This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Star Trek: Lower Decks returns for its fourth season and Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford are ready for more missions assigned to the bottom rung of Starfleet. The misadventures begin with a top-secret mission that the USS Cerritos doesn’t discover until they reach their rendezvous point.
The episode’s title, “Twovix,” is a play on both a Star Trek: Voyager episode and the hybrid third character formed after a transporting accident with Tuvok and Neelix. While escorting the USS Voyager, which will soon be a museum, the crew’s ship experiences a similar incident but to a larger and more dangerous degree.
With a connection to the older series, the episode incorporates many fun Easter eggs and call backs as fan service while injecting them with its typical humor. There are even some deeper cuts to satisfy die-hards. For better or worse, Lower Decks usually goes full throttle. However in this case, it seems that there are too many references crammed in and it can take away from the big picture and muddle the narrative.
The series attempts to mix things up with the cast are refreshing and interesting. Added to the young group of ensigns is the Vulcan, T’Lyn, who we’ve met in the season two episode “we Duj” and who formally joins the Cerritos in the season three finale “The Stars at Night.” Sometimes adding a new character to an established cast can backfire, but T’Lyn serves as a nice complement to the main foursome. She is as capable as the others, and her Vulcan personality serves as a contrast to the shenanigans that regularly occur. She is a voice of reason and calm, and as she mentions in the episode, an impartial party.
What is as intriguing is giving the Lower Deckers an opportunity to move up the ranks with the possibility of promotions. Not only does it exhibit the growth of the characters, but it also provides several areas of conflict to explore moving forward. Not everyone is ambitious and are content with the status quo while not everyone obtains rank. This could cause issues in power structure and their friendships.
“Twovix” also effectively establishes the season long narrative. It’s clever in a way that it sheds light on the lower decks equivalent of the other Star Trek races. But it also emphasizes how dangerous of a threat that is out there. It creates this aura of mystery that we can’t wait to unravel as the season progresses.
The season four premiere is a fun start with plenty of fan service while introducing a new group dynamic and a mysterious new threat.
New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks are released Thursdays on Paramount+.
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