First days can be tough, even in the 24th century.
The U.S.S. Cerritos is dispatched to the Galardonian homeworld for Second Contact, the messy bureaucratic work that takes place after First Contact.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hand-Hold: After Rutherford and Barnes flip their table in order to protect themselves from phaser fire, their hands accidentally touch. They immediately pull back, turning their heads away so that the other person can't see the blushing.
- Accidental Misnaming: Captain Freeman gets Boimler's name wrong by calling him "Bumford" in their second meeting, but at least gets it right the second time after he corrects her.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Mariner ruffles Boimler's hair just after she introduces herself to Tendi.
- And Show It to You: Tendi at one point has to take a patient's heart — attached, but outside of his chest cavity — and pump it by hand to keep him alive. The poor sod isn't under aesthetic, either, so he's left squealing in pain with every pump.
- Bad Black Barf: The zombies spew this stuff everywhere.
- Captain's Log: Discussed and Parodied. Everyone's supposed to keep a log, but Boimler records his as if he were the captain.Boimler: Captain's Log, Stardate 57436.2. The Cerritos is docked at Douglas Station for routine maintenance and resupply. We will soon set course for the capital planet on the Galar system, where we're scheduled to make second contact with the Galardonian High Council. First contact is a delicate, high-stakes operation of diplomacy. One must be ready for anything when Humanity is interacting with an alien race for the first time. But we don't do that. Our specialty is second contact. Still pretty important. We get all the paperwork signed, make sure we're spelling the name of the planet right, get to know all the good places to eat...
- Casual Danger Dialog:
- Not even a deadly disease breaking out all over the ship will disrupt Rutherford's date with Barnes. Even as they work to fight it, they are still technically on the date and spend it Flirting Under Fire.
- Tendi arrives in Sickbay so she can report to Nurse Westlake, but he's already been zombified. She tries to introduce herself to him while he spews black bile all over her.
- Clothing Damage: Shaxs gets his shirt ripped.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Played for laughs; Rutherford recently got cybernetic implants in his head made by Vulcans, and they tend to malfunction and attempt to suppress his emotions in emulation of them.
- Disapproving Look: A scowl forms on Boimler's face when Mariner convinces Tendi to visit the holodeck instead of reporting to Nurse Westlake, which was his suggestion and the more responsible thing to do.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Boimler returns to the Cerritos covered in slime that cures the zombie plague, but Captain Freeman solely credits Dr. T'Ana for saving the day. As a result, Boimler decides to disobey Freeman's orders for him to report on Mariner's behavior.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Compared to most later episodes of the show, this one has a much faster and more frenetic pace, with the characters often shouting their lines and over-talking each other — even during the normal dialog sequences — and the humor in general having a Denser and Wackier feel. The pacing in future episodes would still be faster compared with the live-action shows (mostly because the episodes of this series are typically half the length), but not to nearly the same extent as here.
- Establishing Series Moment: Boimler opens the series narrating a Captain's Log, only for Mariner to bust in, drunk and with a crate full of contraband, mocking him for playing captain. She then starts wildly swinging a bat'leth and slices him in the leg, to their mutual horror.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied. After the crisis is over, Captain Freeman and her senior staff joke about the paperwork as they leave Sickbay— but the camera stays on the four ensigns who are still utterly shell-shocked by the events of the episode.
- Exorcist Head: Ransom shakes multiple times his head after he turns into a zombie.
- Face Palm: Freeman shows her frustration when Boimler doesn't report any insubordination on Mariner's part.
- Failsafe Failure:
- The fact that a Red Alert disables the emergency hatch's recognition system is frequently brought up by Ens. Rutherford, completely derailing his date.
- Apparently, the Cerritos' transporter biofilters weren't working, allowing Cmdr. Ransom to bring a Hate Plague aboard the ship.
- Fan of the Past: Barnes and Rutherford like The Monkees.
