"Project Swing By," a new Starfleet protocol Captain Freeman proposed which essentially involves follow-ups on the Planet of the Week, is put into action, with the Cerritos leading the charge. However, Adm. Buenamigo has also inaugurated the occasion by assigning FNN reporter Victoria Nuzé to the ship to document events. This puts Freeman on edge: there's no telling what her crew will tell the reporter... Especially if Nuzé gets to Mariner.
Tropes:
- Abandonment-Induced Animosity: Downplayed with the Ornarans. The citizens that Freeman meets with are polite to her and everyone else and explain how they recently pulled themselves together after conquering their planet-wide drug addiction. However, because Starfleet abandoned them for all the years they were going through withdrawal without support, even though it is acknowledged that Picard did the right thing by doing so, they respectfully decline any support Captain Freeman offers, since they don't want anything to do with Starfleet.
- Addiction Displacement: It's heavily implied the Ornarans managed to shake their debilitating drug addiction, after a period of severe civil unrest amid terrible withdrawal, through focusing all their attention on exercise and fitness. This is Truth in Television for many recovering addicts, as physical action is known to help mitigate the effects.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The Brekkians were exploiting the Ornarans so that they could profit from their addiction, but they didn't deserve to have their entire civilization wiped out by the Breen.
- The Alleged Car: The shuttle that ferries Mariner to Starbase 80 is so dilapidated that it barely looks like it can fly, much less jump to warp.
- All for Nothing: Freeman goes to extremes to make the Cerritos look good for Victoria, including reassigning her own daughter and Beta Shift to head off the possibility of the group embarrassing the Cerritos through their usual antics. When it seems Mariner revealed embarrassing secrets, she has her reassigned and tries to assure Victoria that the stories she heard aren't what the Cerritos normally does. By the end, not only is the Cerritos upstaged by the Texas-class, but it is revealed that Mariner praised the crew while all the "good" officers innocently revealed the other incidents. Freeman's hasty reaction and punishment only served to damage her reputation even further.
- Apocalypse How:
- The Ornarans imply that their planet went through a decade and a half of suffering before they managed to rebuild themselves, immortalized in a horrifying mural's centerpiece. They're polite but obviously want nothing to do with the Federation.
- While the Breen are shown exterminating the Brekkians, the dilapidated state of their city suggests that things were hardly great prior to the Breen arriving. For that matter, a mere three ships should hardly contain the martial force to subdue an entire planet, so being cut off from their primary source of income likely led to societal collapse and the Breen are simply picking at the carcass, so to speak.
- Attack Drone: Admiral Buenamigo unveils the new Texas-class, a fully automated ship capable of taking out three Breen warships with ease.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: The guy at Starbase 80 who Freeman talks to gets distracted from the call by another crewperson chasing around some kind of space-bat and scolds her for trying to hit it with a mop—she should be using a broom!
- Big Damn Heroes: The Cerritos is completely disabled by Breen assault and at their mercy before the new Texas-class automated ship arrives to take them all out.
- Big "NO!": The security officer shouts this as Rutherford begs to be stunned if he can't have any pie.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Victoria Nuzé seems friendly and quite enthusiastic to be onboard the Cerritos and accompany her crew on away missions. She drops the act when she interviews Freeman and becomes sarcastic toward the whole crew from then on. Her true nature was also foreshadowed by the smirk she briefly showed as she boarded the Cerritos.
- Boarding Party: The Breen attempt a boarding action after knocking out power to the Cerritos, using a device to breach one of the external windows. The Aledo interrupts before they can board.
- Brown Note: The Breen hailing message is as visually distorted as their voices are, with intense, room-bathing yellow light, flashing lights and other interference. The Cerritos bridge crew collectively wince at the sensory assault before the message closes.
- Call-Back:
- Freeman complained back in the season 1 finale that planets visited by the main characters were often ignored after that, leaving them to either regress or grow into bigger problems. Here, she is given authorization to start Project Swing By, explicitly to address that concern.
