Awesome / Star Trek: Lower Decks

"Cerritos strong!"

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

General

• In the title sequence, a dozen Romulan warbirds seem to be holding their own pretty well against a half-dozen Borg Cubes.
  • In the second season, the Klingons have joined the fight and the Romulans are also fending off the Pakleds.
  • In the third season, a Crystalline Entity has joined the fight. It one-shots a Cube.
  • In the fourth season, the Whale Probe is now present at the battle, though it doesn't do much, and the Breen have joined the fighting.
• When T'Lyn was introduced in "wej Duj", there was no plans for her character beyond that episode. Due to overwhelmingly positive fan response to her character, it was decided to add her to the main cast of the series. After making her debut as a member of the crew in the final episode of season 3, T'Lyn became a full member of the main cast as of season 4.

Season 1

"Second Contact"

• Commander Ransom succumbs to the Hate Plague and begins spewing black bile and biting crewmates, quickly causing the lounge to break out in chaos and interrupting Rutherford and Barnes's date. The two ensigns take this in stride, working together to escape the lounge and spacewalk across the hull of the ship to regroup with the rest of the crew.
• When Doctor T'Ana realizes that the alien slime Boimler is covered in can cure the Hate Plague, the crew rallies around him (well, around the slime), fighting off the infected horde and quickly making their way to sickbay, with Captain Freeman in the lead, Ensign Mariner as rearguard, and Lieutenant Shaxs carrying Boimler like a bag of laundry.
  • Not to mention Captain Freeman is fighting off the infection by sheer willpower, AND they somehow made a pretty good base in the transporter room.
• And speaking of Shaxs, he curb-stomps the hell out of zombified crew members left and right and suffers nothing worse than a ripped shirt.

"Envoys"

• An Energy Being enters the ship and demands that Mariner and Tendi supplicate themselves. Mariner simply grabs hold of him and starts stuffing him into a storage pod. She quickly has him begging for mercy.
• Mariner gets into a fistfight with K'orin, a Klingon general of great renown, and apparently wins.
• Mariner casually mentions that she did some grey ops with K'orin back in the day. Boimler asks when that was because they're about the same age.
• Mariner only requires a little exertion to resolve or escape the various messes that Boimler gets into over their day-long search for K'orin, proving that her confident attitude is well-earned.
• Rutherford defeats a small army of Borg drones in an Unwinnable Training Simulation designed to teach security officers the meaning of defeat.

"Temporal Edict"

• Boimler is the only officer who can deal with Captain Freeman's unreasonable new schedule, not only being the only person able to complete his duties on time, but actually finish them ahead of schedule. He later, in less than three seconds, disables three armed combatants, first by disabling the leader who was the most immediate threat, then dropping into a crouch to steady his aim and make him a smaller target before stunning the other two before they can react. He manages to instantly resolve a combat situation with the same efficiency and adherence to proper protocol that he does everything else and on top of all that he also convinces Captain Freeman to restore buffer time, despite how much he loves the strict schedule because he recognizes that the ship works more efficiently with buffer time.
• During his Trial by Combat, Ransom shows no fear while confronting an opponent who's several times bigger than he is and who's armed with a giant club. He eschews the crystal battle blade in favour of his fists; at first he appears to be a Fearless Fool, but Ransom eventually defeats the Gelrakian champion.
  • Even better, Ransom uses Kirk's method of clasping his hands together and getting some momentum going. And it actually works!
  • Also, the fact that he's fighting to protect his away team from belligerent aliens never compromises his Starfleet ideals.
    (while hitting Vindor) I respect your sovereignty!
  • And also when Ransom and Mariner fight who is going to kick Vindor's ass. It's a bit of an Oh, Crap! moment for Gelrakians.
• After being released from Captain Freeman's misguided multitasking edict, the crew easily mops up the Gelrakian boarding party.
• Ransom is the first senior officer seen to come out on top in a dispute with the rebellious Mariner. This process involves the two of them coming to a mutual understanding during a crisis, Ransom stabbing Mariner, and him reporting her for failing to roll down her sleeves.
  • Ransom concedes that Mariner might've stood a chance in trial by combat. But simple fact is he's still her commanding officer and he'd rather die than put one of his subordinates at unnecessary risk.
• Far in the future, eternal Butt-Monkey Miles O'Brien is actually revered as one of Starfleet's greatest heroes.
  • Additionally, one of the schoolkids is a Borg. That really says something about what Starfleet will go on to accomplish in the future.

"Moist Vessel"

• Mariner is actually really good at doing her horrible tasks in a fun way. She also accomplishes them all in a reasonable time frame.
• Tendi saves her and O'Connor's lives by using one of the exploding corals to destroy the wall of the room they're in before it completely fills up with water.
• Mariner and Captain Freeman show that they are a pretty unstoppable team when they can finally put aside their bickering by neutralizing the terraforming fluid in the Cerritos before saving the crew of the Merced by transporting them into the generation ship.
• O'Connor's willingness to die for Tendi is what allows him to finally ascend. Too bad it's actually an incredibly horrifying process that may be a Fate Worse than Death or karmatic punishment from some higher being for taking ascension so lightly.

"Cupid's Errant Arrow"

• Captain Freeman successfully negotiates the political problems of Mixtus III, which allows them to proceed with blowing up the moon, as well as successfully carries out the mission without anything going wrong. The two rich (and incredibly selfish) aliens on Mixtus II get screwed, though.
• Mariner and Barb both use the Starfleet hand-to-hand combat (aka "Trek-Fu") and go into a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.

