The Cerritos is paying a visit to Beta III, a planet previously visited by Kirk's Enterprise many years ago. To Freeman's immense frustration, she has discovered that they have reverted to their old habit of worshiping their god-computer Landru. She does her best to set them straight again before giving orders to depart the planet, but the conn reports there are two crewmembers who haven't yet returned to the ship.
Down on the surface, Mariner is handing out art supplies to the children of Beta III, re-encouraging their creative habits now that their families have (hopefully) stopped obeying Landru again. She sees Boimler approaching, expecting him to chide her for breaking protocol as he so often does, but to her surprise, he joins her instead. Boimler also decides to tease her a little, now that he has discovered she's the Captain's daughter, which sours Mariner's mood very quickly. Unbeknownst to them, the Captain has been trying to comm them, and everyone on the bridge hears the conversation through Boimler's hot mic. Freeman beams them both directly to the bridge, where Boimler's latest taunt about "Captain Mommy" devolves into a mortified scream...
Meanwhile, in the Kalla System, the brand-new Cali-class USS Solvang is on her shakedown cruise. Captain Dayton, formerly of the Rubidoux, is enjoying that new starship smell when, out of nowhere, a massive, sinister-looking warship appears and immediately opens fire on them. Caught completely off guard, the crew attempts to retreat to warp, but a grappler launched by the mysterious enemy onto the port nacelle causes the ship to tear itself apart. The Solvang is destroyed with all hands.
A batch of transfers is arriving on the Cerritos. Ensign Tendi, assigned to be liaison to a brand-new recruit, is ecstatic. It turns out to be the first Exocomp to graduate from Starfleet Academy. The new ensign says she did a linguistic analysis of all Federation languages to find the perfect "normal" humanoid name for herself: Peanut Hamper!
Freeman is commiserating with Mariner in her ready room about their relationship being revealed, which neither of them wanted. When Ransom arrives to deliver his officer recommendations for promotion to the Sacramento, both of them are frustrated by his sudden reflexive obsequiousness towards Mariner. Later, as she is walking the ship's corridors, the thinly-veiled stares and whispers from countless crew around her make it clear that her worst fears have come true: Beckett Mariner, Captain Freeman's daughter, is now on everyone's lips, either scared of her or looking to curry favor with her. Even Boimler, of all people, tries to get her to sign a letter of recommendation for him so he can get a promotion to the Sacramento. This gives Mariner an idea. If she got the promotion to another ship, she would be a nobody again. So she rolls down her sleeves, straightens her posture, and affects her best ass-kissing persona before marching back to work.
The Cerritos receives a partial distress call from the Solvang. Freeman doesn't believe that anything serious could be going on in the Kalla system and assumes it must be some sort of technical issue. The Titan is also in sector, but Freeman decides to let them know that she'll take the call.
Tendi has noticed that Ensign Peanut Hamper can be a bit of a klutz, which makes her anxious about how she'll perform in front of the curmudgeony Dr. T'Ana. Her fears end up being unfounded, however. When it comes time for her to perform her first delicate surgical operation, Peanut Hamper performs perfectly! She even shows T'Ana an improved skin grafting technique of her own design.
The Cerritos arrives at the source of the distress call to find a massive debris field that can only be the remains of the Solvang. Then they see the grotesque warship that destroyed it. Before anyone can react, their port nacelle is grabbed by the same grappling arm as before. Fortunately, Captain Freeman doesn't make the same mistake Captain Dayton did and orders all engines to full stop. The nacelle is torn from its pylon, and we finally see who is commanding this Frankenstein's monster of a ship: Pakleds.
It would seem that, since they first encountered the Enterprise-D in 2365, the Pakleds have grown even more powerful, and possibly even more stupid, than before. They are still in the business of stealing technology from other ships, but they no longer need to entrap their prey by feigning distress to do it. Boimler reports that their ship possesses armaments from at least 30 known species.
The warship's cutting lasers start disemboweling the Cerritos and Pakled soldiers transport in. The situation seems hopeless, so Freeman turns to Mariner and orders her to do what she does best: come up with a plan, any plan, no matter how crazy or stupid, that gives them a fighting chance. Mariner immediately has an idea: for a ship to interface with so many wildly different alien components, the Pakleds would have a Logical Weakness to malicious computer code. She passes her idea to Rutherford, but who could possibly come up with such a virus in so short a time?
Rutherford runs to the nearest holodeck and boots up his old "friend" Badgey. The anthropomorphic combadge who once tried to kill him and Tendi has been evesdropping on them even while turned off and has a virus already whipped up for them. Nothing creepy about that at all. Rutherford rushes back with the program in hand, but now they need a way to get it onboard the Pakled ship and into their network.
Boimler: Yeah, and who could survive in space without a ship?
Tendi: Someone who can travel with the program safely stored in her hard drive...?
All: Peanut Hamper!
