It’s a comfort that there’s a new episode this week with Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 4. This week’s episode is titled “A Farewell to Farms” and it’s almost exactly what I needed. Writer Diana Tay and director Megan Lloyd bring the Cerritos to the Klingon homeworld of Qo’noS, on the sort of mission no other Star Trek show would want to touch. Meanwhile, when some food critics come aboard, the ship’s counselor Migleemo (Paul F Tompkins) finally puts all those food metaphors into practice.
Can the Lower Deckers navigate Klingon society without starting a bar fight? Do Migleemo’s food metaphors translate to culinary skills?
WARNING – Spoilers below for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 4 – “A Farewell to Farms”.
Photo Credit: Paramount+
Growing a Beard
One of the strangest choices this season was to have Boimler (Jack Quaid) start growing a beard. Approaching the halfway mark, I do hope it grows to something more substantial soon. But it’s not just the aesthetic of facial hair, but rather what it represents for the show as a whole. Boimler saw this alternate version of himself, confident and assertive, and he’s trying to emulate that. This, for me, was the episode where he actually started to succeed in that.
He was failing at skiing last week, where he ran into someone so disillusioned about being in Boimler’s position that they ran off to a resort. While that was an interesting point of comparison, this is the week he puts his endless bank of knowledge to use. Everything from Klingon rites, rituals, language, history. Plus his understanding of science led the group to pass through the first trial.
Even if this wasn’t intended to be the series’ final season, building up the lead character into solid captain material is a great choice. Not only that, it’s being done gradually, integrated into the story smartly, and even a visual progress marker on his face. It’s so much more than a reference to Season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s an extension of everything that the show has been pushing Boimler to from the beginning.
Painful Rites
The return to Qo’noS is everything you want, even with the Lower Decks comedic lens over the top. It looks and feels just like the vaguely shady and unsafe planet we got to know through The Next Generation. Sure the bar was a franchise, but Boimler starting a barfight and getting thrown across the room was pure Klingon antics. That’s just where the episode starts, too, it doesn’t let up at all.
We return to the character of Ma’ah (Jon Curry) as well. He’s been a small-level Klingon Lower Decker who the show’s featured in a handful of episodes over the year. It’s pretty cool that the show’s gotten to the point that it can do a whole episode about a minor recurring character. This being the final season is a bit of a shame, as the show seems to be at an all-time high so far.
Ma’ah’s trials are very reminiscent of those we’ve seen in prior Klingon-focused episodes of the show. Right down to the pain sticks. If you’re a fan of Klingons, this is for you. Personally, I had a blast with it. Also points for bringing General K’orin (Jess Harnell) back into the fold after Season 1. What easily could have been an older Klingon character was again someone we’re familiar with. Being a love letter to Star Trek without forcing a legacy cameo in for the sake of it is beyond admirable and impressive in 2024.
Photo Credit: Paramount+
Bird Food
The B-plot for this week’s Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 4 focused on the ship’s counselor Migleemo trying to impress some fellow Klowahkan who have come aboard the Cerritos. Through his endless food metaphors over the years, a food obsession was on the cards for his species. Sure enough, this delegation is a collection of prominent food critics, en route back to their homeworld.
From the second they beamed aboard and criticized the lights, I knew the sort of snobby critic archetype they were going for. Hating everything is a pretty funny bit, no matter how well selected it is, no matter how much love went into it. It didn’t get too stale or outstay its welcome. Plus, the stakes evolving to Migleemo being threatened with “flavor jail” is the sort of ridiculous that no other show can pull off.
Of course, the ultimate reveal that they have no taste at all was pretty funny. In the world of food, it’s fine. Expand this critic metaphor to a lot of negative critical voices on the internet, endlessly hating on everything, and you have something almost damning. I could well be reading too far into it, but it fits too nicely to not bring up. It also let Migleemo use his skills as a therapist to deconstruct it, the perfect way to conclude this spotlight on his character.
Unsubtle Plotting
The episode, like most we’ve come to expect from Star Trek: Lower Decks wraps up pretty nicely. Ma’ah gets what he needs, captaining a starship again, this time on his terms. As a recurring character through the series, it’s nice to see him, like Jennifer did last week, get a proper farewell episode in the final season. It’s sweet and emphasizes that just as Lower Decks has featured all manner of returning Star Trek guest stars, it’s built up quite the recurring cast of its own as well.
Although, the end of the episode also felt the need to tie into the season’s grander arc. Unsurprisingly, the holes in space are significant and are likely going to be the main point of the finale. Where last week’s reveal of the miniature ship fed into the episode’s actual story, this felt almost forced. There was no way it was foreshadowed earlier and it wasn’t as organic as it could’ve been. Although confirmation of what the series finale might look like is nice, I guess.
Getting to what it might look like, we know that these tears in spacetime are engineered. We don’t know from who, or why. There could be something trying to break into the universe, or maybe even break out of it. One thing I can say fairly confidently is that whatever’s doing this is very powerful, perhaps even a very cosmic threat. After Planet Killers last season, I’d love a change from the ‘end of the universe’ stakes here.
Photo Credit: Paramount+
Conclusion
Overall, I’d say that Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 4 “A Farewell to Farms” accomplished everything it needed to. The return to Qo’noS was well handled, and it felt like a return to the cultural glimpses we got in an episode of Deep Space Nine or The Next Generation. It’s been a long while since the franchise had an episode like this, so that whole subplot was a real treat. Seeing what were minor recurring characters become proper Star Trek characters in the 24th century was lovely too, instead of relying on legacy Klingon characters.
I didn’t think the food critic subplot was as good as well. It’s more classic Lower Decks than any Trek fanservice, which balanced the episode nicely. Even if I saw the twist a mile off, seeing him get his moment is always nice. Perhaps that’s what this episode was all along, smaller recurring characters getting their moment in the spotlight. It works in the episode’s favor, creating a love letter to the show’s strangest recurring characters.
More From Trek Central
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