While the Enterprise surveys the Jonisian nebula, Dr. M'Benga works tirelessly on a cure for Rukiya's cygnokemia — perhaps too tirelessly, since he misses some of his official duties. Rukiya, for her part, is getting tired of The Kingdom of Elysian, the Fairy Tale M'Benga has been reading her all season; she wishes it would end differently, and M'Benga tells her that perhaps she can write her own ending one day. Up on the bridge, Pike orders Enterprise to depart... but something is pinning the ship in place, and when they try using impulse power at first, the turbulence throws Ortegas from her console. M'Benga is ordered to the bridge... where he suddenly finds himself cosplaying as King Ridley, the Main Character of The Kingdom of Elysian.
M'Benga quickly determines that everyone on the ship has been forced into various roles — Pike as the cowardly chamberlain Sir Rauth; Ortegas as King Ridley's Praetorian Guard Sir Adya; La'an as Thalia, a Princess Classic; Spock as the sorcerer Pollux — and that none of them realize what has been done to them. Uhura plays the antagonist, the evil Queen Neve, who as per the story is trying to get her hands on the "Mercury Stone," a MacGuffin that Ridley is supposed to carry around on his person. (M'Benga has no idea what it is or where it is.) Neve is making a concerted effort to get it, both via military force ("Sir Adya" must have a Sword Fight with several of her soldiers) and treachery (both Pollux and Evil Chancellor Rauth are swayed to her side). M'Benga's only hope is in Pollux's good twin, the wizard Castor... who is played by Hemmer, the only other person on the ship who realizes what's going on. Hemmer explains that, at the exact time of transition, he — via his Aenar telepathic abilities — felt a consciousness press in on his own. With the help of Z'ymira the Huntress (Number One), he and M'Benga retreat to Engineering to try to assert control of the situation.
Using the ship's sensors, Hemmer is able to identify that the Jonisian nebula is home to some sort of disembodied consciousness, which is presumably what enforced the fairy tale on the Enterprise crew. As to how to resolve the situation, M'Benga is able to determine that answer when he notes the Les Yay between Z'ymira and Adya... non-canon Les Yay, since in the story the two characters never actually meet. But Rukiya thinks they ought to, as a path to the ending she would prefer to see. M'Benga tracks her down to his quarters, and after "Castor" (Hemmer) works some "magic" (science) to "make Queen Neve and her court go away" (transport them to Cargo Bay 12 using a communicator he found in Sickbay as a trigger), he enters to speak with his daughter.
Rukiya confirms that the disembodied consciousness in the nebula has been in contact with her, and after Hemmer volunteers to be its telepathic mouthpiece, M'Benga negotiates with it. The consciousness created this fantasy so that Rukiya could have some fun, something she is a little short of as a Human Popsicle in the pattern buffer; it also cured her cygnokemia, but the disease will come back if the illusion is dispelled. It offers A Third Option: to disembody Rukiya, so that the two may adventure together. M'Benga, recalling the Aesop of the Fairy Tale — King Ridley kept the Mercury Stone until he realized it was a living, sentient being of its own, deserving of freedom — lets her go. Rukiya returns moments later (but already grown) to thank her father for his sacrifices, and Enterprise is on her way, with only M'Benga recalling what happened during a five-hour blackout.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Martial Arts: Ortegas holds her cruciform two-hand longsword in a one-handed fencing pose. This is a bit like attempting to use a hammer the way you would a needle. Ultimately justified in that Rukiya can hardly be expected to understand nuances of Historical European Martial Arts that even grown tropers aren't aware of, and Debra the Nebula even less so. Plus, it's a great Shout-Out to another helmsman who likes swordplay.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The nebula entity converts Rukiya into disembodied consciousness like it.
- Big Word Shout: "ABRA-KEDABRA!"
- Bookends: The episode begins with M'Benga reading to his daughter. Although he skips ahead, the book is opened to the introduction, "Once upon a time, in a far-off land..." At the end, M'Benga is about to recount the episode's events to Una, starting with "Once upon a time" while Rukiya's conspicuously empty chair is included in the camera shot.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The entire Enterprise crew, save M'Benga and Hemmer, are brainwashed by the nebula entity into following roles in the story.
- Call-Forward: Ortegas isn't the only Enterprise helmsman who like to play with swords.
- The Cameo: Christina Chong's dog, Runa, portrays the dog carried by Princess Thalia (
also named Runa). - Captured on Purpose: After Hemmer is hauled away by Queen Neve's Crimson Guard, M'Benga deliberately walks himself and his party into a trap so they'll likewise be imprisoned with Hemmer and they can work on a plan from there.
- Catchphrase: Lampshaded by Ortegas the first time they try to leave the nebula.Ortegas: You gonna say the thing?
Pike: (smirks) Hit it. - Clarke's Third Law: Hemmer weaponizes this being cast as the wizard, knowing the fairytale characters will find the technology of the Enterprise magical.
