While Boimler tries to prep for an interview with Captain Freeman, Mariner slightly alters his simulation to “work some shit out” after she and the Captain butt heads over Mariner breaking the prime directive to save one oppressed alien race from another.
1. Mariner’s the bad guy
Mariner is a simple character to wrap your head around; she’s an extremely talented, hyper competent Starfleet recruit who despises higher ranking officers for putting their rank before those they are supposed to protect. But the more you learn about her, the deeper of a character she is.
Even more than meeting her best friend in the academy as a captain, this episode explores Mariner’s motivations and psyche in a very deep way. She frames herself as the bad and maniacally channels her inner Khan as she vents her frustrations on the simulation of Freeman as “Vindicta: Vengeance Personified.”
2. The cinematography looks cinematic
The episode being framed as a movie begins with Ensigns ducking the credits as they whoosh past their heads. After that, the cinematography gives the impression that they’ve gotten a higher budget, with wide establishing shots on planets like the old movies did and the occasional lens flare like the J.J. Abrams’s reboot was known for.
The whole exercise shows how in touch the creative team is with the source material, and shows the artistic vocabulary they have to make such a subtle and effective transition into a different style of cinematography for one episode.
3. Tendi gets typecast
D’Vana Tendi and Same Rutherford.get roped into her ensemble of evil henchmen, while Boimler, ever the goodie two shoes, shadows the Captain to get info for his interview. For once, Tendi and Rutherford have a different reaction to the same situation. Tendi dislikes being cast by Mariner as a pirate because Orions are so strongly associated with piracy.
Once Mariner’s arc is resolved she goes out of her way to apologise to D’Vana for putting her in a situation that made her uncomfortable and roping her and Rutherford into her elaborate therapy session. It’s nice to see Rutherford and and Tendi being utilised in different ways and hopefully will happen more often.
4. Rutherford goes off script
Rutherford, much like Boimler, has a deep reverence for his superiors. Unlike Boimler, Rutherford’s reverence stems from a nerdy love for engineering rather than a desire to get ahead. It is implied that Sam is planning some nefarious, consequence free act of vengeance on Chief Engineer, Andy Billups. Instead, Sam tells Billups that he’s the best engineer in all of Starfleet.
To Rutherford, this is a drastic act of wish fulfillment, but is so hilariously tame compared to Mariner’s murderous rampage, that it seems all the funnier when he cannot bring himself to say it to his boss’ face.
5. Mariner fights herself
Much like when she vents at the simulation of her mother, she has a surprising amount of negative things to say towards herself. What’s even more surprising is the critical things she says are things she has heard from others and shrugged off as untrue or off base. Mariner knows she’s slacking off because she’s afraid to try, that she’s insubordinate because its expected of her.
By confronting herself in such a literal way, she manages to have a serious breakthrough and realises its her own fault that everyone sees her as the bad guy. It’s great to see Mariner, who seems so set in her ways, go through such a drastic amount of character progression in one episode near the end of the first season.
