The Cerritos is en route to deliver a VIP to Starbase 25 for trade negotiations. An ordinary mission in every way, except one: their guest is a Doopler, whose species has the unique quirk of involuntarily duplicating themselves when under emotional stress. At a formal dinner in the conference room, the anxious smiles of the senior officers show how hard they're working to avoid any misstep that might "dooplercate" the Emissary. There's a tense moment when the diplomat accidentally drops his fork... but Ransom defuses it by throwing his own fork away, and they all share a laugh.
The Emissary thanks them for their hospitality and excuses himself to prepare for their arrival. As soon as he's out the door, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. For such a routine mission, it has been entirely too exhausting. At least they can look forward to the prestigious Command Conference that is being held soon at the Starbase. It's apparently exclusive enough that Cali captains don't usually get to attend, but their recent battle with the Pakleds earned Freeman an invite.
Meanwhile, Mariner and Boimler are engaged in the Sisyphean task of stacking cargo crates while commiserating that they don't get to go to the event. Mariner is interested for its reputation as a party animal's delight, while for Boimler it would be his dream to be surrounded by so many butt-kissable titans of Starfleet. Speaking of titans, it occurs to Mariner that the Titan would be on the guest list for the Conference, including Boimler's transporter clone William, but since they're out on patrol, Boimler could pose as him and get them inside!
Tendi and Rutherford, on the other hand, are content to spend their free time on the ship. They've been working together on a working scale model of the Cerritos. Rutherford may not remember working on it since losing his memory in the battle with the Pakleds, but he can still appreciate his past self's craftsmanship.
As the ship arrives at Starbase 25, Captain Anderson comes on screen to welcome Freeman and ask how their journey was. The Captain vents her stress over keeping the fragile Doopler Emissary happy the whole time, but unfortunately, she does it right as the Emissary himself walks onto the bridge. Freeman tries to backpedal when she realizes he's there, but the damage is already done. Hearing how much of a bother he was to his hosts sends the Doopler spiraling into an embarrassed panic. With a pop, they split into two. Alas, the act of dooplercating is itself embarrassing, causing the two mortified Dooplers to split again... and again... and again...
Freeman tries to mollify the expanding crowd of dignitaries, but everything she says just makes the situation worse. The clones are multiplying at tribble-like speeds. It's enough of a hazard that Anderson denies them docking clearance until Freeman gets things under control.
Mariner, on the other hand, sees the chaos as exactly the opportunity she and Boimler can use to sneak off to the Command Conference. They beam over to a bustling commercial district. The location of the party is always a secret, Mariner says, but she used to live on Starbase 25 and is confident she'll be able to find it. She then leads them into an empty storefront, Boimler wondering why they're taking a detour. They are immediately accosted by a disruptor-wielding Mizarian, Malvus, who recognizes Mariner (or "Becky", as he knows her) and says she deserves to die for abandoning him on Ceti Alpha IV (not to be confused with Ceti Alpha V). Boimler says that sounds like the Mariner he knows.
Malvus's threat is half-hearted, though, as is Mariner's apology for her betrayal. He lowers the weapon and gets down to business. Malvus knows they must want the location of the Command Conference, and he'll give it to them in exchange for a favor. He has some bottles of Commander Data Bubble Bath he needs taken to storage. Simple enough.
Back on the ship, the Doopler situation continues to deteriorate. As the mess hall fills up with more of them, Tendi and Rutherford dash off to find a new space to finish their model. Rutherford is frustrated that he can't get the shields to work. None of the notes his now-forgotten past self left behind make sense to him, and it's starting to make him feel insecure about his capabilities as an engineer now.
Mariner and Boimler are moving the merchandise by electric kart when they are suddenly pulled over by station security. Malvus then comms Mariner on her PADD to reveal that he set them up. There are illegal Klingon disruptors in a hidden compartment of the crate! Boimler suggests they just come clean, but Mariner warns that the station's security has a reputation for corruption and won't think twice about shoving them in prison just to confiscate their stuff. She guns the engine and leads them on a chase through the station.
Rutherford and Tendi have escaped to their repair bay, but the rapidly multiplying Dooplers are slowly encroaching on what little space remains. They climb on top of the Sequoia to buy them more time, Rutherford pausing a moment to retrieve his dropped model of the Cerritos. He suggests they escape through the maintenance hatch above them, but Tendi has to remind him that it's been sealed for months now. This upsets Rutherford, serving as yet another reminder of how much his lost memories have cost him.