"Terminal Provocations"

• Shaxs is desperate to avoid The Worf Effect, insisting they just blast the attacking Scavengers and be done with it. To her credit though, Captain Freeman exhausts every diplomatic option before resorting to violence, just like Starfleet should.
• Rutherford fighting off and killing Badgey in hand-to-hand combat, all so he could protect Tendi.
  • That moment right there served as a GREAT comparison in this ep, as while Fletcher goes to insane lengths to cover his own ass, to the point when his actions threaten the well-being of the ship, Rutherford does everything to save himself and Tendi. Basically Fletcher is willing to throw Mariner and Boimler under the bus so he wouldn’t have to face the music for his fuck-up in creating an evil AI, while Rutherford finally confesses his shortcomings, is willing to risk his life to protect his friend, and even says sorry to his evil AI before ending it.
• Mariner and Boimler would be well within their rights to report Fletcher for his incompetence and back-stabbing, but they mutually engage in some Xanatos Speed Chess to make sure he gets what he deserves; credit him for saving the ship, get him promoted to Lieutenant, then transfer him to the U.S.S. Titan (a ship with much higher standards than the Cerritos)... where he gets fired within days for his incompetence.

"Much Ado About Boimler"

• Rutherford saving Mariner, Ramsey, and the crew of the Rubideoux from the unnamed entity with his new transporter method.
  Rutherford: But it made Boimler weird!
  Mariner: BOIM US OUT OF HERE!!!
  • In the end, he saves them all from being crushed or being ejected into the vacuum of space, even if they're still slightly out-of-sync like Boimler was.
  Ramsey: Why are we still phasing?
  Rutherford: Eh, it's just cosmetic.
  Ramsey: (delighted) IT'S JUST COSMETIC!
  (Everyone cheers)

"Veritas"

• Tendi is unwittingly stuck on a black ops mission to steal something from a Romulan facility, where she ends up kicking the asses of four Romulan guards (and the person whose place she took was only there to beam everyone out).
• Boimler makes up for his earlier ineptitude with an incredible Patrick Stewart Speech, which turns into a "The Reason You Suck" Speech aimed at the alien "courtroom":
  Clar: I need you to tell me that your senior officers are infallible heroes!
  Boimler: Well, they're not, and that's okay. We all joined Starfleet to dive first into the unknown. We're explorers, of course we don't always know what's going on. Did Picard know about the Borg? Did Kirk know about that giant Spock on Phylos? Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time? That whole thing. You clearly want us to say that the captain and her crew messed up, but we simply don't have the full story, and that's the truth! Whatever they did, I guarantee you it was all for good. You have shown no evidence that they're guilty of a crime, in fact, I find you guilty of trying to take them down with this sham of a trial! DRUMHEAD!" *drops horn*
• Mariner's frustration over the day of inexplicable weirdness causes her to mouth off to Q and get away with it.

"Crisis Point"

• The whole episode serving as a pitch perfect tribute to Star Trek movies. In order, we got…
  • Unnecessarily long glory shots of the ship.
  • Lens flare.
  • A hammy, over-the-top villain.
  • Crashing the ship.
  • Fist fights to the death.
  • Heroic sacrifices.
  • The signed credits from the cast members at the end.
• It may be holographic and therefore not real, but Shaxs wields a giant handheld phaser cannon that looks like it could punch a hole in a starship.
• The holographic Mariner comes to her mother's rescue and makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save everyone else on the ship, before deliberately taking a beating to get the villain attacking the ship blown up with her. And keep in mind the holonovel was specifically designed to mean this is completely what the real Mariner would do. It's also a very classy death for the typically self-interested and careless Mariner.

"No Small Parts"

• After decades of the Exocomps being a notorious case of What Happened to the Mouse?, we finally see that the Federation eventually recognized them as a sentient race, they're being accepted into Starfleet, and have even advanced their tech to be able to verbally communicate.
• Freeman instantly determines what destroyed the Solvang and orders the power shut down rather than repeating Dayton's fatal mistake. She then gives Mariner authorization to go full Military Maverick to get them out of this.
• The Pakleds have, since their appearance in TNG, become far more powerful and dangerous, capable of taking out Federation starships in one-on-one combat. The fact that they appear to be using Borg tractor beams in combat implies that somehow, they were able to find a Borg ship and scavenge tech from them, and understand it well enough to be able to turn the tech of multiple races into basically Plug and Play components.
• When Freeman asks how they're going to repel the Pakled boarders, Mariner starts kicking and punching open what turns out to be numerous stashes of contraband she's squirreled away behind various wall and ceiling panels, giving the bridge crew a veritable armory of melee weaponry.
  • Even with the weapon options, Shaxs and Ransom decide to go into the fight barehanded, and prove to be the best fighters of the group even against armored enemies that outsize them, easily defeating the Pakleds and taking little if any injuries themselves.
  • Special mention goes to Shaxs for headbutting an armored Pakled so hard that the Pakled must have landed in the Mirror Universe with Shaxs looking no worse for wear afterwards.
  • Even Boimler, armed with a sword that's puny compared to the much larger weapons, is holding his own.
• Shaxs takes on a Suicide Mission with murderous glee, flying a shuttle into the Pakled ship and kicking every ass that tries to stop him. When Badgey tries to blow up the ship to kill Rutherford, Shaxs tears off Rutherford's implant, puts him in the shuttle, and then pushes it out of the hull by hand. His last scene before the explosion is him laughing maniacally while still manhandling the Pakleds.
  Shaxs: THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!
• Just when it seems like the Cerritos is about to get torn apart by the three Pakled ships, the U.S.S. Titan shows up to do serious damage to them, while also revealing a just as awesome cameo from Riker and Troi, who were both (chronologically) last seen in Nemesis transferring to that ship. And all the while, the TNG theme is playing. Riker, in general, seems to be solidifying himself as the last-minute cavalry to help save the day in modern Trek (after his second appearance in Picard).
  • It's also clear that after severely underestimating the Pakleds once, Riker learned his lesson and immediately fights them as the serious threat they are.
  • It was heavily implied in TNG that Riker never captained his own ship because he wanted to captain the Enterprise, not because of lack of skill or confidence. Longtime fans were punching the air because Captain Riker absolutely kills it when he finally takes his own command.

