Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x02 - "Envoys"

Mariner reminds me a bit of Jadzia Dax. Which is a good thing in my book.

 

Still an 8 just like last episode. The jokes were still funny (though they had already beaten the "blast shiiiiield!" gag to death in the promos). I especially enjoyed the opening with the trans-dimensional energy lifeform. Mariner and Tendi weren't about to let that thing take them over or impregnate them (like it happened with Troi in "the Child"), they stuffed it into a box until it granted them wishes. And of course they'd wish for some junk
When first viewing that scene I thought the lifeform hid inside Captain Freeman's communicator and that would be the plot, but upon re-viewing I'm pretty sure the lifeform died when Freeman ran through it, and that was the joke. Could have been a little bit more obvious.

Didn't enjoy the Klingon stuff too much (boo Klingons) but it was nice to see quite an extensive town with so many aliens running about (again taking advantage of the animation) and I thought little Q'uonos was a neat bit of world building.
At least they made quite a bit of fun of Klingons.
And I'm not sure what people have against Mariner, but I continue to find her likable, she even helped Boimler's confidence issues at the end (even though that pretending to mistake a Ferengi for a Bolian was a bit...eh?...)
And that part where they talked about Boimler ending up as the cliche research station victim was quite funny!
Also Mariner didn't create Boimler's obvious confidence issues, they would show up sooner or later with or without her, she just helped him overcome them a little bit.

I really, really enjoyed Rutherford's plot though, he's so adorable and I thought that it was nice that they showed that some of the Bridge Crew have a friendly/jovial side. It's nice how supportive the whole Engineering and Security team are of

Rutherford's decisions.And those simulations with the children spilling out into space was hillarious.
"Let's try it again! On a ship with even more children!"
This even makes Ransom a little bit likeable, he doesn't give up on Rutherford for screwing up monumentally, no they're just gonna try again, while endangering even more civilians

 

I don't entirely see it that way. She jeopardized the mission, which ended poorly, of them delivering the Klingon to the conference or whatever by her reckless actions. Barging onto the shuttle, putting herself in the mission, putting herself in CHARGE of the mission and treating Boimer like crap, getting the Klingon drunk, leaving him behind on the shuttle which gave him opportunity to steal it, thus forcing them to have to walk through the different districts where, sure, Boimer wasn't 100% prepared but would anyone entirely be who hadn't had the experience Mariner apparently has?

And there's other ways to train and teach people things other than treating them like crap and making them feel like crap,

But, no Mariner, gets to be a magical, special, know-it-all who's just perfect and great and Boimler is the wimpy doofus the universe gets to shit on and Mariner helps to feed the universe plenty of fiber. But, at the end, she's great because she hands him a towel.

Probably because she's always yelling, shouting and just generally being an obnoxious know-it-all. Want to teach Purple Hair some stuff? How about doing it WITHOUT crashing his mission and treating him like crap while he's piloting the shuttle?

 

I thought Mariner was more likable/bearable in this ep than in the first. I think the show is taking the character work seriously, amid all the silliness, and I suspect Mariner’s arc will prove very satisfying. I don’t think she’s destined to end up where she started.

 

So you think Boimler would’ve been fine on that mission, handling a Klingon on his own?

 

Liked it even better than last week. It's a Star Trek show that finally manages to take the stick out its ass where the main theme is about taking the stick out of your ass.

Also, Kari Wahlgren crossed the steams.


ETA: I also can't help but wonder if this isn't throwing a little shade at the Dunning–Kruger of certain sections of the fandom.

 

And think about all the things Boimler learned on that mission thanks to Mariner! He got some quality real life experience, which he is gonna need if he wants to be a captain one day.

 

I'm guessing its the later. With these near-extra type characters I'm not sure how much detail the script goes into, and I could see the art department taking some liberties.

I concur, though it's a difficult balance, because if the characters progress too much, they won't be ensigns any longer. Though as I said regarding Rutherford, I could see a bunch of junior grade lieutenants still fitting within the "lower decks" format.

 

I guess loud=bad at some point. If it was real life then maybe that would annoy, but Mariner continues to be my favorite thus far, even though I guarantee you I'm more a Boimler on a Starfleet vessel.

 

Mariner is just an unorthodox officer, trying to fit into an extremely orthodox organization.

 

Yup, I assume the same with the human-named Trill from last episode. I assume they have a stock of background-character models for the ship's crew and just apply them however they please unless they get more detailed directions and they might even favour the alien ones, since in animation they don't cost more than the human ones (no makeup or prostetics to apply) and have a nice Star Trekky/Science Fictiony vibe.

 

As someone else pointed out, both Jadzia and Dax are human names.

 

And as I pointed out then, they are not names that would be familiar for the bulk of the primary audience, like Barnes is
Jadzia and Dax were clearly meant to be exotic/alien names.

 

Barnes the Trill didn’t bother me. Names seem to spread as cultures open up. I remember in Enterprise: The First Adventure there was a Vulcan named Stephen.

 

I wonder what the overlap is between fans that don’t like Jadzia Dax and Beckett Mariner?

 

It's possible that after Bashir "took down" Section 31, the organization was fully exposed.

 

I don’t think Bashir took it down. I imagine the organisation is bigger than that.