Star Trek: Lower Decks spoils Deep Space 9 for me in “Hear All, Trust Nothing”

A visit to a popular destination at the edge of Federation Space, Deep Space 9, has the crew of the USS Cerritos’s breaking off for many individual adventures. Ominous diplomats, pirate ships, pillow parties, and high-stakes gambling in this episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, “Hear All, Trust Nothing.”

The show gives itself a lot of balls to juggle this week, and for the most part the writers handle it well. The main plot element is that the Cerritos is tasked with docking at Deep Space 9 so Captain Freeman can negotiate with visiting diplomats from the Gamma Quadrant, giving the Lower Deck crew a chance to branch out on their own.

This is a fun episode. Bouncing back and forth between so many characters in different parts of the station is a great choice and effectively conveys the idea that this is a crowded place; there’s lots to see. The dialogue can come off a bit bare-bones, or rather, straight-to-the-point; with so many stories, there’s only so much time for each one to settle. That said, the variety makes up for it.

Party on Deep Space 9 in Star Trek: Lower Decks

Looking at each storyline, I don’t think there’s a bad one in the bunch. The negotiations with the visitors from the Gamma Quadrant provides the perfect central conflict that everyone else branches off from. Also, Quark was a delight. If this is an accurate depiction of him, , I’ve got something to look forward to going into Deep Space Nine (some day).

In her story, Tendi meets a fellow Orion, Mesk (don’t hold me to the spelling on that one). The tension between them gives the episode a solid emotional core; the resolution not only has a nice moral, but plays a major part in wrapping up the main conflict as well.

Then we have Mariner’s storyline, which involves her meeting Jeniffer, her approaching-serious girlfriend, and her friends. Good humor here, and some nice romance that leaves you going “me n who.” Lastly, we have some minor stories with Boimler gambling and Shaxs arguing with an old ally on DS9 over who owes the other a favor for saving each others lives so many times. Not much time is given to these plots; mostly they’re here to set up long jokes that pay off at the end of the show.

You could argue that the Boimler and Shaxs stuff could have been cut to make more time for stories of greater interest, but they still work. The jokes pay off well enough. (Especially in Quark’s case. Haha, get it?) Plus, losing them would diminish that crowded party effect the episode was going for.

"Good to see Quark doing well in lower decks from DeepSpaceNine"

And that’s all I’ve got on this one. My only request is that the writers keep referencing the Star Trek media I’ve seen. Although now that they’ve introduced me to Quark, I would be pretty cool with them writing him in as a main character now. Just retcon the whole show and make it about Quark, please.

Anyway, I’ll see you in the next episode of Star Quark: Quark-er Decks. 

Grade: B+

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