Season 2

"Strange Energies"

• That whole cold open with Mariner's "cardio" holoprogram is genius. We have her fighting her way through a Cardassian prison, stealing a (Miranda-class) starship, and blasting her way to freedom — primarily as a backdrop for the obligatory season-premiere exposition bringing the audience up to speed — while also making some excellent goofs about Star Trek tropes.
  Holo-Boimler: Oh my god, Mariner, you gotta get me out of here! They keep showing me lights!
• The space battle in the opening credits has expanded: in addition to the Romulan warbirds and Borg cubes, there are now Pakled ships attacking the Romulans, and Klingon birds-of-prey strafing the Borg. When the Klingons and Romulans are working together, you know the situation has escalated to a frightening degree.
• When the Cerritos' torpedoes do little to stop the "strange-energy" empowered Ransom, Mariner repeatedly "applies concentrated force to his neutral zone", and Dr. T'ana then doubles down by driving up in a forklift and dropping a boulder on his chest. It actually works.

"Kayshon, His Eyes Open"

• Boimler's speech in this ep:
  Boimler: I didn't join Starfleet to get in phaser fights. I signed up to explore, to be out in space making new discoveries and peaceful diplomatic solutions. That's boldly going. And you know what? I'd love to be in a string quartet. I love that when Riker was on the Enterprise, he was out there jammin' on the trombone and catching love disease and acting in plays and meeting his identical transporter clone Thomas. That stuff may not seem as cool as what you guys do, but it's Starfleet all the way.
• With the Pakleds having revealed themselves to be a credible threat, Riker is taking point in the war against them, and he is kicking ass.
  • Boimler proves more than capable at keeping up with Captain Riker and his crew during pitched crises, even despite the fact that he is openly freaking out.
  • And as far as dealing with the Pakleds, Riker's doing more than firing phasers and photon torpedoes. He and his officers are using actual strategy— analyzing the Pakleds' attacks to determine what they're after, and successfully anticipating their next move. Further proof that Riker deserves his command.
• Tendi and Rutherford are quickly able to save the day with their science and engineering skills, once placed in charge of the situation.

"Mugato, Gumato"

• This episode has trafficked in old tropes, but it also twisted them in a way to teach the characters and audience something new about themselves and the franchise. Or, as Boimler and Rutherford would say, “If we’re both unhappy, it means we’ve reached… a compromise!”
  • Boimler and Rutherford save the day with a well-thought-out power point (yes, really).
  • The Ferengi in this episode are "Last Outpost"-style throwback Ferengi, playing to all of the worst stereotypes they picked up in TNG. Boimler and Rutherford's plan plays specifically to their cultural norms to convince them that there is a solution that both these Ferengi and the Federation would be happy with.
• Tendi going above and beyond in her duties when she purposely breaks her arm while chasing T'Ana through the Jefferies tubes, then scans her when she comes back to help.
• Freeman discovers that she's been conned out of a shuttle and her collection of keepsakes, and rather than be left looking the fool, she tracks down the conman in the space of a single scene change, gets all of her stuff back, and puts him to work helping the Ferengi with their new wildlife refuge.

"An Embarrassment of Dooplers"

• A blink and you miss it moment, but one of the captains at the party is Shelby, the Starfleet officer who was working on Borg combat techniques in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter "The Best of Both Worlds". It seems her work in protecting the Federation from the Borg paid off.
• Freeman continues her awesome streak as she gets back at the stuffy partygoers by transporting the Doopler ambassador into the party and using his duplication ability to squish them all.
  • Right before that, Freeman gives a speech about why her ship is just as good as any other ship in Starfleet.
  • And before all this, she shows her awesomeness by no longer placating the whiny, insecure Dooplers and discovers that anger is the key to them rejoining into a single being.
• At the bar, both Boimler and Mariner find out that, in the past, another couple of Starfleet officers were bounced from getting into the party, and - just like they did - instead went to hang out at the bar together and celebrate their friendship. They even carved their names into the exact place they were sitting. Their names? Oh, just a couple of nobodies named Kirk and Spock...

"The Spy Humongous"

• Boimler found a good mix of hanging out with the new people and trying to achieve his goals without actually betraying his friends. It was nice character growth of Boimler having learned his lesson and choosing his friends over Casey’s advice especially at the cost of his dignity (a big sacrifice for someone serious like Brad).
  • Boimler's Kirk Summation against Casey was pretty good too.
    Casey: Sorry, you can't come with us. That move you pulled in the mess hall proves you don't belong in the Redshirts.
    Boimler: Hey, my friend was in trouble.
    Casey: You made a fool of yourself to make a bug laugh. It was shameful.
    Boimler: Alright, you know what's shameful? Trying to build a persona by copying other captains. You think Riker did that? You guys are wasting your time on this Redshirt stuff. Be your own captains!
  • Despite Casey attempting a Shut Up, Kirk!, Boimler stands his ground... and to the credit of everyone but Casey, they take what Boimler said to heart as they realize that their goals are less than efficacious, and that they're in Starfleet to help people, not further their own ambitions.
  • This is immediately followed up by a passing Ransom dismissively snubbing Casey's self-nomination for the role of Acting Captain, while sincerely praising Boimler for his initiative and ingenuity in saving Tendi.
• On Pakled Planet, Freeman and Shax are being menaced by Pakleds when Rumdar returns. Rumdar gloats about tricking them without revealing information. Freeman agrees, but says that she can’t tell how impressed she should be without knowing what information he retained. Rumdar reveals that he kept the Pakled’s plan secret: a plot to smuggle a Vitruvian bomb onto Earth. While the peace talks have utterly failed, Freeman has nevertheless wrangled some integral information out of their opponents, and better yet, she did it her way, even allowing the Pakleds to believe they had “beaten” Captain “Janeway.”
• It took a couple of false starts, but Boimler managed to deliver an honest-to-god fantastic Rousing Speech.

