Also in Mariner’s hoard:
The only character I never really warmed to was Mariner. Maybe it’s because I feel there’s more comedic potential to a character who is naturally flawed compared to someone who is amazingly talented and popular and is just screwing up on purpose.
Really? She was my favorite, and really the only one whose name I can even remember. Such spunk. I love how out of place she was in the Federation, surrounded by stable old fogeys with their regulations and space-age paperwork. Totally made the series for me. Star Trek doesn’t really ever address what you do with all these overqualified, hyper-educated officers floating around the dullness of space. Mariner and Badgey are the only characters who actually deal with the existential angst of living in a post-scarcity world.
I’ve decided to think of it as an in-universe comedy set on a Starfleet ship but resembling the “actual” Starfleet about as much as Gomer Pyle: USMC or McHale’s Navy resemble the actual US military.
I felt this way about her for much of the season, but I think they rounded her out enough that she’s a believable person, not some über-cool cardboard cutout.
Also, and I don’t know whether this was deliberate or coincidence, but both Lower Decks and Picard end their seasons with the main crew being rescued by Will Riker aboard a badass Starfleet vessel. 
I like the idea of Riker being a sort of “bridge” between the two shows, and it’s an idea that Lower Decks in particular could have a lot of fun with. (Yes, they take place decades apart, but that is at best a minor inconvenience in Trek world.)
Also the series finale of STTNG.
There’s an interview with one of the Lower Decks show runners that touches specifically on this. Turns out, it was a coincidence.
“I knew that Riker and Troi were going to show up in Picard ,” McMahan said of the surprising similarity between it and Lower Decks ’ tactical Imzadi deployment. “I did not know that at the very end of Picard , Riker swoops in to save the day with a fleet. I do have to admit, when I did find that out, we were so deep into production, because animation has such a different cycle than live-action, that it was far too late to do anything to make to soften the kind of similarities. To be totally honest, while it feels for a fan like it has an echoing similarity to it, it’s a different era, a different ship.”
Actually, the show that real police say is the most true-to-life is…Barney Miller.
Which, when you think of it, is pretty analogous to Lower Decks.
My take on it is that these stories all really happened in the Star Trek universe, but the version we’re seeing is how Mariner tells it twenty years later, not quite how it actually happened.
clearly not Mariner’s version - more likely Admiral Boimler’s.
Admiral Boimler telling stories to his kid(s), embellished with a sense of wry humor similar to that of Calvin’s dad.
Both of them telling it at the same time, in a bar, to a pack of fresh faced young ensigns.
While Mariner (his wife) looks on nodding her head in disbelief.
I find the idea of Boimler and Mariner getting married to be absolutely adorable.
So, you figure season 2 will be equally spent on the Cerritos and the Titan now that Boimler is on the latter?
I don’t believe Boimler will last long on the Titan.
Yeah, I’m guessing he’ll be back on the Cerritos before long.
Nah, this is 100% Mariner’s take on things - look at how she’s portrayed. She’s right about everything, wins every fight she gets in, and is constantly sassing off to high brass with basically zero repercussions, while Boimler is consistently the butt monkey in every situation. If Boimler’s telling the story, why is he making himself out to be such a titanic dork all the time?
This is totally Mariner peacocking for an audience. Boimler’s sitting there saying, “That’s not how it happened!” and, “No you didn’t!” and “I was NOT crying!”
Self-deprecation on Boimler’s part - which he can do because he’s now an admiral and completely confident in his current competence.
I’ll admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I’d still like to see a show more like TOS, TNG, or the better parts of Voyager, but Lower Decks is far and away better than Discovery.
I kinda thought the character of Mariner was actively poking fun at Michael Burnham in Discovery - the “can do no wrong but disobeyed orders so is not the supreme leader of the Federation” type, except in a way that makes her likeable. While I would love to see an upset where Mariner actually messes up and needs Boimler to super-bureaucrat her out of trouble by following the rules TO THE EXTREME, she doesn’t annoy me the way Burnham’s constant perfection does.
And Mariner was wrong once. Boimler’s girlfriend wasn’t the parasite. IT WAS BOIMLER! (DUHN Duhn duhnnnnn!)
No, Mariner doesn’t constantly talk in a slow porn star whisper and cry at the drop of a hat.