Mariner and Boimler's chase continues through the Starbase's aviary, with more police coming at them from every corner. Mariner nearly runs over a gardener, but swerves at the last second, sending their kart careening into a nearby pond. They pull themselves out of the soapy sea of Data-shaped bottles, momentarily safe from their pursuers. Boimler has given up any hope of getting to the party, but Mariner hasn't. She pulls out her PADD and calls Malvus, who nervously feigns relief at seeing her still alive and well. She gives him one last chance to make good on their deal before she turns him in for smuggling weapons. If it also lands her in prison as an accessory, that just means she'll have all the time in the world to extract some payback. Malvus relents and points them to Ballroom Alpha... which is where all the big parties are held. So much for secrecy. Mariner throws her PADD away in disgust.
At the entrance, Boimler presents himself as William and gets into the party, easy peasy. Mariner, on the other hand, is stopped by the bouncer. It seems a lowly California ensign isn't cool enough to play with the big boys, not even as Boimler's plus-one. From the bottom of the stairs, she tells Boimler to go have fun without her. That's what he wants anyway, isn't it? To move on without her, like he did when he took the promotion to the Titan? Boimler is upset to learn that Mariner still resents him for that. She says she's been expecting an apology, but he had no clue she's been nursing a grudge all this time. Not in the mood to sympathize, Boimler takes her advice, sarcastic though it was, and heads inside.
Boimler emerges from the passageway, star-struck by the countless bigwigs scattered throughout the glamorous hall. He sees an officer approaching him with a greeting, only to see that he was targeting someone else just behind him, not sparing Boimler so much as a glance. That's when it hits him: no one there knows him. No one there even notices him. The venue is packed, yet Boimler couldn't be more alone.
On the Cerritos, the Doopler tide continues to rise steadily. Rutherford has resigned himself to the belief that he'll never measure up to his old self, not when he can't even finish a simple model ship. But Tendi tells him the model was never meant to be finished. They would always start over, as a way of always having something to do that was just for the two of them. Rutherford is relieved to learn that he's just as good an engineer now as he was before. Then he has an idea to escape their current crisis. He tells Tendi they have to eject the model's warp core. Opening the bridge, they each take a pair of tweezers to grab the tiny keycards that will activate the tiny warp core ejection system. It pops out into Rutherford's hands and he throws it like a grenade to open the sealed hatch so they can escape!
Mariner has found an empty bar in which to drink her feelings away. Boimler walks in, looking to make amends. The party was everything it was advertised to be, but without Mariner there to roast the Admirals with him, what was the point?
The Doopler crisis is reaching the point of calamity. Captain Freeman, standing on the bridge tactical station, finally gives in to her frustration and yells at the babbling Emissaries to stop being such whiny little shits! The room suddenly goes silent. The Dooplers look at the Captain indignantly, and then... two of them merge back into each other. That's it, the Captain realizes! If embarrassment makes them divide, then anger must make them recombine. Ransom verifies their hypothesis by throwing another insult at a nearby pair of Dooplers, who also huffily dedooplercate themselves. Freeman immediately gets on the comm and tells the crew it's time to stop pussy-footing around and start getting mean. With the crew working together, the clones recombine across the ship, finally returning the Emissary to his single self — who departs with an affronted farewell. Freeman gets her senior officers together and tells them its time to enjoy their hard-earned R&R.
Back at the dive bar, the bartender sees the morose pair of ensigns and tells them to cheer up. That command party has been going on for a long time, and they aren't the first ones to be turned away. In fact, she says, one such pair of would-be party crashers found their way to her bar a long time ago. She points them to an etching on the bar that says "Kirk + Spock". The two most famous officers in Starfleet history drank right where Boimler and Mariner are right now!
Freeman and Co. arrive at the entrance to the party and announce themselves to the bouncer. He says they're not on the list. Freeman doesn't understand. She thought she was invited. She sees Captain Anderson just inside and tries to get his attention, but he ignores her. That's the last straw! Freeman holds herself intimidatingly over the bouncer and tells him in a razor-edged voice that, Cali or not, she and her crew deserve to be treated better than this and that they are going into that party one way or another!
Cut to the officers sitting morosely back out on the main avenue. Whatever respect they deserve for their service won't be found today. Mariner sees them from inside the bar and invites them to join in on the real party. At that moment, the Doopler Emissary finds them and thanks the Captain for resolving his little accident earlier. He asks if she can recommend someplace to relax while he waits for his first meeting. Freeman knows just the place...
The Emissary appears in the middle of the ballroom by transporter. The officer nearest to him objects to his intrusion, and a fresh tide of Doopler clones floods the hall.
