‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Recap – ‘Moist Vessel’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 104 of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’.
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When we think about the incredible and heroic captains that steer the ships that populate the Star Trek Universe, we think little about their motivations. Because when we catch up with these skippers, they’re already wonderfully fleshed out characters and true heroes through and through. So, there’s no need to ponder upon their nature or what drives them because they are ready to influence their crew and the audience to be better people, and that’s always a wonderful aspect of enjoying a new Trek show. But at some point, we do need to ponder upon what makes a captain a captain. Because somewhere along the line they made a choice to be something greater in this fleet and oddly enough Star Trek: Lower Decks toyed with this notion during this week’s episode.
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A feat that ‘Moist Vessel’ accomplished by putting Ensign Mariner through the ringer. Because once again, she was quick to question protocol and structure aboard the ship, and doing so in front of another captain, prompted her mother to make life difficult for her daughter aboard the Cerritos. Which meant that Mariner was assigned all the awful jobs, the kind that no one should enjoy. All in the hopes of either whipping her into shape or getting her to resign from Starfleet and well, this is a plan that backfired. Because Mariner made the best of a bad situation and even figured out how to have fun and well, one way or another, her mother was going to get her way and enacted a new plan to get her daughter to walk away from a career in the stars. One that was quite frankly as dastardly as they come. 

Because a promotion to Lieutenant would require Mariner to attend every meeting and be involved in the mundane duties that she simply cannot stand doing in the slightest. But despite having to sit in meetings that highlighted what chairs to replicate for future conference rooms, she still did her duty and stayed the course and well, it is amazing that she stuck around for this kind of torture. For if Mariner hates Starfleet and its design so much, it makes no sense that she would continue to toil aboard a ship, her mother’s no less, and being promoted should have worked in getting her to walk away. But a poor decision from the captain of the Merced forced Mariner into action, in order to save the ship from a powerful goop that could create biological life, and that is where this grand exploration of what makes young officers, great officers got underway. 

For Mariner shined during this part of the story and went the extra mile to save the ship and the crew of the Merced from a horrible fate. All before being demoted for disrespecting an Admiral and well, hearing what she had to say to her mother during this crisis and seeing how she responded to her reward, speaks volumes to the fact that Mariner and the greats of Starfleet, really do join up to be something more and to better themselves and their crew-mates and humanity as a whole. But the difference between Mariner and say, Jean-Luc Picard, is the sheer fact that a man like Picard was willing to follow the protocols of Starfleet to a tee, whereas Mariner thinks they are stupid and boring and quite frankly, restrictive.

Which means that if her mother or another high-ranking officer took the time to figure out how to properly reach Mariner and let her work at her own pace, then perhaps she will indeed become the next great captain. But for now, it seems, she’s happy to go her own way and really in the end, all of this made for one fantastic and fun episode. One that really allowed for us to get to know the captain and her intrepid daughter and one that also taught us a sick and sassy new Vulcan hand salute and truly this series continues to impress week in and week out. Because it simply offers the perfect balance of heart and comedy and a grand analysis on the franchise as a whole and you can’t go wrong with that. But what matters most in regard to this tale, is that now everyone on the Cerritos knows what Ensign Mariner is capable of as an officer and it should be interesting to see what will come out of that fascinating revelation in the weeks to come. Until next time.  

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