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This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.”
We should have known where “Star Trek: Lower Decks” season 5, episode 6, “Of Gods and Angels,” was headed the second a giant green hand showed up in the opening credits. The self-referential animated sci-fi comedy series has taken the USS Cerritos crew to a lot of familiar places in the “Star Trek” universe over the past five seasons, and for their latest adventure, the show’s writers decided they should boldly go back to one of the campiest episodes of the original “Star Trek” series. That’s right, folks: it’s time to revisit “Who Mourns For Adonais?”
“Who Mourns For Adonais?” was never going to be the most illustrious episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series,” especially since it aired as the second episode of season 2, following up the series’ high point, “Amok Time.” In contrast to that episode’s fascinating, high-stakes look at Vulcan mating rituals, “Adonais” cooks up a silly storyline in which the Greek gods of myth are revealed to be a species of alien deities. The story centers on Apollo (Michael Forest), an endangered god who is surviving thanks to the adoration he still receives from others. There’s some gorgeous, over-the-top ’60s costuming in the hour, including a shimmering (and short) gold toga for Apollo and a Barbie-pink one for Lt. Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish), who ends up smitten with the god but ultimately has to play it cool.
Greek gods first appeared in the Star Trek episode Who Mourns For Adonais?
The Greek gods episode of “Star Trek: The Original Series” isn’t outright bad (Anton Yelchin even once named it as his favorite), but it exists in the same weird and accidentally hilarious space as several other episodes from the series that don’t quite mesh with typical “Star Trek” canon and — thanks to their decidedly of-its-time trappings — are a bit hard to take seriously. Sure, the franchise has dealt with “deities” several times in the years since “Who Mourns For Adonais?” aired, but rarely ones with shiny sandals and laurel crowns. “Of Gods and Angels” changes that, bridging the gap between the zany execution and existential tone of the original series episode and the more firmly scientific world of later “Star Trek” shows. It does this by introducing the granddaughter of Zeus, Ensign Olly (Saba Homayoon), a newbie on the Cerritos who can’t stop causing trouble.
“Of Gods and Angels” is a pretty good “Star Trek” episode, as it ties together several tropes — two groups on the verge of war! Strange, non-humanoid species! A murder mystery! — that have showed up in “Star Trek” shows past, yet combines them in a way that feels fresh. Add Olly, a Mariner-level chaos agent whose problems can be traced back to her power over electricity, to the mix and you’ve also got a story about fraught legacies and unmeetable expectations. Olly has been passed from ship to ship thanks to her mistakes, and she’s hard on herself about them because she feels powerless compared to her high-achieving ancestors. As usual, “Lower Decks” doesn’t go too deep into any of this and ends up portraying Ensign Olly as a bit of a brat, but it’s nice to see a discordant early-franchise plot point revisited and refined.
The show also doesn’t go overboard on the references this time. Olly has power over electricity, and she says the golden laurels on her head — the same ones Apollo sported in the original series — don’t come off. The opening credits also feature a big green hand grabbing the Cerritos, a nod to the distinctly weird and creative way the “Original Series” writers decided to get the Enterprise into the gods’ orbit. Aside from these callbacks, though, Olly is her own person, capable of making floppy lightning bolt tools with poor aim and, thanks, perhaps, to her part-mortal background, seemingly not dependent on the worship of others for survival. As usual, “Lower Decks” isn’t afraid to add to some of the earliest “Star Trek” lore, expanding on it in creative ways while acknowledging how funny it already was in the first place.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” stream Thursdays on Paramount+.