- Petra Aberdeen returns after Mariner, having been wrongfully punished once too many, decides to ditch Starfleet and join her as an independent exoarchaeologist. Also, Ransom is shocked when Freeman transfers Mariner to Starbase 80 as punishment, since he stated previously that he saw Starbase 80 as a "hellhole" and that nobody deserves that place as punishment.
- Casanova Wannabe: Ransom makes several passes at Victoria, to her visible annoyance.
- Cerebus Call-Back:
- Nuzé mentions, during her recitation of Freeman's many misadventures, that the horror show they inflicted on Shari yn Yem had an even worse effect on her than it first appeared. Asshole Victim though she may have been, it's unlikely the Captain wanted to give her an actual heart attack.
- Similarly, Freeman transporting the Doopler Emissary into the Command Conference as a prank is cast in a harsher light. Besides the impropriety of using the Emissary as an instrument of mischief without his consent, his rapid duplication within the confines of the venue could have, and possibly did, cause injuries to the attendees.
- Continuity Cavalcade:
- So many misadventures from the past three seasons get recapped.
- The Cerritos visits the planets Ornara and Brekka, just as Captain Picard did nearly 20 years earlier.
- Crying Wolf: Mariner has been abrasive and a bully to everyone, including her friends, for so long that when their reputation is sullied after she is interviewed about the ship, all but her fellow Beta Shift members assume it was her fault despite her protests to the contrary. Even Boimler, who does believe her, thinks she should simply apologize and let it blow over.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Cerritos is no match for the Breen ships, being outgunned and outmaneuvered at every turn. The tables are then turned on the Breen by the arrival of the Aledo, which destroys all three ships without a scratch.
- Darker and Edgier: The reintroduction of the Breen make this one of the darkest episodes in the show so far. Even in the first season with the introduction of the Pakled thread, the Pakled's themselves managed to have a degree of humor than minimized the threat. But the Breen are treated as the deadly serious threat that the are, and the crew barely escapes with their lives.
- Deconstructed Trope: Three tropes contribute to a debacle that ends in a destroyed mother-daughter relationship, a destroyed romantic relationship, a public relations disaster, and Starfleet losing an officer:
- Dude, Where's My Respect? stops being a funny quirk that Freeman has; instead, her obsession with getting Starfleet to recognize her and California-class ships does real damage. Once more, Freeman has a chance to raise her standing with Starfleet, and she uses superfluous means to make herself look better. She even flips out and transfers Mariner to Starbase 80 when she thinks that she made her and the ship look bad. However, her big day is overshadowed by the Breen attack and the arrival of the Texas-class, it turns out that her punishment to Mariner was completely unfounded, and she can't apologize to Mariner because the punishment caused her to resign from Starfleet in disgust.
- The Military Maverick is deconstructed as well. Mariner had unequivocally good intentions by wanting to interview with Victoria Nuzé and showered the Cerritos and its crew with praise. However, she still violated Freeman's direct orders in doing so, so when Freeman blames her for revealing various embarrassing anecdotes regarding the Cerritos, her long history of disrespect and recalcitrance robs her of any credibility when she tries to argue her case. Because Mariner is always the one acting like a loose cannon, they assume that she went out of her way to paint the Cerritos in a terrible light, and don't stop to consider that the "funny stories" they told Nuzé all sound ridiculous when taken out of context.
