History Recap / StarTrekLowerDecksS4E09TheInnerFight

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because the therapist assigned to her was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], who's incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Played with. Boimler quite sensibly suggests sending Mariner to Dr. Migleemo, but Freeman rejects that because their mission to pick up Locarno is happening right now and they don't have time to have Mariner work out her issues before they wind up in another situation where Mariner will endanger herself. Tendi offers the weather station mission as a distraction. Even then, Mariner wouldn't have likely taken the help considering Dr. Migleemo hasn't done much to help her traumas in the past, and she doesn't trust him as a therapist.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: After Mariner recklessly gets all the tremble lizards back behind the fence, Mariner fails to notice that she has a tremble lizard on her back and she accidentally brings it inside the station, which ends up pouncing on one of the outpost scientist.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Played with. Boimler quite sensibly suggests sending Mariner to Dr. Migleemo, but Freeman rejects that because their mission to pick up Locarno is happening right now and they don't have time to have Mariner work out her issues before they wind up in another situation where Mariner will endanger herself. Tendi offers the weather station mission as a distraction.

* WretchedHive: Subverted, in that Freeman describes the planet to her crew as one of these and is surprised when it turns out to be more civilized than she expects.

** At the bad guy bar, the information broker not only looks like the alien from "The Corbomite Maneuver", but it moves like a stiff, awkward, '60s era puppet. Captain Freeman assumes the alien ''is'' a puppet, but it's quickly revealed it's an actual alien once she picks it up and starts shaking it.

** Mudd's is presumably named after, and probably founded by, Harry Fenton Mudd. They serve jippers, the cocktail Mudd expressed a fondness for in "[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryShortTreksE04TheEscapeArtist The Escape Artist]]".

** Mudd's is presumably named after, and probably founded by, Harry Fenton Mudd. They serve jippers, the cocktail Mudd expressed a fondness for in "Series/StarTrekShortTreks''.

* EnemyMine: Klingons, Romulans, Orions, Ferengi, and Cardassians don't get along at the best of times, but they do form factions while trying to survive on the planet. Mariner manages to convince them to all work together to escape.

* {{Homage}}: Captain Freeman and her party's whole adventure is a loving homage to ''Star Trek'''s arch-rival franchise ''Franchise/StarWars'' with a desert planet with a bad guy bar, scoundrels aplenty, and bounty hunters with very distinct helmets.

** Freeman meets an InformationBroker that looks the same as Balok's disguise in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E10TheCorbomiteManeuver The Corbomite Maneuver]]". She voices suspicious that [[LampshadeHanging he's a puppet]] from his [[MarionetteMotion stilted mannerisms]] and throttles him, learning he's actually a real person that just so happens to have a puppet-like appearance.

* MythologyGag: While this episode is a StealthSequel to ''TNG'''s "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty The First Duty]]", its title harkens back to the same series' well-regarded "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]", which took place six episodes later in the same (fifth) season.

* InsigniaRipOffRitual: Mariner angrily pulls off and throws away her Lieutenant Junior Grade rank pip during her rant to Ma'ah about wanting to stay an ensign.

* CrossReferencedTitles: The title is a reference to ''TNG'''s "The Inner Light".
* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Since both Tom Paris and Nick Locarno were played by Creator/RobertDuncanMcNeill in live action with his natural appearance, Tom Paris was previously portrayed as he looked throughout ''Voyager'', while Locarno has some added grey hairs, a scar over his eyebrow and a [[PermaStubble moderate beard]].

** On a minor note, the away mission designed to distract Mariner from the Cerritos locating Nick Locarno happens to be where the crews of the missing ships have been gathered. To be fair, Tendi mentions that the satellite had stopped transmitting data.

** On a minor note, the away mission designed to distract Mariner from the Cerritos locating Nick Locarno happens to be where the crews of the missing ships have been gathered.

** Mariner's issues stem from the death of Ensign Sito, which occurred in the appropriately-titled TNG episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E14LowerDecks Lower Decks]]".

* CrossReferencedTitles: The title is a reference to TNG's "The Inner Light".

* MythologyGag: While this episode is a StealthSequel to TNG's "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty The First Duty]]", its title harkens back to the same series' well-regarded "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]", which took place six episodes later in the same (fifth) season.

* StealthSequel: To TNG's "The First Duty." It's not only revealed that Mariner was friends with Ensign Sito, but that ''Nick Locarno'' is the mastermind of the abductions all season.

* AnnoyingArrows: The glass rain is treated as this: a large volley of sharp projectiles that should be avoided, but the ones that actually hit anyone are just pulled out with no issue.

** They mention the battle with the Pakleds near the end of season two in "wej Duj" and T'Lyn brings up that she was at that battle too. Not acknowledged is that Ma'ah was ''also'' at that battle in that episode, and this is the first time the three "crews" of that episode meet.

* AsYouKnow: For a cast that knows a lot about Starfleet antics, the Beta Shifters minus Mariner have no clue as to who Locarno is and have to be filled in by Ransom.