More of the crew have joined in on the fun at Boimler and Mariner's hole in the wall. Rutherford muses about how silly it was for him to be so competitive with himself, and Tendi helps to cheer him further with a gift: a new model set, this one of Deep Space 9, that they can not finish together! As Boimler and Mariner laugh and tease each other, Freeman smiles contentedly at being where she belongs, not surrounded by stuffy admirals.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Every conflict is driven by people hiding their feelings: Mariner doesn't want to admit that she was hurt when Boimler chose career over friendship; Rutherford is hiding his feelings of inadequacy; the bridge crew limit their own frustrations to cater to the Doopler. And the resolution is, in all cases, to reveal those feelings: it repairs the ruptured friendships between Mariner & Boimler and Tendi and Rutherford, and making the Doopler ambassador angry is what causes him to un-doople.
- Brutal Honesty: Rutherford bluntly tells the Doopler that he's being a problem, unaware of the order to be nice to him.
- Call-Back: Boimler brings up his transporter clone, William, and Mariner gets the idea to have Boimler pose as his clone to enter the party, since the Titan is busy on the other side of the system deterring the Pakleds.
- Car Chase: Mariner and Boimler have to flee when they are conned into smuggling a load of Klingon disruptors. Starbase security chases them through most of the station.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Klingon disruptors that Mariner and Boimler are tricked into transporting are covered by Data bath bombs. Boimler speculates that some of them might be Lore (the one he picks up has a noticeably smugger expression than the others, so he might be right).
- At the bar where the Cerritos crew end up (where Kirk and Spock used to drink), there is a model of the Guardian of Forever on a shelf, one of the Doomsday Machine hanging from the ceiling, and one of the Phoenix sitting on the bar, as well as pictures of Balok, Amelia Earhart, and the Bajoran solar sailer.
- Okona is the DJ at the captains' party. When Freeman finds out, she declares it "outrageous".
- The kebab seller at the station is a Gorn.
- Quark's bar franchise appears, with the new one being on Starbase 25.
- Also apparently Quark has branched out, since the Deep Space Nine model that Tendi gives to Rutherford at the end of the episode has a logo with his name as well. It comes with both miniature Jadzia and miniature Ezri!
- A Lurian (the same species as Morn, Quark's chief customer) can be seen leaping out of the way during the car chase, and another is, naturally, drinking at the bar that the crew end up hanging out in.
- Boimler suggests wearing skants
to the party, the unisex jumpskirts that appeared in the first few TNG episodes. - The bouncer is the same species as EM/3/Green from "The Jihad". The Skorr bird creatures are also from that episode.
- Among the captains at the party is Shelby, last seen as a Commander in "The Best of Both Worlds".
- Rutherford's memory loss is mentioned for the first time since the season started. It's why he doesn't remember the service hatch being welded shut.
- Mariner's "friend" on the Starbase is the same species as one of Picard's cellmates in "Allegiance".
- Among the items in Malvus' shop is a tri-dimensional chess set.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Mariner and Boimler go through hell to figure out where the party is being held, only to be told that it's at a fairly obvious location. Mariner even lampshades that it's the most obvious place to hold a party.
- Corrupt Cop: Mariner claims that station security is this, hence why they don't just explain that they were set up.Mariner: They'll coerce a confession, then sell our comm badges on the black market.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Despite Mariner claiming that she has forgiven Boimler for abandoning her for the Titan, she finally tells him that she's still mad at him and has been waiting for an apology from him, but Boimler calls her out for not bringing it up beforehand and not being honest with him. When they reunite at a bar, Boimler finally apologizes to her and tells her that he didn't mean to hurt her feelings, jokingly claiming that he didn't know that she had any. Mariner admits that she doesn't show her feelings to everyone and she's not sure why she makes an exception for him.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite having been invited to the party on the strength of their conduct in the face of the Pakled threat, Freeman and her command crew are still turned away from the party after the debacle with the Doopler. Freeman doesn't take it well. It's entirely likely that they actually weren't invited in the first place, just assumed that they were because they were delivering the Doopler ambassador.
- Emotional Powers: For any given value of alien abilities being called powers in the Trek-verse; Dooplers are a race that involuntarily duplicate in response to emotional stress, usually embarrassment. Inversely, duplicates merge together whenever a doopler is offended.
- Exact Words: During the Car Chase, Boimler begs Mariner not to drive down a flight of stairs, which she assures him that she'd never do. She proceeds to drive up a flight of stairs while Boimler screams his lungs out.
- Friendship Moment: Several, all in a row.
