“Of Gods and Angles”
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 6 – Debuted Thursday, November 21, 2024
Written by Keyshawn C. Garraway
Directed by Brandon Williams
A funny, familiar filler episode.
SPOILERS BELOW
Just another day in Starfleet.
RECAP
“You wish you had curves like this, you pointy freak.”
The Cerritos is hosting peace talks between photonic Cube and Orb energy beings who have filled the ship with petty shape-based bickering. With tensions high, Ransom has no patience for the ship’s new chaos agent Ensign Olly, a literal granddaughter of Zeus demigod whose antics have sent her through a series of ships. Mariner senses a kindred spirit and offers to take the troublemaker under her wing. She catches up with Olly at her old bunk, where the ensign causes more chaos with a power surge in her engineered mini-tractor beam. Their assignment is to babysit the lead Cube’s kid, Quadralon, but they find his quarters trashed—and icky photonic residue could indicate foul play. Mariner and Olly are ordered to quietly investigate, so they start by searching for Quadralon’s missing computer, which leads them to the gym where they find an Orb’s PADD, full of “time to shave those edges off once and for all” anti-Cube propaganda. Suspect! Rondus explains he is pro-treaty and was only collecting propaganda to destroy it, but Olly goes all psycho cop with “you iced a cube!” accusations. Good cop Mariner pulls her back, allowing Rondus to slip away to the tense negotiating room, which reveals the secret murder investigation. Turns out the lead Sphere’s kid, Radiara, is also missing, and tensions turn to calls for “shape war!” with photonic battle breaking out across the ship. But Mariner senses something fishy and tracks Quadralon’s missing computer to Olly’s locker. “Did you kill a kid?” Gulp.
Admit it, you are the algorithm that cancelled the show!
“Other Boimler is so cool.”
Boimler has his own crisis going on during all this as he scrutinizes the PADD he stole from “Beard Boimler,” which is how he learns that in the alt universe version of the Sphere/Cube mission, his counterpart became pals with Dr. T’Ana, who gave him the nickname “Flip” and invited into her book club. Determined to do the same, Brad heads to sickbay with some old medical books and starts using his hoped-for nickname so much the cranky Caitian doctor tells him, “If you say flip one more time I am going to punch your f—king nose off.” Not giving up, Brad tries to do a flip right there in sickbay and lands in a pile of hyposprays, getting injected with untested anesthetic… lights out, Brad. But not even a brief medical coma can dissuade him; inspired by the “colorful” messages alt-T’Ana left Beard Boimler, he decides to approach her using her language… no not Caitian… cursing. Let’s just say calling T’Ana a BLEEP BLEEP (you know, because she’s a BLEEP) didn’t go as planned, evidenced by the cat screeches and scratching.
T’Ana is ready for the WWE… Boimler is not.
“You may have to use those crappy powers.”
Olly confesses to Mariner that she hid the melted computer, assuming she would be blamed because her electrical powers (which are kind of lame) have gotten her kicked off ships before. Mariner realizes she misunderstood the ensign and sees an opportunity to stop the battle raging now in the shuttle bay. She talks Olly into absorbing all energy from the Cubes and Orbs, but it backfires, resulting in her firing off one of her lame lightning bolts, which gets lodged in… well… Boimler’s butt. (That got T’Ana’s attention, at least.) The battling shapes exit the ship and form into a huge cube and a huge sphere, with the Cerritos caught in the middle. Olly realizes god stuff was the wrong move, as at her heart, she’s an engineer, and her technobabble tractor beam fix impresses Billups. The Cerritos drains the energy from the battling shapes and returns them to the shuttle bay. Enter the missing Cube and Orb, not dead, just “in love,” and they have been doing the light fantastic in secret, leaving his room trashed as part of their “kink.” TMI Quadrolon, but the result is an adorable cube/sphere child, inspiring all sides to come together for the “Treaty of Squaaron,” named for the lovable new shape. Back in sickbay, T’Ana wraps up a butt-boltechtemy, a new procedure which the doc thinks will make her legendary. Before Brad can slink away in shame, T’Ana invites him to her book club, giving him a nickname: “F—ko.” He’s ecstatic. As for Olly, she can stay and will be transferred to engineering after a night in the brig for the whole computer hiding thing. The demigod is defiant even in the face of Mariner hanging outside her cell and insisting they are going to be friends, loving the irony of it all and peppering Olly for Mount Olympus gossip on Medusa. It’s the circle of life on the Cerritos.
Yes, we can at least all agree, pyramids suck.
REVIEW
This mid-season episode has all the feels of a standard TNG-era bottle show, including a familiar setup along with some great character moments. The main plot was a bit of a Trek mashup of all the diplomatic tension episodes like “Lonely Among Us” plus a bit of “The Outrageous Okona” with all the episodes with godlike beings, energy creatures and a struggling crewmember thrown together. And for sure Lower Decks had plenty of fun with the tropes within all of that, but the main plot ended up being somewhat predictable. Of course this was all a backdrop for a character story by introducing Olly as bit of an echo and a foil for Mariner, clearly designed to show how much the character has evolved since her chaotic (and sometimes seen as annoying) season 1 persona. Saba Omayoon made the role fun as we warmed to her kooky demigod, and Tawny Newsome continues to show how the new responsible Mariner can still be fun, although this too is ground that has been covered this season. Perhaps with so few episodes left, it would be nice to share the love with some of the other characters.
