Star Trek: Lower Decks review, Episode 406: Lobe-ing Las Vegas

Another day, another away mission to an oft-mentioned but hitherto almost never visited planet: Ferenginar. The cold open starts on a Ferengi vessel before it’s destroyed by the mysterious spaceship. However, this time it’s different: one of the Ferengi seems to have known this was coming. What nefarious deals have the Ferengi been making with the season’s primary antagonist?

Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford & Tendi have been selected for “Travel Guide duty” down on the planet, while the Cerritos oversees the Ferengi in joining the Federation. As we all know, Quark’s idiot brother Rom became Grand Nagus back during Deep Space 9 and ushered in a wave of progressive change to the galaxy’s last capitalists, so it only seems natural that they’d join a money-less socialist collective without a moment’s hesitation.

The episode handles the totally platonic and not-at-all adorable relationship between Rutherford and Tendi with a surprising amount of heart. They’ve always been a ship waiting to sail, but now they’re given the mission opportunity to pretend to be newlyweds as they visit one of the planet’s most fabulous hotels. When the pressure is off, they’re effortlessly finishing each other’s equations, and entirely too cute. But when the hotel’s “hug-cierge” (no, really) puts them on the spot, both retreat into awkwardness like the huge nerds they are, rather than possibly letting slip that they are in fact into one another. It’s every bit as much of a bad 80s rom-com plot as it sounds, but for these characters, it just comes out charming.

Star Trek: Lower Decks review, Episode 406, “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”

Mariner immediately seeks out her old Ferengi friend Quimp from Lower Decks season 1. She’s on a mission to visit as many bars, restaurants, bars, hotels, pubs, bars, saloons, cantinas, and bars as she can (including that den of sin: the Ferengi Public Library). Beyond giving her liver an epic workout, Mariner continues to work through the same psychological issues that have been plaguing her since season 1, episode 1. Mariner is having trouble facing the fact that the Lieutenant Junior Grade job is actually a good one, and that she’s been given opportunity and support that she doesn’t feel like she actually deserves. There’s nothing like a weekend in Vegas for this type of soul searching, but you get the impression that her character is running out of ways to self-sabotage and then to recover from said self-sabotage.

Boimler, meanwhile falls victim to his own out-sized ambitions.  Before leaving the Cerritos, he had a plan to “pack his schedule so full that he’ll do everything, and enjoy nothing”. Upon arrival in his hotel suite, he falls prey to Ferengi television commercials, and the trash TV they bring with them. As eager as he is to prove himself to anyone with a shred of authority, once Boims is in a room by himself with no one watching, he loses all motivation. To be fair, he’s never been exposed to this level of hypnotic garbage and has no natural immunity. Besides, who could resist a show called Cop Landlords?

Back on the Cerritos, the negotiations for Ferenginar to join the Federation are going more or less as expected. Capt Freeman sees through all of Rom and Leeta’s negotiating tactics, but the Admiral involved is convinced he knows better. As with most situations involving admirals (and men convinced they automatically know everything), it falls to Captain Freeman to out-swindle the swindlers.

Finally, we must address the Pyrithian swamp gobbler in the room: the episode title, “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place.” Everyone will immediately recognize this as a play on Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a 2004 British horror parody television series created by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness for Channel 4.

Why make such a contrived reference to a show I’ve never actually watched, and therefore cannot see any parallels with or further references to? Why not?

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