After a member of The Collector’s Guild Passes away, Starfleet is tasked with disposing of any dangerous treasures before the rest is auctioned off as per guild rules. Boimler is beginning to feel a little overwhelmed at the volume of things happening on the Titan.
1. The New Guy’s not Boimler
In a rare instance where the opening skit is relevant to the rest of the episode, Mariner and the person in Boimler’s quarters, Jet Manhaver, immediately butts heads over Manhaver ignoring Mariner’s request to leave the booth open like Boimler did. Manhaver simply replies he’s not Boimler.
Ironically he and Mariner also disagree because of all the ways Manhaver is similar to Boimler. He is prone to sticking to protocol if possible and averse to taking unnecessary risks. Unlike Boimler, however, he is calm under pressure and just as keen to take charge in situations as Mariner.
2. Seeing A Lot of Action
Boimler’s time on the Titan is fraught with “a lot of action,” as he puts it. While he is an experienced enough officer to deal with the more combat-oriented missions, he still feels out of place with his fellow crew mates who scoff at Captain Rieker’s time on the Enterprise. Meanwhile Boimler is confident enough in himself to know that fighting the ‘bad guys’ isn’t why he signed up for Starfleet.
Much to his satisfaction, Reiker confesses to Boimler that he misses being on a ship dedicated to exploration rather than non-stop action all the time.
3. Tamarian & Orion
What is always interesting to me about the world-building in Star Trek is that many of the systemic issues of inequality we face today – – issues of race, sexual orientation, and gender – – are relics of the past, but Starfleet still has their own issues of inclusivity, with new alien species being discovered and admitted into the United Federation of Planets.
As an Orion, Tendi is often vocal about this in subtle ways, since it is not in Starfleet’s ethos to discriminate. Yet Tendi is clearly excited to hear that they will be working with the first Tamrian admitted into Starfleet, Lieutenant Kayshon. As an Orion, Tendi is extremely sensitive to her culture’s history of piracy and must deal with her people’s legacy and the assumptions people make about her because of that legacy.
4. Boimler’s not Useless
Although Boimler is often the punchline to much of the jokes he’s involved in, the writers seem determined to not rely too heavily on making him an incompetent moron who fumbles his way through adventures. Seeing him without Mariner in this episode really brought to light how far he’s come since his crisis of confidence in the second episode of last season. While he’s still easily scared, dorky, and prone to over-preparedness, he still does his job well and can think on his feet.
5. Leaders and Followers
While Mariner and Manhaver get off on the wrong foot and continue to get on each other’s nerves, they, along with Rutherford and Tendi, are tasked with clearing out any dangerous items from a Collector’s ship that can’t be auctioned off.
Once things go awry, Becket and Jet are too caught up in their desire to show up the other to ask Rutherford and Tendi what they think the best course of action is. Once this finally does dawn on them, they are both embarrassed at how good their plan is to get out of the situation they find themselves in.