Are your lightning bolts feeling limp? Ask your CMO about ZapuolTM
One character that finally got some attention this episode was Dr. T’Ana, providing some more nuance to the acerbic doctor who truly has a heart of gold somewhere under the claws and cursing. Gillian Vigman got a chance to unleash an epic level of her signature “spicy” dialogue while still being the ship’s beloved curmudgeon as she slowly warmed up to Boimler’s desperate need for approval. Jack Quaid’s frantic performance with fun assists from Eugene Cordero and Noël Wells combined to make the B-story the more engaging, often the case with classic TNG mid-season bottle shows. It will be interesting to see where they are going with Boimler’s quest to be more like his alt self, as it feels like there should be some repercussions for stealing Beard Boimler’s PADD (with the fun gag that no one noticed it was red, focusing on the different bevel). Otherwise, Boimler’s beard (and series growth metaphor) is coming in well.
Check out those bevels.
After last week’s Easter egg-heavy episode, this week was light on the overt references, again leaning more into the show’s own history. Many moments from Mariner’s story were meant to hearken back to her own history, such as the spot-on mirror of her “loving” being sent to the brig. We also got to revisit the Ensign bunks complete with Towel Guy. And the Cerritos itself got to shine as its tractor beam was able to deescalate the warring factions of shapes. All of this adds up to an appropriate level of self-reflection and even perhaps self-reverence, especially as this is the final season.
As for the space pothole arc, another episode has gone by without even a mention, showing this season has made character stories the priority. But for those who love a mystery, it would be nice to get a little taste, hopefully soon.
T’Ana makes the goggles cool.
Final thoughts
The familiar setup was compensated by plenty of great lines and gags, along with the welcome return of some of Dr. T’Ana’s unique bedside manner. “Of Gods and Angles” shows how much Lower Decks not only gets the style and tropes of Star Trek, but it understands and conveys the heart and warmth of Star Trek. But the weight of series finale is starting to loom, and hopefully everyone gets their moments to shine before the lights go out on this great addition to the franchise.
Starbase 80 is sounding kind of nice now.
RANDOM BITS
- Startdate: 59482.3
- Some sites including IMDb incorrectly listed this episode as “Of Gods and Angels” (not the correct “Of Gods and Angles”)
- Olly was previously assigned to the USS Reseda, presumably another California class named for a town in California, although Reseda currently is technically only a neighborhood within Los Angeles.
- The Reseda crew was made of “reformed Maquis.”
- Tendi warns Boimler pretending to be something he isn’t could backfire reminding him of the “whole Hawaii thing,” referencing “wej Duj” when Boimler pretended to be from Hawaii to get into Ransom’s inner circle.
Yes it is logical for T’Lyn to be in more episodes.
Easter eggs and more to come
We will take a deeper dive into Ronald B. Moore and all the Easter eggs and canon connections this weekend. And we will discuss this episode on Friday’s All Access Podcast.
New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks premiere on Thursdays, streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Lower Decks also airs on Thursdays in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
I wonder if the facial hair is meant to mock Jack Quaid’s insane uncle, Randy Quaid. The more facial hair Boimler grows, the more ridiculous he looks–just like Randy Quaid.
😆
The god that presented to Kirk was Apollo, not Zeus. But if Apollo was Olly’s father, then Zeus was indeed her grandfather.
Yeah, but if they’d made Olly’s father Apollo, people would be crying “fan service!” till their fingers bleed.
The original draft of “Who Mourns for Adonais” made it clear in the finale that Palamas was pregnant with Apollo’s child, which was nixed by the NBC censors. Which was too bad, because if the scene had been shot as written Star Trek would’ve been the most talked-about series on the air in 1968. This episode missed a good opportunity to have a bit of fun rectifying that old mistake (and to heck with the fan service police).
I remember seeing something about that on “The Roddenberry Vault” Blu-ray set. Would’ve left folks SHOOK!
Yeah IDK but I wasn’t a big fan of this one either. Didn’t hate it and loved every single scene with Dr. Tiana lol. I crack up every time. I have no idea how someone like this got into Starfleet but it doesn’t matter, just happy she’s there.
But the main story was just OK. It is nice to see how far along Mariner has come and I didn’t mind the new ensign but the story just felt too paint by numbers. Did anyone else feel this way? Maybe it’s just me, but yeah.
And overall season 5 is feeling like a let down to me the way season 3 did. Still a lot of great stuff just not as memorable as the other seasons.
Hopefully the last four episodes will be great.
My favorite “attention to detail” moment: The Starfleet badge shape on the bottom of Boimler’s shoe!
Those have always been their in Lower Decks. They were even on the live action shoes in the crossover episode.
Thanks, Legate Damar. That’s the first time I’ve noticed it!
Lower Decks is my favorite nuTrek and so re-watchable; I have seasons 1-4 on DVD. So much heart, so much love.
But…
Season 5 seems like a bit of a letdown. Episode One was fun with the alt-ship and Captain ‘Becky’ but… I dunno — the last 4 episodes, including this one, just aren’t as laugh-out-loud and just don’t feel as good. Yes, the characters have been maturing and growing into new roles. The squares and circles were hilarious.
The starbase 80 episode was very good but not really ‘funny’ — and this episode just felt a bit obvious that the message was ‘Mariner has grown and sees this maverick chaotic cadet as her former self and can help mentor her.’ While I LOVED Olly in the brig quoting old Mariner lines about LOVING the brig (and Mariner staying with her as her friends used to do) — this one felt a bit phoned in and not as special.
REALLY hoping the series ups the game in the last few episodes. The series has been SO good and I do not want it to go out on a wimper.