The Lower Decks season 4 finale puts a paywall on a Genesis device, and that’s how we end up with a planet named after Nick Locarno.

This is season 4, episode 10, “Old Friends, New Planets,” and it’s the second time my co-host and I have reviewed it. We recorded the first one at 3:00 in the morning and the audio cut out, so here we are again, and I think we got it right this time. All the stuff we’ve been waiting on actually happened, and it all happened in this episode.

Before I get into it, a quick shout-out to System 47, who recently joined Know-It-All Nation and subscribed. They’re the ones who provide all the really great screens you see behind me. If you love anything about my set, it’s all theirs. They do a lot of hard work for absolutely nothing, it’s a super thankless job, and I really appreciate them.

Locarno, Sito and a Voice That Cracks Too Much

The episode jumps in right where we left off, with Mariner face to face with Nick Locarno. He’s trying to make her think she was always a part of their little clique, and then we get a flashback, and we get to see the animated Sito. Yes, I got the name right. You see an animated Sito, Wil Wheaton, Locarno, and then there’s someone else whose name I don’t know, but you see all of them.

Locarno is telling them this mission is going to make them memorable. Yeah, you’re remembered as someone who crashed and got someone killed.

Everybody returned to do their roles, including Wil Wheaton, and it was really fun hearing his voice again. It’s so funny hearing him crack his voice trying to sound young like he was back then. “I don’t know about this whole Starburst thing, Josh, are you sure?” And I’m like, you didn’t crack your voice that much back then, so stop it. But obviously he’s older now.

Nova Fleet and a Little Insurance

From there Locarno walks her very proudly through what he calls Nova Fleet, which is all the other races: the Romulans, the Klingons, the Ferengi, the Cardassians, people he talked into joining his independent fleet. Then he sends out a message to the entire quadrant letting everybody know this is his part of space and you’re not welcome. “In case anyone wants to try and force their way in, I’ve acquired a little insurance. A black market Ferengi Genesis device.”

And you’re like, what?

He’s got them all on this little video chat, and he says he has a Starfleet officer there who can tell them all about it. Mariner goes, “This guy is insane. This guy sucks. Don’t listen to anything he’s saying.” And then she runs off with the bomb. It’s great.

Freeman Does the Classic Star Trek Thing

Mariner’s mother, Captain Freeman, wanted so bad to go rescue her, and the admiralty said no. “We can’t be the first to open fire. We’re already communicating with ambassadors from the worlds that have been tangled in this. I’m ordering both of you to stand down until this is sorted. We can’t risk igniting a war.”

They don’t want to shoot first, which is totally stupid. So Freeman does a classic Star Trek thing. She tells the crew she’s about to disobey orders, and if anybody wants to lodge a protest, now’s the time. And everyone says nah, man, we’re going to get Mariner.

My co-host pointed out that they actually kind of found a loophole, because nobody shot. Mariner was trying to get away the whole time. She’s just trying to escape.

The Wrath of Khan Nebula

She can’t get out, because the shield works both ways. So Locarno’s telling everyone to go get her, they chase her around this frozen ice chunk planet, whatever it is, and I think one ship blows up, but that’s on them. Totally their fault. She gets away from the Ferengi by talking them through the Rules of Acquisition. There are a lot of callbacks to this season in this episode.

Then she ducks into a nebula, and they’re clearly borrowing this whole scenario from Wrath of Khan. Star Trek II, rather. Which is so funny, because the poster and the promotional stuff made it seem like it was supposed to be Star Trek IV, and I don’t know how that makes sense.

Inside the nebula they can’t detect one another on sensors. She’s trying to talk Nick down and he’s just not going to budge. He manages to transport over to her ship, and he’s about to shoot her. She’s telling him he’s never shot anybody, he’s not going to do it, and just as he fires, Freeman transports her out.

Tendi’s Sister and the Bird

Freeman still needs help getting through that shield. So Tendi goes to her Orion planet, where, remember, she’s royalty, and asks her sister for help. Her sister’s not helping. My co-host doesn’t understand that one at all. After Tendi beat her up, you’d think she’d respect her sister a little more.

So they have to do a little fight scene thing. Tendi picks the bird, the psych, and her sister picks the muscle. My co-host thought the muscle was going to lose, and thought they all had to fight. You pick one champion.

Then the muscle gets, like, allergies. The bird did technically win, because she’s the one who fell forward and passed out, but my co-host felt that was poorly written. It was cheap, and she did not like that part.

Anyway, they get the battleship, and it doesn’t work.

The Callback Show Calls Back to Itself

So Rutherford and the other engineering guy from earlier this season have to come up with a plan. Again, the whole episode is a bunch of callbacks to this season. It’s the callback show figuring out how to call back to itself.

No, legit, they had a callback to the Mark Twain episode. He looks like Colonel Sanders. The only way Boimler could get these two engineers to talk and negotiate was to have them all talk in that goofy way. “I do declare we’ve settled upon a compromise.”

What they come up with is using the Orion battleship as a battering ram. The thing literally slams into the shield and destroys a small section of it, which gives Captain Freeman a chance to shoot right through in the captain’s yacht.

My co-host brought this up in the first version of this review: we got to see the lower deckers acting like the command crew, with Boimler as acting captain. I was pretty impressed by that whole thing. It was awesome.

Two Bars of Latinum

Mariner had started the bomb by that point. So Locarno goes to shut it off, and the thing says to deactivate detonation, please insert two bars of latinum.

They put a paywall on a bomb. You have to pay Ferengi money to disarm it.

So it blew up, it created a new planet, and they named it after Locarno. Now we have Planet Locarno. I’m of the mind he’s going to come back insane. I believe that.

One more confirmation from the very beginning. Rutherford says he looks just like Tom Paris, and the answer is “I don’t see it,” because obviously the same actor played both characters. Finally they did that callback, and I thought it was pretty awesome.

Are They Replacing Tendi?

The final end of everything is that Tendi has to leave, and T’Lyn decides to stay. Somebody on the Discord and I had the exact same thought: are they trying to replace Tendi with her? Okay, cool, I guess.

But no, they have to bring Tendi back. They need a blue shirt. I’m saying it for real, they need a blue shirt person.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Lower Decks “Old Friends, New Planets” gets an 8.0 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index from me, and an 8.5 out of 10 from my co-host.

I said on camera that we agreed on the episode, and she corrected me. We agreed on the season. Season 4 as a whole is an 8.0 out of 10 for both of us.

I thought the season was middling but ended strong, if that makes sense. My co-host felt like it climbed for a while and had a really good last episode, and then the way it actually ended was kind of disappointing for her personally. I’d call it a classic way for Star Trek to end. We also got the “previously on Star Trek: Lower Decks” and then “and now, the conclusion,” which is awesome.

I’ve had a great time talking about this season with you, and I can’t wait to see you next season.

Tell me what you thought of the finale, and whether it was a satisfying ending for you. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.