On a planet with Silicon-Based Life, who are called the Scrubble, a human scientist is Taken for Granite by an illusion that is clearly taken from his own mind. The Cerritos joins with the Carlsbad, a fellow California-class ship, to help pack up the outpost, leading to rivalry when three ensigns from the Carlsbad treat Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford with disdain. Meanwhile, Tendi begins her Bridge Crew training by working at the elbow of Captain Freeman, who is trying to keep diplomatic relations between the colonists and the Scrubble from breaking down.
Tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Stevens loses both arms after being petrified. He's seen with both arms in casts after the situation is resolved.
- The poor patient has to have his foot cut off and regrown because a monster is currently chewing on it.
- Berserk Button: Mariner manages to egg Stevens into helping move the rocks by claiming the Carlsbad crew insulted Ransom's core.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Tendi does this along with smashing the stone offering as everyone keeps shouting over everyone, getting their attention and revealing the ruse.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: The Tellarite ensign winces after a fall that he thinks he strained his "dominant" groin.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Rutherford is tormented by an illusion of Leah Brahms, and Mariner by Jennifer. Then the Jennifer illusion teams up with the Brahms illusion and invites Mariner to come look at the warp core with them.
- Butt-Monkey: The Cerritos ensigns are larger-than-life figures in Cali-class gossip... except for Boimler, who is portrayed as a wise-cracking robot cube that wants to be human. His friends waste no time mocking him for this.
- The Cameo:
- Susan Gibney reprises her role as Dr. Leah Brahms, the eccentric genius and engineer who helped design the engines for the Galaxy-class line of starships and figured prominently in the fantasy life of another Black and Nerdy cybernetically-modified engineer.
- The U.S.S. Hood from TNG briefly appears early on, though DeSoto isn't the captain anymore.
- Chainsaw Good: T'Ana plans to remove the alien creature that's eating her patient's foot with her Starfleet-issue medical chainsaw. Thankfully, A.) she's going to grow him a new one and B.) we get a Gory Discretion Shot before she starts cutting.
- Commitment Issues: Mariner's fear about Jennifer involves her demanding a long-term, exclusive relationship where they grow old and "boring" together. Boimler suggests that she may need to go back to therapy.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Mariner asks what the Cerritos has done to be infamous, Boimler and Rutherford mention virtually everything that happened in season 2. Rutherford doesn't mention anything from season 1, because he lost all his memories from then.
- One of the fear monsters appears to be a giant raisin monster, likely alluding to Boimler's hatred for them from the season premiere.
- Mariner's nightmare version of Jennifer is a werewolf, reflecting how she fears every perfect relationship in Starfleet is secretly some sort of shapeshifting monster.
- Stevens' nightmare is apparently Kukulkan, the giant winged serpent from the old animated series.
- After being restored from petrification, Stevens recounts how he brushed off the doctor's claim that he was brain dead for several minutes by saying that he saw a koala on top of a black mountain. This references the Cosmic Entity Running Gag and the description of how Shaxs came back to life.
- Death Glare: When it's revealed the "diplomatic rock" that was supposed to go in one of the Captain's ready rooms is functionally a bug (using a combination of Starfleet tech and Scrubble psychic stones), the Scrubble and Colonist reps start backing towards the exit only to come against Shaxs, who is NOT happy.
- "Eureka!" Moment: The ensigns of the Cerritos and Carlsbad realize that the stones don't just read fears and fantasies when they start generating illusions of recent memories as well.
- Famed In-Story: It turns out that the Cerritos is famous among other Cali-class ships in Starfleet for all the adventures that the crew has. Mariner, Rutherford, and Tendi are also the most famous ensigns and are portrayed as larger-than-life figures. Except for Boimler, who the rumor mill has transformed into a small, neurotic robot.
- Foreshadowing: Both the Scrubble representative and their scientist co-conspirator show some frustration with the bickering of the captains as to who will accept their bugged gift. They notably share a brief aside glance when Tendi scans the gift.
- Geeky Turn-On: Rutherford is sorely tempted by an illusion of Leah Brahms seductively asking him to perform math with her.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: The Jennifer illusion tries to tempt Mariner into a three-way with the Leah Brahms illusion.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The Jennifer illusion is torn in half by her werewolf counterpart.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Tony, the geologist seen in the Action Prologue, reveals that he wrote a story with himself as the main character.
- Hidden Depths: While Dr. Migleemo isn't what Tendi expected as a mentor for her Science Officer training, his advice proves to be spot-on. As a Science Officer, being able to effectively call attention to new information while dealing with the ego of higher ranking officers is going to be an important skill.
