Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x07 - "Much Ado About Boimler"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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Aside from questioning if we should take a comedy seriously. In Trek, two things are true. One, they don't have pockets on their uniforms, you think they would have them on those bog waders? And what, lose the great lines on those outfits?
Two, often times only one or maybe two officers on an away mission have tricorders. In TOS and TNG it would either be the science/ops officer (Spock/Data) or the medical officer depending on the situation. If my memory serves, Voyager more often had multiple officers with tricorders - maybe Janeway changed up standard procedures for the Delta quadrant?Anyway, it seems like Mariner was supposed to have the tricorder for the mission and purposefully left it (them?) behind. Makes sense to me.
For... reasons? Mariner needs counseling. ASAP.
TNG trousers definitely had pockets...I remember Riker putting phasers there in several occasions
I want a dog like the dog
I do too. I wish we'd gotten to see more of her transformative abilities. She morphed into a metal cube and rolled down the corridor at one point.
The show was green lit with a two season order.
So there will be a season 2, and it’s already started production. Or at least writing started like 6 months ago.
So season 3 would be the first renewal if they get one.
She needs counseling, true. But the reason she was fucking up was explicitly stated: she saw that her friend was trying to recruit and promote her and she didn't want to be recruited and promoted.
Should she have just said no? Sure. The show does not explain explicitly why she did not do that.
Some possibilities as to why Mariner didn't just say no:
- She is embarassed to want to be a perpetual ensign in a Starfleet that emphasizes ranking-up. This possibility is reinforced by the episode when she asked why it's not enough to remain a really great ensign.
- She didn't want to have a potentially painful discovery/conversation with her friend.
- She didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings by directly rejecting an offer of promotion.
- She didn't want to have to deal with the salt from Ramsey's existing officers, including the Vulcan officer who was barely restraining her disdain about Mariner).
- She has PTSD and the possibility of promotion triggered her into avoidance and other unhealthy behavior. From Episode 1, Mariner has said she has "seen things." And she was driven by PTSD to obsess over Boimler's girlfriend being too perfect. So it is possible that PTSD drives her to want to stay in the lower ranks, rather than/in addition to her stated reasons. The trouble with that explanation IMO is that when there are potentially traumatic experiences generally in big emergencies (crew-turned-zombies, aliens attacking, threats to the ship, etc.) Mariner does not show any signs of being traumatized. She thrives in those situaitons.
- There's also thte "well, otherwise, the episode wouldn't happen as planned and we writers would have to work harder" explanation, which may be the correct one at the end of the day. Although truth to be told, there would be more humor to be derived from Mariner shutting down the promotion offer straight-up and Ramsey trying to convince her otherwise, with Durga and the rest of the crew rolling their eyes.
Of course she did it. She's a dog!
Whatever the rationale, the final result it's the same: she disappointed and lied to a friend who trusted her. In universe, this makes her at least a hypocrite, considering all the times she lectured us on the meaning of friendship. Out universe, I don't really know what's the point made by the writers: you can make fun of people who have faith in you if you're cool enough?
And she never apologized for her behavior: it's perfectly clear from the episode that she is convinced she was right!
We don't know what actual age Mariner is. Presumably she is in her late 20s early 30s, but the notion she is "pretending she's still in her early 20s" is based on the very assumption that she's fighting against, that ensign is a rank you're supposed to grow out of after a couple years.
It could be that she was traumatized by something that happened to her as a lieutenant and thinks that remaining as an ensign is the best way to deal with that. But that doesn't seem to be fitting since most of the traumatic events that can befall a ship like the Cerritos are going to not care about rank. Of course, she could just be acting emotionally. But I don't know if there's a need to seek out a hidden reason when she has explicitly stated the reason: she thinks that the higher ranks are filled with gloryseeking obnoxious jerks and she has more fun and has less need to follow mindnumbing bureaucratic rules as part of the lower decks.
The show hasn't explicitly talked about much of the background of its characters. But it is a fairly safe bet that Mariner and Freeman are of African-American descent. It's just a fact of life that many, if not most, African-Americans have Anglo-sounding names. Why Rutherford is Rutherford rather than Ramirez, no clue. But in the diversity game, I think ST has bigger fish to fry. A Rutherford by any other name would smell as sweet, or as musty as whatever Jeffries tube he just crawled out of. Would he be a better or more diverse character his catchphrase was "Madre de dios!" or "Por supuesto" instead of "Okedokee!" I don't think so.
When did she lecture about friendship in such a way that it would make her actions in this episode hypocritical?
At least one time she pulled a similar ruse of "gee, I'm actually incompetent" to buck up Boimler and give him street cred in "Envoys."
I think it's entirely possible that the writers aren't out to make a greater grand theme about Mariner's behavior. But it may be part of a character arc for Mariner. She has been deadset against promotion because she thinks hgiher-ranked officers are ambitious weasels and because Starfleet imposes dumb rules she'd be more obligated to follow as a higher officer. By seeing that actually Ramsey is still cool despite getting all the way to captain, she seemingly has softened her stance somewhat. Maybe as the show progresses, she will be willing to move up from the lowest decks to a higher rank.
It could also be that the writers are trying to make the point in the real world it should be OK that people should feel free to be what they want to be and it is a bad thing that people feel societal/peer/financial pressure to rank up.
I think it can be inferred from the conversation at the bar that Mariner has reconciled with Ramsey about the deception.
Could be Mariner also has a mild case of Peter Pan syndrome. She just simply doesn’t want to grow up and experience all the soul-crushing responsibilities that come with it.
FWIW, there are days when I can relate to that - more often as I get older.
FWIW, there are days when I can relate to that - more often as I get older.
One day, the crew will find out that she's actually like 53 years old, and just likes to use the transporter for de-aging every couple years.
That would explain the anomalous age differences between her and Boimler. He genuinely thinks he’s the same age as her.
Can we all agree that if it weren't for the space monster's intervention, Mariner would have lost the respect and friendship of a person who once held her in high regard?
And yes, I know, Mariner is a fictional character and if the writers decided that their friendship would remain intact even after she killed all of Ramsey's officers with a phaser then that would be it. But I'm talking about what a plausible consequence of her actions would be.
And yes, I know, Mariner is a fictional character and if the writers decided that their friendship would remain intact even after she killed all of Ramsey's officers with a phaser then that would be it. But I'm talking about what a plausible consequence of her actions would be.
I think it would depend on how deep the friendship was, and Ramsey coming to the realization that Mariner didn’t want the job.
In any case, I really doubt everything would be as it was before. She behaved like an incompetent buffoon and made life difficult for many people for the most stupid and selfish of reasons.
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