Season 3, Episode 2 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, “The Least Dangerous Game,” opens with our group of friends sitting around playing what looks like Klingon Dungeons and Dragons, and I’d love to see somebody take a stab at making that game for real.

It’s Bat’leths and something or other. You’ve got Martok on a screen, and apparently he’s been recorded with certain responses based on the things you do. You roll dice, the whole nine yards. It’s actually pretty fun. Even if it’s just the actor who plays Martok doing the voice, that would be so dope.

This is a really fun episode, and I like some of the things they’re doing.

How Boimler Becomes Bold Boimler

From there you find out that a Bolian they knew has been promoted to captain, and that’s what opens everything up. Boimler’s like, man, how did he become captain? It turns out he got a field commission, and the field commission sort of stuck, and now he’s a captain.

So Boimler’s saying, I’ve been calculating my whole career, how in the world could I not end up there? And Tendi tells him, look, man, you’ve got to try new stuff. He says all right, I’m going to give stuff a try, we’ll see what happens. Sure enough, he starts doing exactly that.

Back on the Cerritos, he’s talking with Tendi when a guy walks by and asks if he wants to go play this thing. He kind of brushes it off, and she’s like, hello, remember the Bolian guy? Oh, that’s right. Okay, yeah, totally, I’m going to play. He does a really good job and ends up befriending some of the command staff, because that’s what happens.

Then Shaxs, the Bajoran security chief, asks him to join his Bajoran dirge choir. It’s the saddest sounding thing ever, and it’s hilarious. Afterward Shaxs tells him he’s done the Prophets proud, and that if he needs anything, he knows how to get a hold of him. Call me directly. So Boimler’s making friends and getting acknowledged.

Mariner, Ransom, and the Space Elevator

Meanwhile, Mariner and Ransom are on this orbital lift. Let’s just call it a space elevator. It’s broken and they have to fix it. They go down with two engineers, Rutherford and the chief engineer, Billups, and funny enough, Ransom decides the engineers should go on down to the planet while he and Mariner stay up top and fix everything.

Normally that’s the other way around. Normally the diplomats, the command staff people, go down to the planet and interact with the new species, and the engineers do the repairs. This doesn’t sit well with Mariner. Big surprise there.

She’s still being ridden because of this whole thing with her mom, making sure she’s on task. And you find out at one point that she’s actually done pretty good. She hasn’t been sent to the brig once this whole time, which is very interesting.

So Mariner and Ransom are having big issues on the lift, while Rutherford and the other engineer are down on the planet basking in the wonderfulness of the bikini-clad women and the nice fruity drinks and everyone’s hospitality. Everyone’s all kissy face. They’re enjoying themselves, and Mariner’s really ticked off by the whole idea.

“Would You Be Willing to Let Me Hunt You?”

Back on the Cerritos, Boimler’s talking about how everything’s going so well, and that’s when he meets K’ranch. K’ranch is this reptilian-looking dude, and he’s got a suit on and everything. He was supposed to be down on the planet, he couldn’t go because of the emergency with the lift, and now he’s waiting on the ship for them to fix it.

And he asks: would you be willing to let me hunt you?

Tendi’s like, no way, absolutely not, count me out. And Boimler’s like, absolutely, I’m saying yes to everything, let’s do it. He may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Boimler stops by K’ranch’s quarters, K’ranch is in there getting ready, and then he essentially attacks Boimler and chases him, so you’ve got this fight going on throughout the ship. Boimler runs into the captain and explains there’s this guy named K’ranch after him, and she’s like, oh, I love K’ranch, he’s such a nice guy. You’d better run. You think she’s going to help, and she totally isn’t. It’s great.

Mariner Jumps

Down on the planet, you find out the engineers may or may not have offended the people there. Apparently it’s exposing your navel or whatever else. Ransom’s trying to give them instructions, tell them this thing, do this thing, the stuff you’d do if you were there. The engineers are like, I don’t know what we’re doing. Everything’s falling apart diplomatically.

Mariner’s really, really frustrated by this point, so she decides she’s done. She’s going down to the planet herself and leaving Ransom on the lift. She gets in the skydive outfit and jumps off the thing.

While she’s skydiving down, Ransom comes on the communicator. Hey, you know, you’re probably right, we should just have the engineers do this. I was trying to see if you were going to bail on me, if you’d do the wrong thing if I pushed you hard enough, and you’ve clearly shown that wasn’t going to happen.

He’s saying this literally while she’s doing the thing he’s talking about.

So she’s like, yeah, no problem. He says all right, meet me at section 8. She says absolutely, pulls her chute, and now she’s got to climb back up all the stories she just fell, in time to meet him and not get in trouble.

Catch and Release

Boimler, meanwhile, has decided he’s going to face this K’ranch guy. He gets ready, he straps up, he’s got some tools. It looks like a phaser rifle and a metal colander or something on his head. I don’t know.

He’s standing there going, “Aye, the hunter has now become the hunted,” and bam, he gets hit in the shoulder with a spear. It’s great.

Then K’ranch explains it. In his society they like to hunt, but they respect all life. They’re catch and release hunters. I was like, that’s awesome. He also tells Boimler he’ll give his captain a good word. So that’s Bold Boimler, as he’s calling himself, proving it again. Dude, right on, sir. Right on. Here’s to you, Mr. purple-haired cadet, or lower decks officer.

Ransom Takes His Shirt Off

Mariner gets back to Ransom, and Ransom says they have to go to the planet, because these people may have a psychic baby, a talking volcano or a supercomputer. This race has all three. Mariner points out that got complicated really quickly.

They get down there, and you see Rutherford and the other engineer strung up, about to be sacrificed to the volcano. Ransom says, your civilization respects health and wellness, correct? They say yes. He rips off his shirt and says take a look at this, and then we can talk. And he’s all shiny and sparkly muscles. It’s great.

So it proves that Mariner needs to learn to allow the process to work. She learned some things, and then everybody ends up sitting there once more, enjoying a game of Klingon D&D.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 2, “The Least Dangerous Game,” is a 7.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I like the episode. I thought it was good, and I didn’t have a problem with any of the jumping around. It’s not a 10 out of 10, and it didn’t blow my socks off. It’s doing its job. It wasn’t the most impressive episode, but it was good, and I enjoyed it.

Let me know what you thought about the episode. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.