While the main cast of Star Trek: Lower Decks may have been promoted to lieutenants at the start of Season 4, the officers still find themselves getting their hands dirty in the season's third episode. Titled "In the Cradle of Vexilon," the episode shows the main ensemble still acclimating to the responsibilities and changes in their roles on the USS Cerritos in the face of the latest crisis. Chaotic and unevenly paced, the episode is one of the weaker for Lower Decks in recent memory and struggles to become greater than the sum of its parts.
The Cerritos visits Vexilon, a world that's normally a sweeping paradise thanks to an ancient and benevolent artificial intelligence that maintains idyllic planetary conditions. However, when the program begins to break down, repairs instituted by Captain Carol Freeman cause conditions to quickly go haywire and leave the crew scrambling to restore the utopia. This comes as a group of the newly promoted lieutenants is tasked with managing small chips on the starship -- menial work, which they feel is beneath their new ranks.
There's always been an element of freewheeling chaos when it comes to Lower Decks, often instigated by Beckett Mariner and her usual defiance to Starfleet brass, particularly her mother, but it feels different this time. Characters feel a bit more rushed and reckless in "The Cradle of Vexilon," sometimes to the point that they come off as being out of character in trying to force the premise to take shape. D'Vana Tendi is the most visible in this regard. She's oddly quick to anger instead of bringing her usually bubbly personality to the proceedings, overreacting to her new assignment with barely contained vitriol.
The other issue is that most of the humor in the episode doesn't quite have the same punch, certainly not compared to the more pointed first two episodes of Season 4. There are still the broader riffs on the Star Trek mythos, with the story feeling like it could come straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the more unfocused narrative makes the pacing feel like it's all over the place. There's just something missing from the mix in the episode. It never really gives its characters and, by extension, the audience a chance to breathe and decompress.
That isn't to say that the entire episode is a total wash. There are still moments that Lower Decks fans are sure to enjoy as Season 4 progresses. Brad Boimler's story arc about learning to grow comfortable in giving his once fellow junior officers orders is a strong moment in his development, and it's nice seeing him working directly with T'Lyn for the first time in a prolonged period. Captain Freeman, who had been on the sidelines for much of the two preceding episodes, plays a prominent role in this episode, and it's always nice to hear Dawnn Lewis take a more central part in her fan-favorite role as the Cerritos' commanding officer.
No show can boast a perfect batting average in terms of quality, and Star Trek: Lower Decks is no different, with "The Cradle of Vexilon" a largely forgettable installment for the animated series. Boimler makes some small steps forward in his development as a Starfleet officer, but without any other connections to the wider Season 4 narrative, the episode feels like a disposable chapter in the ongoing story. Lower Decks Season 4 started out with some of the strongest episodes in the series to date, so it stands to reason that a noticeable step-down would be something of an inevitability.
Created by Mike McMahan, Star Trek: Lower Decks releases new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.