Everyone's eyes light up as they turn to their floating Exocomp savior... who casually refuses to accept the mission. She says she only joined Starfleet over daddy issues, not to do dangerous stuff like save the ship. Despite everyone's protestations, she nonchalantly transports away into space, deserting her crew.
Rutherford starts to improvise a Plan B. He uploads the virus to his cybernetic implant while Shaxs carries him to the shuttle bay. They take the battered Sequoia straight out through the hull of the Cerritos and straight in through the hull of the clumpship, Shaxs bellowing with glee the whole way. Inside, Rutherford interfaces himself with the computer and begins the virus upload while Shaxs runs interference, but it stops just before it finishes. Badgey shows up again, letting him know that he won't complete the upload until he gets to see Rutherford killed at the hands of his attackers. When Rutherford presses him, Badgey decides he'll just self-destruct the Pakled ship right then and there!
Shaxs wastes no time when he hears. He grabs Rutherford again, rips his implant out, and loads him back onboard the Sequoia. With a mighty heave, he pushes it back out through the breached hull just in time to save Rutherford before the clumpship explodes!
With the enemy ship destroyed and the invading Pakleds contained, Captain Freeman, injured during the fighting, orders Mariner to take the ship to warp as soon as engines are back online. But only a moment later, three new Pakled ships arrive, resuming the work of taking the helpless ship apart. Mariner orders all hands to abandon ship... but then the Titan warps in, weapons hot! With a few enfilades of phasers and torpedoes, the Pakleds retreat to the cheers of the Cerritos crew.
The maimed little ship is returned to Spacedock for repairs. Tendi sits by Rutherford's bedside as he recovers from his injuries. When he wakes up, he doesn't recognize her, and Tendi realizes that the loss of his implant must have taken his memories with them. Rather than grieve for the loss of their friendship, she's excited that they get to become friends all over again!
Back in Freeman's ready room, she and Mariner are mourning Shaxs' death, but take comfort knowing that he died the way he would have wanted: fighting his enemies and protecting his friends. Freeman also wants to address Mariner's mounting list of infractions, including the loads of contraband weapons that she pulled out to help repel the Pakled boarders. Affronted, Mariner points out that her rule-breaking is what saved the ship, but for once Freeman agrees with her. She acknowledges that Starfleet has its flaws and that the rules don't always make sense in every situation. She proposes that they work together. Mariner is sufficiently Beneath Notice that she can bend the rules when the situation calls for it, while Freeman keeps up apperances to satisfy Starfleet and insulate Mariner from reprisals.
The crew celebrate in the mess with their rescuers, Riker and Troi. Rutherford listens to Tendi with rapt attention about all of their adventures he's forgotten while Boimler and Mariner bury the hatchet regarding their earlier arguments over the Sacramento promotion. Boimler resolves to be less obssessed with rank and more appreciative of what he has. That is, until Riker comes up to their table and hands Boimler a PADD. His eyes grow wide when he reads it...
Cut to Boimler dressing up in a new uniform, a lieutenant's pip plainly visible on his collar, as a voice mail plays in the background.
Tropes:
- Abandon Ship: Mariner (temporarily in command while Freeman is in Sickbay) orders the crew to the Escape Pods when three more Pakled ships warp in and start trying to tear the ship apart. Luckily, the Titan comes to the rescue moments later, invalidating the need.
- Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Starfleet's "solution" to the problem of Landru was to cordon him off with Starfleet-branded caution tape, hang a sign on his red light, and slap a "Do Not Obey" sticker on his casing.
- Achilles' Heel: The Pakleds steal ship parts and technology from all different kinds of cultures and races, but this is also their biggest weakness. Because they install all technology that they obtain into their own ships, they have absolutely no firewalls to protect their own codebase, allowing a virus to be installed that can cripple them.
- Accidental Misnaming: As is tradition, Riker initially calls Boimler "Boomler". While he's handing him a promotion, mind you.
- Aesop Amnesia: In-Universe, the people of Beta III are letting Landru boss them around again, in spite of Kirk's speech and a "Do Not Obey" sign that his crew left behind.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
- Landru is trying to control people again, though nowadays he can't actually force people to do anything. He's also more easily put in his place by the threat of a Logic Bomb.
- Peanut Hamper decides to act in her own self-interest rather than help the crew.
- Badgey is still trying to kill Rutherford.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: The episode discusses the Prime Directive and deconstructs it. The teaser deals with the Cerritos having to fix Beta III's regression back into worshipping the Landru computer, while the bulk of the episode deals with a more dangerous Pakled race. Freeman makes it quite clear twice that this sort of thing should not have happened, and the only reason it did was that the Prime Directive forbade them from checking up on everyone.
- All There in the Script: The Pakled captain is named Jackabog in the subtitles.
- Answer Cut:
- Freeman is ready to take the Cerritos away from Beta III when she learns that there are still crewmembers planetside.Freeman: I didn't authorize that. Who is it?