"Where Pleasant Fountains Lie"

• Boimler really shows his thinking chops this episode, outwitting AGIMUS and leaving Mariner in the dark about his plan. At the same time, it shows that Boimler, when pushed, can and will break and fight back.

"I, Excretus"

• Boimler is able to get a perfect score in a Borg encounter drill, which involves fighting his way off a Cube, saving numerous infant and adult Borg, beating the Queen at chess to teach her empathy, and blowing up the entire Cube on his way out. Which is doubly impressive because the computer was set to deliberately fail the crew.
  • Keep in mind, Boimler managed to do so well on that test that even after getting captured and assimilated by the Borg when Captain Freeman orders him to not finish the drill in order to stall for time, his score didn't drop to zero. That's right, Boimler nearly aced a rigged, impossible test so hard that even complete, catastrophic failure couldn't drop his score to zero. Even then, the failure was only brought about because he received an order to not complete the drill just as he was about to finish with a perfect score.
  • The fact they got Alice Krige to reprise her role as the Borg Queen.
• When Freeman and Mariner realize that Shari (who purposely rigged the tests to make them fail) has no actual crisis experience, they drag her onto the bridge and proceed to fly the ship straight into a Crystalline entity and then through a black hole's accretion disk— first, to terrorize her into passing the ship, and second, to demonstrate that her remixed simulations of old Starfleet adventures aren't even a valid system anyway, because the Cerritos crew (despite being "just" a California-class ship) can handle themselves just fine in real situations. And third, to get proof that Shari has no on-the-job experience and throw it back in her face. All of which goes off without a hitch.
  • The reveal that there are multiple Crystalline entities flying around the galaxy, and Starfleet's gotten so used to dealing with them that even the Cerritos can escape one unharmed. They essentially fly in, tickle its nose, and warp out.

"wej Duj"

• The Cerritos fares better than the last time they battled the Pakleds, taking damage but still fighting back instead of being utterly crippled. Plus, most of the crew was on break during this and away from their stations, not expecting a battle. But as soon as they go to Red Alert, they all get to work with no signs of issue. Then when the Sh'vhal arrives, the two ships make quick work of the Pakleds and force them to retreat.
  • The sight of crew members rushing to their stations in whatever leisure clothing they were wearing at the time seems a little silly, but is actually 100% realistic. When Red Alert sounds, changing clothes uses time you may not have.
  • The arrival of Sh'vhal, placing herself between Cerritos and the Pakled, is heralded by a Triumphant Reprise of Holo!Mariner's theme from "Crisis Point". Soon after, when Ma'ah orders the Klingons to withdraw, the two ships square off against the outnumbered Pakleds while a sample of James Horner's Wrath of Khan score plays.
• Ma'ah, the Klingon lower decker that was just promoted to commander, turns on his captain for aiding the Pakleds and using them as pawns to fight a battle for him, seeing no honor in it, and not seeking the approval of the High Council when doing so. This leads to a fight to the death between them, which the younger Klingon wins with a little help from the captain's former pet targ turning on him. Once he becomes the new captain, he orders a retreat, stating that this is not their battle and that they need to inform the High Council of what happened.
• T'Lyn, the Vulcan lower decker, saves the day through the impulses and instincts that her commander had called un-Vulcan. Her side project improves the Sh'vhal's shields and turns the tide of the Pakled fight.
  • Throughout the episode, T'Lyn doesn't back down from her instincts, which puts her at odds with her teammates. She can't stay on her ship, so her captain decides to Take a Third Option; re-assign her to a Starfleet vessel, where thinking outside the box is more welcomed.

"First First Contact"

• The return of Captain Sonya Gomez. She's not bumping into walls anymore.
• Rutherford's plan to save the Archimedes that's Crazy Enough to Work: remove the plating on the outer hull, cut the power, and fly manually running on nothing but inertia and RCS thrusters whilst being manually piloted by a first-officer who's basically eyeballing it. It takes every single member of the crew working over twelve hours to do it, but they do it.
• Mostly offscreen, but the crew of the Archimedes exhausting every option (and themselves) trying to get their ship back online. They're thwarted by the shape the ship is in (EMP destroys every active electronic device it hits, barring specific hardening against it), but they get huge points for trying.
• Ransom manually piloting the Cerritos through a dense debris field, having only two crewmembers calling out the dangers ahead, and succeeding even when some debris hits him in the visor and distorts his vision.
• Boimler swimming through the bowels of the ship to undo the mechanism on the last panel, almost drowning in the process.
• Billups almost casually saving an ensign from floating off into space: Electrical feedback from a faulty control panel undoes the magnets on her boots when they're outside removing pieces of the hull from the ship. With one swift motion, Billups grabs her foot, helps her re-attach to the ship, and gets back to investigating the problem.
• The Cerritos catching the Archimedes with their tractor beam mere minutes before colliding with the planet.
• The fact that Jennifer purposely went out in a meteor storm to save Mariner as she was adrift in space certainly counts.

Season 3

"Grounded"

• An entirely offscreen one took place in which Captain Morgan Bateson (from TNG's "Cause and Effect") led a black ops mission to expose the truth about what happened to Pakled Planet, and Tuvok, now a full commander, was the one who managed to interrogate the information out of a Pakled.
• As much of a Tear Jerker as it is, Captain Freeman finally putting her foot down on Mariner’s antics was pretty good to see. She not only chews Beckett out for her impulsive behavior, she assigns her final oversight to Ransom, who’s more than happy to keep a closer eye on Mariner. She really shows that, as much as she loves her daughter, she is not going to put up with her reckless decisions any longer.

