“Fully Dilated” is Not What It Sounds Like On the Latest ‘Lower Decks’
“Fully Dilated” is not about surprise space babies. The dilation in question is of the time variety. Wacky away mission, ahoy!
It’s interesting watching these final episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks. There’s an obvious question hanging thick in the air: how does the Cerritos’ story conclude? What will the final notes be for Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford, Tendi, and T’Lynn?
“Fully Dilated” does not deal with this—at least not much. What this episode feels like is a kind of last hurrah for the types of episodes that comprise the foundation of Lower Decks. There’s heart and good character work, but there’s a big focus on references.
Later seasons of LD, tend to relegate a lot of the shout outs to the background. No “Fully Dilated”. This story is so full of throwbacks that there’s even a (partial) manifestation of one.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first!
To Boldly Recap “Fully Dilated”
It’s a spatial anomaly, everybody! This one yields an Enterprise-D that’s… purple? The purple D (clearly an alt. universe Sunny D) accidentally leaves something behind on a pre-industrial planet. Mariner, Tendi, and T’Lynn have to check it out!
The planet is time dilated so that, for every second on the Cerritos, a week passes on the planet. Unfortunately Boimler and Rutherford are drinking micheladas in the transporter. The micheladas fall on the transporter console. And the away team gets stranded.
Thus, our girl’s trip lasts A YEAR. In that year stuff happens. T’Lynn builds a windmill, grows enormous crops, and basically invents Soul Glo. Mariner tries to make friends but keeps winding up in prison instead.
But the lede we’ve buried is that they find what the Purple D left: A purple Data head! Tendi brings the head to life and enlists Data in a mildly nefarious plan. T’Lynn and Tendi are both vying for the senior science officer gig. Tendi thinks she is losing. So Tendi asks Data to help her “win”.
Instead an interloper named Snell sees the head and concludes our heroes are demons. Thankfully, Snell is a loser so his plan doesn’t work. Mariner gets out of jail. With the transporter finally fixed, they shimmer away back to the Cerritos. Tendi and T’Lynn make up and become co-science heads.
It’s Full of References
Rarely do we just name the stuff Lower Decks apes from earlier Star Trek shows, but “Fully Dilated” is an exception.
Mariner questions if the Purple D’s “carpet matches the hull” which is a shout out to the carpet of the original Enterprise D. Captain Freeman says the Purple D is fighting an army of evil Tasha Yar clones. When we first officially meet Sela (another alt. universe Tasha’s daughter)in the TNG story “Redemption” it’s hypothesized that she is a clone.
Mariner references the episode “Blink of an Eye” when she says the time dilation is like a planet Voyager encounters She also says time dilation is like when time slows down because she has to go to a play. This is a reference to how Dr. Crusher drags crewmembers into the theater.
Data only having his head is a reference to the TNG story “Time’s Arrow” as is T’Lynn’s false claim that they are traveling performers. Mariner describes Snell as a lurker and says there’s always one of those in “Carbon Creek” situations, which is a reference to the Enterprise episode of the same name.
Mariner tries to live her “probe life,” a reference to “Inner Light” aka the story where Picard lives a whole life in 25 minutes, but she keeps winding up in jail which she refers to as “Edo level bullshit” in reference to the Edo from “Justice.”
And Tendi says Data is “fully functional” which is a call back to the time he had sex with Yar in “The Naked Now”.
So is “Fully Dilated” Good?
Yes. There, that was easy!
Okay, okay. Is “Fully Dilated” a reference-palooza? Yes, absolutely. Does that harm the episode? Not one jot. The best reference heavy Lower Decks episodes use shout outs to show us how the Cerritos crew stand apart from their other Star Trek counterparts.
Even when Mariner tries to be like Picard in “Inner Light” she just winds up where she usually does—jail! Mariner is great, not because she’s like Picard, but because she is a friend to other troublemakers. She’s not a solemn flute player. Her flute is made of soap and it’s terrible! It’s also hilarious.
T’Lynn isn’t like the Vulcans from “Carbon Creek”. She’s weirdly opportunistic. She ducks the primer directive by making something helpful (but not too helpful) and getting rich off it.
And Tendi isn’t like Data—at least not in the way she wants initially. Yes, she can adapt to limited technology. But sometimes, Tendi is driven by self-doubt and personal interest. Tendi is most like Data in that she works best with a science pal. Data needs Geordi. Tendi needs T’Lynn.
About the Beards
Last episode closes on this question: how will the alt. dimension PADD impact both Boimler and Rutherford. Boimler’s been growing that beard, but now Rutherford is on board. How does that play out?
Answer? Rutherford also grows a beard. And, yes, they both also drink micheladas because alt. Boimler drinks them. “Fully Dilated” plays Boimler and Rutherford’s stagnation as a joke. Or does it?
While, yes, at least Rutherford isn’t turning into a robot, this decision to live by someone else’s book is a bad one. On the plus side, yes, we do see some consequences to the guys’ bad decisions—namely Mariner, Tendi and T’Lynn’s one year mission.
What I hope is that this goofy mishap sets up larger consequences. I think obsessing over the PADD has to result in something neither Boimler or Rutherford can just take back. My hope is that’s what “Fully Dilated” just set up.
Three episodes to go! This week was fun. But now we need the big guns!
