Summary[]
The USS Cerritos joins the USS Merced on a mission to salvage an ancient generation ship. This ship's cargo includes a fluid that converts inorganic matter to life. During a meeting with the Merced's Captain Durango, a Tellarite, Mariner annoys everyone with her disinterest - and frequent yawning. Captain Freeman decides she has to get her to transfer off the ship and consults with Ransom to give her daughter the nastiest jobs on the ship. But Mariner manages to turn even those tasks into fun events. Freeman and Ransom have to change their strategy. They promote Mariner to lieutenant so she is part of the ship's senior staff and has all kinds of boring duties - which, much to their pleasure, exasperates Mariner.
In engineering, Tendi tries to make up for the accidental destruction of a sand mandala that was supposed to help a crew member named O'Connor in his "ascension". But O'Connor was never seriously considering to reach a higher plane of existence; he just wanted to appear as more interesting. While the two Starfleet vessels are towing the generation ship, Durango changes position without previous consultation. This has the disastrous result that the Merced's tractor beam rips off a hull plate and sets the mysterious fluid free, which travels though the tractor beam and begins to terraform the ship. Soon the Cerritos is affected as well.
Freeman and Mariner dig their way to a control console from where they successfully trigger the reversion of the ship's matter. The Merced can't be saved, and the crew is evacuated to the generation ship. In the meantime, after he has saved Tendi's life, O'Connor gets actually transformed into pure energy. Mariner works on her demotion, which she achieves very quickly when she mocks an admiral after just having received a medal. But she keeps the special senior officer access card to the replicator to Boimler's delight.
Errors and Explanations[]
Internet Movie Database[]
Factual errors[]
- When the senior officers are playing poker, the fold/bet/raise process is done in the incorrect order. Starting with Freeman, the order should've gone clockwise: Freeman, Mariner, T'Ana, Ransom, and Shaxs. Instead, it goes Freeman, Ransom, T'Ana, Mariner. Perhaps they prefer to do it in order of rank?
Nit Central[]
- Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Friday, August 28, 2020 - 11:32 am: I noticed something in the opening credits sequence. The Cerritos's ship class has a weird depressed area on top of its saucer section, right under the ship's name and registry number. It extends down two decks and there are windows facing into that depression. The whole thing makes little sense, it just cuts out what would be useful space in those decks for no practical purpose. Maybe it was intended to reduce the habital space in that area, thus reducing the strain on the life support system.
- Why do they call it a generation ship if the crew was in suspended animation? Shouldn't it be a sleeper ship? Perhaps it is a generation ship that retains suspended animation equipment to keep the crew alive in the event of a major emergency.
- Ranson tells Captain Freeman that it's not his place to second guess her motives. He is the First Officer, it is part of his job to second guess the captain. Perhaps he doesn't want to risk angering the captain by questioning her judgement!
- Even after being promoted to Lieutenant, Mariner still didn't roll down her sleeves. Perhaps she is used to having them rolled up.
- The terraforming goop from the alien ship leaves behind astonishingly little damage once it is removed from the Cerritos. The damage from just the water that stuff conjured up everywhere on the ship should have been enough to result in a few weeks of repair work in dry dock. The modified gas used to resolve the problem automatically reversed most of the damage.
- When Captain Durango ordered his ship to move closer to the alien ship, why wasn't the intensity of its tractor beam adjusted accordingly? Both ship's crews were closely monitoring the towing operation, someone should have noticed the problem and taken appropriate action. Reducing the distance without adjusting the intensity of the tractor beam would allow the ship to tow a greater mass, thus making easier to tow such a large vessel.
| Lower Decks - Season 1 |
| Second Contact I Envoys I Temporal Edict I Moist Vessel I Cupid's Errant Arrow I Terminal Provocations I Much Ado About Boimler I Veritas I Crisis Point I No Small Parts |