- Seen It All is deconstructed as well by being the whole reason none of the approved interviewees realize that the anecdotes they told Nuzé sound ridiculous out of context. To the crew of the Cerritos, the anecdotes are just something they go through every day; to an outsider like Nuzé, they're the bizarre misadventures of a bunch of unprofessional idiots. By the time anyone realizes how the "funny stories" sounded to Nuzé, it's too late.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: After Freeman's interview, where Victoria reveals that she knows about all the embarrassing events they have had and unprofessional behavior by the crew, Freeman blames Mariner, falsely believing that she revealed all this to Victoria, and transfers her to Starbase 80 while attempting to save face with Victoria for the rest of the mission. However, in the exposé, Victoria paints Mariner as the one pure voice among the crew, whose interview was glowing compared to everyone else dishing dirt about past goofs, and believes that Freeman transferred her simply for having an interview without permission, thus making it seem like Freeman is a Mean Boss who rules with an iron fist.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A twofold variation. When it appears that Mariner threw everyone on the Cerritos under the bus for their various mishaps, Freeman not only transfers her to Starbase 80 as punishment, but instructs the crew to avoid talking to her at all costs out of anger for making her look bad. Unsurprisingly, Mariner quits Starfleet before Freeman and everyone onboard realize that it was them who wound up making their own ship look bad. Then, Victoria uses this In-Universe to make it seem like Mariner was kicked off the ship for simply giving an unauthorized interview, when she was the only one who spoke praise about the crew despite their dysfunction.
- Downer Ending: Mariner gets transferred to Starbase 80 because everyone, excluding her closest friends, thinks that she revealed all of the Cerritos' mishaps to Victoria, when in actuality, everyone who was interviewed by Victoria unwittingly did it. When Freeman tries to contact Mariner and apologize for wrongly punishing her, Mariner had already resigned from Starfleet to join Petra as an independent archaeologist. To add insult to injury, because of Mariner's unnecessary punishment, Victoria makes Freeman look like a terrible boss in her exposé for punishing Mariner for having an interview without permission, despite how she only spoke praise of her ship and mother.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Captain Freeman has always had a chip on her shoulder because she is commanding an overlooked Cali-class ship, but this bad habit finally hits her back. Despite Mariner's improved behavior Freeman orders her away from Victoria. Mariner met with her anyway and after Victoria revealed she knew a list of crazy events that made the ship look bad, Freeman assumes the worst and is so blinded with rage she has Mariner transferred off ship. As it turns out, the rest of the crew spilled all those secrets to Victoria, and in having Mariner transferred Freeman exposed how toxic her ego was and that was far more damaging than anything else shown in the news report.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even though Ransom believed that Mariner was the one who revealed all the embarrassing stories about the Cerritos to Victoria to make them all look bad, he is shocked when Freeman declares that she is transferring Mariner to Starbase 80 as punishment. As he previously stated in "Reflections", he would never willingly transfer anyone to that "hellhole" and thinks that that’s going too far. He also is visibly uncomfortable when Freeman basically disowns Mariner.Ransom: Uh... captain, what are you doing?
- Family of Choice: Mariner states in her interview that the best part of being on the Cerritos is that she has both her normal family, with her mom being the captain, and her new family with the rest of the crew. This, however, makes everyone blaming her later hurt even more, since both families — with the exception of her three closest friends — are essentially betraying her.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: Mariner has only a few minutes to pack her things and take a shuttle to Starbase 80. Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford all want to find some way to help her but she is too pissed off to even have a proper goodbye. And given her history of being passed around half the ships in Starfleet, she mentions she is accustomed to moving on from the friends she's made.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Right before Ransom finds a local Brekkian, shadows move in a building above and there's a brief but unmistakable electronic warbling coming from them.
- Foreshadowing: Throughout the first part of the episode, Mariner is upbeat and positive, doesn't think Freeman has anything to worry about with Nuzé's visit, doesn't take exception to Freeman's nerves until Freeman starts trying to shut down normal activities, and specifically says that all they have to do is make Freeman look good. Combined with Mariner's overall better behavior this season, it hints that her interview with Nuzé wasn't the torpedo everyone else assumes.
- Green Is Gross: The interior of Starbase 80 has a sickly green color palette which, combined with its apparent pest problem, gives it a distinctly unhygienic feel.
- Gunship Rescue: The new Texas-class U.S.S. Aledo shows up to save the Cerritos from a Breen attack.
