As the second part of its two-episode Season 4 premiere, Star Trek: Lower Decks continues to lean hard into the reservoir of comical potential in the Star Trek franchise. Ominously titled "I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Scream," the season's sophomore episode retains the premise of the preceding episode but from a more horror-fueled approach. Just as the season premiere lovingly skewered the legacy of Star Trek: Voyager and its eccentricities, the follow-up episode takes a look at Starfleet in a stronger and funnier episode.
Fresh off their promotions to lieutenants, Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner are acclimating to their new roles and the responsibilities that come with their upgraded ranks on the USS Cerritos. Unhappy with the perceived prestige, Mariner tries to get Commander Jack Ransom to demote her during a visit to a strange cosmic menagerie, while Boimler tries to find new living accommodations on the Cerritos. Meanwhile, Sam Rutherford, who was passed up for a promotion with his friends, chafes against a new rival working with him in Engineering who seems to get all the departmental acclaim.
Boimler's storyline is easily the funniest in the episode, exploring the less idealized aspects of living on a Starfleet vessel, from the awkward placement of individual quarters across the starship to the unorthodox possibilities of the Holodeck, a deservedly repeated point of ridicule on Lower Decks. There is a lot of humor to be had from this, and the show takes full advantage of it, with Boimler's history of playful suffering offering a lot of comic mileage. This is juxtaposed with Rutherford's struggles with his workplace rival around Engineering, giving the former more of the spotlight he lacked in the season premiere.
The premise of Mariner and Ransom visiting a menagerie is an oddly repetitive way to follow up the premiere, with the preceding episode revolving around the Cerritos helping transport a moving museum. Mariner's strategy to get herself demoted feels like a step backward from the trajectory she had been on, but this is addressed directly by the episode's end, showing a level of awareness. Lower Decks has featured a contentious dynamic between Mariner and Ransom since the show's earliest episodes, and it's good to see this developed upon here, four seasons in.
Star Trek has played with the monster hunting the heroes from the shadows angle before, and Lower Decks puts its own twist on the trope here to great effect. Despite the title and premise, "I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Scream" isn't a particularly scary episode, nor is that really the goal here. The story has a genuine sense of stakes and peril that wasn't really present in the season premiere as Mariner and Ransom scramble to survive the unleashed monster.
With its two-episode season launch, Star Trek: Lower Decks is just as strong as ever and markedly funnier than its preceding season. Some of the funniest moments in the series to date occur in "I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Scream," which leans more into laughs than character development, though the latter is in healthy supply as well. With its debut complete, Lower Decks Season 4 has laid an interesting path for the rest of the season, deftly balancing comedy and action in masterful measure.
Created by Mike McMahan, Star Trek: Lower Decks releases new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.