Star Trek Lower Decks Review S2 E4 Review – “Mugato, Gumato”

Star Trek brings back the Mugato in a surprisingly timely tale.

Are you a Star Trek fan who’s ever thought, “You know what this franchise needs? More Mugatos!”? You’re in luck because the Star Trek Lower Decks creative team apparently agrees! The furry, horned space apes from the TOS episode “A Private Little War” are back in force for season 2, episode 4, “Mugato, Gumato.”

On Frylon IV, a Cerritos away team discovers Ferengi—“creepy, throwback, ‘Last Outpost’-style Ferengi,” complete with energy whips—trafficking in the endangered species. The Mugatos escape their cages and during the creatures’ rampage, Rutherford and Boimler see Mariner stab Shaxs and start sucking on the wound.

The guys had earlier heard and wondered about a rumor from Honus, the Cerritos’ bartender, that Mariner is actually a super-secret Starfleet assassin and spy. Now convinced it’s true, they flee into Frylon’s dark and stormy night.

When Mariner finds them, she explains a Mugato stung Shaxs. She had to stab him so she could suck its venom out of his system. She also tells them she started the rumor about her covert ops career to cultivate a mystique and keep “jerks” away from her. Boimler and Rutherford realize they believed the rumor because they couldn’t believe someone as cool as Mariner would be friends with them. (Were Lower Decks filmed in front of a live studio audience, like sitcoms of yore, the audience would let out a sympathetic “awww” at this point.)

The Ferengi capture Mariner, but Rutherford and Boimler save the day by showing them how they can make even more latinum by converting Frylon IV into a Mugato preserve: “ticket prices, merchandise, concessions—the whole gumato!”

Meanwhile, this week’s “B” and “C” plots involve a scam artist who tries (and initially succeeds) to bilk Captain Freeman out of a shuttlecraft and her ready room memorabilia; and Tendi’s assignment to scan the crew’s last few holdouts from annual physicals—the final one being Dr. T’Ana herself (designated as “Patient 08.019,” all-but-certain shout-out to Gene Roddenberry’s date of birth).

“Mugato, Gumato” is Star Trek sprinkling lessons among the laughs

In bringing back the Mugato (and poking fun at the fact its name was changed because DeForest Kelley couldn’t pronounce “Gumato,” and even then neither he nor Wiliam Shatner pronounced the new name correctly), Lower Decks catches us up with one of the original series’ most iconic creatures.

But “Mugato, Gumato” is actually more reminiscent of “The Devil in the Dark.” Beneath all the slapstick, Mugato mating jokes, and Easter eggs, this is a story about finding ways two different species can coexist. The solution even involves one species (the Ferengi) making money off the other (the Mugatos), just as the human pergium miners on Janus VI expect to make money thanks to the Horta’s tunneling capacity.

Setting aside the question of whether turning Frylon IV into a nature preserve that charges admission is actually the best resolution (no doubt it beats the exploitation we see at the episode’s beginning), “Mugato, Gumato” is an amusing and good-natured plea for viewers to remember the value of compromise.

The “Diplomath” game Boimler and Rutherford play in the Cerritos lounge is apparently not always one with a clear winner. As they tell Mariner, “We’re both about to lose!” A lose-lose arrangement where no ones fully happy but everyone moves forward is often better than winner-take-all. It’s a lesson we could stand to learn a little more thoroughly if our society hopes to “close the deal” and move closer to the brighter future Star Trek posits.

My own personal plea to the Lower Decks gang? Bring back Honus the bartender. He’s a hysterical anti-Guinan, a barkeep who talks more than he listens, and whose interactions with his patrons leaves them with more confusion than clarity.

In our age of misinformation, being a little more careful about who we listen to is also a pretty decent lesson to heed!