(cut to the surface)
Mariner: Art supplies! Get your art supplies! - When Mariner explains her plan to upload a virus to the Pakled ship, Ransom says that whoever can create the virus "must be some kind of morally bankrupt genius". Cue Badgey.
- Freeman is ready to take the Cerritos away from Beta III when she learns that there are still crewmembers planetside.
- The Assimilator: The Pakleds have taken to grafting pieces of other ships onto their own. They've been at it long enough to create massive, mismatched warships that can overpower weaker Starfleet vessels.
- Attack Hello: The Pakleds "greet" the Solvang by warping in and firing full phasers. They then do the same to the Cerritos. Then the Titan pulls it on them.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the mutual animosity throughout the season, Mariner is clearly distressed to see her mother injured, and Freeman trusts her daughter to screw the rules and save the Cerritos.
- Back for the Dead: Captain Dayton, former commander of the U.S.S. Rubidoux in "Much Ado About Boimler", dies aboard the Solvang when they try to escape the Pakleds.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: When Badgey interrupts the virus upload, insisting that Rutherford die first, Rutherford yells at him that they don't have time for that. Badgey agrees, so he instead initiates the ship's Self-Destruct Mechanism to solve both problems at once.
- Blood Knight: Shaxs is ecstatic to go on a potential suicide mission to infiltrate and disable the Pakled ship, calling it the most fun that he's ever had in his life.
- Book Ends: Back in the pilot, Tendi was the Naïve Newcomer and Boimler was her orientation liaison, with him and Mariner giving Tendi a tour. Now Tendi is the liaison to a new officer and gives her the same tour.
- Brick Joke:
- In the very first episode, Mariner suggests that Boimler could be their new "sword guy". When the Pakleds invade the Cerritos, Boimler picks up a fencing foil.
- Mariner mentions that Billups didn't even know who she was before the events of this episode and misnamed her as "Jen", a name which Mariner isn't even sure that anyone on the ship actually has. (She called an Andorian Jennifer back in "Cupid's Errant Arrow".) As she's leaving angry voicemails on Boimler's PADD at the end of the episode, another crewmember yells at her to be quiet, and she yells back "Shut up, Jen!"
- During the battle, Peanut Hamper beams herself into space rather than face the Pakleds. At the end of the episode, as the Titan warps away, she's still floating in the void.Peanut Hamper: Help? Help?
- Brief Accent Imitation: Some of Rutherford's different modes give him different accents.(in British mode) "'Ello. Chim chimurri. What's all this, then?"
(in Western mode) "Ooh-wee! Howdy there. Now I'm talkin' like a cowboy." - Buffy Speak: Mariner calls a drawing compass a "spiky pencil twirl-around thingy".
- Call-Back:
- The episode opens with the Cerritos at Beta III, the setting of the TOS episode "The Return of the Archons".
- The Pakleds from the TNG episode "Samaritan Snare" return to antagonize the crew.
- The Titan is going to visit Tulgana IV.
- Exocomps are now enlisting in Starfleet.
- Tendi shows Peanut Hamper around the ship in much the same way that Boimler showed her around in the first episode.
- Mariner's contraband from the first episode, including her bat'leth, comes back to help fend off the Pakleds.
- Riker calls Freeman his cha'DIch, and was her self-appointed mentor like the relationship that Mariner imposed on Boimler back in "Second Contact".
- Back in "Terminal Provocations", Rutherford mentioned that being posted to the Titan was Boimler's dream gig. By the end of the episode, Boimler gets his wish.
- Calling Your Attacks: Ransom while fighting the Pakleds.Ransom: Side roll! Side roll! Double-hand punch!
- Canon Immigrant: Sean Tourangeau's design for the Luna-class U.S.S. Titan is now officially canon.
- On a more comedic note, the infamous "Spock Helmet" — a toy released in the 1970s that had no connections to Trek, but had Trek stickers slapped on — makes an appearance among Mariner's contraband.
- Captain's Log: Ransom uses his log to provide exposition on Beta III."The Cerritos is in orbit around Beta III. Back in the day, these guys worshiped a violent god called Landru, who suppressed their creativity and made them kill each other until Kirk figured out it was actually a computer. Get this: At some point, these knuckleheads went back to worshiping Landru. Captain Freeman has been setting them straight all morning."
- The Cavalry: The Titan arrives just in time when the Cerritos is surrounded. This is also not the first season finale where Captain Riker has warped in to save the day.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: When Mariner ends up blurting out that Riker gives her contraband, he quickly cuts the transmission and reminds everyone that they're still on Red Alert. Troi doesn't fall for it and tells him that they'll talk later, much to his sheepish chagrin.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The scrapped shuttle Sequoia, which has been sitting in pieces in the lower decks workshop all season, is used by Shaxs and Rutherford to board the Pakled ship.
- All of the contraband weapons that Mariner has been collecting are used by the crew to fend off the Pakleds when they beam aboard the Cerritos.
