STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS
SEASON 2, EPISODE 1
SEASON 2, EPISODE 1
Strange Energies
Series: Star Trek: Lower Decks - (2020 - 2024)Season: 2
Episode #: 1
Original Airdate: August 12th, 2021
Writer(s): Mike McMahan
Director(s): Jason Zurek
Guest Stars
Jonathan Frakes as Captain William T. Riker
Eric Bauza as the Cerritos Conn Officer
Neil Casey
Phil LaMarr as Admiral Freeman
Lauren Lapkus as Ensign Jennifer Sh'reyan
Jessica McKenna as Ensign Barnes
Nolan North
Randall Park as the Apergosian High Leader
Missi Pyle as a Holographic Cardassian Interrogator
Ben Rodgers as Lieutenant Commander Steve Stevens
Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis
Inside the torture cell of a Cardassian detention center, a hooded prisoner is swiftly revealed to be Mariner, the “Federation spy.” The Cardassian interrogator asks Mariner if she’s ready to talk, and Mariner begins to spill. Mariner admits to the interrogator that the arrangement she and her mother, Captain Carol Freeman, arrived at recently isn’t going as smoothly as she had hoped. As she continues catching the Cardassian interrogator up to speed, Mariner mounts a daring escape, using the excruciator to break open her restraints and beginning to fistfight the interrogator. Mariner continues updating the status quo, explaining that while her mother is happy with the arrangement, she doesn’t know if she can keep it up.
Mariner takes the interrogator hostage as she fights her way through multiple guards and advances through the facility. She finds Boimler chained up as well… and declines to rescue him, admitting that she’s still mad at him for leaving to join the crew of the U.S.S. Titan without saying goodbye to her. The interrogator questions her decision to leave behind a fellow Starfleet officer, and Mariner responds that he did it first. They arrive in a chamber filled with ships, including NCC-1877, the USS Macduff. Mariner teleports herself and the interrogator onto the bridge of the Macduff as she wonders if she’s a bad person for accepting advantages that come her way.
Mariner pilots the Macduff out of the detention center’s docking bay, blowing up a few ships and destroying several access pathways on her way. The interrogator screams as she destroys asteroids and navigates away from enemy ships that swarm after her. And that’s when the Holodeck arch appears. Jennifer the Andorian Ensign enters. Jen asks Mariner what she’s doing, and Mariner says she’s working out, which Jen reacts to with scorn. Jen tells Mariner that the Captain wants her in the Ready Room before leaving, leaving Mariner to admit that in spite of the fact that they aren’t meant to have interpersonal conflicts, she really dislikes that Andorian.
Then, Mariner resumes the program… and starts squatting. It’s leg day, after all.
During her log entry, Captain Freeman explains that the Cerritos is completing second contact duties on Apergos. Freeman’s log goes on to express her own frustrations with working alongside her daughter, noting that Mariner’s endless side missions were taking their toll. Meanwhile, Mariner digs through a crate of artifacts, stopping to sniff one before asking Freeman if she needs a trinket from every mission. Mariner goes on to request another side-mission: cleaning up some of buildings in the capital city on Apergos, never scrubbed up after their industrial revolution, in the hopes that it will motivate the citizens to continue the cleaning trend.
Freeman approves the mission in spite of the fact that Starfleet doesn’t prioritize aesthetics… and that’s when Lt. Jack Ransom clears his throat. Freeman had forgotten he was even standing there, and while she does approve Ransom’s mission, she also tells him to let Mariner do whatever she wants. In the sleeping quarters, Ensign D’Vana Tendi is working on her PADD, Ensign Samanthan Rutherford is eating pears, and Boimler’s bunk has been turned into a storage area. Both Tendi and Rutherford speculate that Boimler must be loving life on the Titan before Rutherford says that Ensign Barnes has confirmed their date for the night.
After he’s left, Tendi tells Mariner that she’s afraid he might be suffering from Synthetic Memory Degradation (SMD) as a result of the fact that his implant (and part of his brain) was yanked out and shoved back in citing the change in pear preference as proof. Tendi vows to save Rutherford… but Mariner is mostly just thinking about Boimler.
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[ Screencap Index ]
Down on Apergos, the away team is hard at work, with Ransom trying to get the Apergosian High Leader to decide on a communication number. However, the leader insists that the Apergosians have a deep relationship with numbers. Meanwhile, Mariner ignores Ransom’s commands for her own cleaning whims. Mariner begins to clean one of the buildings, which seems to be going well as first, revealing ancient murals… But soon, a newly-revealed orb seems to respond to the sunlight. Sparks begin to emanate from the building, and Stevens tells Ransom that he’s reading a buildup of “strange energies”. Suddenly some of the energy leaps out and strikes the First Officer of the Cerritos!
Doctor T’Ana beams down and assesses Ransom, confirming that he took a “full load of strange energies.” At Freeman’s request, T’Ana explains that “strange energies” are electrical phenomena with unknown properties, citing Gary Mitchell of the U.S.S. Enterprise as an example. Ransom says those energies weren’t that strange, but then with glowing eyes he begins rising off the ground and healing himself from his injuries. In addition to seemingly controlling the weather, Ransom develops telepathic abilities and shoots rainbows out of his hands.