- I Have No Son!: Freeman is so furious at Mariner that when she transfers her to Starbase 80, she not only says she is no longer her Ensign or her problem, she isn't sure she can even call her her daughter anymore. She comes to regret this by the end when she realizes Mariner's punishment was completely unwarranted.
- Immoral Journalist: Subverted. Victoria has a certain vibe from the start that she may not be completely unbiased and confronts Captain Freeman over information on various missions and incidents she acquired during interviews, which Freeman believes Mariner is the source and has her transferred. Victoria's later expose on the Cerritos and Freeman highly resembles the style of more sensationalist news programs. But in general she was just doing her job, the expose showed that her information came freely from much of the crew and not Mariner at all. Freeman was forced to acknowledge she brought that bad publicity on herself, and even worse destroying her relationship with her daughter in the process.
- Internal Deconstruction: The Cerritos visits Onara and Brekka after the Enterprise visited them way back in TNG's first season episode "Symbiosis", about 17 years ago in-universe. In that episode, Picard saw the toxic relationship between the Onarans and Brekkians, the former having become highly addicted to a drug made by the latter. After weighing his options, he made the choice to not assist in repairing the Onaran transport ships with the knowledge their supply line would crumble apart and force the two species to change their ways. When Freeman arrives with her senior staff to see how the Onarans are doing, they have progressed to a pleasant society where all the people are friendly and even-tempered. But, as they explain, this reformation was preceded by a period of major strife, and they have only recently managed to set themselves on a healthier path. Picard's rationale was correct, but he perhaps didn't anticipate the severity of going cold turkey. The Onarans are respectful to the landing party, but seem uninterested in further communication with the Federation. As for Brekka, there are few hints as to how they weathered being cut off from their sole customer, other than the Breen being able to conquer their society with a mere three ships.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When the Starbase 80 officer says that he can't contact Mariner, Freeman complains that they don't even have working comms. He defensively states that their comms work fine... usually.
- Irony:
- Wanting to make the Cerritos look good for Victoria, Freeman makes a list of people who she trusts will make the ship look good when they get interviewed by Victoria, and a list of people who aren't allowed to talk to her, with Beta Shift and Mariner specifically being among them. By the end of the episode, it's revealed that the people Freeman trusted (her senior staff included) unwittingly revealed the mishaps of the Cerittos, while Mariner, one of the people Freeman didn't trust, only spoke praise about the ship and her mother when talking with Victoria.
- Then there's the irony that Freeman is trying to use Project Swing By to make the Cerritos and herself look good, only to be upstaged by Admiral Buenamigo introducing the new Texas-class ship after it saves the Cerritos from a Breen attack. Given the timing, it's implied that Buenamigo knew in advance about the Breen and the rescue was a bit of Engineered Heroics. Or that he knew that Operation Swing By would at least find some kind of trouble, and was fully prepared to debut the Texas-class with Engineered Heroics no matter whether the Cerritos could handle said trouble or not.
- It's All About Me: Freeman tries to use Project Swing By to gain the recognition she believes she deserves, and transfers Mariner away for allegedly making her and the ship look like fools.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Although Freeman and the Cerritos crew are very much in the wrong for prejudging Mariner, she did spend years earning herself a reputation for being loud-mouthed and critical of Starfleet, which Mariner herself later admits after her 10-Minute Retirement. The issue is the crew haven't yet recognized the new Mariner and are still basing their assumptions on her old habits.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The image of the Fleet Network News (FNN) that Victoria sports looks vaguely like the corporate symbol for CBS, owner of the parent company.
- Leave No Survivors: The Breen don't take prisoners, so Shaxs gives the order to take no prisoners and accept no surrender from the Breen boarding party.
- Loose Lips: Everyone that Victoria interviewed accidentally revealed all the mishaps that the Cerritos went through, without even realizing they were doing it. Mariner is accused of revealing them, when in actuality she only spoke praise about her ship and mother.
