The sister ship crew spends all of “Mining the Mind’s Mines” laughing at the Cerritos, and then in the last few minutes the episode wants you to believe they looked up to them the whole time. That’s the third episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks season three, and my co-host and I didn’t buy the switch.
Full disclosure, this is take two. We’d already recorded this one, and the microphone decided to die on me midway through without tripping a single one of the things I’ve got monitoring it. That’s on me. So we watched it this morning, we talked about it once, and now you’re getting the real version.
Two Stories on One Outpost
There are two storylines. In the first, Tendi starts her first day as a senior science officer trainee. The rest of the time we’re with Boimler and the crew at a science outpost where stone orbs are bringing fantasies to life, and all of it hangs off a peace negotiation that’s already happened. The Cerritos and its sister ship are the only two there, responding after the fact, because they’re what’s called a support vehicle.
The stones read your thoughts. Fantasies, nightmares, all of it, though we don’t learn that part until later. Touch the fantasy and you turn to stone. My co-host’s read was Medusa crossed with a brain teaser, and I can’t do better than that.
The Sister Ship Problem
My co-host has a bone to pick with the writers, and it’s about the other California class crew. From the minute they show up they’re super stuck up. “Yeah, we’ve heard things about the Cerritos.” They’re laughing, they’re rolling their eyes, and she called it petty. Her words were all the no’s, and just no. She hated them, and it was rough for the entire episode.
I’m with her, and then I caught myself asking why. Because when they were saying what they were saying, I agreed with them. The Cerritos have been kind of screw-ups. They’ve got a bad reputation. I get it. I thought it was going to be one of those episodes where you get to the end and that group says, oh man, we were wrong about everybody. That would’ve been one of the stepping stones on the way to this crew being, quote unquote, famous.
What we got was the switch. All of a sudden they’re buddy buddy, because apparently they just wanted to be like the Cerritos crew, because they’d heard such good things. That’s not what you were saying beforehand. Nothing they were giving off was giving that off. There was no vibe there for it. Absolutely not.
Tendi and the Wrong Mentor
Then there’s Tendi’s storyline, and my co-host thought the bird person guy was out of place. (The second she said “bird person” out loud she knew she had the wrong show. That’s Rick and Morty.)
Her point stands, though. She didn’t know why he was really there. She figured they paired the two of them together because they’re both green. And sure, he had a past with science. But if you’re part of Starfleet and you’re actually trying to figure this stuff out and find mentors, why would you pick some Joe Schmo who used to be really good at science, who’s not old, and who doesn’t work for Starfleet? Her verdict: poor writing. She pays attention, trust me.
The Signal Inside the Stones
The stones turn out to be sending off a signal. The technology isn’t Starfleet technology, but it’s pulling in information about Starfleet. I liked what they did in terms of setting a lot of that stage, and I like the stories they’re putting together. I like this crew, and they’re growing. I feel like you can’t be the lower decks much longer. Eventually you have to get promoted.
My co-host thinks we’re going to see those stones again, and she’s got the receipt. Right there in the conference room, the stone they were about to be handed had a tracker in it. Tendi broke it open and said stop, there’s literally a tracker right there. But just because that one tracker is out doesn’t mean anything. They didn’t destroy the big green sphere that had all the connections. She understands that you technically can’t, because it belongs to another race, another civilization. But somebody still has that technology. So she’s got a feeling we’ll see it later, and I think she’s right. For sure.
Why This One Works for People
I liked the episode, because I’m really enjoying what they’re doing with this show. It’s a different medium. My co-host said it in the first version of this recording and she said it again: this is one of the only Star Treks she actually watches.
I’m all about that. There are people who complain, who ask why they’re trying to do this and that. Dude, if it gets people into it, then who cares?
For me there’s a lot of nostalgia in there too, and I love it because they say the things we used to say watching the show. Oh yeah, this thing happens, it’s probably an alien something or other. And what do they deal with this week? Stones that make your fantasies come to life through smoke or whatever. That’s a very Star Trek idea, and this show carried it very well.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Lower Decks “Mining the Mind’s Mines” lands at a 7 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I had it at an eight the first time we recorded this. We’ve done the show so many times today that if I have to do it one more time I’m going to cry, and the rating is just going to go down again. I’m kidding. Seven out of ten.
My co-host thought it was a seven too, and for her it comes down to the writing. It was a good episode, and they put it together very well. But did it do anything for her? Did it change her life? No. Is she going to remember this episode tomorrow? Probably not. That’s fair.
The Crossover I’m Waiting For
I know there’s a live action crossover coming, and I’m so excited for it. I can’t wait to see how they do it. I know Boimler and Mariner are going to be the two who go live, and my co-host asked if they’re going to use the actors. Yep.
That’s Tawny Newsome, who plays Beckett Mariner, and Jack Quaid as Boimler. I’m here for that. I think you can do a lot of cool stuff with these people, and I think they’re all going to look really good. God, I’d love to see Noël Wells dressed up as Tendi. She’d be awesome. And Eugene Cordero could do a good job too as Rutherford, if they were to bring him live.
Then there’s Mr. Hair himself, Christopher Pike. Seeing Anson Mount as an animated Anson Mount would be cool too. I believe it’s probably going to be a two-parter, and it’s got to start in animation and change over to Strange New Worlds. Maybe. We’ll see.
Let me know what you thought of this one, and we’ll pick that conversation up next week when we get into the review for the next episode. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
