Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 5, Episode 6: Is Ensign Ollie Really a Demigod?

“Of Gods and Angles” is perhaps the most revealing title of an episode from the fifth season of Lower Decks. Not only do Cerritos’ team cross paths with an answer to a Star Trek deity, but they also have to mediate peace negotiations between two geometrically opposed alien races.

The Cubes and Spheres are photonic beings made of pure energy, but they struggle to find common ground. The Spheres demanded that Captain Freeman remove all straight edges from the ship (they find them offensive), while the Cubes disagree with Article 10 of the treaty because the zero in the 10 is too round.

There’s no room for agents of chaos in delicate situations like these, which means newly arrived Ensign Ollie—a junior Starfleet officer with a history of leaving a trail of destruction in his wake—is the last thing Freeman and his crew need on board. But it turns out there’s more to Ollie than 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 alert! Be careful if you haven’t watched this week’s episode.

Who is Ensign Ollie?

Ollie is the new warrant officer aboard the Cerritos, and she didn’t make the best first impression. During her time on board, there had been a turbolift incident, a replicator incident, and a phaser incident, and her final misstep—overloading the anti-grav sled with furniture after ignoring Commander Ransom’s orders—was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And this despite her attempts to change the weight threshold of the device.

“I’m done with this new warrant officer,” Ransom says. “She ignores my orders, breaks everything she touches, and I think she’s stealing my weights to mock me.”

This is not the first blemish on her record. Ollie had just been transferred from Reseda, where she had caused several electrical fires and had problems with her commanders. She’s already been fired from six Starfleet ships, and Captain Freeman believes the Cerritos was her last chance—a chance that may have just been lost by the anti-gravity sled incident.

Freeman’s daughter, Lt. Beckett Mariner, sees Ollie in a different light. She believes this “obviously very cool man” is a kindred spirit and asks for Ollie to be given a second chance. The first to break Cerritos’s rules is subsequently a warrant officer’s supervisor in an attempt to revive the career of a Starfleet officer considered by many to be a demigod.

Why would anyone think that Ollie is a demigod?

Although “demigod” is not official Starfleet terminology, Ollie fits that definition in most respects.

Some might argue that the golden bay leaves she wears on her head are a gift—they’re part of her, “the bioluminescent construct I inherited from my foolish ancestors.”

You’ve probably heard of the “stupid ancestors” she talks about. She is the descendant of a “psychokinetic being who introduced himself as Zeus”, known as the legendary kingpin of the Greek pantheon of deities. He was “inclined to associate with mortals” – hence the offspring – and Ollie describes him as like his grandfather. She also claims to have no magical powers of her own.

colorful cartoon characters in red overalls walk along the brightly lit interior corridor of a spaceship

Paul Scheer as Andy Billups in Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 6, streaming on Paramount+, 2024. (Image credit: Paramount+)

Where is Ollie from?

She hails from Pollux IV, an M-Class Earth-like world in the Beta Gemini 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 encountered a being who claimed to be the famous Apollo of Greek myth, the son of Zeus, the god of light and purity and a close relative of Ollie. It is unclear whether they will meet during the holidays.

What did Apollo do to the Enterprise?

He immediately made his presence known by trapping the ship in a force field that he designed to look like a giant green hand, an iconic image from Star Trek. (The green appendage was subsequently mentioned in Star Trek Beyond, where one crew member theorized that the disappearance of the USS Franklin was caused by “a giant hand of green space.” It can also be seen clutching a Borg cube this season. 5th version of the credits “Lower Decks”.)

Threatening to crush the Enterprise in his vice-like grip, Apollo forcibly invited Kirk and his crew (including Dr. McCoy, Mister Scott, and the ship’s resident archaeologist Lt. Carolyn Palamas) to spend eternity worshiping him on the surface of Pollux IV.

Was Apollo really a god?

It depends on the strictness of your definition. Apollo told his Starfleet guests that he, Zeus and their fellow deities traveled to Earth 5,000 years ago, where they were worshiped by the people of Ancient Greece—and beyond. He returned to Pollux IV in the hope and expectation that future humans would one day go there themselves.

He was not shy about demonstrating his abilities. That giant green hand was just plain fun, and his other party tricks included telekinesis, the ability to grow to gigantic size, and shooting lightning from his fingertips. He also had the same laurel headdress as Ollie.

Kirk and company eventually theorized that Apollo’s abilities were the result of advanced technology. McCoy discovered that a special organ in Apollo’s 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” along with Zeus and the other gods.

Was he a real deity? Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke stated that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and for the ancient Greeks, Apollo’s displays of power would have been truly impressive. But the Star Trek Olympians are really just advanced aliens with an overdeveloped god complex.

colorful cartoon characters in red overalls walk along the brightly lit interior corridor of a spaceship

From left to right: Jack Quaid as Boimler and Gillian Vigman as Dr. T’Ana in Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 6, streaming on Paramount+, 2024. (Image credit: Paramount+)

Does Ollie have similar delusions of grandeur?

Ollie just wants to be an engineer. In fact, this was her original position in Starfleet until her ability to sabotage electrical components prompted her to be transferred to departments where she could cause less carnage.

It’s clear she has little ability to investigate the disappearance of Cube Quadralon’s scion, and her aggressive bad cop routine proves her mistake in a diplomatically sensitive situation. She also hides evidence – a melted computer – in her locker, as she assumed everyone would blame her powers for the damage.

Because yes, despite her claims to the contrary, Ollie has inherited the family gift of throwing lightning, even though she’s not particularly good at it. She hid her powers so that people would not be afraid of her.

As negotiations between the Spheres and Cubes escalate into a veritable “war of forms”, British readers may be reminded of the film’s end credits. Gerry Anderson’s 1980s puppet show Terrahawks -Mariner convinces Ollie to find his inner X-Man. Ensign uses her godly powers to absorb geometric energy, but the plan backfires and Ollie, unable to control the massive amount of energy flowing through her, inadvertently activates two photon races. They combine to form (rather unimaginatively) a giant ball and a giant cube, while poor Bradward Boimler ends up with a lightning bolt embedded in his butt.

Luckily for the Cerritos, Ollie is able to use his engineering resume and formulates a plan to reconfigure the ship’s tractor beam to operate on a photon signature. In practice, this drains the energy of giant forms fighting in space while strengthening the starship’s shields.

Ultimately, it is Ollie’s Starfleet skills, not her natural abilities, that save the day. She’s rewarded with the engineering job she craves, but first she’ll have to spend a little time in the guardhouse—and many Mariner’s small talk.

New episodes of the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.

Star Trek: Lower Decks, Season 5, Episode 6: Is Ensign Ollie Really a Demigod?

Archives

Categories