Back on the Cerritos, Admiral Freeman checks in with Captain Freeman. The Admiral tells the Captain that she impressed “some important people” with their showdown against the Pakleds, and says she could get promoted to a capital ship this year… provided she keeps a clean record. Captain Freeman assures the Admiral that the Cerritos is the model of Starfleet responsibility.
Meanwhile, Tendi and Rutherford are in the room with the shuttlecraft Sequoia. Rutherford is covered in disks, which Tendi is using to painfully shock Rutherford in order to “kick his neurons into place.” The process grows increasingly intense as Tendi attempts to “cure” Rutherford. Rutherford eventually loses patience and heads off to his date, but that just leads Tendi to resort to more intense strategies, extracting a large medical rifle from a case…
On Apergos, Ransom grows more powerful still. He makes a moon dissolve by snapping his fingers and ruins their museum of popular music before “creating a race of Ransomites.” Mariner declares that she’s just going to blast him, but Freeman tells her to stand down. Meanwhile, T’Ana attempts to inject Ransom with a hypospray, but he turns it into an ice cream cone. Mariner and Freeman are nominally trying to work together, but it seems very tense, and Ransom says their pretending to like one another makes him furious before upgrading his outfit and declaring his superiority. Freeman asks T’Ana how they dealt with Gary Mitchell, and T’Ana responds that Kirk smooshed him with a boulder.
Ransom then turns his powers on himself, enlarging and disjoining his head, which flies away into the sky.
In the Cerritos bar, Rutherford’s date with Ensign Barnes is going pretty well. Barnes invites Rutherford to go swimming with her and some other crewmembers from Cetacean Ops, which he gladly accepts… but that’s when Tendi arrives and tries to shoot him with the medical rifle, chasing him out of the bar. Meanwhile, the First Coming of Ransom is taking place. The giant head is pursing the Cerritos. On Apergos, Ransom’s body is hard at work creating his own “Jack utopia” by transforming random objects into workout equipment. T’Ana suggests they amp up his powers in an attempt to short them out, and Mariner relays the plan to Captain Freeman… but more power just makes him more powerful!
Freeman opens a channel and attempts to reason with him. Freeman says Ransom can work with her and Mariner, but that’s not what Ransom wants: he bites the ship in response. Elsewhere in the Cerritos, Tendi admits to Rutherford that he does not have SMD. And admissions are taking place all over the ship, as Freeman and Mariner admit to one another that they hate directly working together. Enraged, Ransom’s giant head flings the Cerritos with his mouth.
In the hallway where Tendi and Rutherford are talking, Tendi admits that she was worried that Rutherford’s changing opinions might have led him to no longer like her. Rutherford realizes Tendi was using invasive medical procedures to solve a social problem, which just reaffirms their friendship: science as a solution to emotional issues is right up Rutherford’s alley, after all! …however, she still advises him not to date Barnes.
The Ransom deity grows hands and grabs the Cerritos by the shields. Mariner tells her to power up torpedoes, but Freeman says she’s not going to shoot her friend anymore. Freeman believes she can use praise to end the conflict, but Mariner says he’s a god – you can’t appeal to his ego forever. Soon, Ransom says he should be captain, and that’s a bridge too far for Freeman. However, as Ransom attempts to attack the Cerritos again, something interrupts him. His expression turns to pain as Freeman asks what’s happening down on the planet. Mariner takes “matters into her own feet” by swiftly and repeatedly kicking Ransom in the crotch and thereby dispersing the strange energies.
Ransom notes that while the strange energies gave him powers, it was his ego that turned him monstrous, earning another crotch-kick from Mariner. In fact, his powers threaten to re-emerge several times, until T’Ana uses a forklift to drop a boulder on him. With Ransom incapacitated, the weirdness he wrought on Apergos returns to normal, and the Apergosian High Leader quickly chooses a subspace number and tells the Cerritos away team to leave.
Back on the Cerritos, which is heading to the Bitrus expanse, Ransom is making a full recovery in the medical bay while Stevens reads him “Nightingale Woman”). Meanwhile, Freeman and Mariner agree that while working together as a team was fun for a while, they each work better on their own. With the situation stabilized, Freeman calls a security team to haul Mariner off to the brig.
In the brig, Mariner has a conversation with Tendi and Rutherford, who confirm that they returned Rutherford to his pear-hating origins before going on to speculate about what fun adventures Boimler must be up to…
But Boimler isn’t having the time of his life at all. Under the command of Captain William T. Riker, the Titan is fighting Pakled battle harpies near a space anomaly. Another bridge crewmember announces that he’s navigating the Titan into the anomaly and instructs the crew to brace for “gluonic disruption.” Boimler squeals in dismay as the Titan enters the anomaly. As the gluonic disruption occurs, Riker shouts that he loves his job, and Boimler screams at the top of his lungs…
Trailer
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