"Mining the Mind's Mines"

• Tendi struggles with her Bridge Crew training, failing to get anyone's attention about the rock she scanned due to everyone arguing with each other. But after she speaks to Doctor T'Ana about fearing she might not be cut out for it, T'Ana gives her some good advice that boosts her confidence, and when Tendi returns to the room to see everyone still yelling over each other, she braves herself and delivers a Big "SHUT UP!" before smashing the rock, revealing the device hidden inside.
  Tendi: Look at the damn rock!

”Reflections”

• Boimler reminds us to Beware the Nice Ones when, after spending the episode trying to stop Mariner from attacking the other booths with their heckling, he flips out and attacks their booths once his rank pip is stolen and stepped on, showing that even a Nice Guy like him has a limit. This also indirectly helps get some people to join up for Starfleet, with one person commenting that if being in Starfleet makes you as confident as Boimler, then he wants in.
  • Boimler's entire rant, pointing out how Starfleet just wants to explore and discover new things but the smug civilians ALWAYS go poking around where they don't belong, find weapons of terror or new threats, and need help because they can't even defend themselves. Most of the people heckling him are the exact same ones that in 6 months will be pleading for rescue due to their own stupidity.
• Rutherford's cunning when his past self takes over his body. He figures out that hitting the implant damages it in reality, so he does it repeatedly to give Tendi a signal that something is wrong and put security on his tail. When his past self reaches the captain's yacht anyway, Rutherford distracts him with an argument in the viewscreen long enough for Shaxs to sneak up and phaser him. He also wins the Battle in the Center of the Mind, not by building a flashy hotrod, but by giving himself a battle-tested and reliable ship with a crew made up of his friends, who keep the ship going while Past Rutherford has no one to help him once he gets in trouble on the racecourse.

"Hear All, Trust Nothing"

• Despite her reluctance to use the skills that she learned growing up, Tendi single-handedly disables a Karemma ship just yards from the Bajoran Wormhole.
  • This includes taking down two Karemma crewmembers unarmed and scaring a third so badly that he jumps off a literal bridge rather than fight her!
  • Given that the Karemma are from the Gamma Quadrant, Tendi has almost certainly never seen the inside of one of their ships before. Yet she manages to navigate and commandeer the vessel in almost no time flat.
• Boimler not getting the short end of the stick for once, as he doesn't get humiliated at all during his visit to DS9, and thanks to his skills at gaming, ends up racking up an insane amount of gold-pressed latinum at the dabo table, much to the horror of the pit boss; Boimler gladly exchanges it for a gift voucher (since, as he states to said pit boss, Starfleet doesn't use money), getting to walk away debt-free and with a ton of Quark's merchandise (though Quark's still probably taking a net loss given the value of the voucher).
• Mariner spends most of the episode trying to stay calm and polite in front of Jennifer's pretentious friends, afraid that if they don't like her then Jennifer might decide to breakup with her. But after Jennifer tells Mariner she likes her destructive and bossy side, and was looking forward to her tearing into her friends, Mariner takes charge of the situation and ends up stunning all of Jennifer's friends unconscious with her phaser while Jennifer cheers her on. Jennifer's friends are shown to all be scared of Mariner later.
• Mention must go to Freeman for managing to salvage negotiations she was assigned on flimsy grounds at the last minute. A few episodes later, Buenamigo admits that he was intentionally setting her up for failure and was disappointed to learn that she'd "stumbled through that fiasco".

"A Mathematically Perfect Redemption"

• Rawda might be the sensitive type, but that doesn't stop him from piloting one of his ancestors' ships into orbit and saving the Cerritos from the Drookmani's stolen fighter.
• Peanut Hamper's plan almost works. She'd have pulled it off perfectly if not for some of the Drookmani surviving the explosion and keeping a copy of her earlier call with them.

"Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus"

• Holo-Kayshon yells "TEMBA!" when shooting at Romulans. Since "Temba, his arms wide" means "gift giving" he's saying "TAKE THIS" while blasting them. Could also roughly translate as "Bring It!"
• The grav bike chase scene. Tendi's Matrix-style backflip over a gigantic explosion is particularly magnificent.
• Boimler, Mariner and Knick-Knack storming the freighter's bridge to take control of the ship away from the cultists. Just because it's hilarious doesn't mean they don't kick copious amounts of ass.
  • Knick-Knack hulks out, throwing off his robe and revealing himself to be absolutely massive before he starts smashing mooks. Mariner gleefully rolls with it while indulging in some Lampshade Hanging.
• Holo-Shaxs handles a gang of muggers in 1980's Australia with panache:
  Shaxs: (fearfully) Look, we don't want any —
  (headbutts a punk)
  Shaxs: — witnesses.
• Boimler eventually passes out from dehydration and winds up on a farm—the farm of one James T. Kirk. But when he looks inside the stables, it's not Kirk...it's Sulu. That's right. The Enterprise's helmsman returns for the first time in an official Trek production since 1996's Voyager, and the first time since Discovery launched that a TOS veteran has appeared in a new Trek production. Ohhhhh my, indeed.
• Oddly enough, the Holodeck. Despite stumbling in a few places when really put on the spot, it dealt remarkably well handling Boimler’s Off the Rails journey for meaning on a completely separate and wholly improvised narrative track from Tendi and Rutherford’s journey through the ACTUAL movie plot (certainly improvising better than most human narrators/GMs could manage on-the-fly). All in the same Holodeck room. And without any major problems cropping up. This is the Holodeck working at its finest level. Either that or Boimler really missed his calling as a holo-author.

"Trusted Sources"

• In a somewhat retroactive example, it's revealed that Picard's decision to invoke the Prime Directive and leave the Ornarans and Brekkians to their own devices ultimately turned out well for the Ornarans, as it allowed them to kick their felicium addiction and devote themselves to physical fitness, albeit after going through about 10-14 years of horrifying withdrawal.
• The new Texas-class U.S.S. Aledo makes an awesome Gunship Rescue, destroying the Breen interceptors attacking the Cerritos.

