Basic Trope: An episode about the minor character.
- Straight: Bob, the Security Chief of the USS Troperville, finally gets an episode that focuses on him and his team after appearing on the side in a few episodes.
- Exaggerated:
- The episode focusing on the security team is promoted to no end prior to its airing, as if it were a special event involving the main cast.
- An episode focuses on an entire group of nameless background characters, while the main cast don't get as much as a cameo.
- A multi-episode arc focuses on a low-level maintenance team.
- Bob and his security crew are the protagonists of the show, but In-Universe the adventures of the command team of the USS Troperville are the ones that are more "important" and the security team, if the show were structured in a more normal way, would be a Greek Chorus.
- Downplayed: There's a story about the adventures of a minor character, but rather than being part of the regular series it's a direct-to-video special.
- Justified: In the previous episode, the entire main cast is captured by the Big Bad and the only ones who can save them is the security team, who was on an away mission at the time.
- Inverted: A show that normally focused on Ensign Bob finally shows us what happens on the bridge.
- Subverted:
- The episode starts off set in armory with the security personnel chatting, but a surprise attack incapacitates them, and the main cast must save the day as usual.
- Exaggerated subversion: The plot of the episode is a covert mission that Security Chief Bob must do alone, on his old stomping grounds, his backstory provides important plot points, and the entire guest cast is childhood friends of his. The regular heroes, not getting (nor caring for) the memo, essentially pull a Hostile Show Takeover.
- Double Subverted: Our heroes, the command crew, take quick action to save the security team, only to be caught in a trap set by the Big Bad. The rest of the episode focuses on the engineering watchstanders jury-rigging solutions to save the ship and get out of harm's way.
- Parodied: The episode starts out normally... until Bob kicks the door down and steals all the screentime.
- Zig Zagged: Through the magic of the Halfway Plot Switch, part of the episode focuses on Security Chief Bob and part focuses on the main cast, with the third act switching to Glen Da Chief doing his standard after-action fact-checking to prevent his Military Maverick friends at the USS Troperville (who are all of the above) from facing a court martial.
- Averted: A normal episode, focusing on the main cast.
- Enforced:
- The star of the show is unavailable, so an episode is written which puts his character temporarily out of the way.
- It's a Back Door Pilot for Deep Trope 7, introducing some of the core characters in an already established series.
- The writers wanted to show that, while the main characters make the important decisions, they do not (by themselves) do everything.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, what happened to the others?"
- Invoked: Bob does something important so that he'll get a chapter about him in the story told by the onboard scribe
- Exploited: The Big Bad uses Bob's time in the limelight to perform his operations, knowing he's dealing with less powerful opponents.
- Defied: The captain prevents Bob from doing anything important so that he will get all the glory.
- Discussed: "Everybody's got a story to tell. And there's not enough time to tell them all."
- Conversed: "Ooh, they’re finally giving my favorite minor characters a chance to shine!"
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