- Lower-Deck Episode: Inverted. This is the first episode of the show to truly focus on the bridge crew — you know, the people who are normally the opening-credits regulars on a Star Trek show — with the Lower Deckers relegated to background roles. (After the cancellation of the pie-eating contest, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford barely appear.)
- Manipulative Editing: The exposé is made to show that the Cerritos suffers from Interservice Rivalry (Barnes mocks Engineering for their breakdown, Kayshon claims that they didn’t hold it against him over being turned into a puppet, and Shaxs mocks Quark’s manhandling), while Captain Freeman is portrayed as a Bad Boss when Mariner’s segment is shown and it's revealed that she was kicked off for being interviewed without permission. Victoria intentionally left out the positive things said by the crew members like Kayshon calling the Cerritos his home.
- Meaningful Name: Two of them in this episode. Firstly, Victoria Nuzé is a newsie, while Admiral Buenamigo seems like a good friend to Captain Freeman, at least at first.
- Missed Him by That Much: A variation. The Ornarans spent 14 years in agony and disarray after Picard's solution left them to go cold turkey on the drugs they'd all been hooked on, the sort of problem that "Project Swing By" would have solved. Unfortunately, Freeman and crew arrive 3 years after they finally managed to pull together, and while they're clearly not all okay (they mention that they run to "quiet the voices in their heads"), they're well off enough for Victoria to declare that "Project Swing By" is superfluous.
- Military Maverick: Mariner insists on conducting a one-on-one interview with Victoria Nuzé to tell the "real story" about the Cerritos, in blatant defiance of her mother's orders. Even though she was the only interviewee who had nothing but nice things to say, Freeman and Ransom take it for granted that she was the one who revealed the mishaps of the Cerritos to Nuzé and punish her.
- Misplaced Retribution: Despite how hard and consistently Mariner has worked to reform herself to Starfleet standards (only one episode ago, her evaluation from Ransom was flawless), everyone assumes Mariner was the only one dishing out the dirt to Nuzé because that's always been her reputation. While Mariner did give an unauthorized interview, she was actually the only one who didn't say anything unflattering about the crew. She genuinely doesn't understand why everyone is angry at her because no one bothers to explain. Her punitive transfer to Starbase 80 becomes the final straw that convinces her to resign from Starfleet.
- Mood Whiplash: After the lighthearted shenanigans on Ornara, the Cerritos crew head over to Brekka in hopes that there will be something that will justify "Project Swing By." But things get decidedly darker when they learn that Brekka has been attacked by the Breen, who quickly turn their sights on the Cerritos.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Freeman learns that Mariner wasn't the one who leaked all the mishaps of the Cerritos and she transferred her to Starbase 80 as punishment, she realized the mistake she made and tries to contact Mariner to apologize, only to learn that she already resigned from Starfleet and has gone off the radar.Freeman: What have I done? Oh, Beckett, where are you?
- My God, You Are Serious!:
- Shaxs, T'Ana, and Ransom laugh when Freeman complains that the ship needs to be cleaned up before Victoria Nuzé arrives, only for them to realize that she really means it.T'Ana: Oh [bleep], she's serious!
- Freeman is so infuriated by Mariner making the Cerritos look bad that she transfers Mariner to Starbase 80, shocking even Ransom.
- Mariner herself is shocked at Freeman's anger. Her attitude quickly goes from irreverence to astonishment.
