Posted in: CBS, Review, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: Eugene Cordero, Jack Quaid, noel wells, star trek, star trek: Lower Decks, Tawny Newsome

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Ep. 8 Review: Too Much Undermining

Published Fri, 14 Oct 2022 07:37:12 -0500

by Tom Chang

Comments

There are tons of narratives Star Trek has used for its Holodeck since its introduction in The Next Generation primarily as a means of an escape from Starfleet duties, mainly for the senior officers. In the case of Lower Decks, it's the ensigns' way of pretending that they're senior officers on a non-canonical adventure. Guess it makes sense in the episode "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" that the ensigns want to pretend they're completely in charge of their own destiny in their own created adventure. The following contains minor spoilers.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Ep. 8 Review: Too Much Undermining — "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" – Ep#308– Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Noel Wells as Ensign Tendi, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler and Noel Wells as Ensign Tendi of the Paramount+ series STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Photo: PARAMOUNT+ ©2022 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved **Best Possible Screen Grab**

The scenario created by Boimler (Jack Quaid), which was inspired by Mariner's original program (Tawny Newsome), has their group that includes Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), has the foursome as different Starfleet officers helping the Cerritos in a race against time trying to secure an artifact stolen by Romulans that can travel through time. As we go through the motions, we see Mariner take every opportunity to nitpick the simulation. While it's on brand for her character and the humor of the series, it has the double-edged sword of ruining the immersion by the audience when the entire story and/or simulation they're in is completely meaningless. It's the kind of fourth-wall break that bashes you over the head, asking, "What's the point in investing anything in this episode?" even if it's from the dissent of one character.

Directed by Michael Mullen and written by Ben Rodgers, "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" does make a genuine attempt to think outside the box in regard to the main characters but dangles that carrot about taking the show seriously. Then, when you finally grab the prize, the writing just cuts the string out of spite. We do get some decent exposition about Boimler and Tendi. The episode would have been better if it didn't try to undermine itself so much.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Episode 8 "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus"

Review by Tom Chang

6/10

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 episode "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" takes some bold swings as a Holodeck episode but suffers from undercutting its potential one too many times.

Credits

Director

Michael Mullen

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