‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Best Episode Shows How the Other Factions Live

Did Star Trek: Lower Decks just air the best episode the show has ever done? The answer to this rhetorical question is: yes, yes it did. “wej Duj”, or if you prefer the English/Klingon translation, “Three Ships”, dug into the core concept of the series with creativity, humor and action worthy of a Star Trek feature film.

Written by Kathryn Lyn and directed by Bob Suarez, “wej Duj” starts with a rare off day for the USS Cerritos while they’re in the middle of a long warp. Everyone has plans — except Boimler (Jack Quaid), who is left without a “bridge buddy” to pair up with for some rest and relaxation. That, in and of itself, would be enough to power a full episode of the show. Boimler is always neurotic about his career, and a frenzied search to find out where he belongs on the ship while Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) have seemingly already found theirs is good fodder for the series’ mix of pointed humor and classic Star Trek style life lessons.

But the real focus of the episode kicks off thanks to an off-hand mention from Boimler in the opening minutes that he imagines life on other ships is pretty nice — specifically for Klingons, something that everyone else thinks sounds crazy. Cut to a Klingon Bird of Prey, the Che’ta, so we can see how their lower decks function. Turns out, it’s pretty similar to the Federation, albeit with a lot more killing and violence. One of the Klingon lower decks crew (their version of a Boimler) is excited because he gets to be on the bridge for the day, which he’s excited about, and notes it’s the logical progression for his career. Off that mention of logic, they joke about how terrible it would be to work on a Vulcan science vessel, at which point the episode cuts over to the Vulcan cruiser Sh’vhal. There we get a group talking about the extremely boring sounding things they’re going to be doing later, except for one ensign who seems to have a fair amount of emotion and intuition going; call her the Mariner of the group.

Without spoiling the entire episode, as you might imagine these three stories come together in a big way by the end, it ties into an overall story that’s been simmering in the background of Lower Decks Season 2, and as a kicker we get to see how two additional alien races’ lower decks function, including a laugh-out-loud funny sight gag that plays over the closing credits.

What ultimately works so well about this episode is that it not only is very funny throughout, and the action in the final third is thrilling, with a clever solution on par with the best of the franchise; but more importantly it digs down into the core idea of what the lower decks is to Star Trek, and how it functions. Often, Lower Decks the series has its ensign characters front and center, going on missions and adventures to save the ship just like the bridge crew. That’s also somewhat true of this episode, but by sharing the action between three vastly different ships, it instead dives into how crucial every part of a ship’s crew is to how it functions, from the lowliest ensign to the highest ranking commander. It also doubles down on the core idea of Star Trek: equality.

Not to mention, “wej Duj” also works as a fresh, new take on the “three tales” format made famous by The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, and continued on nearly every adult animated show that has existed since then. You still get three stories being told over the course of the episode, but they’re all in continuity with Lower Decks, and with the twist of coming together in the finale. Given that the format is, at this point, over thirty years old, to find a unique spin on it is a surprising delight in and of itself.

Will this become a yearly thing, like “Treehouse of Horror”? Maybe. But even if not, shout out to this episode for hitting a series high, and not forgetting to make a slew of jokes in the process.

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

Where to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks