History Recap / StarTrekLowerDecksS4E03InTheCradleOfVexilon

** Ensign Taylor's presence on the away mission may qualify as this; the character is a Kzinti, and his species were created for Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' universe, which included the novel ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'', which popularized the idea.

* FetalPosition: Big Merp collapses into one while crying when he and the others see Boimler's dead body after an explosion.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: [[EnsignNewbie T'Lyn]] has to talk sense into a panicking Boimler, who is suffering from TheChainsOfCommanding.

** The presence of NX-01 style generators is either one to ''Series/Enterprise'', or to Star Trek's occasional budget-related lack of creativity.

** Corazonia highly resembles the iconic ringworlds from ''Franchise/{{HALO}}''[[note]]though the ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' novels mentioned below did come first[[/note]].

* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted; despite the possibility of things going south and Vexilon going rogue, it actually doesn't. Most of the problems in this episode are because of poor maintenance, since its systems haven't been updated in six million years. Even Freeman tampering with the systems doesn't create a rogue AI; it just activates the automated maintenance systems, and getting Vexilon back online is the ''solution''.

* InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace: A [[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Betazoid_gift_box Betaziod gift box]] is one of the items kept in storage with other anomalies on the Cerritos.

* InitiationCeremony: Mariner, Rutherford and Tendi are tasked with finding a broken isolinear chip in a room full of them and replacing it by hand. Oh, and the room they're in has nitrogen coolant gas spray out every hour, Billips' pet ferret Lancelot is roaming around and likes to bite, ''and'' there's a second wall of chips behind the first. Tendi rightfully deduces they're being hazed, but Lt. Dirk is able to convince them otherwise.

* RagnarokProofing: Exaggerated to truly incredible extremes. Both Vexilon and Corazonia are still fully operational over ''six million years'' after their creators departed! To put this into perspective, the Mediterranean Basin is currently believed to have flooded 5.3 million years ago, and modern humans have only existed for 300,000 years.

* RagnarokProofing: Exaggerated to truly incredible extremes. Both Vexilon and Corazonia are still fully operational over ''six million years'' after their creators departed! To put this into perspective, the Mediterranean Basin is currently believed to have flooded only 5.3 million years ago, and modern humans have only existed for 300,000 years.

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: Freeman wisely calls in Billups when she realizes her college studies in Archaic Technology is woefully inadequate to fix Vexilon's degrading systems.
* MundaneFantastic: Giant superstructure running supercomputers like Vexilon need regular system updates to maintain program functionality just like any regular computer.

** Freeman decides to update Vexilon's operating system as he hasn't been updated in millennia, only for errors and/or rash decisions to make things steadily worse.

* TheReveal: We get to see the afterlife Shaxs, and Stevens, mentioned back in Seasons 2 and 3, complete with black mountain and the koala.

** Corazon highly resembles the iconic ringworlds from ''Franchise/{{HALO}}'' [[note]]though the ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'' novels mentioned below did come first[[/note]]

** The decor, floor pattern and backwards-talking entity that Boimler sees in the “afterlife” are reminiscent of the Black Lodge in ''Series/TwinPeaks''.

* {{Speedrun}}: When Rutherford is accidentally trapped in the Chula board game, he basically does this in order to get out quickly before Lt. Dirk finds out they put a prank in his room.

* DeathIsCheap: Boimler dies when he stays behind to shut down Vexilon's power relay and the building he's in blows up and his team is devastated by his death, but luckily he's brought by to life by Dr. T'Ana who's surprised that she's able to revive him.

** Despite Lt. Dirk's hazing of our heroes (complete with making up a false backstory), he genuinely appears to be a fan of jazz music. Mariner can't stand the fact that ''she likes it, too''.

* ApologizesALot: ''Good grief'', does Vexilon apologize. To be fair, he hates the fact that his charges are being inconvenienced by his problems and only wants the best for them.

* AfterlifeAntechamber: After Boimler dies in the explosion, he suddenly appears in a purple room with a zigzagging floor design which contains a purple sofa chair, a purple door, a lamp, a table with a bowl on it, and a window where the Black Mountain can be seen outside. After Boimler looks out the window to look at the Black Mountain, the Cosmic Koala appears sitting on the purple sofa chair and tells Boimler it's not his time yet in SdrawkcabSpeech, and then Boimler suddenly waits back up in the world of the living.

The ''Cerritos'' arrives on Corazonia, an inhabited RingworldPlanet whose guiding AI, 343 Guilty Spark -- err, sorry, ''Vexilon'' -- is having some problems. Captain Freeman coordinates the repairs, with Boimler leading his first away mission in support. Meanwhile, Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford have to deal with a possible hazing ritual from a full lieutenant.

** Despite Lt. Dirk's hazing of our heroes (complete with making up a false backstory), he genuinely appears to be a fan of jazz music.

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Vexilon mentions that its original creators evolved into fifth-dimensional beings six million years earlier.

* SdrawkcabSpeech: The cosmic koala speaks this; when reversed, he says "It's not your time, Bradward Boimler."

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Freeman decides to update Vexilon's operating system as he hasn't been updated in millennia, only for errors and/or rash decisions to make things steadily worse.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted; despite the possibility of things going south and Vexilon going rogue, it actually doesn't. Most of the problems in this episode are because of poor maintenance, since its systems haven't been updated in 6 million years. Even Freeman tampering with the systems doesn't create a rogue AI; it just activates the automated maintenance systems, and getting Vexilon back online is the ''solution''.

** Corazon highly resembles the iconic ringworlds from ''Franchise/{{HALO}}''.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: [[EnsignNewbie T'Lyn]] has to talk sense into a very panicking Boimler, who is suffering from TheChainsOfCommanding.

** Also for Ensign Taylor, the Kzinti ensign, given how his name is actually spoken aloud for the first time. (Funnily enough, given how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kzin#:~:text=were%20spread%20thinly.-,Naming%20convention,by%20their%20rank%20or%20occupation Kzinti have to earn their names through merit]], Taylor might not even have ''had'' that name -- or any other -- the last time he appeared.)

* InitiationCeremony: Mariner, Rutherford and Tendi are tasked with finding a broken isolinear chip in a room full of them and replacing it by hand. Oh, and the room they're in has nitrogen coolant gas spray out every hour, Billips' pet ferret Lancelot is roaming around and likes to bite, ''and'' there’s a second wall of chips behind the first. Tendi rightfully deduces they’re being hazed, but Lt. Dirk is able to convince them otherwise.