Star Trek: Lower Decks review—Episode 5 gives us a red alert romance

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow” gives us a love story with a parasitic twist, and is chock-full of hilarious Star Trek references fans will love.

Star Trek: Lower Deck drops the cold open for its fifth outing and jumps straight into a stellar episode full of action, thrills and lots of perfectly delivered jokes. “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” takes aim at romantic comedies, and uses some parallel storytelling to keep us entertained through the end.

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow” does a good job of giving the spotlight to most of the main players. Guest stars Gillian Jacobs from Community and Matt Walsh from Veep also add a lot to the episode.

The episode starts off by catching subscribers up to date on the Cerritos’ latest mission: assisting the USS Vancouver deal with a moon that could devastate a planet if it falls out of orbit. It’s an important mission, but Ensign Mariner becomes much more interested that Boimler is dating someone who isn’t a Holodeck projection, someone she thinks is out of her friend’s league: lieutenant Barbara Brinson.

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow — Pictured (L-R) Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler and Gillian Jacobs as Barb 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 is convinced Boimler’s girlfriend has to be one of the many shape-shifting, appearance-stealing creatures seen throughout the franchise, naming a bunch longtime fans will enjoy ticking off on her fingers.

Meanwhile, Boimler — who’s real name is Bradford, as it ends up — suspects Barb may be cheating on him with another guy, which inspires him to shower her cliched gifts and dress up in a cavalcade of cool guy outfits.

Anyway, while Mariner is suspicious of Boimler’s relationship, Barb is suspicious that a badass space adventurer like Mariner would be friends with a tender nerd like Bradford. As the two throw down, they bond over Boimler’s mishaps and shenanigans, realizing they like him because he’s adorably pathetic.

Then they realize that Barb was only attracted to Boimler because of an alien parasite that was working some pheromone magic. She breaks ups with him so she can study the love-obsessed little creature, and that was a quick end to that.

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow — Pictured (L-R) Noël Wells as Ensign Tendi and Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Photo Cr: Best Possible Screen Grab CBS ©2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Meanwhile, Ensign Tendi and Rutherford race against each other for a T88 diagnostic device only to realize they’ve been duped into almost losing their Cerritos positions by a very overwhelmed Lt. Cmdr. Ron Docent. In the end, they work together to keep their posts, steal a ton of T88s, and realize that they are the best of friends. Tendi’s intensity and Rutherford’s robotic positivity makes for a good mix.

And that leaves Captain Carol Freeman to actually try and manage the falling moon situation. She threads her way through the politics and manages to make everyone happy, with the exception of a rich couple who can no longer live on their own planet by themselves. Freeman gets the job done and implodes the moon.

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow — Pictured Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman 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’s Trekkie knowledge is on par with Data’s. I loved her guessing everything Barb could be. The Salt Succubus callback was great; you can tell the creators pay attention to detail.

The flashback with Mariner is also spectacular: seeing her with an afro keeping it real and throwing shade at The Next Generation was a highlight. I’m not saying they should cancel Discovery and Picard and greenlight a live-action prequel Mariner series, but I’m not not saying that.

“Cupid’s Errant Arrow — Pictured (L-R) Jack Quaid as Ensign Boimler and Tawny Newsome as Ensign 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.

We’re also introduced to the laugh-out-loud Geordi teddy bear, which seems to be the go-to gift among members of Starfleet. It’s the little things like this that make Lower Decks such a joy every week.

Episode Grade: A

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