U.S.S. Cerritos (Main Characters, Beckett Mariner, Other Crewmates) | Other Starfleet Crews | Independent Characters
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Crew of the U.S.S. Titan (NCC-80102)
U.S.S. Titan
A Luna-class starship, named after Saturn's largest moon. She was first mentioned in Star Trek: Nemesis, one year prior to Lower Decks (chronologically).
- All There in the Manual: Sadly, this Titan didn't get a happy ending. According to the Instagram logs of Star Trek: Picard, she was heavily damaged in combat and forced into retirement in 2398. However, many of her components were then transferred to a new Constitution III (or Neo-Constitution) class starship under construction, which was subsequently deemed the Titan-A in her honor. While the Titan-A has since gone on to become the Enterprise-G, the Luna class Titan's final disposition remains currently unknown, with no information as to whether she was placed in the Fleet Museum (which she wasn't seen in when Picard traveled there in "The Bounty", unless she was inside like the Enterprise-D), is in mothballs somewhere, or was scrapped.
- Canon Immigrant: While the Titan had been mentioned in Nemesis, the design was only seen in the Star Trek: Titan book series and in the video game Star Trek Online prior to its onscreen appearance in "No Small Parts".
- Cool Starship: Though she's no Enterprise, the Titan is a magnificent ship, giving the Pakleds all sorts of hell. She also contrasts nicely with the Cerritos, taking out three Pakled ships with ease when the Cerritos barely survived against one (though it's obvious Riker is impressed they managed even that). As of Season 2, she's still kicking Pakled ass. She's considerably larger and more powerful than in her non-canon novel appearances, having been upgraded from a medium-sized science ship around the size of the U.S.S. Excelsior to a capital ship rivaling the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E in size and firepower.
- Gunship Rescue: How she makes her arrival in "No Small Parts".
- Theme Music Power-Up: The Next Generation theme starts blasting on the soundtrack while she saves the Cerritos and kicks Pakled ass.
- Walking Spoiler: Any mentions of the ship and her crew spoils the last few minutes of "No Small Parts" as they were not expected to show up at all!
Captain William T. Riker
Captain William T. Riker
"I LOVE MY JOOOOOOOOB!"
Voiced By: Jonathan Frakes
The former first officer of the Enterprise-D and E, now captain of the U.S.S. Titan. It has been about a year since he took up the ship and shows no signs of slowing down.
For tropes related to his appearances on some of the other shows, see his entries on:
- The Ace: He's competent, confident, is always on a mission to do something heroic, and his ship is one of the most admired in the fleet.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Titan caught wind of the U.S.S. Solvang's distress signal and arrived in time to save the Cerritos from certain doom. Complete with Star Trek: The Next Generation cinematic theme.
- Catchphrase: "Give me warp in the factor of 5, 6, 7, 8..."
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Mariner blurts out that he gives her contraband from time to time, forcing him to quickly turn off the comms. When Troi asks what she was talking about, he tries to pivot to the battle at hand, but she says they'll be talking about it.
- Cool Uncle: Hooks Mariner up with contraband behind her mother's back. With the reveal of Riker being an old family friend, it's reasonable to assume Beckett knew and looked up to him since she was young.
- Flanderization: He's a very exaggerated version of his TNG self, portrayed as a supremely confident ace and jazz nut who warps into danger laughing all the way.
- Hero of Another Story: This show may be about the Cerritos, but Riker has his own plotline in which he takes point in the war against the Pakleds.
- Large Ham: Much hammier here than in any previous appearances, giving Captain Kirk a run for his money. Jonathan Frakes is clearly having a blast.
- Mentor Archetype: He shared a similar dynamic with Freeman as Mariner does with Boimler.Riker: You were sort of my ch'DIch! We used to get in so much trouble!
Freeman: We? - Sickeningly Sweethearts: Troi is serving with him as ship's counselor on the Titan and they're just as in love as ever.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He's serving on the frontlines of the new war against the Pakleds, and considering what they've put him through before, he has every right to want vengeance on them."A Pakled party and I wasn't invited?!"
- Sophisticated as Hell: "Let's see how these Pakleds do with their afts hanging out!"
Commander Deanna Troi
Commander Deanna Troi
Voiced by: Marina Sirtis
The former Counselor onboard the Enterprise-D and -E and Captain Riker's wife. She joined him onboard the Titan and has stayed on ever since.
- Deadpan Snarker: This Troi is a far snarkier incarnation of the character than previously seen; everything from flirting with her husband to her deflection of Ransom drips with it.
- Insult Backfire: She tries to tell Ransom that he hides his insecurities with his bravado. He thinks he can make that work for him.
- Put on a Bus: She does not appear in Season 2, despite Boimler being on the Titan initially.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: A year after their wedding and she is still flirtatious with her husband.
Lieutenant William Boimler
Lieutenant (j.g.) Bradward "William" Boimler
Voiced by: Jack Quaid
A transporter clone of Brad Boimler.
- Evil Twin: Not so much "evil" as just more conniving than the original Boimler. He knew Brad would think they would both volunteer to be demoted together and held his piece in order to remain on the Titan. He ends up embracing this when he joins Section 31.
- Faking the Dead: Supposedly died in a gas leak; in reality, he's still alive and now part of Section 31.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: His choosing the name "William" is clearly his way of sucking up to Riker.
Crew of the U.S.S. Oakland (NCC-75012)
Captain Amina Ramsey
Captain Amina Ramsey
Voiced By: Toks Olagundoye
Captain of the U.S.S. Oakland. Serves as temporary command for the Cerritos in "Much Ado About Boimler". She and Mariner were very close in their Academy days.
- The Ace: Already made Captain and has her own command at a rather young age, and effortlessly keeps up with Mariner when saving the crew of the Rubidoux.
