Star Trek: Why Some Starfleet Officers Think The Enterprise Is Bad
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 5 - "Cupid's Errant Arrow".
Not every Starfleet Officer wants to serve on ships like the U.S.S. Enterprise and Star Trek: Lower Decks explains why. Created by Mike McMahan, the first animated half-hour comedy set in the Star Trek universe centers on the junior officers of the U.S.S. Cerritos, which specializes in Second Contact. Although the main plot of Star Trek: Lower Decks episode 5, "Cupid's Errant Arrow", focuses on Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) trying to prove that Ensign Brad Boimler's (Jack Quaid) new girlfriend is an alien parasite, the episode's B story highlights the fact that some Starfleet Officers prefer careers that are less "epic" than the adventures of starships like the Enterprise.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowStar Trek: The Original Series was all about the incredibly dangerous, but also thrilling, voyages of the Starship Enterprise. With a mission statement of exploring the final frontier and boldly going where no man has gone before, Captain James T. Kirk's (William Shatner) legendary 23rd-century vessel faced numerous unimaginable threats and repeatedly saved the galaxy. In Star Trek: The Next Generation's 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) U.S.S. Enterprise-D and E continued to explore strange new worlds, seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations, and repeatedly save the Alpha Quadrant from various disasters. It's no wonder that many Starfleet Officers consider a posting on the Enterprise, and other eminent starships like it, to be a career goal. The chance to serve as part of the senior staff and possibly even become the Captain of a starship is the pinnacle for most Starfleet Officers' lives exploring deep space.
However, Star Trek: Lower Decks takes a more withering view of being posted on the best ships Starfleet has to offer. Beckett Mariner, in particular, is steadfastly against being promoted; she prefers the "no pressure, less responsibility" life in the Lower Decks of the Cerritos. "Cupid's Errant Arrow" reveals that other Starfleet Officers also feel the same way, including some who serve aboard Starfleet's top vessels. Star Trek: Lower Decks episode 5 introduced the U.S.S. Vancouver (NCC-70492), a Parliament-class starship that specializes in large and complex engineering projects. At first, Ensigns D'Vana Tendi (Noel Wells) and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) are dazzled by the Vancouver, and the chance to work on such an advanced ship that performs important missions is a dream come true. But they soon learned the hazards and downsides of life aboard a high-level starship.
It turns out that serving on starships like the Vancouver - and the Enterprise - is extremely stressful, especially for less-ambitious Starfleet Officers. Rutherford and Tendi discovered this fact when the Vancouver's Lt. Commander Ron Docent tried to trick them by transferring them to the Vancouver against their will so that he can take their spot aboard the Cerritos. When he was caught, Docent had an emotional breakdown because serving on the Vancouver "is so stressful and epic - it's all tow this space station and calibrate the Dyson Sphere and go back in time and kill the guy that was worse than Hitler!" Hilariously, these are all examples echoing the kind of mishaps the Enterprise regularly tackled every week on TOS and TNG.
Tendi and Rutherford have a sweet love affair with the Cerritos and, even though their home starship is "falling apart", they actually enjoy its quirks and they love working to keep their vessel shipshape. The Ensigns' encounter with Docent, who was forced to remain on the Vancouver, made them appreciate their starship even more, because not every Starfleet Officer wants to be on the bleeding edge of space exploration and constantly risking their lives facing danger in the final frontier. In a flashback, Mariner even reflects on the time Data's (Brent Spiner) brother Lore joined up with the Borg, referencing the TNG two-parter "Descent".
But what's illogical about Star Trek: Lower Decks' argument that the Cerritos is somehow safer than the Vancouver (or the Enterprise) is that it contradicts everything fans have seen from the series so far. In the pilot episode, "Second Contact", the starship's crew was infected by a rage virus that overran the Cerritos with bile-spewing zombies. The 4th episode, "Moist Vessel", saw an organic emulsion attack the Cerritos and terraform parts of the ship, endangering the crew. The Cerritos may be regarded as an "unimportant" ship but life in Star Trek: Lower Decks is just dangerous as serving on the Enterprise, and without the prestige that come with serving under Captain Picard.
About The AuthorSource: screenrant.com