"The Stars at Night"

• The Cerritos ends up losing the Second Contact race because, on the second planet they stop at, Tendi picks up a potential scan of intelligent life and they have to pause to verify it. Turns out it's just a trick of the tricorder^note There was multiphasic energy in the dirt, which the tricorder registered as microbes. T'Ana later says this is a known issue in tricorders and a different scanner is the only way to be sure, but nobody amongst the crew regrets it. Even when their jobs are on the line, the Cerritos crew won't abandon their normal duties. What's more, this gives them the edge in the long run when Captain Freeman realizes that the Aledo didn't bother to do the same scan, meaning that it's not as perfect as they thought.
• The Cerritos‘ battle with the Aledo and its fellow Texas-class vessels. Shaxs FINALLY getting to eject a warp core is the central strategy in taking down the drone flotilla. AND IT WORKS, taking out two of three vastly superior Starfleet vessels and roughing up the Aledo itself something fierce, leading to:
  • The Cerritos is saved again after getting its ass kicked by the Badgey infested Aledo, but this time it’s saved by a fellow California-class ship. Or rather EVERY California-class ship, summoned by Mariner, and every single one of which Jumped at the Call to help out the Enterprise of the support class vessels.
    • What makes this moment even awesomer is that, when Mariner tells Freeman that she called all of them, you hear a beep, then a faster set of beeps, then a ridiculous amount of beeps as each ship drops out of warp.
  • The fleet battle itself was awesome as well, the two dozen Cali ships surrounding the Aledo in all three dimensions, giving no escape route for the Aledo, then raining hellfire on the drone ship until it exploded. While 1:1 the Cali-class ships don’t stand a chance, working as one, they killed it with a Death of a Thousand Cuts in one of the finest looking space battles in the entire franchise.
    • Another way to look at it: as it is pointed out several times on this page (or on this list), In-Universe the California class is treated as a bottom-of-the-barrel Redshirt Army, quickly built, cheap, more or less disposable ships that can be churned out in droves - relatively speaking, as much as those things can be said about a Star Trek ship class. From that point of view, two dozen of them charging a technologically superior foe at the same time can be considered Starfleet's equivalent of a Zerg Rush. And it. Is. Glorious.
  • While the Cerritos itself wasn't in a condition to participate due to having already gotten wrecked, it was in that condition due to taking on all three ships alone, leading them away as bait to get the Texas ships away from the starbase, going at a speed it couldn't handle to buy its crew time to figure out how to deal with the insane ships, and blowing up two of them by ejecting its own warp core, a serious Godzilla Threshold for Starfleet vessels, especially ejecting it while still at warp. The Cerritos definitely did its part.
  • Keep in mind the Cerritos, a ship considered to be the bottom of Starfleet's barrel, succeeded where a Sovereign-class failed, as the U.S.S. Van Citters was triple-teamed and disabled in a matter of seconds while the Cerritos managed to destroy two of the Texas-class ships in a single glorious shot by throwing their warp core at them while at maximum warp.
  • Also keep in mind that in season 1, the Cali-class was repeatedly given the Redshirt Army treatment, contributing to the idea that they were a joke. This time, they get their chance to show how capable they are.
  • The fact that they even followed up on Shaxs' idea is thanks to an awesome display of "Bold" Boimler's Character Development — when everyone ignores Shaxs and keeps spit-balling ideas, Boimler finally stands up and shouts "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO SHAXS!", showing that he's no longer the timid, protocol-obsessed perfectionist from the premiere.
• Special kudos to everyone in the Lower Decks production. Thanks to three seasons of world building, suddenly seeing the entire California fleet swooping in and saving one of their own was as emotionally moving and exciting as if it had been the Enterprise itself coming in to clench the victory. Everything from the main threat, to the heroes, to the cameos were entirely original to the show, not needing any legacy cameos to ramp up the fan service or appeal. Lower Decks is its own world now.
  • This is reinforced by the Theme Music Power-Up. When the Titan saved the Cerritos in "No Small Parts", the TNG theme played for Captain Riker. This time, it's the Lower Decks theme playing for the entire Cali- class.
• After behaving as her worst self in "Trusted Sources", Captain Freeman shows that she's still worth her rank by using her ship as bait for the Texas-class ships and luring them away from their Curb-Stomp Battle with the Starbase and the stronger ship that answered the distress call. The Cerritos seemingly has no chance, but Freeman still puts her ship at stake without hesitation in order to save civilian lives.
  • Summed up:
    [after having baited the Aledo]
    Boimler: They're coming pretty fast, Captain.
    Freeman: Good, then they're not killing any more civilians. Maximum warp Me!
    [the Cerritos turns and high-tails it out, with Aledo giving chase]

Season 4

"Twovix"

• The Cerritos is given a very special honor...escorting Voyager to Earth!
• When he's cornered by Dr. Chaotica on the bridge, Boimler is struck by Genre Savvy inspiration and starts boldly talking back to him—Chaotica isn't a No Nonsense Villain, he's a ham-and-cheese B-movie serial bad guy who can easily be Caught Monologuing. It finishes up with Boimler claiming to be the son of Captain Proton, which gives Chaotica a major Oh, Crap! moment (and Rutherford enough time to fill the Voyager's systems with infected cheese.)
  • In fact, once Mariner talks some sense into him, Boimler shows how he is shaping up to be a pretty good command division officer: first, he casually disobeys Ransom because, having correctly ascertained the situation, he decides he needs an engineer (a decision Ransom later validates as the right one) and he doesn't have the time to free more than one person, so he frees Rutherford. Then asks Rutherford for a solution to crash Voyager's systems and when Rutherford tells him he has an idea, Boimler doesn't argue or fuss about it, just goes with it, demonstrating another tenet of command: trust your team - you don't need to fully understand what your subordinates do, you only need to recognize their expertise and trust that they know what they're doing. And to put the capper on, the above-mentioned moment with Dr. Chaotica: sizing up the situation (you've just been caught by a B-movie villain), determining what you need (buy time for Rutherford) and coming up with a way to get there (distract him with ham), all in a split-second and then having the balls to go through with it. ^note For comparison, three seasons ago Boimler would've failed at step one and freed Ransom (order of a superior officer), possibly dooming the whole ship - that is if he could work up the nerve to do anything at all on his own.
• Boimler, Tendi, and T'Lyn all get promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade...and so does Mariner. She tries to protest, as per usual, but Ransom is having none of it. He's gone from being one of biggest antagonists to being one of her biggest supporters.

