“Of Gods and Angles” may be the most representative episode title of “Lower Decks”‘ fifth season. Not only do the Cerritos crew cross paths with “Star Trek”‘s answer to a deity, they also have to broker peace negotiations between two geometrically opposed alien races.
The Cubes and the Orbs are photonic species made of pure energy, but they’re struggling to find common ground. The Orbs have demanded that Captain Freeman remove all straight edges from the ship (they find them offensive), while the Cubes have an issue with Article 10 of the treaty because the zero in the 10 is too round.
There’s no place for agents of chaos in delicate situations like these, meaning that new arrival Ensign Olly — a junior Starfleet officer with a history of leaving trails of destruction in her wake — is the last thing Freeman and the crew need on board. But it turns out there’s more to Olly than initially meets the eye, especially when we learn that her family tree includes Zeus, Apollo and other famous figures who made their names on Mount Olympus.
Spoiler warning! Caution advised if you haven’t watched this week’s episode.
Who is Ensign Olly?
Olly’s the new ensign on board the Cerritos and she hasn’t made a brilliant first impression. There’s been a turbolift incident, a replicator incident and a phaser incident during her time on board, and her latest faux-pas — overloading an anti-gravity sled with furniture after ignoring Commander Ransom’s orders — is the straw that broke the camel’s back. And that’s despite her efforts to invert the appliance’s weight threshold.
“I am done with that new ensign,” says Ransom. “She disregards my orders, breaks everything she touches and I think she’s stealing my kettlebells to mess with me.”
This isn’t the first blemish on her service record. Olly’s just transferred over from the Reseda, where she caused multiple electrical fires and had issues with her commanding officers. She’s already been dismissed from six Starfleet vessels, and Captain Freeman believes the Cerritos was her last chance — a chance the anti-gravity sled incident may have just blown.
Freeman’s daughter, Lt Beckett Mariner, sees Olly in a different light. She believes this “obviously very cool person” is a kindred spirit, and asks that Olly be given a second chance. The Cerritos’s number one rulebreaker subsequently becomes the ensign’s minder, in an attempt to resurrect the Starfleet career of an officer who’s widely assumed to be a demigod.
Why would anyone think Olly’s a demigod?
Even though “demigod” isn’t official Starfleet terminology, Olly qualifies by most metrics.
Some might argue that the golden laurel leaves she wears on her head are a giveaway —they’re part of her, “a bioluminescent construct I inherited from my stupid ancestors”.
You’ve probably heard of the “stupid ancestors” she’s referring to. She’s the descendent of the “psychokinetic being that presented itself as Zeus”, aka the legendary kingpin of the Greek pantheon of deities. He was “prone to congregating with mortals” — hence the offspring — and Olly describes him as her grandfather. She also claims that she doesn’t possess magical powers of her own.
Where does Olly come from?
She hails from Pollux IV, an Earth-like M Class world in the Beta Geminorum system of the Alpha Quadrant. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise visited the planet in the Original Series episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” (1967). There they ran into a being who claimed to be the famous Apollo of Greek myth, son of Zeus, the god of light and purity, and a close relation of Olly. It’s not clear whether they meet up for the holidays.
What did Apollo do to the Enterprise?
He immediately made his presence felt by grabbing the ship in a forcefield he’d engineered to look like a giant green hand, an iconic “Star Trek” image. (The verdant appendage has subsequently been referenced in “Star Trek Beyond”, where one of the crew speculated that the USS Franklin’s disappearance had been caused by a “giant green space hand”. It can also be seen grasping a Borg Cube in the season 5 iteration of the “Lower Decks” credits.)
Having threatened to crush the Enterprise in his vice-like grip, Apollo forcibly invited Kirk and his away team (including Dr McCoy, Mr Scott and the ship’s resident archaeologist, Lt Carolyn Palamas) to spend eternity worshipping him on the surface of Pollux IV.
Was Apollo really a god?
That depends on the strictness of your definition. Apollo told his Starfleet guests that he, Zeus and their fellow deities travelled to Earth 5,000 years ago, where they were worshipped by the residents of Ancient Greece — and beyond. He returned to Pollux IV in the hope and expectation that future humans would one day travel there themselves.
He wasn’t shy about showing off his capabilities. That giant green hand was just an amuse-bouche, and his other party tricks included telekinesis, the ability to grow to giant proportions, and shooting lightning bolts from his fingertips. He also had the same laurel head adornment as Olly.
Kirk and co eventually surmised that Apollo’s abilities were the result of advanced tech. McCoy worked out that a special organ in Apollo’s otherwise humanoid body allowed him to channel and manipulate energy. The source of his power was the temple-like building he called home, and his hold on the Enterprise was severed when the ship’s phasers blasted it into oblivion. He then disappeared, presumably to become “one with the wind” alongside Zeus and the other gods.
Was he a bona fide deity? Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke famously stated that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and to the Ancient Greeks Apollo’s displays of power would have been truly awe-inspiring. But “Star Trek’s version of the Olympians are really just advanced aliens with an over-developed god complex.
Does Olly have similar delusions of grandeur?
Olly simply wants to be an engineer. In fact, this was her original Starfleet posting until her knack for ruining electrical components prompted her transfer to departments where she could cause less carnage.
It’s evident that she has little aptitude for investigating the disappearance of Cube scion Quadralon, her aggressive bad cop routine proving a misstep in a diplomatically sensitive situation. She also hides evidence — a melted computer — in her locker because she assumed everyone would blame her powers for the damage.
Because yes, despite her claims to the contrary, Olly has inherited the family gift for tossing bolts of lightning, even though she’s not particularly good at it. She kept her powers hidden so that people wouldn’t fear her.
When negotiations between the Orbs and Cubes break down into a full-on “shape war” — British readers may be reminded of the end credits from Gerry Anderson’s ’80s puppet show “Terrahawks” — Mariner persuades Olly to find her inner X-Man. The ensign uses her godly powers to absorb the geometric energy, but the plan backfires and Olly, unable to control the vast quantities of energy flowing through her, inadvertently powers up the two photonic races. They combine to form (rather unimaginatively) a giant orb and a giant cube, while the unfortunate Bradward Boimler ends up with lightning embedded in his backside.
Luckily for the Cerritos, Olly is able to fall back on her engineering resumé, and she formulates a plan to reconfigure the ship’s tractor beam so that it will work on a photonic signature. In practice, this depletes the energy of the giant shapes battling in outer space, while powering up the starship’s shields.
Ultimately it’s Olly’s Starfleet skills — and not her natural born powers — that save the day. She’s rewarded with the engineering job she craves, but first she’ll have to endure a brief stay in the brig — and lots of Mariner small talk.
New episodes of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” season 5 debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.