- Shaxs, T'Ana, and Ransom laugh when Freeman complains that the ship needs to be cleaned up before Victoria Nuzé arrives, only for them to realize that she really means it.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Victoria suddenly changes her opinion of the Cerritos after talking with Mariner, Freeman blames Mariner for making the ship look bad and has her transferred to Starbase 80, with everyone else on the ship joining in and assuming that she threw them under the bus. In her exposé, Victoria reveals that Mariner was the lone voice who had nothing but praise, and assumes that she was transferred out just for doing an interview without permission, making Freeman look even worse. All this results in Mariner quitting Starfleet out of disgust.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Mariner has a private interview with Victoria herself to tell her the truth about the Cerritos and speaks high praise about the ship, the crew, and her mom. But, because she wasn't authorized to have an interview with Victoria, when Victoria reveals to Freeman that she knows all about the misadventures and unprofessionalism that the crew has had, everyone blames Mariner for it, thinking that she revealed all of this when it was actually the rest of the crew that accidentally did it without even realizing it. When the exposé is released, Victoria calls special attention to how Mariner, the one pure voice among the ship, was transferred off of it, seemingly just for speaking to her without permission.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: True to form, the Breen attack is swift, stealthy and merciless. They'd somehow invaded and implicitly wiped out almost all of Brekka without alerting the rest of the quadrant, and they attack in very large numbers with overwhelming firepower without giving anyone time to breathe. The only reason the Cerritos isn't dust is they took the time to attempt a boarding party (for whatever reason they keep to themselves) and that gave the Aledo just enough time to show up for a rescue.
- Not Helping Your Case: Mariner continually insists she merely told the truth when she was interviewed, which is precisely the problem from everyone else's point of view: the truth that they get into wacky misadventures makes the Cerritos look like a joke. Because no one else saw the interview, they don't know that all the other interviewees were responsible for that and Mariner was actually the lone voice giving an entirely positive account.
- Not Me This Time: After learning that Victoria knows about all the crazy mishaps the Cerritos went through, Freeman — and everyone else minus her friends — thinks that Mariner is the one who told Victoria everything after Ransom saw Mariner go in another room to talk to her in private. It's actually revealed that Mariner only talked praise about the Cerritos, and everyone else who was interviewed revealed the mishaps unknowingly. They only found out the truth after the reporter does her exposé.
- Not So Episodic:
- Once a Season, the penultimate episode starts with something innocuous only to bring the entire season's plotline front and center. The show begins by focusing on Captain Freeman, only to culminate by showing that, despite Mariner's Character Development, nobody has noticed; her own mother and even her girlfriend see only who they think she is, not who she has actually become. Aside from her own friends, the only person who stands up for Mariner is Ransom, if only because he feels Freeman's punishment is going overboard.
- The Cerritos also usually takes significant damage in the season finales but happens to do so here instead; after shields were disabled by the Breen ships they took a torpedo straight through the saucer and was dead in the water, unable to do anything but prepare for a boarding party.
- Once More, with Clarity: Before heading to Ornara, we see brief interviews of Barnes and Kayshon, among other officers being interviewed. When Victoria does her exposé, we see more of Barnes and Kayson's interview where they revealed some mishaps of the Cerritos and Mariner being the only one speaking praise, which makes Freeman look bad for transferring Mariner to Starbase 80.
- Plague of Good Fortune: Zig-zagged. The Cerritos is under pressure to prove the need for regular check ups by Starfleet on contacted worlds for "Project Swing By". The first world they visit, Ornara, managed to completely build themselves up alone and politely decline any aid from Starfleet, making the project look pointless. Meanwhile, Brekka went the completely opposite route, having been attacked by the Breen in the interim, with the Breen forces exterminating the population on sight.
- Planet of Hats: The Ornarans reveal that, after they kicked their felicium addiction and recovered from the withdrawal, they devoted themselves to physical fitness. It's not revealed what the Brekkians did in the meantime, as they're currently too busy getting vaporized by the Breen.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- The conflict in the third act is due to Mariner defying orders to meet with Victoria, Ransom seeing her do this, Victoria's interview of Freeman suddenly taking a very critical tone, and everyone assuming the worst of Mariner. Because no one was upfront with each other it exposes a fundamental lack of trust and respect, but Freeman compounds the problem by icing Mariner out when she tries to explain. She gets transferred to Starbase 80 (which is considered a hellhole by Starfleet standards), and quits out of disgust before her Mom can make amends.