- Amicable Exes: It's not stated explicitly that she and Mariner dated in her first appearance, but
Word of God confirms they're meant to have this dynamic. - Cool Teacher: According to her, "Nobody likes a babysitter captain," so she tries to be amenable while temporarily commanding the Cerritos.
- Dare to Be Badass: Assigns Mariner as her temporary First Officer and offers to help her "rank up" whenever she decides she's ready to.
- Deadpan Snarker: She can be, easily.
- Foil: She's what Mariner could be if she took her career in Starfleet more seriously. Even their accents are different, with Mariner having a Valley Girl American accent and Ramsey having a posh British accent.
- Former Teen Rebel: She and Mariner used to be this in their Academy days, even stealing a beloved professor's antique car. Mariner still thinks it's hilarious, but she views it as Old Shame after her senior staff give her some dirty looks.
- Not So Above It All: She takes captaining and managing her crew very seriously, but still gets a giggle out of Mariner's antics.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She's very troubled that Mariner is now kind of a screw-up and not the badass space adventurer she remembers from their youth.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She believes Mariner still has what it takes to make Captain one day, and says she'll be happy to help her.
Lt. Durga
Lt. Durga
Voiced By: Jennifer Hale
Captain Ramsey's Vulcan Science Officer aboard the U.S.S. Oakland.
- Holier Than Thou: Doesn't have a lot of patience for Mariner's goofy antics, and looks down on her for still being an Ensign.
- Jerkass Has a Point: She looks down on Mariner from minute one, but considering Mariner's history of insubordination, her screwball personality, and still being an Ensign while her former classmate has already made Captain, it's hard to blame her.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: According to an anecdote of Ramsey's, Durga once fought off four Borg drones using Vulcan jujitsu.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She powers the Rubidoux back on when they discover it adrift. Only problem was the ship had been invaded by an unknown alien entity that was feeding on the ship’s power.Lt. Durga: There's some sort of alien entity inside the ship!
Ramsey: Oh, ya think?
Crew of the U.S.S. Solvang (NCC-12101)
Captain Dayton
Captain Dayton
"I don't want to die in space!"
Voiced By: Gillian Vigman
The ill-fated Captain of the U.S.S. Rubidoux and, briefly, the U.S.S. Solvang.
- Butt-Monkey: Two starships under her command get destroyed over the course of a single ten episode season, the second time killing her and her crew. The other captains who came to her rescue made snarky comments about going to her rescue.
- Crying Wolf: This is the reason why her distress calls are treated lightly by Freeman and Ramsey, because she's known to be nervous and incompetent. Freeman thinks her partial distress call was because "somebody sat on a button."
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: The Pakleds wipe her and her new ship out in her second appearance.
- Killed Off for Real: Just days after she takes command of the Solvang, she and her crew are wiped out by the Pakleds.
- The Load: Both Captain Freeman and Ramsey have implied they've had to bail her out of a jam more than once.
- Madness Mantra: "I don't wanna die in space! I don't wanna die in space!" Maybe she should have retired, because when she gets her next ship that's exactly what happens.
- Neat Freak: After taking command of the Solvang, she gets annoyed when people take the plastic covers off of the comm panels and insists her bridge crew not wear shoes so they don't get the carpet dirty.
- Nervous Wreck: Being at the mercy of an alien entity feeding on her ship’s power has turned her into this, to the point that Mariner has to knock her out and carry her to rescue. She's not much better during the Pakled attack, reflexively ordering the ship to warp and getting the entire crew killed because the Pakleds had managed to grapple one of the Solvang's nacelles.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Dayton is one of the more ridiculous personalities encountered by the Cerritos crew (and by extension, the audience) in Season 1. "No Small Parts" quickly establishes its more serious raised stakes by brutally killing her and her entire crew.
- Tempting Fate: She insists on keeping the bridge of the Solvang new and clean for as long as possible. She and her crew are brutally killed less than a minute after expressing this.
- Undignified Death: She, and her entire crew, are killed by Pakleds, the most famously stupid (though clearly not harmless) species in the franchise. They don't even get a chance to fight back.
- Wrong Line of Work: It's a little unclear how someone so neurotic and incompetent ever made Captain in the first place.
Crew of the U.S.S. Archimedes (NCC-83002)
Captain Sonya Gomez
Captain Sonya Gomez
Voiced By: Lycia Naff
The Captain of the U.S.S. Archimedes, an Obena-class starship. Briefly served as an engineer on the Enterprise-D a long time ago.
- All-Loving Hero: The members of her bridge crew adore her, and she's very supportive of her lower decks crew. They remind her of when she first started out.
- The Bus Came Back: She's been gone sixteen years in-universe, and over thirty years out-of-universe. Turns out she's come a long way since we last saw her.
- Character Development: On TNG, she was clumsy and nervous around the command crew. Sixteen years later, she's a self-assured Captain with her own vessel.
- Determinator: She works herself to near exhaustion trying to find a way to save her ship, to the point that her crew need to remind her to rest.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She's prepared to make one, insisting that her crew evacuate to the back of the ship so they have a better chance of survival before they collide with a planet. Nobody budges. They refuse to abandon their captain.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: For a long time, she was just known — both in- and out-of-universe — as that ensign who spilled hot chocolate on Captain Picard. She seems to have taken it in stride, and is very supportive to nervous young crew-members who feel in over their head.Gomez: Don't worry about it. I've done way worse in front of much more intimidating captains!
- The Pollyanna: It's not that she doesn't acknowledge bad things happening, more that she tries her best regardless. Very little gets her down, even the impending doom of both her ship and a neighboring planet.Gomez: Alright, that's enough existential dread! Let's get to work!
- This Is Gonna Suck: After her ship is sent flying towards a sovereign planet and the power is knocked out, so they can't stop it.Gomez: Alright, gimme the bad news.
- Tuckerization: Not her, but her ship; fans initially mistook the Archimedes for an Excelsior-class ship, but Word of God confirmed it's Obena-class, which is inspired by the original Excelsior design. The name comes from Nollan Obena, the Art Director for Season 2.
- Among other things, the saucer section has a more oval shape like the Enterprise-E and the nacelles look closer to TNG than TOS. The "neck" of the Engineering section is also longer.
Crew of the U.S.S. Inglewood
Captain Vendome
Originally a crewmember of the Cerritos, Vendome lucks out and gains a rapid promotion to captain, much to Boimler's irritation.
- The Bus Came Back: Promoted and transferred off-screen, he reappears with the Inglewood in the Season 3 finale to help save his old ship.
- Butt-Monkey: Manages to get speared by angry Gelrakians after upsetting them. Boimler, himself no stranger to humiliation, describes Vendome as "the guy who gets hit with a spear".
- Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: It's Vendome's tiredness from the absence of "buffer time" that causes the Gelrakian rampage against Starfleet to begin with; he was too frazzled to make sure he picked the right thing, and instead manages to chose the exact thing that enrages them most.
- Rank Up: Manages to go from an ensign to full-blown captain, if only of another Cali-class ship, in a very short time, though Tendi states it was a Battlefield Promotion helped by simply being in the right place at the right time.
Crew of Deep Space Station Nine
Colonel Kira Nerys
Colonel Kira Nerys
Voiced by: Nana Visitor
A former freedom fighter in the Bajoran Resistance, who was made the official liaison of the Bajoran Government following the withdrawal of the Cardassian Occupation and the subsequent arrival of Starfleet to Bajoran space. Despite her initial misgivings about Starfleet, her time working with Benjamin Sisko helped her to become one of the most staunch supporters for The Federation, and became a pivotal member of the Dominion War. She is currently in charge of the station, awaiting the return of The Emissary.
For tropes relating to her prior appearances, see here.
- Call-Back: She still has Sisko's baseball in her office, awaiting the day he returns.
- Connected All Along: She and Shaxs were comrades in the Bajoran Resistance.
- Vocal Evolution: Given that it's been over 20 years since Kira was last seen, Nana Visitor's voice is audibly older.
- You Owe Me: Played for Laughs. She and Shaxs argue about who saved whose skin during the Occupation, which she wins.
Quark
Quark
Voiced by: Armin Shimerman
The owner of Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House, and Holosuite Arcade, the brother of Grand Nagus Rom, the uncle of Nog, and the representative of the Promenade Merchant's Association, who's since expanded his humble bar into one of the largest franchises across the Alpha Quadrant.
For tropes relating to his prior appearances, see here.
- Butt-Monkey: Even in a guest spot, things don't go his way. He manages to franchise out his bar into a very successful business venture, but when he's caught conning the Karemma by using their technology in his bar, he gets kidnapped and narrowly rescued by the Cerritos crew. Much to his dismay, he's forced to pay them 76% of all the merchandising profits.
- Call-Back: He panics when Mariner tells him she has a copy of that copy of Kira's body with his head on it. She only agrees to hand it over if he clears her tab, which he promptly does and then eats the copy.
- Even Evil Has Standards: As much as he's a greedy merchandiser (and proud of it), he refuses to do business with the Karemma on the grounds that they were Dominion allies during the war. Subverted when it turns out he was just trying to hide the fact he stole their technology. Kira isn't surprised by this.Quark: I have principles!Kira: No, you don't!
- Laser-Guided Karma: His Quark 2000 Replicator was made using stolen Karemma technology. He's promptly arrested, and then forced to pay them over three quarters of his profits to stay out of jail.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Same old Quark, same old reaction to danger. Shax later mocks him about it in an interview a few episodes later.
- Skewed Priorities: He's less happy about the fact he's losing most of his profits to the Karemma than being in jail.
- Vocal Evolution: On account of 20 years passing since he last played Quark, Armin Shimerman sounds a bit raspier in his delivery.
Morn
Morn
Quark's Bar's resident barfly.
For tropes relating to his prior appearances, see here.
- The Cameo: He's still sitting at his favorite stool after all these years.
Mesk
Mesk
Voiced by: Adam Pally
An Orion security officer stationed at Deep Space Nine.
- Expy: Of Worf. Both of them are aliens from non-Federation races who were raised by humans and became exaggerated caricatures of their people to compensate. The main difference is that Worf was able to properly study his people's culture from legitimate sources, while Mesk only had works of fiction filled with offensive stereotypes to work with.
- Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today?: He constantly plays up his Orion heritage despite have a very loose understanding of it simply because it's what everyone else expects from him.
- Orc Raised by Elves: He was adopted by humans and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, he has a very skewed understanding of his native culture thanks to his only source of knowledge being trashy holonovels.
Crew of the U.S.S. ''Voyager'' (NCC-74656)
U.S.S. Voyager NCC- 74656
U.S.S. Voyager
An Intrepid class starship under the command of Admiral Kathryn Janeway from 2372-2379, the ship was famously lost in the Delta Quadrant for seven years before it was able to return to Federation Space. Starfleet has spent the last two years archiving everything from the ship, and is converting it to become an exhibit at the Fleet Museum.
For tropes relating to her original appearance, see here. To see tropes from when she's a museum exhibit, see here.
- Call-Forward: Voyager is being prepped to join the collection at the Fleet Museum, which Star Trek: Picard has her at via a Freeze-Frame Bonus in Season 2, before she's fully shown in Season 3.
