WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 3, "In the Cradle of Vexilon."
Summary
Star Trek: Lower Decks delves back into a widely panned episode from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, carrying on the narrative of the Wadi and their unpredictable Chula game.
Skillfully tackling the critique of "Move Along Home," the episode intelligently injects a new element of danger and the possibility of insanity into the Chula game.
Content must be rewritten in a better way:
Dirk's claim about being traumatized by the game puts a stop to the Lower Deckers' revenge plan, adding suspense to the Chula game.
In the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, a sequel is presented to the worst episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which aired over 30 years ago. Lower Decks pays homage to the golden age of Star Trek in the 1990s and fearlessly explores obscure episodes from the canon. Just one week after delving into the controversial Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tuvix", Mike McMahan's Lower Decks now focuses on DS9 by continuing the storyline of a notorious episode from its first season.
The introduction of the wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant allowed Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to fulfill the original mission of seeking out new life. However, many visitors from season 1 failed to leave a lasting impression. The first species from the Gamma Quadrant to be officially welcomed to the Alpha Quadrant were the Wadi in the episode "Move Along Home". The Wadi's Chula game caused chaos among the senior staff of DS9 and left the viewers at home feeling rather annoyed. Fast forward to Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, where yet another unfortunate Starfleet officer is reluctantly coerced into playing the Chula game, resulting in their unhappiness.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Brings Back DS9's Hated Chula Game
In "In the Cradle of Vexilon," the third episode of season 4 in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) conspire to get back at Lt. Dirk after suspecting him of subjecting the newly promoted officers to hazing. Taking advantage of their access to the anomaly storage room, the trio of Lt. JGs borrow a Wadi Chula game with the intention of trapping Dirk inside. The description of the Chula game is characteristically whimsical for Lower Decks as Rutherford explains that it ensnares players until they can overcome its vexing challenges.
Lower Decks Reveals The Dark Side Of DS9's Chula Game
As a tribute to the fan reaction to "Move Along Home," an episode considered far from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's finest, Ronald D. Moore recalled his amusement during an AOL chat in 1998 when he first watched the episode prior to joining DS9. Quite comically, Moore expressed his initial impression that "everyone had lost their minds." Co-writer of the teleplay for "Move Along Home," Frederick Rappaport, acknowledged that they failed to effectively convey the stakes of the game to the audience. Star Trek: Lower Decks cleverly addresses this by embracing the episode's surrealism as Rutherford, perplexed and annoyed, races through the game to secure his return to the Cerritos.
Just as they are about to implement their plan, Mariner experiences a crisis of conscience when Dirk discloses that he was once trapped inside a Chula game due to his inability to solve the challenges. Similar to Robin Williams' character in Jumanji, Dirk's traumatic encounter convinces the Lower Deckers to abandon their revenge scheme. However, it is eventually revealed that Dirk fabricated the entire story as part of an elaborate initiation ritual for the new junior grade lieutenants. Nevertheless, this fictional account injects much-needed suspense into the Chula game.
Frederick Rappaport, a writer for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, expressed disappointment with the ending of the episode, believing that it diminished the threat of the game. The revelation that it was all a game and no one was ever in actual danger is one of the reasons why "Move Along Home" was considered underwhelming. However, in Star Trek: Lower Decks, the fourth season, there is a reintroduction of suspense to the Wadi's beloved Chula game. Even though it may be presented as a joke, the notion that one can be driven mad by failing to complete the game's challenges restores a much-needed sense of jeopardy. Don't forget to catch Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, now streaming on Paramount+ every Thursday.
