Captain Freeman is on trial, and her crew is grounded. The Cerritos, still without her outer hull, is in a (not so) secure orbital facility.
Mariner's fuming. Her father and friends keep telling her to trust Starfleet and trust the process, but she can't, so she enlists Boimler, Rutherford, and Tendi to get evidence to prove her mom's innocent: namely, the copies of the captain's logs Boimler's been making.
After stealing a warp-capable theme park ride of the Phoenix, the mottled foursome manage to get aboard the Cerritos only to find that Boimler's log are, uh, filled with a lot of extraneous detail that will render them useless and him likely a laughing stock. Mariner is ... not thrilled, and steals the Cerritos in order to find evidence to prove her mom's innocent (after tricking the others onto a shuttle and off the ship).
Not that Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford are willing to put up with this, managing to get back aboard the ship to stop Mariner from doing something that'll get her thrown in prison!
At this point the Cerritos gets caught up by a bunch of space-faring lifeforms looking for a mating habitat. Whoops, that's the Big C! And that gives them a cover story for Starfleet Security who beams aboard to figure out why the Cerritos is out of its dock.
And everything goes swimmingly well -- the security guys approve of Tendi's story about how they're under orders trying to facilitate the alien mating ...
... "And we need to know which commanding officer gave you this mission," the security guy says.
Welp.
"I did." Captain Freeman, freed after a Starfleet Black Ops team went undercover and revealed the destruction of Pakled Planet was orchestrated by the Pakleds themselves, in order to guilt the Federation into relocating them to a planet with greater resources.
She orders Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford to clean up the ship, while telling Mariner that she can't control her, and Mariner's got one last shot: but it won't be Captain Freeman deciding if Mariner stays in Starfleet or not.
"Oh no," says Mariner as Commander Ransom enters.
***
Boimler dyes his hair. We don't know its true color.
Boimler's also like super oblivious to all the thirsty ladies working at his family's raisin farm.
Tendi never did any touristy stuff when she was at the Academy.
So glad Lower Decks is back!!!
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
Good, but not great.
Snay covered most of my thoughts. I'll add:
Geez, Bozeman gives New Asgard a run for its money in terms of being a tourist trap.
James Cromwell returns to voice the holo-Cochrane that's part of the Pheonix ride, and is hilarious.
They teased us with an epic story of proving Freeman's innocence involving not just Tuvok but Frasier CraneKelsey Grammer Morgan Bateson? How evil.
That plan seems WAY too smart for the Pakleds. Someone else behind them?
No T'Lyn.
No Secret Board of Shadowy Figures.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I believe McMahan gave an interview in December when he said we wouldn't see her in episode 3x1, so the earliest we'll see her is next week!
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
I'll also just add: this would've been a good day for Playmates to show their first wave of Lower Decks action figures, because I want all of them.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I'm glad Bozeman is Space Branson. Fuck Brannon Braga.
I was hoping we were gonna see Gavin cameo later on in the season. I also figured the transporter was gonna be run by Shaxs or Worf, or even an old af Mr. Adventure.
The FNN chyron! Sonny Clemonds makes a career return! The Zebulon Sisters!
Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :
Ah how I missed it. My favourite show by far of all the current Trek. I really wanted to like SNW and I really do like the cast but the constant retconning and asinine explanations how it's not a retcon drove me away annoyed eventually.
So many great references: Admiral Jellico, the return of Captain Bateson, Tuvok, Cochrane.
I had tears in my eyes when the First Contact Theme played in Historic Bozeman. I'd forgotten how beautiful it is. Must rewatch FC soon.
Just a tad disappointed that the starships (Akira, Olympic, California, runabout) weren't labeled.
quote: I also figured the transporter was gonna be run by Shaxs or Worf, or even an old af Mr. Adventure.
I suppose the Chief could be Mr. Adventure's son.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
I loved the Bozeman scene. The music theme and use of Magic Carpet Ride was perfect.