“Now what do you think that tells me about your character?”
If it weren’t for “All Good Things…,” “Lower Decks” would be the clear standout of the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s a phenomenal episode, brilliantly structured and entirely forward-looking in its approach. It anticipates the best years of Deep Space Nine (and the better arcs of Voyager and Enterprise) by delivering a model for a Star Trek episode as a character-driven workplace drama, rather than a monster-of-the-week adventure show. Granted, this is a strategy that can drive me nuts when it’s done poorly (see the lesser arcs of Voyager and Enterprise), but “Lower Decks” is rich, heartfelt, and fresh.
Probably the episode’s best strategic decision is repatriating Ensign Sito from “The First Duty,” a peripheral character in that show who nonetheless has enough base-level audience familiarity to jump ahead in our emotional interest. This lets “Lower Decks” focus on her storyline as its principal arc, and allows the episode to deliver something it could never achieve through one of the series’ invincible leads: her death in the line of duty. It’s a resonant, melancholy moment, thanks to Shannon Fill’s fine, spirited performance, and Sito’s relationships with the principal characters throughout (particularly Worf – because anytime you want to hit the heartstrings hard, getting an emotional reaction out of Worf is the best shortcut available).
Equally delightful are the balance of the junior characters introduced here. Annoying Vulcan ensign Taurik (who would later pop up on Voyager, albeit – I am told – as Taurik’s twin brother Vorik) is such a good foil for Geordi that I wish he’d become a recurring character. The Ten Forward waiter, Ben, is another great idea for a character, simply in that he can slip meaningfully between the strata of characters on the ship. (When he finishes cleaning out the ensigns at their weekly poker game, he strides across the hallway and starts working on the senior officers.) And giving augmented face time to Nurse Ogawa is a charming enhancement as well – her storyline in the episode is rather thin, but Patty Yasutake’s simple emotional commitment delivers several key sequences.
What a wonderful script. Each extended scene is a clever, self-contained vignette, and the junior officers are breathtakingly well-rendered given that most of them are showing up for the very first time this week. And as was likely one intent of the exercise from the beginning, the focus on the juniors does, indeed, show fresh angles of our principal characters, even at this late stage in the series. Riker, Worf, Picard, and Beverly are all shown in legitimately new lights – a remarkable achievement in and of itself.
Blogging The Next Generation is winding down to the end, as I work my way through the episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation on blu-ray.The final season is in stores now.