Star Trek: Lower Decks S04E06: 'Parth Ferengi's Heart Place'

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‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ gives a pretty funny episode if one that feels oddly place.
by Jeremy Fogelman

The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is “Parth Ferengi's Heart Place” which is delightful reference to the cult classic Garth Marenghi's Darkplace although there’s not real connection to that show here, I think it’s just that someone realized that Marenghi and Ferengi rhyme and the rest followed.

What’s odd about this episode is that although it’s a fun one, there are two elements that feel odd -- one is that Mariner is highly regressive in terms of her rebellion, seemingly incapable of understanding why herself. There’s also nothing from T’Lyn, almost like she’s not a part of the cast, not even a background mention -- almost like this episode was released out of order, but who knows?

The actual Mariner story I didn’t like thematically but it was pretty funny with her insistence to fight a Ferengi biker gang and her old pal Quimp was a real friend to her. Boimler’s side plot is the most pointless and yet also the funniest, getting addicted to a bunch of trash Ferengi TV. All of that was great, the Slug-O Cola commercial, the “Cop Landlords” concept itself, the “sign the lease, dirtbag” -- all great.

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But the only two stories of note were the Rutherford/Tendi fake romance plot and the Captain Freeman alliance plot. Rutherford and Tendi are sort of in a platonic relationship, although there’s clearly something more there even if neither is really willing to (or perhaps interested in) going beyond the super close science work together. The episode was careful to both tease their attraction for each other (like Rutherford saying she looked “captivating”) and tease at the end with the two intertwined working in a tube on science nonsense.

The resolution to their lying was pretty funny, as they tricked the easily trickable Migleemo into thinking they both were in love with him, and I sure hope they actually follow that up because it’s too funny otherwise to ignore. The concept was a little silly in terms of actually wanting to listen to the two hook up, but I appreciated how much the episode was pushing them together despite themselves.

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The main “plot” followed up a Ferengi ship getting blown up with the intriguing addition that one of the lower decks crew was expecting it and that they had a portable Genesis device onboard. Otherwise it was an excuse for the return of Rom and Leeta as leaders of the planet (returning voices of Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson from DS9 who are 70 and 60 respectively, making me feel quite old, but they were both great).

Was the admiral a bit too stupid to make it easier for Freeman to be smart? Sure, but that admiral had already been an idiot earlier this show and it’s nice to have Freeman be competent more often than not, because typically she hasn’t been portrayed so positively. I did like from the Rom/Leeta perspective that they were playing on perceptions of Rom as the henpecked idiot when anyone who’s seen DS9 knows the dude was a genius level engineer.

Overall a fun if somewhat pointless episode -- not nearly as strong as the last two but not a terrible dip, I’m just hoping that the season long arc is paid off effectively because they’ve been teasing this for quite a while.

Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. We support the strike and emphasize the importance of actors and writers, and ensuring they and fellow creatives are compensated and treated fairly for their work. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.