- Project Swing By reveals this to be the case for the planets Ornara and Brekka, thanks to Starfleet not following up with them after first contact: the Ornarans went through a decade long period of agony due to cold turkey withdrawal from felicium with no assistance, and the Brekkans are being exterminated one by one following an invasion by the Breen. Both situations could have been mitigated (and countless lives saved) had follow-up missions been scheduled in a timely fashion (Picard's questionable choice of solution notwithstanding).
- Power Nullifier: The Breen use their energy-dampening weapon on the Cerritos, knocking out main power and leaving it defenseless. While Starfleet had managed to engineer a countermeasure against it during the Dominion War, it would appear that the Breen have since adapted, though the weapon takes several shots and isn't as debilitating as it first was.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Mariner is transferred to Starbase 80 as Freeman believes she shared damaging information to Victoria. Ransom previously threatened her with that reassignment before recanting, saying he isn't that cruel. We don't see much of Starbase 80, but the shuttle looked rusted to hell, their officers behave as though stoned, they wear ugly mustard yellow jumpsuits, and the base itself appears to have a rodent infestation while also smelling like garbage and sweat. Mariner resigns within daysnote .
- Recovered Addict: Considering how many times the Cerritos has seen what happens to those left behind by Starfleet after supposedly fixing their problems, it comes as quite a surprise that the Ornarans are apparently all happy and healthy after being cut off from their narcotics by the Enterprise-D. Though, as their mural depicts, it took many painful years to finally get there.
- Red Shirt: For the first time, we see members of the Cerritos crew die when a Breen weapon hits the ship.
- Saying Too Much: Everyone who was interviewed ends up revealing something embarrassing about the Cerritos and its crew, without even realizing they were doing it.
- Schizo Tech: Starbase 80 is somehow stuck using physical ID cards on a Rolodex. (Presumably they do have a computer database, but it's either down that day, or flaky enough that they don't even bother trying it.) They also wear the older TNG-era combadges as opposed to a newer variant.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mariner herself hits the breaking point and quits Starfleet after she is accused of trying to tank the Cerritos's reputation and sent to Starbase 80.
- Seen It All: Victoria learned of a large number of crazy adventures the Cerritos crew has been involved with and shares them with Freeman, who tries to defend it as events near every Starfleet ship has had to deal with. The end of episode twist actually deconstructs this trope; the crew is so used to said misadventures being an everyday part of Starfleet life that none of the officers Victoria was cleared to interview realized at the time that their casual anecdotes would make the ship look really bad to the average person.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Ransom states that Picard cut off communications between Ornara and Brekkia and left the Ornarans to go cold turkey. This is not exactly accurate. The Ornarans had transport ships that had begun to break down and needed replacement parts, which Picard refused to provide. This would have resulted in the Ornarans going cold turkey eventually, but it would have taken years for the planets to be completely cut off from each other.
- Shax states that the Breen don't take prisoners, which is contradicted by the first time we see the Breen on screen where they are using the surviving crew and passengers on a ship they attacked as slave labor in a mine, and with Worf and Dax being captured by the Breen and taken aboard their ship, while they were marooned on a planet after their runabout gets shot down by the Jem'Hadar. Not to mention the ship was disabled and being boarded by the Breen (though unknown if the Breen would take the Cerritos crew prisoner, or just kill the crew after capturing the ship), when they could have simply blown it up.
- Serious Business: The pie-eating contest is so competitive that Tendi learned how to dislocate her jaw to get an edge, and when the contest gets cancelled, Rutherford ends up begging to be stunned out of depression for not being able to have any pies.
- Ship Sinking: Jennifer doesn't believe Mariner after Victoria's knowledge is revealed.
- Shout-Out: The Cerritos having a blueberry pie eating contest is a clear nod to the Star Trek 'script' created by Badger in the Breaking Bad episode "Blood Money".