- Fanservice Extra: Mariner runs an Olympic training room program filled with buff naked men. Tendi notes that the program is very detailed.
- First Contact: Parodied here with Second Contact, the less-glamourous job of actually setting up lines of communication and other infrastructure necessary to keep the Galardonians in contact with the Federation.
- First Day from Hell: It's the first day of Tendi's tour on the Cerritos and she's caught in a zombie plague. She gets covered in black bile and has to manually pump a patient's heart. She takes it remarkably well.
- First-Episode Twist: It's revealed near the end that Freeman is Mariner's mother.
- Forgot to Mind Their Head: When Tendi asks, "Is there an Ensign Boimler here?", a crouching Boimler forgets that the flap of the replicator that he's repairing is open, and he hits his head against it when he stands up.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Mariner's crate of contraband is full of items from previous Trek series.
- Funny Background Event: While Rutherford and Barnes are space walking across the hull, Shaxs can be seen pummeling zombified crew members.
- Giant Spider: The Galardonian equivalent of a cow, and similarly herbivorous despite its aggression. Mariner lets it use Boimler as a human pacifier for a while to get it to calm down.
- Gilligan Cut: When Mariner suggests taking Tendi to the holodeck, Boimler insists that she doesn't have time. Mariner then corners him by asking him if he knows the time without actually looking at it, since he would only be sure of his declaration if he knows what time it is. Cut to them entering the holodeck.
- Groin Attack: The malfunctioning replicator spitting out hot bananas shoots one into Boimler's crotch as he's greeting Tendi.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: Boimler's heartbeat is heard for several seconds as he nervously walks on to the bridge, drowning out Ransom's voice as he asks what Boimler is doing away from his post.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Ransom is naturally horrified at having potentially eaten people before being cured.Ransom: Oh, what happened? Where am I? And… did I eat flesh?
Tendi: Uh, hardly any.
Ransom: HOW MUCH DID I EAT?! - I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Boimler utters this nearly verbatim when he discloses to Mariner that he didn't report her breach of protocol to Captain Freeman.Boimler: I can't believe I'm saying it— Starfleet is better with you in it.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Rutherford and Barnes, still on their date, have narrowly avoided the zombies, and have just shared a kiss. Barnes is clearly very eager for more, but Rutherford completely ignores her advances, as he's too busy geeking out over a strange error in the security system that nearly got them both infected.
- Infection Scene: Just before returning from the Galardonian homeworld, Commander Ransom is bitten on the neck by a bug. As the away team steps off the transporter pad, Lt. Cmdr. Stevens suggests that he should get it looked at, and Ransom cheerfully replies that he'll be fine. Less than a minute later, there's a huge purple welt on his neck. Two minutes after that, he turns into a Bad Black Barf-spitting zombie. It's quickly reported that several other crew members in other parts of the ship turned around the same time.
- Informed Attractiveness: Mariner thinks that Barnes is crazy hot, and Rutherford later confirms that she's pretty — due to the simple character design, she isn't too much different from any other female characters in the audience's eyes.
- The Internet Is for Porn: As soon as Boimler leaves the Holodeck, Mariner changes the program to nude male athletes at the gym.
- List-of-Experiences Speech: Mariner easily outdoes Boimler when it comes to who has dealt with the most weird stuff.Mariner: I have served on five ships, man. I have seen stuff. One time I got trapped in a sentient cave for weeks. You ever been trapped in a sentient cave? That's a dark place that knows things. I almost got my head taken off by a singing crystal. I have been in a Klingon prison where I had to fight a yeti for my own shoes for no reason. He was just being a dick.
- Logical Weakness: Given that the zombie plague is a native Galardonian pathogen, and the planet hasn't been consumed by a Zombie Apocalypse, it makes sense that the inhabitants would have some sort of natural immunity or resistance to it. As such, the cure being in the spider-spittle makes sense, since in Real Life saliva has antimicrobial properties.