- At the start of the episode, they mention that the Titan is in the area. The ship warps in just in time to rescue the Cerritos from three more Pakled ships.
- Comedic Work, Serious Scene: Most of the tension involving the Pakleds featured the characters being assailed from all sides, at least before the Titan shows up.
- Computer Virus: Rutherford has Badgey whip up a computer virus to disable the Pakled ship, after Boimler realizes that they must have next to no security protocols in order to keep their mismatched tech functioning in unison. Badgey complies, but sets it up so Rutherford will be killed with the Pakleds.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Lt. Levy thinks that Wolf 359 was an inside job, Changelings aren't real, and the Dominion War didn't happen.
- Continuity Nod:
- Freeman is unhappy that known societies might get destroyed by a Gamester of Triskelion after Starfleet stops paying attention.
- The Bajoran engineer with the dilithium burns from all the way back in "Envoys" is still recovering in Sickbay, or wound up on a bio-bed again.
- Mariner temporarily adopts Boimler's speed-walking technique from "Envoys".
- Badgey is still pissed at his "father" Rutherford snapping his neck in "Terminal Provocations".
- Shaxs calls Rutherford "Baby Bear" as he throws his unconscious body into the shuttle, referencing his brief time as a security officer and member of Shaxs' "Bear Pack" in "Envoys". He also used that nickname in "Veritas".
- Tendi tells an amnesiac Rutherford all the events that he's forgotten during their time serving aboard the Cerritos, including the time when she made a dog and the time when they stole a bunch of T-88s.
- Boimler's plaque from "Temporal Edict" can be seen in his quarters on the Titan.
- Mariner threatens to feed Boimler to "an Armus" in retaliation for ditching her to transfer to the Titan.
- Cringe Comedy: Boimler talking about Mariner being Freeman's daughter, unaware that the whole Bridge crew can hear them over his comm badge.
- Cutting the Knot: Badgey rigs the virus so it will self-destruct the Pakled ship and kill Rutherford, and since the virus is contained in Rutherford's implant, Rutherford will have to be caught in the blast if he wants to save the Cerritos. Shaxs solves the problem by ripping the entire implant off Rutherford's head, then chucking him into the shuttle to save his life.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: A variation with Peanut Hamper, who only joined Starfleet to piss off her father.
- Death Glare: Captain Freeman looks like she's about to fire phasers from her eyes straight through Boimler's head when he materializes on the bridge in front of her, while mocking Mariner over being Freeman's daughter. Boimler's reaction when he finally notices gets cut off by the show's intro.
- Deconstruction:
- Of the Federation's habit of waltzing in, dealing with a problem, and waltzing away. Turns out that they do a pretty poor job of making sure that such problems don't resurface. They had no idea that the Betans had returned to worshipping Landru or that the Pakleds Took a Level in Badass.
- On a more Meta level, those same points are a deconstruction of the episodic nature of Pre-DS9 Star Trek series. The end of the episode doesn't mean that the problem is solved permanently. You need to regularly maintain the solution, and work on it constantly. As Mariner herself says at the end of the episode:Mariner: You can't expect people to keep making the right choices a generation down the road.
- Didn't Think This Through: Peanut Hamper teleported herself off the ship while it was under attack— but didn’t think of setting a specific destination, leaving her stranded in deep space nearby.
- The Dog Bites Back: Defied. Boimler wants to use the info about Mariner and Freeman being related so that he can do the similar rule-breaking stuff that Mariner does and she takes the heat. However, since that info is broadcasted to the entire ship, he never gets the chance to do so.
- Drama Bomb Finale: The stakes are so high and the situation is so critical that Shaxs ends up sacrificing his life. Lampshaded by Freeman, who in referring to the Pakleds could also be describing her own show:Freeman: Looks like they're not a joke anymore.
- Dramatic Unmask: The Captain of the attacking warship takes off his helmet to reveal that he's a Pakled and that his people went from being a joke to a serious threat.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Badgey is uploading the last of the virus, he's grunting as if pent-up and then has a blissful release when finished.
- Due to the Dead: Shaxs is properly eulogized at his memorial service.Freeman: We'll never forget Lt. Shaxs' sacrifice. He's with the Prophets now.
- Dumb Muscle: The Pakleds have become this. Though they aren't a joke any more and pose a legitimate threat, it is clear that they still aren't the brightest bulbs, such as how they refer to every Starfleet ship that they encounter as the Enterprise.
- Face Palm:
- Freeman has her face in her hand at what's happening on Beta III.Freeman: I can't believe you all started re-worshipping the dang computer!
- She does it again after Ransom's faux pas with Mariner.
- Troi does it at Riker's "Warp 5, 6, 7, 8" jazz pun.Riker: Give me warp in the factor of 5, 6, 7, 8...
(jazz music starts)
Troi: Oh, the jazz...