- Mariner, who Hates Being Alone, was hurt by Boimler's departure to the Titan; Boimler is hurt that she's refused to address it for half a season. They make peace when Boimler abandons the party to hang out with her.
- Rutherford is frustrated by his inability to complete the Cerritos model, feeling like he's competing against his past self. Tendi explains that Past!Rutherford never completed it either: they'd start over on purpose, because the model was an excuse for them to turn people away and avoid socializing.
- Freeman, Ransom, Shaxs, and T'Ana stick together after being blocked by the bouncer and end up at the same bar as Beckett and Bradward, with the people that they actually want to socialize with.
- Foreshadowing: The double-layer nature of starships' hulls, and of the Cerritios in particular. We see a brief glimpse of the orange-colored inner hull on Tendi's and Rutherford's Cerritos scale model when Rutherford pulls off a section of the outer hull. We would see the actual Cerritos have her entire outer hull doffed in the Season 2 finale.
- Funny Background Event: Boimler's screaming and squirming in his seat as Mariner drives up the stairs is framed like this as her driving (her footwork in particular) takes the focus of the shot.
- Going Commando: Per Mariner's comments, she evidently goes without more often than not, relegating underwear for special occasions.
- Me's a Crowd: The Dooplers involuntarily duplicate in response to emotional stress. That includes being stressed by duplicating. Naturally, the duplication quickly snowballs. Freeman eventually snaps and starts insulting them, which turns out to be the key to making them recombine.
- My Little Panzer: The model that Rutherford and Tendi are working on has shields, phasers, and a miniature warp core that explodes like a firecracker when the ejection sequence is activated.
- Nervous Wreck: The Doopler emissary is extremely paranoid and self-conscious, and is easily sent into a spiral of panic by the thought of being rude or a bad guest. Given that his species involuntarily duplicates when stressed, this is a bit of an issue.Freeman: There's no need to feel embarrassed!
Emissary: Thank you, you're very kind— wait! That's what someone says when there is a reason to be embarrassed!
Freeman: Okay, I'm just not gonna say anything. We can just be silent.
Emissary: ... she's giving us the silent treatment! THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" - Noodle Incident: Malvus is pissed at Mariner for stranding him on Ceti Alpha IV, though she insists that she thought that there was life there. Boimler claims she did the same to him on Rubicon III and Axalus, and while she admits to the latter, she insists that he stranded himself on the former.
- Not on the List: There's a bouncer keeping people out of the Starfleet party. Boimler bluffs his way in as his clone on the Titan, but Mariner and the senior staff aren't allowed in. Captain Freeman was supposedly given a special invitation after her ship's recent accomplishments, but no one at the party cares enough to figure out what the miscommunication was.
- Once for Yes, Twice for No: Someone using the same specialised wheelchair as Captain Pike beeps twice when they’re nearly hit during Mariner’s Car Chase.
- Other Me Annoys Me:
- Boimler tells Mariner that he finds his transporter clone annoying: a real stickler for the rules, and kind of a butt kisser.
- Rutherford is self-conscious about not being as good as his his pre-memory loss self and tries to assemble a model Cerritos to best his past self, before finding out that Past!Rutherford never finished assembling the model either.
- Right Behind Me: Freeman complains to the Admiral about the Doopler being a hassle, not realizing that he just exited the turbolift. Ransom is Facepalming with the knowledge that this will end badly.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Malvus calls Boimler Mariner's boyfriend. Both of them are grossed out by the idea.
- Shout-Out:
- The car chase scene could be a nod to The Blues Brothers.
- The uniforms and helmets worn by the starbase security officers resemble the ones worn by Judges.
- Quark's logo on the Deep Space Nine model looks a lot like Lego's logo.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: What did Dr. T'Ana say after Captain Freeman gave the order to be deliberately rude to all the Doopler Emissary duplicates to cause them to recombine? We'll never know, as she was completely bleeped out.
- Stalker Shot: While Mariner and Boimler are trying to find the location of the party, a hooded Tellarite spots Mariner from behind and calls Malvus to let him know that Mariner has returned to Starbase 25.
- Three Lines, Some Waiting: The bridge crew trying to deal with the dooplers; Mariner and Boimler trying to sneak into the party; Tendi and Rutherford trying to relax. All of them cross over with each other by the end.
- Two-Keyed Lock: The model comes with an ejectable warp core that is triggered by turning two tiny keys hidden behind a panel on the bridge.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The two Vulcans at the station remark that a car chase passing through their ship is "Fascinating" before returning to their work.
