IR TV Review: STAR TREK - LOWER DECKS - EPISODE 8 (“I Excretus”) [Paramount+-S2]

Many of the recent episodes of "Lower Decks" have been about smaller vignettes balanced between different ideas of character build. Episode 8 of Season 2: "I Excretus" takes it in a different direction with mixed but also some funny deep cut results. The story revolves around an external testing person coming in and doing compacted holodeck drills on the crew but also reversing their roles. The Lower Decks become the Bridge Crew and the Bridge Crew vice versa. The person conducting the drills is the same species as Bem from the animated series who himself was a colony creature who could separate his body. Each crew member is placed in a different scenario.

Mariner's are the best because they are odes to TOS episodes but with a spin (some in a very modern way). Some are just cool. Some definitely stray over the line. But this series is about pushing comedic bounds and creator Mike McMahan did work on "Rick & Morty". He loves Star Trek and just all the references really throttle up here not in terms of canon but just deep cuts. Boimler's actions in this one especially in his sequence really start to show what he is capable of and is some of the best moments of the episode. The ending of course is to building understanding but also a balance of knowing what is real and imagined, important and non-important. Of course, Boimler always gets the short end of the stick but that is his lot in life. "I Excretus" pushes the confines of the box but like all IP, certain things need to transform but it is a tricky balance sometimes. B

By Tim Wassberg