"I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee"

• It turns out Rutherford has been turning down promotions this entire time because he wanted to stay with Beta shift. The stuff he's accomplished over the course of the show (stopping the Pakled attack, removing the hull to save the Archimedes) more than qualified him for one. Tendi asks Billups on his behalf, and Billups immediately agrees.
• One for Commander Ransom for being the first officer to overtly identify one of Mariner's core issues holding her back. Once they start speaking honestly, Jack affirms that he's not going to rise to her bait and allow her to self-sabotage while he has any say in the matter. More than anyone, he's managed to actually get through to Mariner on this issue, to the point it finally seems to be sinking in for her.

"In the Cradle of Vexilon"

• In contrast to her usual Pointy-Haired Boss tendencies, Captain Freeman does pretty well when she takes charge of updating Vexilon, going through typical debug steps and calling in Billups when she gets in over her head. Really, things only go wrong because Vexilon hasn't had his OS updated in six million years and nobody could've predicted what would happen.
• While he should have been utilizing his team, Boimler manages to complete his multi-person task nearly entirely by himself, only needing the others when he suddenly has to undo it all again on short notice.
  • His experience in the rigged holopod two seasons earlier likely had something to do with that.
• When Rutherford is trying to undo the pranks in Lt. Dirk's quarters, he gets sucked into the Wadi game from "Move Along Home". Since he's short on time, he just rushes through all of the challenges in under a minute. One of the weirdest traps from one of the worst Deep Space Nine episodes, and he basically speed-runs it.
  • Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you remember that the Deep Space Nine crew only got held up because the rules were never explained to them. It stands to reason that the Federation is more familiar with Wadi games now, hence why Rutherford was able to complete it so quickly.
• Lt. T'Lyn gets one herself for her pep talk to Boimler that gets him to finally realize the importance of utilizing his team. It's a very Vulcan style version of Kirk's "Risk is our business" sentiment from TOS. Crosses over into Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, especially when just two episodes ago she was more interested in proving herself to go back to a Vulcan ship but now she seems to be finding her place among the crew of the Cerritos.

”Something Borrowed, Something Green”

• Provisional Lt. JG T’Lyn is a science officer. We’ve seen she’s dedicated to exploring her field, and in this episode she’s given the opportunity of a life time from an anthropological perspective- get to go and participate in a wedding in a culture that is not frequently observed by outsiders. So we see her diligently taking notes the whole trip. But when Tendi shows that she really isn’t comfortable with the research going back to the Vulcan High Counsel? She literally throws her research out a window- she started out the season wanting nothing more than to prove she was a good Vulcan who could go back to her old ship, and that research could have done that, but Tendi’s friendship has become more important. Of course she plays it off by saying it’s about the ethics of publishing without a study’s subject’s consent, which is obviously part of it, but it’s clearly not all of it.

"Empathalogical Fallacies"

• This episode shows just how thin the ice Picard might have been standing on — had Deanna's mother not been so self-absorbed — when three women the same age as her are able to commandeer the Cerritos.
• Capt. Freeman is able to withstand the unintentional mind-control long enough to outwit three Betazoid spies who took over her ship. Along with Mariner, both are able to realize what was happening even as they were being affected and maintain enough presence of mind to try to address the problem.
• We get a rare moment in the franchise where Security gets to subdue a threat instead of suffering The Worf Effect. As soon as Red Alert goes off, Shaxs and the rest of Security spring into action. After subduing a feral Doctor T'Ana, they arrive on the bridge and easily overpower the three Betazoid spies. One of them even shows she is able to No-Sell their mind-reading thanks to slam poetry.

"Parth Ferengi's Heart Place"

• Credit where it's due, the Ferengi captain is the only one in these cold opens to immediately sense treachery and have his mutinous officer thrown out the airlock. Too bad he wasn't quicker on the draw.
• The return of Grand Nagus Rom and Leeta - or, to call her by her title, First Clerk Leeta, as she’s not just his wife, but a member of his administration! Turns out, during his time as Grand Nagus, Rom has learned to play up his goofy reputation while Leeta handles the business aspects, making them a Battle Couple at contract negotiations.
  • This is especially true because the last we heard from his predecessor, Zek, he wasn't completely convinced he'd picked the right brother as his successor—but he was right with his initial assessment. A new Ferenginar did need a new kind of Nagus, and Rom has steered them to a more moral and more profitable (in the long term) future. Extra points to Leeta, who spent years being treated by his brother as nothing more than a pretty bauble only to be shown to haggle as well as any Ferengi.
• Freeman once again shows herself to be an expert negotiator when dealing with Rom and Leeta as well. While Vassery underestimates them and ends up bending over backwards trying to please them, Freeman finally gets them to agree to sign by saying she wants to end Vassery's embarrassment and sweetens it with a massive signing bonus that would seemingly put the Federation in debt to the Ferengi forever. The only provision is that before they get any of these bonuses, they must recruit one planet themselves, which Rom states will be easy due to how many planets are in debt with them. However, Freeman says afterwards the planet they must recruit is chosen for them and has them Read the Fine Print when it is revealed to be the Klingon home world, which is acknowledged as an Impossible Task. Freeman successfully swindling like a Ferengi (using the Eighth Rule of Acquisition) impresses Rom due to respecting their culture, and he agrees to sign the original papers.

