minds and pull out the dreams of anyone who comes near them. Touch these dreams, however, and end up encased in rock. It’s totally fine, however, because Starfleet is there to foster negotiations and bring peace. The Cerritos and the Carlsbad are staying behind to coordinate the moving of the Starfleet outpost on the planet. Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford are sent down to help. Tendi is busy meeting with her new mentor who’s to help with her senior science training. Dr. Migleemo is the last person she expected. It’s not what she wanted, and now she’s missing all the fun planet side!
 
The crew of the Cerritos is tasked with removing the fantasy mines while the crew of the Carlsbad is set to dismantle the outpost. Seems a bit unfair, but surely, they can all bond over it right? Wrong. The crew of the Carlsbad makes it clear they want nothing to do with Cerritos’ crew.  Mariner takes personal offense to this, considering how hard they all do work. Okay, they break a few rules here and there, sure. But nothing bad enough to warrant that level of disrespect. To add insult to injury, one of the mines gets activated and we see Rutherford’s dream.
 
Is it to design Starships and Warp Cores with Dr. Leah Brahms? Yes. Yes, it is. It earns him some teasing from Boimler, until his own fantasy comes to life. Being asked by an Admiral to fight the Borg? Who can resist that! Mariner even makes fun of him, until her own appears. Which is Jennifer, in a bikini, asking if she’d like to watch her yell at Ransom. Does she want Jennifer to be her hot girlfriend? Oh, she definitely does.

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On the Cerritos, Tendi has been tasked with getting the captain’s attention by her mentor. All while Captain Freeman and the Captain of the Carlsbad are the ones to barter negotiations between the Scrubble and the Scientists. The captains end up fighting over a statue the Scrubble give them, more so on who should take it really. Tendi has her work cut out for her. Back on Jengus IV, the Cerritos crew is almost done cleaning the Mines in their race to beat the Carlsbad crew. This leads to the Mines breaking when they’re knocked over, Stevens gets turned to stone, and instead of dreams, it’s nightmares now. Both crews end up running and hiding in a cave.
 
That’s when the Carlsbad crew admits to really admiring the Cerritos crew for their bravery and rule breaking ways. They’ll have to work together if they’re going to get out of here. The cave they end up in, is suspiciously full of Starfleet technology, that can’t be a coincidence. And it’s not. On the Cerritos, as the captains keep fighting for who takes the statue, Tendi is forced to step in and break it wide open, revealing a listening device in it. Tendi explains that she’d picked up a strange signal coming from the device. Turns out the lead scientist and Scrubble were planning to sell Starfleet intel. These negotiations took a whole new turn.
 
In the end. Both crews are safe, and they might just have some newfound friends. They even grab drinks together after everything that happened. Good natured teasing follows, and the Lower Deckers learn about how their skills are seen as legendary amongst other Ensigns. Well, except for Boimler. Apparently, he’s touted as being a wise cracking robot. Really though, Boims is a badass in his own right.

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