The latest Star Trek: Lower Decks episode is the curiously named You Say Mugato, I Say Gumato — we explain why and give you the highlights of the episode

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2 bubbles along nicely with the latest episode You Say Mugato, I Say Gumato. The story itself is fairly straightforward (see below), but the title is something of a curiosity… luckily we have an explanation. Stay with.

You Say Mugato, I Say Gumato storyline

The Cerritos is investigating the sighting of a Mugato on Frylon IV, a world very distant from the creature’s planet of origin. Although Captain Freeman views this as a low-priority “animal control” operation, making the mission more interesting is the knowledge that Mugatos are an endangered species. How did one make its way so far from home? The answer involves that well known villain of convenience the Ferengi; the resolution involves some inspired teamwork and a chance for Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) to come up with their own way to handle the Ferengi.

Of course it wouldn’t be Lower Decks without some hilarious confusion and some gung ho tactics from Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), all mixed with a tale of Federation black ops agents. Business as usual for these splendid animated gems.

And that title?

Thanks to the Star Trek website (Below Deck) feature, we can explain. The Mugato were first seen in the original Star Trek series, in the episode A Private Little War. The end credits give the stunt actor Janos Prohaska as Gumato. When it came to shooting. DeForest Kelley (Bones) stumbled over the word and it was changed to Mugato, but they forgot the end credits!

We’ll look out for more trivia after the next episode!