“Fully Dilated”
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 7 – Debuted Thursday, November 28, 2024
Written by Keyshawn C. Garraway
Directed by Brandon Williams
More classic Trek setups open up comic and character possibilities, with Lower Decks delivering one of its most memorable episodes.
SPOILERS BELOW
T’Lyn is ecstatic too. Just look at her!
RECAP
“This is going to be a fun, alternate technology recovery girls trip.”
The Cerritos is cleaning up after another fissure led to an incursion from an Enterprise-D from a purple dimension. We missed all the fun “battling some evil clones of Tasha Yar, or something,” but they detect Starfleet energy on planet Delmer III. Freeman assigns Mariner, Tendi, and T’Lyn to retrieve whenever the “Purple D” left on the pre-warp planet, so T’Ana is tasked with getting them made up as locals, but her “I’m a doctor, not whatever the f—k this is” shows how she feels about playing cosmetic surgeon. We can also sense a bit of Tendi tension once she learns T’Lyn is also being considered for the senior science position she covets. One wrinkle for their mission: Detmer III has a space-time differential, so one second on the Cerritos is one week on the planet. Boimler and Rutherford are ready to beam their friends back in a second or so—except they spill messy cocktails on the controls. On the planet, the lieutenants try to blend in at the “adorable” pre-industrial local town, although one sketchy local named Snell senses something is off with these strangers. Scans lead them to a crashed shuttle where they set about destroying all the tech until they find something vaguely familiar. It’s Purple Data! Or his head at least. And wouldn’t you know it, lurking Snell shows up asking questions.
It says here this planet doesn’t even have the Wi-Fi!
“My away mission report is going to be more padded than a Romulan’s shoulder.”
With Data’s head concealed, they quickly dispatch Snell with a story about being traveling performers from the north, with T’Lyn’s impromptu juggling sealing the deal… as Tendi glares at her science rival. Awaiting retrieval, the group realizes something must have delayed Boimler and Rutherford, not knowing the pair is frantically trying to wipe their mess off the console as four months go by on the planet below. The away team has taken over an abandoned shack, where Tendi pads her science report with planet research, T’Lyn starts a garden (and builds a windmill!)… and Mariner is bored, landing on the idea this is her big chance to do a “probe life” just like Picard. Oh, and Snell is still lurking around, so they shoo him away with a broom. Tendi ups her science game in the attic, building a hand-crank generator so she can hear: “Curious, I am Lieutenant Commander Data, who are you?” OMG. They have a nice little chat and as the only android in Starfleet. Data feels comradery with Tendi’s goal of showing how an Orion can be a bridge science officer. As Tendi secretly works with Data and competes with T’Lyn—who is building a booming agricultural business for giant produce—Mariner’s goal to find a best friend gets derailed when she pokes a guy in the eye with her horn, landing her in the local jail. Tendi is making progress upgrading her power to hydroelectric, but the sleepless solo nights fretting over being the best scientist and shunning T’Lyn has Data rightfully concerned. As for Mariner, fresh out of jail she goes for a big gesture to become a member of this community, dousing the town’s eternal flame with the juices from one of T’Lyn’s enormous grapes. Back to jail, with the local prison now more familiar than the Cerritos brig. Ironic.
Sorry, but our Data isn’t purple… also he’s dead.
“I am getting real tired of your sass, Data.”
Ten months have gone by, and Tendi’s mad scientist lab now includes the beginnings of a transporter pad. She heads into town for supplies, finding T’Lyn’s growing empire now includes a popular line of (not Prime Directive-violating) beauty products. The Orion can barely control her inner green-eyed monster. Meanwhile, the twitchy transporter twins finally lick the console clean and send the beam-up signal, so T’Lyn heads to the house where Tendi has already gone over the edge, accusing Data of conspiring with her rival, and shutting him down (literally). Lurking Snell sees it all and knocks T’Lyn out, accusing them of being witches: “Looks like old Snell’s creepy lurking finally paid off.” He goes off to fetch the mob, and once they’re alone, Tendi admits she was being a jerk trying to outscience the Vulcan whose agricultural endeavors were just an attempt to form “comradery.” Aww. Hatchet buried, they get Data to chew their bindings off, proving his is “fully functional” (they said the thing!). They spring Mariner, who realizes her goal of building a bond was fulfilled by her jail pals. Snell confronts them with his angry mob, only to find the demon head he accuses the group of having was just a giant grape with a face painted on it. Sneaky. They head out of town to finally get beamed up as Purple Data admits his longing to be reunited with his best friend, Purple Geordi. Aww. Before being returned home, the legendary officer (head) confides with the captain, offering a suggestion that delights the lower deckers: T’Lyn and Tendi will share the senior science position. The ladies forgive Boimler and Rutherford for stranding them for a year, but T’Lyn warns “You do indeed owe us big time.” Vulcan slam. All that is left is for Mariner to fill the void left by her prison palls by playing us off with her jail soap flute. “You do not know how to play that.” Look at T’Lyn, she is out of control.