- The Mentor: Mariner declares herself this for Boimler after he refuses to rat her out, and won't take no for an answer.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Downplayed, but part of the reason that Boimler refuses to rat out Mariner to Captain Freeman is that she doesn't mention his part in curing the Hate Plague aboard the Cerritos in her Captain's Log, gets his name wrong, and treats him with disdain, all in short order.
- Oh, Crap!: Boimler and Mariner understandably freak out when Mariner drunkenly swings her bat'leth into Boimler's leg.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The mindless, growling "zombies" are living people who are infected by an alien disease. Their skin tone becomes a pallid purple-grey, Tainted Veins appear, and they spew Bad Black Barf near-constantly. The virus is spread when a diseased individual bites someone to consume their flesh, though fortunately the bile that they spray everywhere is harmless.
- Out of the Frying Pan: Rutherford and Barnes spacewalk along the saucer to get around the zombies, only to find that the infection has beaten them to that section.
- Projectile Webbing: The Galardonian Giant Spider can fire streams of silk from the spinnerets on its behind.
- Sarcasm Mode: Boimler isn't amused by Mariner's impersonation of Shaxs, so his flat response to her attempt at being funny is "Yeah, hilarious."
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
- Mariner breaks protocol to trade farming equipment to the Galardonians, as Starfleet's bureaucracy would take months to get to them otherwise.
- Boimler refuses to rat Mariner out in spite of being ordered by Captain Freeman to watch her for any infractions, as he feels that Starfleet is better off with her in it.
- Ship Tease: The episode ends with Ensign Tendi reacting just as intently about the override failure as Rutherford had.
- Skewed Priorities: Rutherford cares more about a minor error in a hatch's recognition system than his date wanting to bone him on the spot. This is while both have just escaped from a horde of infected crewmembers.
- Smooch of Victory: After Barnes and Rutherford phaser their way through zombified crew members, Barnes plants a wet one on Rutherford. And then he ruins it by going on about a malfunction in the door's recognition system.
- Snub by Omission: Captain Freeman gives all the credit to solving the zombie plague and saving the ship to Doctor T'Ana and the rest of her senior staff, even though Boimler was the one who brought the slime that cured the plague onto the ship. This results in Boimler not reporting Mariner's disobedience like he was told to, while simultaneously throwing shade at Freeman that he brought the slime onboard.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: T'Ana's swear word is bleeped out ("Holy [bleep]!"), although it's still easy to tell that she said "shit".
- Stating the Simple Solution: Boimler suggests simply stunning the spider, but Mariner shoots that down because it will probably spoil the milk, which the Galardonian farmers later confirm.
- Sting: There's a very dramatic-sounding music clip that plays when Ransom scratches the purple welt on his neck. It's an auditory hint to the audience that his bug bite will cause a lot of problems soon.
- Stunned Silence: When Tendi first enters Sickbay, she's so shocked by the chaos caused by the Hate Plague that she's speechless.
- Suddenly Shouting: Tendi unexpectedly raises her voice while conversing with Rutherford in the lounge.Rutherford: But [Barnes] had zero interest in figuring out why a red alert overrode maintenance hatch 70's access protocols. It's like, can you even imagine?
Tendi: I-I'm sorry. What? IT DID?! - Tainted Veins: The zombies display engorged black veins as they go berserk.
- Tempting Fate:
- After getting bitten by a Galardonian bug, Ransom declines to get it looked at, figuring that he'll be fine. Yeah, not happening...
- Rutherford's date is going fairly smoothly in spite of his malfunctioning cybernetic implant, and he muses on how glad he is that they got to sit down and learn about one another without any distractions. Cue Ransom turning full-rabid-zombie over at the bar, vomiting black bile, and attacking several crew members.
- Tuckerization: Nurse Westlake is named for series composer Chris Westlake.
- Wham Line: Captain Freeman drops an interesting little tidbit about Mariner when complaining about her to her husband.Admiral Freeman: She's your daughter too.