- Hot for Teacher: Tony's fantasy takes the form of his seventh grade geology teacher in a skimpy toga.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Mariner brushes off the Jennifer illusion's attempts to flirt with her by claiming that she'll just hold off for the real deal. She does start blushing when it refers to itself as her "hot Andorian girlfriend", though it's more out of embarrassment than being tempted by it.
- Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Or rather "Non-Starfleet" here, as Ransom goes on a tangent over how most scientists get their degrees in something like spores before traversing the universe and getting eaten by a plant before Starfleet has to clean up their messes.
- Lampshade Hanging: "It's not a full day in Starfleet until the comms get blocked!"
- Literally Shattered Lives: Stevens is petrified by his nightmare and then dropped, causing both his arms to crack off. Fortunately, T'Ana is able to patch him up.
- Magitek: The scrubble's mind-reading stones may not technically be magical but they are certainly esoteric and combining glowing orbs with conventional Starfleet electronics evokes this look.
- Meatgrinder Surgery: T'Ana seems to feel a chainsaw is an appropriate means of amputating a limb. It's even got the Starfleet logo on it. Of course, she did have Tendi manually pump a heart in the first episode, so it's not out of character.
- Monster Clown: One of the ensigns' nightmares summoned by the psychic mines is a pair of Klingons in clown makeup with bat'leths for arms.
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: While Mariner swears the semi-naked illusion of Jennifer isn't doing anything to her, Rutherford's implant detects an elevated heart rate.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The broken psychic mines summon nightmares such as a giant Borg snake, Klingons wearing (human) clown make-up with bat'leths for arms, and Jennifer as an Andorian werewolf.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: It's revealed that the Carlsbad crew are actually intimidated by the ensigns of the Cerritos because they have become Famed In-Story. It's clarified at the end that they haven't gained much notoriety among the general fleet, but among California-class workhorse ships they are legends.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Tendi has realized that there is something deeply wrong with the rock that they were given and is trying to tell the senior staff, but their petty arguing causes her to bail. T'Ana gets her to double back with her reassurances.
- Not So Above It All: Captain Maier of the Carlsbad presents himself as a proper captain and on the fast track to captain a Galaxy-class starship, but he squabbles with Freeman over the stone pyramid that they're given, neither one wanting it.
- Planet of Hats: While the scientists were plotting to sell Starfleet secrets on the black market to fund better equipment, the Scrubble wanted to use their funds for rocks. That part leaves Freeman baffled, as they weren't exactly lacking in said resource.
- Plot-Driven Breakdown: As Mariner lampshades, it wouldn't be Starfleet if comms didn't arbitrarily fail at the worst possible time.
- Poor Communication Kills: The Carlsbad crew comes off as cold, but it turns out it was just because they were intimidated by the adventures they heard about from the Cerritos and were overcompensating with a nose-to-the-grindstone approach to their work to step up. One of them is a Zaldannote which probably didn't help.
- Schmuck Bait: Just after Boimler says the illusions will have to try harder to sucker him than they have with Mariner and Rutherford, an illusionary admiral shows up declaring the Borg are attacking and Starfleet needs Boimler to fight them. Boimler only avoids falling for this because Mariner's there to grab him.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Mariner is adamant that Jennifer is not her girlfriend, not that anyone believes her.
- Shout-Out: Okay, stop us if you've heard this one: a sphere of glowing green crystal that causes Bad Things to HappenTM if you touch it. Now, are we talking about Heavy Metal's Loc'Nar, or a psychic mine? The first one we see is even found in a crater in a hardpan desert, like the "Harry Canyon" vingette.
- Sickly Green Glow: This trope lends the psychic mines, and especially the control center that networks them together, an appropriately sinister atmosphere.
- Silicon-Based Life: The planet of the week is a world of rock beings called the Scrubble. One expresses offense at being qualified as silicate life, specifically, when he considers himself just life."YOU do not appear alive to US!"
- Taken for Granite: The psychic mines petrify those who interact with their fantasies. Fortunately for Stevens, victims can be restored, though they were clinically brain dead and he recounts what sounds like an afterlife experience.
- Theme Naming: The Carlsbad continues the trend of California-class ships being named after the state's cities.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: Stevens suggests the ensigns ward off the illusions by thinking about parisee squares. Rutherford tries, but the illusions are very persistent.
- The Unfavorite: Deconstructed Trope. As it turns out, the Cerritos, despite the messes that they get into and their crazy members, are iconic within the ranks of the other Cali-class ships, with Mariner and the others being the most famous among the ensigns... except Boimler.