- Cool Starship: Next to the Enterprise and the Defiant, Voyager is one of Starfleet's biggest legends due to having survived an entire sector of space, 70,000 lightyears from home, with no support from Starfleet. Mariner is squealing with delight upon seeing the Intrepid class in person.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Her guest appearance sees practically every reference and deep cut to her home series made, from the salamander catfish, Neelix's alien cheese, the nightmare clown, and even Chaotica. The biggest one though is the flower that caused the transporter fusion on "Tuvix", which results in Billups and Dr. T'ana being merged into one being when a petal from that flower gets into the transporter pad while the two are coming back to the Cerritos.
- Famed In-Story: Naturally, seeing as her former Captain is now one of Starfleet's most revered admirals and the ship herself was stranded on the other side of the galaxy for seven years, she's become a living legend amongst the ranks. Mariner has a massive geek out upon learning the Cerritos crew is going to be given the honor of escorting the ship to Earth.
- Foregone Conclusion: Fortunately for Trek fans fearing that the Voyager would wind up in pieces thanks to the Cerritos crew, the ship is already resting comfortably in the Fleet Museum by 2402, fully intact. Her story here is just how much havoc Mariner and company cause on her before she gets there.
- In Spite of a Nail: "Endgame" showed she was displayed at San Fransisco in the alternate future. She still goes there, if only temporarily, so people could get a chance to see her in public before she's sent to the Fleet Museum.
- Made of Iron: She took a lot of punishment in the Delta Quadrant, but managed to make it home completely intact. Despite the Cerritos crew being placed in charge of escorting her to Earth and causing havoc along the way, they're able to bring here there in one piece.
Commander Tuvok
Tuvok
Voyager's former tactical officer and chief of security, and a veteran member of Starfleet who first served under Captain Sulu of the Excelsior, Tuvok has continued his efforts in Starfleet Security since returning from the Delta Quadrant.
To see tropes from his original appearance, see here. For tropes relating to his appearance on Star Trek: Picard, see here.
- The Cameo: He's seen alongside Captain Bateson in the Season 3 premier, where Captain Freeman reveals the two exposed the Pakleds' scheme.
- Call-Back: "Twovix" brings up his unfortunate Teleporter Accident that merged him and Neelix into Tuvix when Dr. T'ana and Chief Billups are merged into T'illups because of the very same orchid while the Cerritos crew was preparing Voyager for exhibition on Earth. Naturally, things go sideways when the crew investigates the original incident to determine how to fix it.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He and Captain Bateson had managed to expose the entire Pakled plan to destroy their own homeworld and frame Captain Freeman for it within a matter of days, all entirely away from the usual antics of the Cerritos crew's day-to-day lives.
- Rank Up: He was promoted to a full commander. Star Trek: Picard would make him a Captain by 2401.
- The Voiceless: He doesn't speak in his cameo appearance.
Commander Tom Paris
Commander Tom Paris
Voiced by: Robert Duncan McNeill
Voyager's former helmsman and a Maquis prisoner turned genuine Starfleet hero, Tom's hailed as a living legend since he got back from the Delta Quadrant, especially to Ensign Boimler.
To see tropes from his original appearance, see here.
- Continuity Nod: He brings up that one time he traveled to warp 10 and got turned into a salamander.
- Divergent Character Evolution: In Season 4, Nick Locarno (who was meant to be in Tom's place on Voyager before Paris was created instead, with both characters being played by the same guy) is revealed as the main antagonist. While both looked very similar, Tom is kept as he appeared on Voyager, while Nick is shown with a scar, a five-o'clock-shadow, and a little bit of grey to highlight how far he's fallen.
- Famed In-Story: On account of him being one of Voyager's original crew members, he's a bit of a celebrity. Boimler is eager to get his autograph on his collection of Voyager plates, and manages to secure it at the end of the episode.
- Living Legend: He and the entire compliment onboard Voyager are legends to the Starfleet crews on other ships.
- Mirror Character: Nick Locarno is presented as one to him in Season 4. Both were pilots that got someone killed in an accident and tried to cover it up, but Tom got a guilty conscious about it and confessed, while Nick was exposed by Wesley Crusher and made to leave Starfleet over it. But while Tom got a chance to redeem himself and grow to become a better man, a friend, a husband, and a father, Nick just fell off the deep end and refused to accept responsibility for his actions, forming his own Nova Fleet to try and prop up his fragile ego. Tom is still alive because of his growth, while Nick dies as a victim of his own hubris.
- Rank Up: He's been promoted to a commander.
- Vocal Evolution: Since it's been over two decades since Robert Duncan McNeill played the character on screen, he naturally sounds a bit older despite it being two years since the character was last seen chronologically.
Starfleet Command
Admiral Freeman
Admiral Alonzo Freeman
Voiced by: Phil LaMarr
An Admiral in Starfleet Command, Captain Freeman's husband and Mariner's father.
- Hands-Off Parenting: Evidently seems to have been much less of a presence in Mariner's life one way or another, given the majority of her resentment is aimed toward Carol.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When hanging up on Carol, he claims he's doing so because he's got "admiral stuff" to do.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: That rarest of Starfleet admirals, he's neither insane nor obstructive in any way.
Admiral Les Buenamigo
Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo
"The good of the many, Carol!"
Voiced by: Carlos Alazraqui
A member of Starfleet Command and an old family friend of the Freemans. Not as upstanding as he seems.
- Big Bad: Of Season 3, though this isn't revealed till near the end.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The Texas-class really was a well designed starship; with mass fabrication facilities, large scale transporters, and enough firepower to easily overwhelm even Starfleet capital ships, such a vessel could easily have replaced the California-class, as well as fulfilled any number of other auxiliary roles for Starfleet. Unfortunately, the focus was never really on the ship, just on the "replacing living crews with AI" part, which ultimately left the admiral's plans doomed to failure.