- Shrug Take: When the USS Aledo attacks the Breen, there is a quick shot of the bridge of one of the Breen interceptors. You can't understand what they are saying to each other, but you can see that they are as confused about the new ship as Carol Freeman is, when the guy at the station behind the captain's chair shrugs his shoulders!
- Taking You with Me: The final Breen ship attempts a spiteful ramming maneuver on the Cerritos when the Aledo proves too powerful to stop. Thankfully, it's destroyed by the Aledo before impact.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich:
- The Cerritos was planning a pie-eating contest on the same day Victoria came by, which Freeman canceled to keep up appearances. The Lower Deckers are deeply disappointed to watch all those replicated pies be thrown away.
- Subverted with the two guys from Starbase 80: upon finding the missing sandwich wrapped up in Mariner's jumpsuit, it is strongly implied that the owner eats it on the way back to Starbase 80.
- Token Good Teammate: Mariner is painted as this in-universe in Victoria's exposé. While all of the other crewmates that were interviewed end up revealing embarrassing events that the crew dealt with, talk down about the other stations on the ship, or just act unprofessional, Mariner was the only one who had nothing but praise about the Cerritos and its crew. It also draws attention to how Mariner was kicked off the ship shortly after her interview, making it seem like Freeman was punishing the "sole pure voice" just for doing one minor thing out of line and making Freeman look like a terrible boss.
- Trash of the Titans: Implied, as the Starbase 80 shuttle pilots mention that the Cerritos doesn't smell like garbage. This suggests the station is some kind of waste facility.
- True Companions: Boimler, Rutherford, and Tendi are the only members of the crew that believe Mariner when she says that she didn't say anything bad to sabotage the ship, when even her girlfriend and own mother don't believe her. Once the exposé is released and confirms this, they express how they knew that Mariner was innocent, and are just bummed that they didn't do more to help her.
- The Unintelligible: The Breen, as always, speak only in harsh electronic tones. When one of them hails the Cerritos, nobody has any idea what they're saying. But actions speak louder than words, so it probably wasn't friendly.
- Wham Episode: Mariner gets transferred to Starbase 80 after she's accused of revealing all the mishaps that the Cerritos went through to Victoria without permission, only to be proven innocent when it's revealed that everyone else who was interviewed did it, and by the time Freeman tries to apologize to Mariner, she already resigned from Starfleet and takes up Petra's offer to become an independent archaeologist like her. Also, the Breen are back.
- Wham Line: When Freeman tries to get in contact with Mariner at Starbase 80 and learns they're unable to connect to her:Freeman: You don't even have working communications?
Starbase 80 Officer: Rude. Of course we do. Usually. But this one here resigned. - Wham Shot: When Ransom encourages a Brekkian to come out of hiding and she is immediately vaporized, it yanks the episode out of its parody of Planet of the Week plots into something much darker.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Freeman and Ransom are rather shocked that Picard's "solution" to the Brekkians exploiting the Ornarans was to sever communications/travel between the two and let the latter go cold turkey. The Ornarans have a mural showing that they made a turnaround... after fourteen years of suffering the fallout from withdrawal. Keep in mind that this was only seventeen years ago, in-universe.
- Freeman and Ransom chew Mariner out for making the Cerritos look bad by telling Victoria embarrassing stories. The rest of the crew holds the same opinion. They were wrong to do so.
- Ransom gives a minor one to Freeman about the severity of Mariner's punishment, having previously said he'd never reassign anyone to Starbase 80. The later reveal supports his opinion.
- You Are Too Late: Freeman tries to rectify her mistake with Mariner, but Mariner has already resigned her commission and joined up with Petra.
- You Know What You Did: Everyone on the crew (except for Rutherford, Tendi, and Boimler, but sadly including Jennifer and her own mother) treats Beckett like she deliberately torpedoed the Cerritos' reputation with her unauthorized interview, oblivious that it was their own interviews that did so. None of them let her explain as they assert their disbelief and anger at her apparent actions.
