WHY WE LIKE IT: Shape humor.
WHY WE DON'T: The limp lightning is goofy.
REVIEW: God-like energy beings get the Lower Deck treatment in this one, with A and B plots each creating characters from this common Star Trek trope. The B-plot is really the episode's set dressing - a tense negotiation between solid energy Orbs and Cubes, with tons of jokes about how they can't stand each other's shapes, even in the natural world (corridor angles and the number zero are particular complaints). When a shape war breaks out, it leads to some crazy visuals, and the whole thing is resolved with a Cubeo & Spherliet story that creates a new shape and a bit of a deus ex machina (warranted in this case).
The main thrust of the story, however, is new Ensign Olly, the descendant of the alien who posed as Zeus before Apollo and all his kind became "one with the wind". She's as rebellious as Mariner, which makes Beckett take an interest in "saving" her from yet another transfer, and rather accident-prone. I don't think it takes the audience long to figure out she has an electric touch that makes technology go haywire and we're sort of missing a couple of lines of dialog at the end that would explain why she would now be allowed to work in engineering. It's her best destiny - her mind is wasted in Command division - but no one mentions some kind of inhibitor to drain her powers to safe levels or something similar. We're perhaps more confounded by how suspiciously Olly acts when a teenage Cube disappears, but it's pretty benign. Ultimately, the friendship between Starfleet's two most insolent officers is a nice one, and while I think the solid lightning bolts Olly creates is dumb (if consistent within the episode's lore), I like the idea of laurels she can't get rid of.
And then there's the C-plot, in which Boimler continues to copy his alternate-universe self to get ahead, this time trying to become best buds with Dr. T'Ana like other-Boimler did. She's not an easy friend to make, and there's fun comedy as he makes his attempts. In the end, it DOES happen, but only because he becomes her patient. Well, as long as it happens, right? It's possible it was always going to, though. Maybe Boimler doesn't need the PADD. He's just a few weeks behind his double.
LESSON: Staying true to yourself is wrong. You have to copy someone better.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: A lot of fun comedy bits, tying into Star Trek lore, but also combining all its plotlines pleasantly.
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