- Freeman has her face in her hand at what's happening on Beta III.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the Cerritos is surrounded by Pakled ships and Boimler reports another incoming vessel, said vessel shows up on Boimler's console as a green dot in contrast to the red Pakled dots, indicating that the ship isn't a hostile. And when it shows up...Boimler: IT'S THE TITAN!
- Franken-vehicle: The Pakleds' new war spaceships are made from parts of other ships. They even show that they can use grappling hooks to attach pieces of wreckage from other ships like the Solvang to their hulls to upgrade and repair on the fly.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Rutherford jumps through a bunch of attitude modes that he never mentions aloud, including Klingon Mode and Bro mode.
- As Mariner is dumping stashes of weapons for the crew to use, a tribble can be seen bouncing out of one pile. Freeman brings it up during her List of Transgressions.
- While going through the items from one of the stashes, Billups can be seen holding the infamous "Spock Helmet."
- Godzilla Threshold: When Mariner explains her plan to upload a virus into the Pakled ship, Ransom voices that whoever could come up with a code like that so quickly would have to be "some kind of morally bankrupt genius". Ruthford is forced to turn to Badgey for help, after Badgey had previously tried to kill him and Tendi.
- Good Old Fisticuffs:
- Ransom once again declines a weapon, preferring to fight the Pakleds with his bare hands.
- Billups and Shaxs also prefer to use their fists (and a well-timed headbutt) to deal with the Pakleds.
- Gunship Rescue: The Titan comes to the Cerritos's rescue with phasers and photon torpedoes blazing.
- Harmless Villain:
- Played for Laughs with Landru, who went from The Assimilator to a computerized version of Achmed the Dead Terrorist, making loud threats that it can't actually act on.
- Deconstructed rather ominously with the Pakleds, showing that even if a threat seems completely incompetent and harmless, it can still become a very serious problem if ignored for long enough.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shaxs dies saving both Rutherford and the Cerritos.
- Hidden Supplies: Mariner has stashes of contraband all over the ship, mostly weapons and booze.
- Hope Spot: The crew manages to blow up the Pakled ship at the cost of Shaxs's life, only for three equally powerful Pakled ships to warp in and fire grapplers onto the primary hull, nearly ripping the ship in half. Thankfully, the Titan shows up right after that.
- Hyperspeed Ambush: An unidentified ship downwarps in front of the USS Solvang and destroys her. When the Cerritos arrives in the system, said ship attacks and cripples her while the captain reveals himself to be a Pakled, a race that Took a Level in Badass from Harmless Villain to Not-So-Harmless Villain. It then escalates after the Cerritos barely manages to destroy the first Pakled ship, only for three more to downwarp and surround her. And then the Titan pulls this with a Gunship Rescue, driving away the Pakleds and saving the Cerritos.
- Hyperspeed Escape:
- Dayton attempts this when the Pakleds attack, but it tragically ends in her ship tearing itself apart because the Pakleds have managed to grapple onto the nacelle. Freeman narrowly avoids a repeat when she deduces what happened.
- The Pakleds all flee when Riker warps in with the Titan and starts blasting their ships.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Boimler tells Mariner that he's going to enjoy life and not worry about rank, only to take Riker's offer of a promotion and transfer to the Titan on the spot.
- Mariner promised to help Boimler get his own command. Now that his promotion and transfer puts him one step closer to that goal, she's pissed at him for leaving.
- Boimler confesses that he'd miss Mariner if she left, and that he regularly applies for promotions that he never gets. In the end, he gets his own promotion, leaving Mariner behind and ghosting her when she tries to hail him.
- Incoming Ham:Riker: Red Alert! A Pakled party and I wasn't invited?
- Insult Backfire: When Ransom asks Troi if she could introduce him to any of her Betazoid friends, she points out that he uses his outward confidence to mask deep insecurity. He cheerily says that he could make that work.
- Internal Reveal: Boimler accidentally spills the beans about Mariner and Freeman's relationship to the Bridge crew, and it spreads like wildfire from them.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Boimler promises to Mariner that he'll keep her secret about being Freeman's daughter, not knowing that they're speaking over an open comm link. The same conversation has Mariner calling Ransom a "pathetic little fly in amber".Ransom: I am not a little fly in amber!
- Knight of Cerebus: When the Pakleds show up, things get really dark for the Cerritos— the ship is severely damaged, Shaxs is killed, Freeman and Rutherford are badly injured, and it looks like everyone is doomed until the Titan shows up.
- Large Ham: It's a good thing that it's an animated show, otherwise Jonathan Frakes would have left tooth marks on the set from setting his Riker dial up to eleven.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Rutherford loses his memories of the entire season after Shaxs rips his implant out.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Peanut Hamper leaves the crew to die rather then risk herself by teleporting herself out of the Cerritos, but then when the ship is saved, she is forgotten about by the crew and left behind to float in space forever.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Ransom refers to Captain Kirk's adventures in the 2260s as "The TOS-era". However, he clarifies that TOS stands for "Those Old Scientists" (not "The Original Series"), at least in his head. He also points out that they found a new alien species pretty much every week.
