Four seasons in and Star trek: Lower Decks continues to deliver just about what you’d expect. A mix of Star trek and comedy. Within that combination, however, there is a show of two halves. There is comedy about Star trek, and there is Star Trek that happens to be comedic. Lower Decks swings between these two forms at random, with the results being equally mixed. Even in its current form, it seems as if there are two shows vying for dominance. Both are very good shows, but for very different reasons.

‘Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place’ exemplifies the best of what Lower Decks usually does. It continues to build the universe with a trip to Ferenginar, not seen on-screen for some twenty-five years. The building occurs on the foundations of what Deep Space Nine laid, so it’s only fitting to have starring roles for Grand Nagus Rom and First Clerk Leeta, in a marvellous return for both Max Grodenchik and Chase Masterton. Along the way we get multiple jokes about Ferengi commerce, the best of which is their version of a police procedural, which is naturally about landlords. More seriously, it also paves the way for political shakeups that we’ve seen the payoff of in Discovery‘s later seasons. It ties the universe together while having some fun. This is what the show aims to be.

Occasionally, though, we get glimpses of a slightly different show. ‘In the Cradle of Vexillon’ is not built on references to the past. It’s a classic tale of a supercomputer degrading over time, though without the trope of it turning evil. As Boimler learns about leadership the heart way, Captain Freeman deals with the threat of planetary annihilation. The two stories thread together in the end, and everything is right with the world. Most importantly, the episode would still work without the comedy. Yes, it’s funny. But the comedy is jokes within an otherwise classically structured episode. It’s Star Trek at it’s finest, while also being an amusing comedy. This is the show I wish Lower Decks would spend more time being, but I’m happy for the few episodes we get either way.

The season-long arc this time occurs mainly in the background, with ships of all stripes and allegiances going missing. Naturally, it all comes to a head in the season finale with the return of a familiar face (and voice) from Trek’s past. For me, this is where we come to the biggest weakness of Lower Decks. In threading the universe together, there’s a situation developing where our protagonists have connections to many legacy characters. Rather than making the universe more concrete, it’s shrinking it down to a pinhead where everyone has a history with everyone. And that’s before we get into the overreliance on cameos. If Jeffrey Coombes’ Agimus proves anything, it’s that new characters are more interesting than the ones we’ve seen a hundred times before.

Longing for more aside, I really enjoyed this series. Sure, it has its weak spots, but so does all Star Trek. The main thing to bear in mind is that Lower Decks hasn’t had a terrible episode yet. That’s something few other Star Trek series can boast, and bodes very well for the future of the show.