Review—Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 4, “Moist Vessel”

The newest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks mashes together out-there sci-fi concepts with a more grounded mother-daughter story. The result: hilarity.

Star Trek: Lower Decks continues to impress. The fourth episode, “Moist Vessel,” reveals that Mariner, despite being able to make any bad situation fun, has an actual weakness. It also features an outstanding cameo from The Sixth Sense’s Haley Joel Osment as O’Connell, the ascension guy. This episode proves that red shirts can survive anything, even cruel and unusual nepotism.

This is the first episode where the cold open is actually part of the plot, as the Cerritos and the Merced team up to tow an abandoned ship filled with mummified cryosleepers. It’s also carrying a substance that brings to life anything it touches; most likely it was going to be used to terraform a planet before things went south.

During the mission briefing, Mariner yawns her way into trouble with the captain, aka her mother, who concocts a plan with Ransom to make her daughter’s duties so miserable that she’ll request a transfer.

“Moist Vessel” — Pictured Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Photo Cr: Best Possible Screen Grab CBS ©2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mariner gets assigns what Boimler describes as “Klingon prison camp activities”: Holodeck waste removal, turbolift lubing, scraping carbon off of more carbon…it’s dire stuff. But somehow, Mariner finds a way to make these tasks fun with the help of phasers and gambling.

Meanwhile, Tendi is very excited to witness O’Connell complete an ascension, meaning he’s mastered an alien practice and can become pure energy. But she drives O’Connell crazy trying to help him and ruins the entire thing.

Learning her plan has backfired, the captain promotes Mariner to lieutenant, forcing her to go to as many boring meetings as possible, which is basically Mariner’s worse fear. On the other hand, Boimler becomes angry that his rule-breaker friend gets the position he wants, so he decides to go bad boy, to no avail.

The Merced ends up getting too close to the towed ship, and the terraforming takes over the vessel and begins to invade the Cerritos. Mariner and her mom team up to save the day. Not too long after Mariner makers fun of an admiral, she gets promptly gets demoted back to her former position.

Tendi does get to witness O’Connell ascend after he risks his life to save her. The process looks extremely painful and traumatic, and full of off-the-wall visions.

The ascension was easily the funniest part of the episode. I replayed it several times so I could fully understand what the Ensign was screaming as he became pure energy. I can’t stop thinking about the Koala bear that carries the universe on its back and what it knows that would make it smile? That’s the kind of thought-provoking humor I’m here for.

Seeing Mariner overcome the odds in her own rebellious ways is becoming a signature part of the series. I enjoyed getting to see more of her layers as the show dug into her strained relationship with her mother.

Boimler took a back seat this episode, which was a nice change of pace, and Tendi never disappoints. Lower Decks knows how to balance its players and rotate the focus so things don’t drag.

It’s impressive that the show continues to explore different sci-fi concepts with every episode. The way they blend the terraforming subplot with the characters’ journeys is impressive, and makes me excited to see what the writers pull out next. This is another successful mission for Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Episode Grade: B

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