"A Few Badgeys More"

• During the entire AGIMUS plot, both Tendi and Boimler are utterly unconcerned with the supercomputer's antics. It's made pretty clear that they could break their binds, disable AGIMUS and call in Starfleet to free the planet he subjugated, all within a few hours at most, whenever they decide to do so - but they let him run through his hoops, so Boimler can get the intel they need... and Tendi can play with sand.
• Props for Peanut Hamper apparently going through her Heel–Face Turn honestly this time - to the point where she pulls AGIMUS with her into turning a new leaf.

"Caves"

"The Inner Fight"

• Ma'ah was betrayed by his subordinates and left for dead. When he gets back to his ship, he kills his mutinous first officer with his bare hands (and teeth, implicitly) in about ten seconds.
  • Earlier, even though Ma'ah had complimented the Orion captain as formidable. The Orion captain (along with all the other aliens present) are clearly terrified of him. Proving that Ma'ah was actually being modest.
• Freeman expertly plays the hostility the independent worlds have for Starfleet officers, presenting herself as a bumbling idiot in a way that lets the disguised Billups get the exact data they need.
• The creator/pilot of the Mystery Ship is finally revealed...Nick Locarno, with Robert Duncan McNeill voicing him again.
• The Orions initially refuse to work with Mariner due to her being in Starfleet and charges at her when she refuses to fight them. Tendi immediately jumps in and orders her to stand down, with the Orions immediately genuflect to the Mistress of the Winter Constellations. Tendi warns them Mariner is her friend, and harming her is an attack on her entire house, with the Orions immediately understanding and apologizing.
  • The fact that Tendi is willing to use her reputation as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations and threaten to bring down the wrath of her whole house, the fifth largest in the entire Orion Syndicate - a fact which is clearly known to the pirates- is really impressive, considering how she’s been trying to run from it.
  • Before Tendi shows up, Ma'ah suggests to Mariner that they take out the Orion captain first. "They are not to be under-estimated." Given what we've seen Tendi is capable of, he's onto something.
• Mariner, after a thoroughly Klingon pep talk from Ma'ah, seems to be taking a step back toward wanting to be the officer her friends know she can be, which culminates in her giving a Kirk-like Speech to the Captains that are marooned on the planet with her and her fellow lower deckers, and actually managing to successfully put together a team of Star Fleet officers, Klingons, Orions, Bynars and Cardassians! The only people she doesn't manage to get on her team are the Romulans, and even then she still manages to get a cease fire, which is still pretty impressive considering the issues between the UFP and the Romulan Star Empire.

"Old Friends, New Planets"

• When Locarno asks Mariner to "speak truth to power", she does... by giving every lower decker in the Alpha Quadrant the warning the rest of Nova Squadron probably needed before he dragged them into the Kolvoord Starburst fiasco, then stealing his Genesis Device and fighting her way off Nova One. Military Maverick or not, she saw this egotistical douche drag her friend into an idiotic and dangerous plan that almost ruined her career before it really started, and there's no way in hell she's going to let him do it again.
  Mariner: Oh, uh...hey. What up, everyone? I have an important message for all you lower deckers out there: [gets close to the camera] THIS GUY SUUUUCKS!
  Locarno: What?!
  Mariner: He's an idiot, and his plan is stupid! He's gonna get you all killed because he only cares about himself! [kicks the Genesis Device out of its tube and runs out of the room carrying the device]
  Locarno: Somebody stop her! End that transmission!
  Freeman: Attagirl!
• While Captain Freeman commands a small shuttle to fly through and transport Mariner to safety, she entrusts the safety of the Cerritos and everyone on it... to Brad Boimler, who she assigns the rank of Acting Captain. You'd never guess that he was merely Acting Captain, though, considering how wonderfully competent he performs through the entire situation.
  • As pointed out on the episode recap, there must have been somebody higher-up the command chain to take the big chair, however, his part was the easy part of the plan, it was his group that came up with the solution, it's his friend and mentor they're going to rescue and Freeman knows all that, plus let's face it: over the course of the season, Boimler earned it.
  • It really says something about how much Boimler has grown over the course of the season (never mind the whole series) that when he finally sits in the big chair, we don't question it. He's got this.
    • On that note, kudos to the writers too for a nice bit of characterization: while Boimler does conduct himself admirably in general, he didn't miraculously stop being a dork, as evidenced by him and Tendi taking a moment to geek out about his "captain voice".
  • Additionally, he straight-up refuses an admiral's order then hangs up on him. Season 1 Boimler would have never jeopardized his career like that. Doubles nicely as a heartwarming moment.
• Tendi's sister finally agrees to lend them the Orion battleship Retribution, but it turns out it has no vital systems and is completely unusable for their mission. Their solution? Throw the ship at Locarno's shields. The power overload from such a massive ship allows the senior staff to zip right in on the Captain's yacht before they re-form.
  Mariner: Mom?? How did you get through the shield?!
  Freeman: Hah! We threw a battleship at it!
• Mariner manages to single-handedly fly a ship to get away from Locarno and his fellow mutineers. But moreover, she sows seeds of discord by telling each one of them that Locarno can't be trusted. Locarno ends up alienating the others all on his own by asserting his authority, but Mariner deserves credit for getting through a dangerous situation without firing a shot, instead appealing to empathy and reason, all while having to anthropomorphise a bomb to stop herself from panicking.
• Mariner and Locarno's space duel inside the nebula, an homage to Wrath of Khan.
  • Considering how often Wrath of Khan either gets referenced or ripped off, it's nice to see Lower Decks just go whole hog.
• Mariner's Shut Up, Hannibal! moment after she activates the Genesis Device.
  Locarno: I graduated top of my class. You think I don't know how to disarm a bomb?
  Mariner: First off, you didn't graduate... (fists fly)

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