- Continuity Nod: Spock reminds Pike of the superstition of acknowledging favorable circumstances, which tends to invite bad luck. Spock himself did this in the first episode, though it was Una who chastised him for Tempting Fate, and he even uses the same language she did.
- Contrived Coincidence: Ortegas, after pressing some buttons on top of her console, remains standing for no real reason when she hits the button to activate the impulse engines. Because of this, she is injured when the ship shakes, necessitating M'Benga be summoned to the bridge.
- Dead Guy Junior: Rukiya named the entity after her mother, Debra, whom the show implies is deceased.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Hemmer, improvising with M'Benga, threatens to release "the full power of my powerful wizard... powers."
- Dirty Coward: Sir Amand Rauth (Pike), King Ridley's chamberlain, tends to squirm at the first hint of danger, always trying to find excuses to stay away from the fighting. Eventually M'Benga, fed up with him, allows him to head (read: run) back to the castle, whereupon he gets captured by Neve's forces and promptly sells out his king to save his own skin.
- Energy Beings: The Jonisian nebula is a Boltzmann brain, a spontaneously-generated consciousness lacking physical form. Even though that's not what a Boltzmann brain is.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Based on the Off the Rails moment he encounters, M'Benga realizes it isn't him directing the story as he remembers it, but Rukiya changing it as she wanted to.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Queen Neve sports very dark eye makeup with lips and eyebrows to match, plus jeweled accents.
- Fainting Seer: Hemmer collapses after channeling the entity and wakes up with a killer headache.
- Fairy Tale Episode: For a fictional fairy tale.
- First Law of Tragicomedies: Though not precisely a tragedy, the story follows the same arc distinctly: the opening is almost farcical in its comedy (and Large Ham), only to get distinctly serious and tug at the heartstrings as M'Benga contemplates his final choice as Rukiya's father.
- Genre Savvy: In-universe, M'Benga has read the story several times and can thus know what's coming in this recreation, even though some of the details are off. Ironically, despite this, he fails to anticipate the his obviously unfaithful chamberlain backstabbing him, even though it's from the story. One can blame that on his concern for his daughter distracting him.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: The story has two wizard brothers. The one dressed in white, Castor (Hemmer), is the good wizard, while his brother Pollux (Spock) always wears black and turns out to be in league with the evil queen.
- Good Princess, Evil Queen: La'an plays a Princess Classic with a pet dog, while Uhura is the evil queen who seeks to take over King Ridley's kingdom. Rukiya, being an innocent girl wearing her own princess dress and tiara, as well as being the daughter of the "king", also counts as a good princess herself.
- Hidden Buxom: When both La'an and Uhura are shown in their fairytale clothes, it becomes apparent that they are both considerably more endowed than their Starfleet uniforms would lead one to believe.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: La'an is supposed to be a singing Princess Classic. When we hear her, Ortegas' eyes go wide and M'Benga is close to Corpsing In-Universe.
- Hourglass Plot: Rukiya's story begins as a Year Outside, Hour Inside plot, with M'Benga all too aware he'll never have enough time to finish telling her stories. Rukiya's story ends with a Year Inside, Hour Outside finish, with both of them all too aware she doesn't have the time to explain the sheer wealth of adventures she's experienced without him.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The only way to Queen Neve's kingdom (according to the story, anyway) is through the "Swamp of Infinite Death".
- Instant Cosplay Surprise: M'Benga takes the turbolift to the bridge, and in the instant between arriving and the door opening, suddenly finds himself in a fairy tale dressed as the protagonist, King Ridley. Hemmer is equally baffled by this sudden turn of events, and doesn't have the benefit of having read the book.
- Internal Reveal: M'Benga reveals the existence of Rukiya to the others.
- Kneel Before Zod: As the evil queen of the story, Uhura has a habit of insisting people do this.
- Large Ham: The entire cast hams it up, particularly Anson Mount.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The entity wipes the minds of the crew after ending the simulation. Only M'Benga is spared, since he was never brainwashed and Rukiya wants him to remember what happened to her.
- Meaningful Name:
- Castor and Pollux, the twin wizards, are named for a pair of twins from Classical Mythology which make up the Gemini constellation. "Castor" also sounds like "caster", as in one who casts spells.
- Rukiya names the consciousness in the nebula "Debra"— after her mother, who is implied to have pre-deceased her.
- Meaningful Background Event: A small one, but the episode does confirm that ultimately no one died following the events of the episode - you can see the officers Una shot with her bow as "The Huntress" getting patched up in Sickbay looking none the worse in the background of the final scene.
- Mythology Gag:
- The book The Kingdom of Elysian is shown to be written by Benny Russell.
- One of the dilemmas Russell faces in that episode is the difficulty of selling speculative fiction in The '50s with a black protagonist. Appropriately, King Ridley — the original character, not just M'Benga's incarnation of him — is shown to be black.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The nebula entity commandeers the Enterprise and turns nearly the entire crew into living avatars of Rukiya's fanfic, but it only wants to keep her happy and safe, having sensed her loneliness and created a world where just for her. M'Benga has to explain to it that hijacking the lives of many simply to satisfy the wants of a single person isn't acceptable, even if she is his daughter.