- In the conclusion, Riker discusses "the original Enterprise" (NX-01) and quotes part of its theme song.
- Mariner states that we shouldn't expect people will "keep doing the right thing a generation down the road", which feels like a friendly Take That! against detractors of the modern series who believe that the tone has become too cynical and character actions too morally questionable from the ones in the eighties.
- Let's Get Dangerous!:
- The Pakleds demonstrate that, as slow and simple as they might seem, they are a lot more dangerous than they're often given credit for, at least if they can get away with their antics for long enough to become so.
- This episode shows better than any so far how competent Mariner is as a leader and an outside-the-box thinker when she's not goofing off or provoking her superiors. She comes up with a brilliant plan to subvert the Pakleds' systems, then deftly takes command during the ensuing chaos when the rest of the senior staff are engaged with the Pakled Boarding Party. With the experience and competence she displays, it's no wonder Mariner has to constantly self-sabotage to avoid being shoved into a captain's chair.
- List of Transgressions:Freeman: Ensign Beckett Mariner, beamed down to Beta III without authorization—
Mariner: Oh, wait, seriously?
Freeman: Contraband hidden throughout the ship. Illegal weapons, illicit drugs, a tribble?
Mariner: Yeah, that's for personal use!
Freeman: I've got a whole year's worth of your insubordinations right here.
Mariner: Well, without those "insubordinations", we'd all be dead right now!
Freeman: I know. - Logic Bomb: Freeman threatens Landru with this when he starts demanding that his followers "consume the intruders."Landru: LANDRU... APOLOGIZES.
- Logical Weakness: In order to incorporate the parts and systems from so many different alien ships, the Pakled's own computer systems have little to no security measures, making them highly vulnerable to computer viruses.
- Makes Us Even: Riker claims that the Titan's timely arrival to save the Cerritos makes him "even" with Mariner, though he never actually mentions where they met before. For what it's worth, Mariner disagrees.
- Mood-Swinger: Rutherford messing with his implant causes him to jump between different mood-settings: from optimistic to sexy to British to sassy to sleepy, etc. It takes a while for him to put himself back into his normal mode.
- Mood Whiplash: We go from the joke about Captain Dayton making her bridge crew take their shoes off to the destruction of the Solvang with all hands lost in about twenty-two seconds.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: A rare inversion of this trope's usual purpose of demonstrating that even supposedly "bad" races can have good people. The Exocomps, as they were first portrayed on TNG, were humble and selfless beings, risking themselves to protect others even at the cost of their lives. Ensign Peanut Hamper, by contrast, would rather become a deserter than risk herself to protect the Cerritos and its crew.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Ransom reads the historical report of the Enterprise's mission to Beta III, the picture of Kirk and Spock is drawn in the style of the animated series.
- Ransom refers to the 2260's as the "TOS Era", only instead of it meaning "The Original Series", Ransom's abbreviation stands for "Those Old Scientists".
- The Cerritos drops out of warp into a debris field caused by the destruction of another starship and is immediately attacked by the enemy ship responsible, like the Enterprise in Star Trek (2009).
- Ransom compares the Cerritos getting lasered apart to carving a First Contact Day salmon.
- Billups finds the infamous “Spock Helmet” in Mariner’s contraband collection. The real helmet was a white plastic toy helmet that had a blinking red light on top of it. It was never something seen on TV; the manufacturer simply got several Star Trek related labels and slapped them on the helmet when the show got big in reruns during the 70s. It’s now a collectors item.
- Boimler is seen fencing against a Pakled. Sulu once fenced during the original series, and Picard fenced multiple times during TNG.
- The chief of security dies, same as Yar did in TNG, though this time it's a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Freeman insists that the Cerritos be rebuilt without any cosmetic changes, not wanting her ship to end up with a Sovereign-like refit a la the original Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- Riker says that he was watching the original Enterprise on the holodeck, then clarifies that he means Star Trek: Enterprise. He also mentions that "they had a long road, getting from here to there". Riker made a cameo in the Enterprise finale, viewing the events as a holodeck program during "The Pegasus".
- And speaking of "The Pegasus", the Cerritos has Captain Freeman Day, just like Captain Picard Day on the Enterprise.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When the Pakled board the Cerritos, Mariner reveals her numerous stashes of contraband weapons with which the crew can arm themselves. This is instrumental in allowing the crew to fight off the boarders — and, once the crisis is resolved, it also lands her with a stay in the brig for hiding that much contraband on the ship.
- Non-Answer: With the holodeck safeties on, Badgey is as cheerful as a clown, but Rutherford isn't sure if he remembers what happened to him the last time he was turned on. It's possible that the safety protocols prevent Badgey from lying, which might explain why his reply is suspiciously tautological and in no way answers the question.Rutherford: Badgey! I need you to code a virus for me.
Badgey: Hmm, to do that, I would need you to disable safety protocols.