- Didn't Think This Through: His grand plan involved constructing an entire class of powerful warships controlled by AI systems programmed by a young, inexperienced and hotheaded engineer (that being pre-implant Rutherford), all to perform mundane tasks currently handled by the bottom rung of Starfleet's armada (at least at first, to prove their worth). The second he lets one be autonomous—Rutherford having warned him that the ships are Ax-Crazy and that giving them permission to do what they want will have deadly consequences—A.I. Is a Crapshoot ensues.
- Engineered Heroics: Knew about the Breen incursion of Brekka, but allowed the Cerritos to run into them so he could pull a faux Big Damn Heroes with the Aledo and convince Starfleet to adopt the Texas-class.
- Evil All Along: Turns out he was the shady officer who ordered Rutherford's memory wiped after he was seriously injured working on his secret project — the prototype for the Texas-class. He had also purposely set up Freeman and the Cerritos to fail in "Hear All, Trust Nothing", expecting her to botch the negotiations with the Karemma if she had no time to prepare, which didn't pan out. In "Trusted Sources", he knew that the Breen were on Brekka, risking the lives of everyone on the Cerritos and all those killed by the Breen in the interim just so he could make the Aledo look good. When he's finally exposed in "The Stars at Night", he decides to straight-up murder Freeman and her crew just to protect his own career.
- False Friend: His genteel attitude belies the fact that he's dumping extra work with no prep time on Freeman in "Hear All, Trust Nothing", and it later turns out he's using her as a stepping stone for his drone ship project.
- Fan of the Past: A lot of Starfleet senior staff have this trope. Buenamigo's particular fascination is, obviously, Texas, because his office is covered in 19th-century Texas historical artifacts. There's the flag, a manual typewriter, an old revolver, a Texas Rangers star and other such things. He even smokes cigars, a habit all but eliminated by the TNG era.
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts like he's a big, generous Santa Claus doing you a favor no matter the situation, even if that situation is "we're taking away your crew and giving you a desk job with a bunch of epaulets." It's all a mask for how much of a ruthless careerist he really is, and tries to murder his supposed friend Freeman and her entire crew with no remorse.
- Glory Hound: He wanted to be remembered for his Texas-class ships being Starfleet's best tool for Second Contact, and he was willing to eliminate anyone who could jeopardize that. After the carnage that his ships wrought against Starfleet assets, he'll probably be remembered as one of the worst admirals ever.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Supposedly, his reason for developing the Texas-class ships was to save Starfleet lives on dangerous missions (and ensure his career advancement in the process). However, when he lets the Aledo's AI off the leash, it ends up killing him and many other Starfleet officers when it goes on a homicidal rampage.
- Greater-Scope Villain: It turns out, he was the cause of many of the Cerritos' crew's problems throughout Season 3, and even earlier:
- Before the show began, he recruited the pre-implant Rutherford out of the Academy to design the engines and AI for his Texas-class ships, then had his memory erased during his emergency cyborg surgery when one of his prototypes exploded. And, it turns out the amnesiac Rutherford would later resurrect the unstable AI code when he programmed Badgey.
- He arranged for Capt. Freeman to run the trade negotiations on Deep Space 9 in "Hear All, Trust Nothing", giving her no warning or prep time in the hopes she'd botch the negotiations.
- He sent a reporter to the Cerritos without warning in "Trusted Sources", then sent them to a Breen-occupied world as part of an Engineered Heroics situation, putting the ship and crew in jeopardy so the U.S.S. Aledo could swoop in and save them as a demonstration of the Texas-class's combat capabilities. Afterward, the reporter writes an exposé painting Freeman as a paranoid tyrant, and the Cali-class ships as a toxic work environment after the crew inadvertently trash themselves and Freeman completely mishandles the situation by transferring Mariner to Starbase 80 for what turns out to be no reason, setting the stage for the whole class to be retired in favor of his new autonomous ships.
- Then in "The Stars at Night" he finally abandons all pretense and orders the Aledo to destroy the Cerritos when they find a critical flaw in the new ships' AI.
- History Repeats: He makes the exact same mistake Dr. Richard Daystrom made over 120 years earlier: developing an unstable autonomous starship AI that goes berserk and opens fire on other Starfleet ships.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He gets killed after giving the Aledo autonomy and ordering it to fire on the Cerritos, not heeding that its flawed programming will make it go rogue and fire on him first.
- Insane Admiral: He was responsible for the accident that almost killed Rutherford, and he then had Rutherford's memory erased. He was also responsible for the Cerritos being attacked by the Breen, and he tried to have her destroyed when Rutherford discovered the truth. Given that the negotiations on Deep Space 9 were part of his attempts to sabotage Freeman's career, and Freeman herself noted that brown holes aren't even a thing, he may have fabricated the brown hole emergency that forced Captain Nguyen to abandon the negotiations; if this is the case, he forced an entire colony out of their homes under false pretenses just to screw with a friend's career. When Freeman protests that he's better than the other "bad-faith admirals", he just says that he's really not and decides to outright murder her and her crew.
- Ironic Name: His surname means "Good friend" in Spanish, which he most certainly isn't.
- Karmic Death: He orders the Aledo to destroy the Cerritos to keep the crew from exposing his plan. He gets a dose of phaser-guided karma when the Aledo vaporizes him instead.
- Knight of Cerebus: Downplayed, especially in comparison to his much more serious creation the Aledo'. The fact all his machinations are designed to get him promoted and his inane justifications for it are Played for Laughs, but Buenamigo is a much darker villain than the Laughably Evil bunglers the Cerritos usually faces. In particular, both what he did to Rutherford and his attempt to murder everyone onboard the Cerritos are played entirely seriously.
