IR TV Review: STAR TREK - LOWER DECKS - EPISODE 5 (“An Embarrassment Of Dopplers”) [Paramount+]

The funneling of separate stories tries to make more texture...and, in certain episodes of "Lower Decks" it works well. But, as always, with some episodes, the devil is in the periphery details and sometimes it clicks. Episode 4 of the 2nd season: "An Embarrassment Of Dopplers" is a sneaky one in a way the more one thinks about it. The Dopplers as a species (which I am not aware of in Trek lore) replicates when it feels embarrassed. The irony and beauty is that it is voiced by Richard Kind, whose performance as the ethereal and tragic elephant in "Inside Out" is one of the best voice acting performances in recent memory...not because of his voice but the way it embodied him in a way. Here the Dopplers definitely paint a metaphor of duality wich definitely parallels to a relationship between a cyborg and an Orion because it speaks of what something is and why it needs to be...or why it doesn't. The reasoning the Dopplers reassemble mirrors that.

In comparison, the relationship of Boimler and Mariner, while not a relationship, builds because of what it is...and what it might be. The MO of going to a space station for an elite officers party is a good construct but the ensuing chase feels more like an ode to the mall scene from "The Blues Brothers" (though it could have been more on the nose). But where it ends up and specifically a myth it shows that is a subtle but obvious poignant detail in the wood really makes the moment sing...and it has nothing to do with plot. That alone, much less in animation, is very hard to do. The rest of the episode might meander but those small moments (think Riker's brief but alive sentient interlude with Minuet in TNG). It might have been a plot ploy but the moment sits aside from the episode...and that is what happens here. B+

By Tim Wassberg