- Off the Rails: M'Benga notes that Sir Adya and Z'ymira aren't supposed to interact in the narrative, yet are doing so in this version, just as Rukiya wanted them to.
- Papa Wolf: Whether he's being himself or King Ridley, M'Benga will not let Queen Neve anywhere near his daughter.
- Playing Against Type: In-Universe, as several of the officers go through radical personality changes upon being turned into fairy-tale characters.
- The stalwart and courageous Pike becomes a whiny coward who easily switches sides.
- Action Girl La'an becomes a singing, overly dramatic Princess Classic in a Pimped-Out Dress, complete with Girly Skirt Twirl.
- Humble and kind-hearted Uhura becomes the evil queen.
- The logical, scientific, and honest Spock becomes a duplicitous wizard.
- The laid-back, wisecracking Ortegas becomes a fierce Blood Knight. She also hates Pike's character, as opposed to the easygoing relationship the two normally have.
- While he is able to maintain his own personality, M'Benga is a soft-spoken physician placed into the role of a commanding king.
- Hemmer was able to retain his personality too, but the grumpy natured engineer finds himself having fun using science to emulate magical powers.
- Precious Puppy: Wherever she goes, La'an carries around and dotes on a brown-furred Cavapoo note wearing a gown that matches Thalia's own.
- Psychic Block Defense: Hemmer is able to block the nebula entity from affecting his mind, allowing him to retain his sense of self while everyone else is brainwashed into following the story.
- The Quisling: Rauth defects to Queen Neve to save his own skin.Queen Neve: Kneel before me!
Rauth: Yes, of course! - Reality Warper: The nebula entity is able to superficially alter the Enterprise to fit the story.
- Sadistic Choice: The nebula entity is able to keep Rukiya alive, but only in proximity to it. If M'Benga wants her to live, she has to stay.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Probably the most extreme character transformation is La'an, who is normally sour faced with a tight military hairstyle and wearing a standard uniform, becoming princess Thalia with appropriate make-up and hairstyling along with an extravagant dress that combines enormous plumage with an Impossibly-Low Neckline. Although moreso for her much larger personality M'Benga is not sure how to process the "new" La'an.
- Ships That Pass in the Night: Used in-universe as a plot point, as M'Benga's realisation of what is really happening depends on the fact that Rukiya was shipping Adya/Z'ymira, two characters who never met face to face in the novel.
- Shout-Out:
- The entire episode is an homage to fandom, from the Live-Action Role-Play forced on the characters to Rukiya's Fix Fic which allows two characters to interact. There's even an acknowledgement of Slash Fic, which is appropriate for Star Trek given that the original characters to be linked by that suggestive slash mark were Kirk and Spock.
- When trapped in a prison with steel bars, Hemmer improvises a precision laser tool to cut through the bars. It's difficult not to see the similarities with the Sonic Screwdriver from Doctor Who.
- Technicolor Science: Dr. M’Benga’s efforts to synthesize a cure for his daughter’s condition involve mixing something into a flask containing red liquid. Test tubes filled with blue liquid are also visible at his workstation.
- Tempting Fate: Lampshaded by Spock when Pike says the calm of surveying a nebula is a nice change of pace from space battles, noting that Pike has previously told him about the superstition of calling attention to good things. Sure enough, the warp drive fails soon after.Spock: Perhaps you did, indeed, "jinx" it.
- That's an Order!: Una orders M'Benga to get some rest when he won't take it as a suggestion.
- Trap Is the Only Option: M'Benga knows Pollux is leading him into a trap, but follows anyway because he intends to be Captured on Purpose.
- Trrrilling Rrrs: Hemmer gets in on this when he plays the part of Castor.
- Weaponized Teleportation: Hemmer borrows a communicator from sickbay and ties it into the transporters, which he then uses to beam Queen Neve and her party into one of the cargo bays.
- What Would X Do?: When the internal scanners can't locate Rukiya, Hemmer instead hits on the idea that they should think like Rukiya. If she is now free to move about at will, where would she go? From this, M'Benga realizes she'll be in his quarters, the first place he promised to take her.
- Willing Channeler: Hemmer deliberately drops his psychic defenses so the nebula entity can communicate through him.
- World of Ham: Once the Enterprise has been converted into a fairy-tale kingdom, everyone pulls out the ham sandwiches... except M'Benga, who acts like the Only Sane Man. Even Hemmer, the only other one who's not affected, starts Chewing the Scenery when he decides to play along with his role.Hemmer: Once again, the magic of SCIENCE prevails!
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Rukiya joins the nebula entity, and what is mere seconds for M'Benga is years for her, returning as an adult to say goodbye to him.
- Your Days Are Numbered: While keeping Rukiya in transporter stasis has prolonged her life, it was never a long-term solution and her condition will kill her fairly soon. The knowledge that he simply can't fix her in the time he has left is what convinces M'Benga to let her join the nebula entity, because it's better than letting her die just to spend a little more time with her.