Rutherford: (Chuckles nervously) Wait, you're not gonna try to kill me again, are you?
Badgey: Ha ha, I'm Badgey!! - Noodle Implements: Mariner keeps a tribble around for personal use. What kind of personal use isn't elaborated upon.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Let's see...
- Everyone now knows that Freeman and Mariner are mother and daughter.
- Shaxs is dead.
- Rutherford lost his implant and his memories of the season, though he gets a new implant, and Tendi fills him in on their hijinks.
- Boimler has been promoted and transferred to the Titan.
- Freeman and Mariner come to an understanding and agree to work together to fix Starfleet's broken system.
- The Pakleds have returned as a credible threat with unknown goals and capabilities.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Pakleds turn out to be pretty dangerous once they've gotten away with stealing technology for long enough. They're still pretty stupid, but they manage to destroy one ship and ravage another before the Titan forces them to retreat.
- Odd Name Out: The Solvang is the first Cali-class with a Danish name, as opposed to the more common Spanish names like Cerritos, Merced, and Alhambra. However, Solvang is a real city in California that is known for its Danish architecture
- Oh, Crap!:
- Mariner's eyes go way wide when Boimler tells her that he knows about her being Freeman's daughter.
- Boimler then freaks out when he and Mariner are beamed up to The Bridge while he's making "Captain kisses" faces.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: Parodied. The mission to upload a virus to the Packleds' ship is perfectly suited to the abilities of an Exocomp, but Peanut Hamper choses to bail on everyone rather than put herself in danger.
- Plug 'n' Play Technology: The Pakleds are revealed to have developed the ability to improve and enlarge their ships by adding the wreckage of alien vessels to them; the one that encounters the Cerritos has pieces of over thirty cultures' ships assembled into a functional and effective whole. This turns out to also result in their primary weakness — interfacing so many different systems together means that Pakled computers need to be extremely open, which in turn makes them extremely vulnerable to viruses.
- Properly Paranoid: Freeman orders the engines powered down when the Pakleds fire grapple arms onto the nacelle, reasoning that Dayton likely tried going to warp and killed her entire crew doing it.
- Ramming Always Works: Shaxs infiltrates the Pakled ship by punching a hole in its hull with the shuttle itself.
- Rank Up: In the penultimate scene of the episode, it is revealed that Boimler has been promoted to Lieutenant, Junior Grade.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Freeman has always been a stickler for Starfleet procedures, but the events on Beta III and the battle with the Pakleds have made her realize that those procedures allow potential threats to grow unchecked. She also admits that, even though she's bound by protocol, her Military Maverick daughter can deal with things in ways that others can't.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Riker and Deanna are red and blue, respectively, with Riker going all-out Large Ham while Deanna's a Deadpan Snarker. This also matches the color of their shirts— Riker's command red and Deanna's science blue.
- Redshirt Army: The crew of the Solvang show up just long enough to establish that the Pakleds have become a serious threat (even if they're still pretty stupid). Oh, and it's probably no coincidence that the Solvang herself is adorned with a red stripe, so of course she's doomed.
- Running Gag: The Pakleds refer to every Starfleet ship as the Enterprise.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Poor Captain Dayton, who only just recently lost her last ship to a space jellyfish, is given a new one, only to be killed in action before the paint has dried. By Pakleds, of all people.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Peanut Hamper beams herself into space rather than risk her life trying to upload a virus into the Pakled ship. She regrets it when no one bothers picking her up after the fact, leaving her floating in space.
- When the Titan warps in and starts kicking ass, the Pakleds go full Hyperspeed Escape."Make us go! Go, guys, go!"
- "Second Law" My Ass!: Peanut Hamper admits that she only joined Starfleet to piss off her father, and has no interest in risking her life to save the ship.
- Ship Tease:
- T'Ana makes her feelings about Shaxs pretty clear.T'Ana: (to Mariner) You think your mom would be okay with me and Shaxs making a little love connection? I'd love to snag that Bajoran beefsteak with my coital hooks.
- Tendi keeps an Unbroken Vigil over Rutherford while he's unconscious, and is saddened that he doesn't remember her.
- Ransom's "you make me hard" exchange with Mariner (see That Came Out Wrong, below) is another hint that they may have some mutual attraction for each other.
- T'Ana makes her feelings about Shaxs pretty clear.
- Series Fauxnale: The entire first season was written before it was known that it would be renewed for a second, and so this episode is written as a respectable finale for the whole series, should it not return. As a result, in the first few episodes of season 2, many of the developments of this episode are reversed or otherwise undone:
- Boimler finally gets his promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, and a transfer to the Titan, his dream job. (He was demoted back to Ensign and back on the Cerritos by the end of the second episode of season 2.)
- Mariner and Freeman finally patch up their differences and agree to work together going forward in a sort of clandestine "alliance"... which collapsed in the very first episode of season 2. (Although their relationship is generally much more constructive going forward.)