Snell will have his revenge.
REVIEW
Wow that was a lot of fun. The classic Trek setup of an undercover visit to a pre-warp culture is ripe for some Lower Decks commentary, and they had a lot to say, including the spot-on nosy lurker Snell, who may have stolen the show. Top it off with time dilation hijinks and a huge legacy star helping carry a character story and you have yourself a great episode. As the series heads towards its end the episode definitely indulged in (too many?) classic episode callbacks, with meta gags like “fully functional,” “Edo-level bulls—t,” and “Carbon Creek situation,” just to name a few. Balancing out the connected comedy was broad humor of a much lower brow than we are used to from the show, with lines about carpet matching the hull, huge melons, and of course, purple D. It’s a matter of taste perhaps, but my inner adolescent boy was laughing.
Behind the humor was a complex character story dealing with how our former ensigns still struggle with growing up as Tendi takes a somewhat dark turn towards envy and jealousy of T’Lyn, who is oblivious to the competition between them. The time dilation on the planet was the perfect crucible to ramp up the Orion’s transformation into a mad scientist holed up in her lab with Purple Data trying to help. Brent Spiner was a delight as he brought back his TNG series-era Data with that mix of naivety, cutting insights, and trademark deadpan wit. The writers also captured that era perfectly, keeping things from getting too broad, allowing the actor to find the fun and the heart, like those callbacks to his friendship with Geordi. He helps expose the irony of how this “girls trip” that ends up with each of the three mostly off on their own contrasts with past episodes like “Something Borrowed, Something Green,” where the trio had fun together. Growing up and getting promotions (and Tendi’s extended time on Orion) can see friends drift apart… very relatable. Mariner’s side of this story was a bit too silly and clichéd, but it was still pretty funny and in the end that’s all that matters.
Stick with me sister, I’ll make you a juggling star!
The Boimler and Rutherford mini-story (which really only lasted less than a minute) was a fine but forgettable bit of physical humor. But it does seem that Rutherford has now been lured into Brad’s path towards being guided by cheat codes from alt-universe, and Mariner was right to call them out for stealing someone else’s vibe. Their mishap could foreshadow how there are more consequences to not being yourself, but for now we can just have a laugh at them forced to lick clean a Lundy-smelling console, along with their own bit of “LCARS issues” meta humor.
The big season plot of the space fissures (or “fizches” as Ransom says) came back this week. We still haven’t picked up on the big reveal that they are artificially created, and no one seems concerned about that even though they had to close three just this week. It seems the fissures are really an opportunity for them to tell more of the character growth stories that are the main push for the season. And of course these gateways also allow for great opportunities, like bringing in Brent Spiner to play Purple Data, and there is nothing wrong with that.
That escalated quickly.
Final thoughts
This was certainly another one for the fans and rightly so. If you are five seasons in on this show, you love the franchise as much as series creator Mike McMahan and his merry band of creatives. They are playing the hits, calling back to familiar episodes and themes, but even with a major (and wonderful) guest star, the core characters are still the heart of what makes it all work. Sadly, we now only have three more episodes to hang out with them.
What do you mean you like his beard more?
RANDOM BITS
- Startdate: 59499.6.
- T’Lyn’s Vulcan home was in an outcropping of jagged rocks in the Viltan Flats.
- The USS Cerritos holds a regularly scheduled Taquito Night involving dancing and singing.
- Micheladas are real Mexican cocktails with many variations, apparently including shrimp on “ostentatious” Starfleet skewers.
Yes, Micheladas are as gross as they look.
Easter eggs and more to come
We will take a deeper dive into all the Easter eggs and canon connections this weekend and 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.
While I enjoyed the episode, I feel they made the sin of having characters do stupid things for plot reasons. Like, Mariner forgets all about the mission and the Prime Directive, ignoring the growth and intelligence she’s demonstrated this season, just so they could bring back the chaotic Mariner from past seasons who always gets thrown in the brig for a “speedrunning the Inner Light” joke? Also, to keep her out of the picture to focus on Tendi and T’Lyn’s rivalry — which yet again brings back this season’s trend of having problems stem from characters not talking to each other and assuming the worst.
Sorry, maybe I sound like I’m being more down on this episode than I actually am…it’s just frustrating to me that they’re still reverting to tropes with only three episodes left.
They’ve been doing this for five seasons; this surprises you?
I liked this episode and seeing Data again made me feel all fuzzy inside.
Hehe.
The bit where he talked about observing Worf before chewing through the rope was amazing.
Spock and Data were my childhood heroes.
Spiner didn’t really sound like Data tbh but I chalked this up to him being from “The Purple D”, even though he apparently had very similar experiences to “Prime Data”.
I LOVE Lower Decks but honestly the meta reference jokes are something I really hate about it
“got a Carbon Creek situation” “real Last Outpost vibes here” etc etc it just takes me out of it and just reeks of fanboy nonsense in the writers room instead of something the characters would actually say
Yeah I have to agree. I wish they would stop doing it as well and they have been doing it since the first season. I like when they describe the situations from episodes like when Mariner talked about Picard’s experience from The Inner Light. That makes complete sense. But mentioning the titles breaks the fourth wall a little too much for me.