- Limited Advancement Opportunities: Apparently, this is why admirals in Starfleet turn evil all the time — they hit flag rank, their career has nowhere else to go, and they turn to ill-advised vanity projects in an effort to not fade into obscurity. Buenamigo may be justifying his own ambitions however, as he's already a Vice Admiral — the second highest rank in Starfleet (and if Starfleet is similar to modern navies in scope of promotion, the highest rank he can reach without confirmation to the post by the Federation Council) — and had been working on his pet project back when he was a Lieutenant Commander, evidently expecting he would need it.
- Long Game: Rutherford's recovered memory shows that Bueanamigo started the Texas-class project while he was still a Lieutenant Commander, at least three or four ranks below the position where he would be able to push the program onto Starfleet.
- Meaningful Name: His last name translates to "Good Friend" and he is an old friend of the Freemans, to the point that Beckett calls him 'Uncle Les'. Unfortunately, it appears to be an Ironic Name when it turns out that he set up Freeman to fail so he can prove the superiority of the Texas-class, but his actions prove that he's "less" of a good friend than the Freemans thought he was.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He thinly tries to justify designing the Texas-class ships as an attempt to save Starfleet lives, but his Motive Rant makes it obvious he's more concerned with getting a promotion and the fame he'll earn from it.
- Shadow Archetype: To Captain Freeman — both want to get ahead in their Starfleet careers and get recognition for their hard work. However, he's basically stuck at the top where flag officers are a dime a dozen, which ends up leading him to create a vanity project that ultimately ends up being far more trouble than it was worth and causes Buenamigo himself to go full-tilt evil in the process — whereas Captain Freeman, despite the personality flaws Buenamigo exploited to get the Texas-class project off the ground, knows where to draw the line (and her vanity project by comparison was a lot less grand and more to try and address an existing problem in Starfleet).
- There's No Kill like Overkill: He ends up being killed by a ship-mounted phaser beam, which are thousands of times more powerful than handheld units.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: He claims that destroying the Cerritos will allow him to save more lives by replacing the California-class with automated, uncrewed ships that don't have a crew to die when they get in over their heads.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He definitely invokes the "good publicity" bit by having a reporter on the Cerritos when the Aledo saves them from the Breen, thus ensuring that the entire Federation can see how awesome his new Texas-class ships are.
- Walking Spoiler: It's rather difficult to discuss him without giving away his role as the Big Bad of Season 3.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The second Rutherford was injured during an accident while designing the Texas-class ships, Buenamigo has his memories of the project erased despite being warned it will destroy his current personality.
Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
Admiral Jean-Luc Picard
The former commanding officer of the U.S.S. Enterprises NCC-1701-D and 1701-E. Following the Enterprise-E's historic mission to Romulus, and the discovery of the pending Hobus supernova event, Picard has been promoted to Admiral and placed in command of the operation to evacute Romulus and Remus and the surrounding stars systems while Ambassador Spock works with the Romulans to try and avert the disaster.
For tropes related to his appearances on some of the other shows, see his character page.
- All There in the Manual: According to the comics and other beta canon materials, Admiral Picard is currently commanding the Romulan evacuation flotilla with his new XO Commander Raffaela Musiker from the newly-launched flagship, the Odyssey-class U.S.S. Verity NCC-97000.
- Big Good: He turns out to be the one backing Petra Aberdeen (and, by extention Mariner)'s efforts to steal back stolen artifacts and return them to their proper archival owners.
- Continuity Cameo: The original background information for Star Trek: Picard stated that Picard was promoted to Admiral in 2381, the year Season 3 of Lower Decks takes place in. When Mariner uncovers the identity of Petra's Man Behind The Curtain, the LCARS display lists an "Admiral Picard" rather than a "Captain Picard".
- Doomed by Canon: Unfortunately, his efforts to evacuate the Romulans will fail in a few years because of the Zhat Vash reprogramming the synths building the evacuation fleet to attack the shipyards, resulting in the subsequent ban on artificial lifeforms and Starfleet calling off the evacuation efforts in favor of sending Spock to fix it, which in turn will lead to his resignation and retirement for the next 14 years. He'll be powerless to stop a rise of prejudice and hatred of artificial life forms, and his withdrawal from public life will let him disconnect with his friends and loved ones. His former flagship, the Enterprise-E, won't be so lucky either, because of something Worf did that will take her out of service in 2386 and result in the Enterprise-F taking up the mantle.
- Famed In-Story: On account of his exploits as the Captain of two starships named Enterprise, he's very well known throughout Starfleet and other worlds. Ma'ah notes that the exploits of such a ship are widely told throughout the galaxy.
- Four-Star Badass: One of Starfleet's most decorated and accomplished line officers, now one of its most badass flag officer alongside folks like William Ross, Owen Paris, and Kathryn Janeway.
- The Ghost: Unseen in the show itself but referenced constantly by other characters.
- Saved by Canon: Is somehow both this and Doomed by Canon at the same time. Despite his withdrawal from everyone he loves and failure to aid the Romulans, he eventually rallies for a new series of adventures, including helping lift the restriction on synthetic lifeforms, traveling through time to save The Federation, reconnecting with his beloved crew, meeting with his long-lost son Jack, and extermining the Borg once and for all. And while the Enterprise-E might suffer a grim fate, the Enterprise-D winds up perfectly restored just to save the day one last time.
