Captain Freeman considers taking a promotion. But first, she must assist her fellow Captain in her First Contact mission. When things go awry, it’s up to The Cerritos crew to avoid total catastrophe.
1. The Captain’s Leaving
Captain Carol Freeman, like everyone on The Cerritos is trying to climb up the chain of command within the Federation. Unfortunately for her, a promotion would not allow her to take any of her senior crew with her. Even more unfortunate is the fact that Mariner overheard this conversation.
As a means of childish protest, Mariner tells the bridge crew about Freeman’s potential departure. The commanders Jack, Shax, and Billups are all very upset at Freeman’s departure. Mariner, on the other hand, doesn’t initially let on that this affects her in any emotional way; lamenting that she doesn’t want to have to deal with a brand new Captain. This is clearly not the whole truth and highlights how emotionally guarded Mariner is. Which is used to great effect later in the episode.
2. Sam’s Memories
Sam has a rather small hurdle to overcome that you’d be forgiven for not paying much mind while The Cerritos crew attempt to prevent a Starship from crashing on a world that has yet to experience first contact. Yet when Billups tells him his memory storage is full, Rutherford admits to saving three copies of each of his memories because he doesn’t want to forget Tendi all over again.
This is somewhat of a shock when you consider how upbeat he was when he met Tendi at the end of the last season. He seemed enthusiastic about getting the opportunity to get to know her all over again. There have been episodes that show Rutherford having been more affected by the incident than he let on last season but this exchange really cements the point home.
3. Not Cut Out For Medical
Much like Mariner, Tendi overhears something she shouldn’t from her commanding officer. Dr. T’Ana says to one of her underlings that Tendi “Isn’t cut out for medical”. Tendi believes this all but guarantees that she will be relocated to another ship away from Rutherford and her other friends on the ship. Rutherford tries to reassure her that she probably misunderstood what she saw and heard since she is good at
This later ends up being correct as Tendi not being “cut out for medical” is a poorly contrived way to insert conflict and tension. Dr. T’Ana explains toTendi is that she being promoted to the science division as she has effectively tackled everything she has set her mind to thus far; which makes T’Ana believe her talents are wasted in medical.
Contrivance aside, this promotion is a promising way to develop Tendi for the next season. One of the strengths of the show is how the ensigns have a feeling of forward momentum in terms of their standing on the ship and their characterisation when you look at the show as a whole.
4. Boimler Saves The Day
Boimler and Mariner were presented as opposites in the first episode and throughout the two seasons so far. With Mariner being hyper competent and having a rebellious streak, and Boimler being extremely studious and a little bit sycophantic towards superior officers. Despite Boimler’s growth in competency this season, it still creates a sense of tension whenever he is put on the spot in comparison to Mariner.
Every challenge he faces makes us put a little more faith in his ability but he is often so uncool while doing it that we never give him the same reverence we do to other characters. It also makes it all the more satisfying when he does manage to save the day as it never feels like a forgone conclusion.
5. Mariner’s Shield
In order to get past the pseudoscience space cloud that acts as an EMP for the other ship The Cerritos is accompanying on the first contact mission; The Cerritos must tear down their shields because…. reasons?
This is a not so subtle metaphor for Mariner, who admits that she’ll miss her mom since they’ve been getting along better than they ever have and is called out for her emotionally aloof and defensive behaviour by Captain Freeman.
While Boimler’s moment to shine involves an action heavy dive underwater with talking dolphins, Mariner’s is merely an emotional apology between her and her mother. When we first meet Mariner, she seems like a hyper competent always right Mary Sue that undermines the tired tropes Star Trek IPs are prone to lean on. But her flaws as a character are much deeper and less obvious than that of Boimler’s.
Seeing character’s around her call her out and question her actions is a great way to explore her character without undermining the stuff that makes her such a snarky, lovable, badass. It also makes those moments all the better as they are being done by such a well rounded main character.