- Shaxs is Killed Off for Real and even given a funeral, but he's mysteriously revived in the third episode of season 2. Ever since, Death Is Cheap has consistently prevailed on the show, usually played for laughs.
- Status Quo Is God: Played with regarding the Cerritos. Captain Freeman insists on the ship being mostly the same in appearance, hating that ships get makeovers when brought in for repairs.
- Stylistic Suck: The original live-action Exocomps from TNG had a slightly uncanny balance in the way they floated. This is because of a Special Effects Failure: they were dangled from a fishing line which was then digitally removed. The animators were told to mimic this effect when drawing Ensign Peanut Hamper, which is Lampshaded by her sometimes clumsy and imprecise movements.Peanut Hamper: Sorry! Ensign Klutz, reporting for duty.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Similar to the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Starfleet's inability to double-check on places and people that they visit bites them terminally, with the Betans still worshipping Landru and the Pakleds becoming more dangerous than before.
- With the Betans in particular, the urgency for keeping societal problems in check (in this case a dictatorial supercomputer, but you can pick many examples from the real world) tends to fade for subsequent generations because they don't have the firsthand experience of how bad it really is.
- The crew's reactions to learning that Mariner is the captain's daughter show one reason why such a setup is a really bad idea. Boimler starts teasing her about "Captain Mommy", crewmembers start gossiping about her, and three officers (including the XO) start sucking up to her, possibly to curry favor with her mother.
- Taking You with Me: When Badgey is uploaded onto the Pakled ship, he activates the self-destruct so he can kill Rutherford too, even at the cost of his own existence.
- Tempting Fate: Dayton insists on keeping her new ship as pristine as possible after losing the Rubidoux. It takes less than a minute for the Pakleds to show up and start blasting.
- That Came Out Wrong: An argument between Mariner and Ransom about whether he is too hard on her immediately goes south in exactly the way that you'd think. Bonus points for Ransom trying to unknot his use of the word in front of Freeman, Mariner's mother. For the remainder of the conversation, he holds a PADD in front of his crotch.Ransom: From now on, I'll make sure to give you special attention.
Freeman: No! Be as hard on her as you always are!
Mariner: Yeah, be hard on me!
Ransom: I'm only hard on you when you make me hard! I mean I'm— I'm not hard right now! I mean I could— I could get hard, if I wanted to, but I'm not hard right now. I'm so sorry! You're both great! - That's an Order!: To defeat the Pakleds, Freeman tells Mariner to do what she does best.Freeman: I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off. That's an order.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The TNG main theme plays during the Titan's Gunship Rescue of the Cerritos.
- There Was a Door: Not only does Shaxs ram into the side of the Pakled ship, he phasers his own exit from the Cerritos rather than wait for the doors.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Boimler sees Mariner giving out art supplies to Betan children, she braces herself for a lecture. Subverted when he joins in rather than yelling at her.Mariner: Hoo boy. Incoming lecture in five, four—
Boimler: Who wants crayons? - This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Subverted; despite spelling out in detail how the current crisis is exactly tailored to suit the skills of the new-in-this-episode character Peanut Hamper, she chooses to bail rather than be a hero.
- Threat Backfire: Boimler thinks that he can now get away with almost anything by holding the knowledge that Mariner is Freeman's daughter over her head, figuring that she'll do anything to keep that secret. Said "leverage" vanishes when his own commbadge broadcasts that news to the entire bridge, so there's no more secret to keep.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Pakleds were a one-off in TNG, their primary strategy was a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to lure others into complacency with tiny transport ships before catching them by surprise with ruthless violence, but were too simple minded to really understand the technology. About 15 years later they have apparently scavenged or stolen enough weaponry to build warships that can quickly overwhelm even Starfleet ships, though primarily through similar surprise attacks, managing to destroy the Solvang and nearly the Cerritos before the much tougher Titan came to the rescue. The Pakleds themselves have started wearing armor and effectively wield melee weapons in combat while being depicted as much larger in stature compared to the shorter, rounder idiots that remained a threat only through aggressive use of phasers at close range. They remain hopelessly stupid, though.
- Unseen No More: The Titan was first referred to in Star Trek: Nemesis and further mentioned in prior episodes of this show, and now she makes her on-screen debut.
- Use Your Head: Shaxs headbutts a Pakled and, despite a little bleeding, comes out none the worse for wear.
- Villain Decay: Landru has been downgraded to merely demanding that people obey him rather than assimilating them, and is cowed by Freeman with a threat of a Logic Bomb.Landru: CONSUME THE INTRUDERS! OBEY LANDRU!
Freeman: Hey! Don't make me paradox you into destroying yourself!
Landru: LANDRU APOLOGIZES. - Waxing Lyrical: Riker says "It was a long road, getting from there to here" as he mentions that he was playing the holoprogram about the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Freeman can't believe that the inhabitants of Beta III would allow themselves to be talked into obeying Landru once again, angrily telling both them and Landru off for it.