And sorry about getting too nit picky, but the ‘Carbon Creek’ reference doesn’t belong at all because how would she know about that since it never involved Starfleet and T’Pol told the story to Archer and Trip in private.
T’Pol was simply telling a story over dinner, hardly “this is just between us” material. I’d be shocked if Archer never looked into the possibility it was true. T’Pol might also have made it common knowledge after the establishment of the Federation a decade later.
Thinking about it a little more, A. It has been over 200 years and B. Vulcans probably opened up about their history and prior activities surrounding Earth once the Federation was established and they became full-fledged allies. So yeah, you’re probably right.
It sometimes bugs me, but “a Carbon Creek situation” is similar to saying “a Roswell situation”; assuming the story became more well-known over time, it works in-universe whether it’s also an episode title or not.
Carbon Creek might have become very famous in the years after Enterprise, though, especially with Archer becoming the President of the Federation and T’Pol at some point affirming that the story was true. Last Outpost is a bit more of a stretch, but the planet was “The Last Outpost of the T’Kon Empire” and it could be required reading at the Academy.
LD has already established that training scenarios in simulator holopods share the same/similar titles to the episodes they took place in. So references to titles are not episode titles in universe, but references to training scenario titles that Starfleet members are familiar with.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Simulator_holopod
Ah, good catch! I think there goes way more thought into the Lower Decks jokes than some people give them credit for. They really want to make sure that it still fits into the universe.
That, and it also stands to reason that the Vulcans would declassify incidents like “Carbon Creek” after the dissolution of the old High Command.
As a real-world example, Boris Yeltsin released details of the KAL007 shootdown after the dissolution of the USSR.
It’s not the first time though Becket (and Boimler for that matter) has shown an interest in Those Old Scientists and other celebrities. At this point their nerdiness is a recurring joke and very much in character.
100% I wish the show would stand on it’s own two feet more.
Fun episode . Shows we need more gust stars Purple Data was Data .
We need more seasons or at least a Starbase 80 spin off one !
“Peak Performance”.
This one was great! Loved every minute of it; especially after how disappointed I was with last weeks episode. This felt like some of the best of LDS earlier episodes. I smiled big when I saw Data was back. It felt like old times. Funny the title of the episode gave it away it would be about him and yet I never once considered he would appear lol.
And per usual, loved T’Lyn in this episode because she is always looking out for everyone. What’s great about her is that she shows how much she cares about the crew and her friends but without expressing any emotion. I wish people who hate the show or thinks it’s only popular because it has a lot of Easter eggs and fan service can also see what others like me who does love it see with a lot of subtext and great character development. A lot of clever writing in it.
Even though season 5 hasn’t been amazing IMO I still really love this show.
Tiger2 I’m grateful for this post I thought I was the only one that felt last week’s was a real let down, especially being the last season and heading into the home stretch. And you’re right, the subtext and excellent character development, and might I add, the heart and love, are what makes LDS awesome and I wish more people could see it like that!
Yeah was not a fan! I’m not sure if I would go so far to say I hated it but it’s pretty close. But so far I only hated one LDS episode every season, so that’s a great record, especially for Star Trek lol.
But yeah how the characters have been developed are great. And I also love the tone and feel of this show. When it was announced, I expected I was going to laugh if it was funny enough but I didn’t think I would smile as much either. I still remember the second episode of season one with the very last scene of Rutherford and Tendi together in the Jefferies tubes with the inage of the pulsar in the very last shot. I remember smiling so wide over it and thinking I’m going to love this show. It delivers so much heart, especially at a time we needed more of that from Star Trek when it just became aave the galaxy stuff with the others.
And this episode brought a smile to my face several times, especially all the Tendi and Data moments. That’s the Star Trek I love.
Even though the show is ending, I don’t think it means we won’t see the characters again. I have a feeling we will ne seeing then in the future as many of the others since they have become beloved in the fanbase.
I *desperately* need to see live-action Tendi and Rutherford.
Maybe I’m being too much of an optimist but I think we’ll get them in live action at some point too!
“Ready to churn some butter?”
Filthiest line ever spoken in any Star Trek show.
Agreed but should be updated to say, “Filthiest line ever spoken in any Star Trek Show, not counting half the things Doctor T’Ana says.” :)
Ok this episode blew my mind. Brent F-ing Spiner! We truly aren’t worthy. We also never saw his head go back to the other universe. Just sayin…
Nevermind, we did.
We still don’t know what happened to his body though. I wouldn’t be surprised if that shows up.
Not a great episode. Derivative and full of idiotic references, the Carbon Creek one was particularly stupid and jarring.
And of course all the comment section is talking about is Brent Spiner back, because legacy characters. Gotta have those eh. God forbid an episode of modern Star Trek doesn’t.