Admiral Vassery
Admiral Vassery
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore
An admiral at Starfleet Command. He is assigned to open Federation membership negotiations with the Ferengi.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: He comes across as this, ironically while trying his hardest to be accomodating. When dealing with the Ferengi, he comes into the negotiation underestimating their bargaining skills and assuming they just want the treaty signed as written, which the Proud Merchant Race finds as a massive insult. It's only Captain Freeman's quick thinking and genuine understanding of the Ferengi that saves the negotiations.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Freeman immediately sees through everything Grand Nagus Rom and Leeta are doing, but Vassery ignores her.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He tries to be this with Rom and Leeta, acquiescing to what seem like minor demands only for them to want more and more. He does play this straight when Captain Freeman disobeys orders not to pursue Nick Locarno's Nova Fleet, as she did establish a dialogue with the Orion Syndicate and, since Mariner never fired on Nova Fleet, managed to avoid provoking a war with any of the major powers. He also admits to Freeman that he messed up in the ferengi negotiations , and plans on praising her to star fleet command.
- Super Gullible: He goes along with every demand Rom and Leeta want, thinking appeasing them will bring them closer to signing.
- Underestimating Badassery: He assumes the treaty with the Ferengi will be a cakewalk and doesn't consider the possibility that a species of merchants might try to get anything extra out of the negotiations. As Freeman points out, he starts falling for some of the oldest tricks in the book almost immediately.
Other Starfleet Personnel
Shari yn Yem
Shari yn Yem
Voiced by: Lennon Parham
A Pandronian who works as a drill administrator for Starfleet, Shari is tasked with testing ships' crews to make sure that they're all in fighting trim. However, she may be coming to the Cerritos with an ulterior motive...
- Asshole Victim: The Cerritos crew push her to a nervous breakdown and ruin her career, and Mariner's pretty unapologetic about it, but she did try to ruin them first.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While she first appears peppy and helpful, she chose the Cerritos as a dupe and rigged the drills to have them all fail in order to prove that her drills are still necessary.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: As a Pandronian, Shari can split her body into three pieces (head, torso, and legs) that can float and move around independently. They all bounce around the bridge like pinballs when Freeman demonstrates what a starship crisis is actually like.
- Cerebus Call-Back: Her ruination is played for laughs, but "Trusted Sources" reveals that in the midst of what the Cerritos put her through she suffered a heart attack in all three of her hearts, which is used to ruin the ship's reputation some more.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: She rigged all the tests so that everyone would fail. Despite that, Boimler still manages to get a passing grade, and is the only member of the crew who doesn't fail, at least until he's forced to.
- Continuity Nod: Shari is a Pandronian, the same species as Commander Ari bn Bem, and, like him, tends to refer to herself as "this one" and has come aboard to run efficiency tests on the crew.
- Evil Laugh: She lets out a long one when Mariner and Freeman suggest that the drills were a Secret Test of Character, revealing that, on the contrary, she set them up to fail on purpose.
- Hurricane of Aphorisms: Even when she's not making direct puns about her detachable head, almost everything she says is an allusion to her kind's ability to separate and come back together, i.e. "the true measure of a crew is how they come together as a single unit."
- Jerkass Has a Point: While she's a complete Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and trying to cause the Cerritos to fail to preserve her own job, she has a very valid point that the commanders' carelessness in responding to the SOS (from a temporal distortion involving a repeating time loop — while the Bakersfield was in distress, based on the short periodicity of the time loop, she wasn't going anywhere for a while), and specifically her leaving four ensigns behind in deep space for several hours, could have had serious and lasting consequences.
- Killer Game Master: Her simulations are heavily railroaded and immediately penalize any and all attempts at Sequence Breaking, and are rigged to fail the participant as quickly as possible.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Shari's job is to train and evaluate Federation starship crews on how to do their jobs efficiently. However, all her training programs are simply copied from past adventures of other crews throughout Starfleet history: she's never actually served on a starship, and doesn't understand the need to adapt and overcome challenges herself. When Shari is exposed to actual danger by Captain Freeman (namely facing off against a Crystalline Entity and a Negative Space Wedgie), she completely panics.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Freeman and Mariner put Shari through the hell of a normal day of Starfleet adventures until she passes them. Shari also resigns at the end of the episode due to the traumatic experience, meaning that no lower-class ship will ever be put through that again.
- Motive Rant: Shari breaks into one when Mariner and Freeman confront her about supposedly running a secret team-building exercise.
- Not Me This Time: Shari ran out of time to program all her sabotaged simulations, meaning that when Mariner caused a horse to go irate and trample her, she did that purely through her own ineptitude.
- Smug Snake: Shari is so confident in her plan that she laughs and gloats to Mariner and Freeman's faces about her true motives when they come to her under the impression that she intended to strengthen the Cerritos crew's bonds. All this does is give them a heads-up to have Boimler stall for time while they blackmail her into passing them by taking her through various harrowing space phenomena, since it turns out that she never actually served on a starship. If she had just gone along with their presumption, her plan would have gone off without a hitch.
- Stylistic Suck: Shari hands vary between having four or five fingers in different shots... because the same error happened with Ari in "Bem".
- Unwinnable Training Simulation: Shari deliberately set up her simulations this way. Not as a Secret Test of Character, but to make the crew of the Cerritos fail the tests so she can keep her consultant job.
Carlton Dennis
Carlton Dennis
Voiced by: Bobby Moynihan
A sweet old man who looks after the transporter repository in Los Angeles.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He seems perfectly nice and gives sweets and soup to the group. However, it's clear that he'd phaser them all into unconsciousness if they had hostile intentions.
- Cool Old Guy: A veteran Starfleet officer with a hobby of restoring vintage transporters, and still more than willing to fight if the need arises. He actually sympathises with the main cast's plan to break into the Cerritos with the aim of exonerating Captain Freeman, too.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Partly as a result of being bent nearly double, he's much shorter than the twenty-something ensigns.
