The crew answers a distress call from a pre-warp civilization that is imitating the crew of the original U.S.S. Enterprise.
Tropes:
- Ascended Meme: Amongst the Enderprizians' misquotes of Original Series catchphrases, Sool'U says "My, my" at one point, a misquote of a phrase popularly associated with George Takei rather than Commander Sulu.
- Captain's Log: The episode opens with Dal lamenting that the Living Construct has scuttled any hope of the crew joining the Federation in the immediate future, but as long as they have the Protostar, they intend to help people as the Federation would."Captain's log, stardate 61296.9. One minute, we were full of hope to join Starfleet. Then poof... that dream is dead... because our ship has a weapon that'll wipe the Federation off the galactic map. We tried phasers, transporters. We can't get rid of it. It just adapts. Thanks to Zero, we know even opening a hail to Starfleet could infect their systems. Despite this setback, we decided as long as we have the Protostar, we can still help others, which has led us to a mysterious M class planet in need of help."
"Captain's log, supplemental. People can surprise you sometimes. It seems we met a new chapter of Starfleet after all. Sure, they got a few things wrong, but they got a few things right. Janeway says the rules about second contact are a bit fuzzy, so it's up to them on how they wanna evolve. If these Enderprizians can do so much without even a ship to call their own, maybe we can too. If we can't take the ship to Starfleet, we'll find another way without the Protostar." - Closest Thing We Got: Down three crew and unable to operate every necessary system with Zero's help alone, Dal brings up a group of the Enderprizians to run the Protostar, since they have at least some second-hand experience in the matter. Janeway helps things along by loading 23rd-century holographic consoles so they'll have familiar interfaces.
- Continuity Nod: The ensign from the original Enterprise who crashed on the planet was named Garrovick — presumably the same one as in the Classic episode "Obsession" (who was originally the only minor Red Shirt to return from a mission alive).
- In a more recent nod, Dal mentions that Holo-Janeway explained to him that the rules for second contact "are a bit fuzzy". Lower Decks introduced that topic beginning with their very first episode.
- Dramatic Irony: Having seen the destruction of the Federation comm station and believing that Chakotay has been taken prisoner, Janeway vows to find the one responsible. She has no idea that she already has him in her sickbay.
- Future Imperfect: Language drift has resulted in Punctuation Shaker variations on most of the Federation terms the ensign brought to the world, as well as general mispronunciations.
- Holographic Terminal: At the climax, Holo Janeway has the Protostar holographically overlay 23rd century Enterprise controls over the ship's deck so the Enderprizians have a familiar interface to help them pilot it to save the crew. Downplayed in that the holograms are simply disguises over real consoles and fixtures (and being Star Trek holograms they act as solid objects — the inputs are "translated" to the actual helm).
- Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Enderprizians seem goofy with their mistakes emulating Starfleet while acting in exaggerated affectations, but they sincerely believe in Starfleet's ideals. Dal is annoyed at first because he believes they're fools playing at Starfleet, just like him and his crew, but he gets an inspiring pep talk from the local doctor that trying to live up to those ideals is what's important.
- Mangled Catchphrase: The Enderprizians bungle "Live Long and Prosper" to "Live Logs and Proper".
- Mythology Gag:
- This isn't the first time an old spacecraft's name got corrupted into something unrecognizable.
- The whole idea of a planet's inhabitants emulating Starfleet was previously done in one of
the Marvel TNG comics, where the Enterprise-E crew find that the people of the gangster planet from "A Piece Of The Action" had gone on to imitate the Starfleetersnote .
- Never Found the Body: In-universe, Janeway's crew located the escape pod from the comm station, but no one was inside it. Since the viewer knows it was occupied, it begs the question of what happened to Frex, and who would even think to be looking for him or anyone at the comm station within such a short timeframe of the crew arriving and its subsequent destruction.
- The Plague: The Enderprizians are plagued by "The Gallows", a mysterious disease that comes from a specific part of the woods which causes lesions to develop on the skin, followed by fever-like symptoms. Rok, Jankom, and Gwyn investigate and realize it's actually the Galileo, a 23rd-century shuttlecraft from the original Enterprise, damaged and slowly leaking warp plasma into a cave full of dilithium, the combination of factors creating a radiation hotspot. Zero is able to synthesize a cure once they understand the cause, and the crew collapse the cave so no one will enter it again.
- Planet of Hats: A very tongue in cheek example. The Protostar crew come upon a planet of people who modeled their culture after 23rd century "Star Flight" when an "En Son" Red Shirt accidentally crash landed on their planet and taught them its ways. They named themselves for Kirk and his crew, acting out his missions, with most acting in exaggerated impressions of their namesakes.
- Playing Sick: Jankom tries this act after Rok gets out of joining the away team due to Murf being genuinely sick. His act is terrible, and Dal drags him to the transporter by the collar.
- Punctuation Shaker: The Enderprizians, after a century of linguistic drift, use apostrophes in most of their names and words.
- Red Shirt: In a particularly dark take, some hapless ensign crashed on the planet and taught them the ways of Starfleet. No one ever came to pick him back up because the interference from his damaged shuttle made his distress call virtually undetectable at the time.
- Retraux: In-universe Holo Janeway uses holograms on the ship deck to make it look and act like the 23rd century Enterprise for the Enderprizians to help pilot the Protostar.
- Strange Salute: The Vulcan Salute is attempted by the Enderprizians but they spread their pinky and index fingers from their middle and ring fingers. The Protostar crew set them straight at the end.
- Taught by Television: The Enderprizians may not have actually worked with any real Starfleet technology, but they have seen video logs from the Enterprise which allows them to work the controls. Janeway overlays holographic recreations of 23rd-century consoles on the Protostar bridge so the Enderprizians can use them.
- Unreliable Narrator:
- The Diviner claims Chakotay is being held prisoner. It's hard to say, based on his addled mind, how true this is or where he would be now if it is.
- The log presented by the Enderprizians depicts En Son literally falling from the sky, and warning them to stay out of the woods due to the danger posed by the curse of the Gallows. The Reveal clarifies that he fell from the sky in the Galileo, and the shuttle's damaged and leaking engines would be the cause of the curse of the "Gallows," which is revealed in the end to be a form of radiation poisoning.