U.S.S. Aledo
U.S.S. Aledo (NA-01)
"I will burn your heart in a fire."
Voiced by: Carlos Alazraqui
The first of the Texas-class, a series of automated ships overseen by Admiral Buenamigo. Unfortunately, it and its sister ships have a slight problem with emotional stability that Rutherford is all too familiar with...
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Rutherford programmed the AI prior to the accident, and his amnesic self later used the same code for Badgey. As such, once Buenamigo gives the Aledo full independent control, it kills him and attacks the starbase.
- Attack Drone: The Texas-class were designed to be fully autonomous Starfleet ships. Though Buenamigo offers them as a replacement for the California-class in Second Contact missions, and they possess capabilities such as large-scale fabrication and transporter technology to that end, they are also powerful warships equaling any of Starfleet's most advanced vessels.
- Ax-Crazy: The second it's free to do what it wants, it phasers Buenamigo's office, activates its equally unhinged sister ships, and goes on a rampage that leaves Douglas Station's upper decks Swiss cheese.
- Call-Forward: The replication systems it's equipped with might be the basis of the vehicle replicators seen on the U.S.S. Protostar.
- Evil Is Petty: Hopelessly outgunned by an entire fleet of the California-class, the Aledo attempts to destroy the Cerritos even though it's dead in the water and isn't even an active threat. Note that the Aledo was also able to obliterate three Breen ships in about as many shots, so the Cerritos surviving the first salvo before the cavalry arrives can only be put up to the Aledo spitefully prolonging their death.
- Hates Their Parent: It views Buenamigo as its father, but due to the fact it has the same coding as Badgey it has a homicidal hatred for him. The second he makes the Aledo autonomous, it immediately murders him.
- History Repeats: Starfleet's first attempt at an AI-controlled starship did not end well, and the Aledo manages to be an even bigger disaster than the M5.
- Knight of Cerebus: Unlike the series' other villains, the Aledo has no real comedic traits and its killing spree after being made autonomous is played dead seriously.
- Not Quite Dead: In desperation, the Cerritos drops its warp core as a mine for the pursing Texas-class ships. The Dallas and Corpus Christi are destroyed, but the Aledo manages to survive with burns on its outer hull.
- Oh, Crap!: The Aledo silently does this during its final battle. As the California-class fleet fires away at it, Aledo is unable to determine which ship to fire at first, with its targeting reticle frantically darting back and forth.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: This ship manages to give Ben Sisko's Defiant a run for its money in terms of firepower within a tiny hull. They're equipped with experimental weapons such as a purple photon torpedo that splits into seven warheads and just three are able to turn the exterior of a Starbase into swiss cheese.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The blue highlights of the Aledo turn red when Buenamigo activates independent control and the ship turns evil.
- Ridiculously Fast Construction: The Aledo is equipped with industrial-grade replicators, letting it fabricate entire habitat modules to beam straight onto a planet as fast as it takes for the order to come through.
- Something Only They Would Say: After becoming fully autonomous, the Aledo repeatedly says "I will burn your heart in a fire," a sign that it truly is the Badgey AI running the ship.
- Theme Naming: Like the California-class, the Aledo and her sisters get their names from cities in Texas.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The Aledo excels in combat, to the point that all three ships make short work of a Sovereign-class starship, but its AI is much slower at adapting than flesh and blood Starfleet officers. When confronted with 31 identical targets, it tries to prioritize all of them at once and makes only the most basic of evasive maneuvers before it's overcome.
Mariner's Friend (MAJOR SPOILERS)
Ensign Sito Jaxa
"Other people are allowed to talk every once in a while, Nick. Don't listen to him. You sound just like me when I was a first year."
Voiced by: Shannon Fill
A Bajoran friend of Mariner's during their acadamy years. She served onboard the Enterprise-D, where she would end up being killed while taking part in a spy mission.
- Cool Big Sis: She was a few years ahead of Mariner in the academy, and Mariner clearly looked up to her a great deal. It's a big part of the reason why Mariner took her death as hard as she did.
- Death by Origin Story: Her death (along with trauma from the Dominion War) shaped Mariner into who she is in the present day, turning her into someone who avoids promotions so she'll never be put in a position where she'd have to order people like Sito to their deaths.
- Posthumous Character: She's been dead for over a decade by the start of the show. The only time she's actually seen is during a flashback set 2 years before her death.
- You Remind Me of X: Mariner's enthusiasm for xenohistory reminds her of how she used to act during her first year at the academy.
The Scapegoat (MAJOR SPOILERS)
Cadet Joshua Albert
Voiced by: Unknown
A member of Nova Squadron and close friend of Wesley Crusher, Joshua Albert was uneasy about Nick Locarno's plan to perform the Kolvoord Starburst because of how dangerous it was, but Locarno shut down his objections. He would ultimately collide with Jean Hajar's ship while attempting the maneuver, and was the only one to die in the accident. Locarno talked the survivors into scapegoating him for the accident, but after being confronted by Captain Picard, Wesley partly vindicated him by revealing what actually happened.
- Death by Origin Story: He died because of Nick Locarno's hare-brained and egotistical attempt to graduate with a bang, and Locarno was expelled for not only causing his death but dragging the other survivors into a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit.
- Posthumous Character: Like Sito, he's long dead in the present day, and only appears in a flashback. Unlike Sito, he didn't even appear in TNG because "The First Duty" took place in the aftermath of his death.
- Strong Family Resemblance: With no original actor to base his appearance on, he was drawn to resemble a younger Ed Lauter, his father's actor in "The First Duty", including the prominent cleft in his chin.
- Unseen No More: "The First Duty" took place in the immediate aftermath of Locarno getting him killed, meaning the flashback in "Old Friends, New Planets" is his first, and only, appearance.
