WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 9, "Crisis Point," now streaming on CBS All Access.
Lower Decks has proved to be a series by Star Trek fans for Star Trek fans. Every episode is chock full of references to series past, present and future, poking loving fun at a franchise that has spanned over half a decade. However, "Crisis Point" takes aim at a new part of the lore, as this week's installment uses the holodeck to do its own version of a Star Trek film.
The show goes planetside for the second cold open in a row, as Mariner (Tawny Newsome) has succeeded in liberating a planet of lizard men from their rat overlords. But before the newly-freed reptiles can bask to their hearts' content, Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) arrives to stop the proceedings. She's furious that her daughter violated the Prime Directive, which quickly sends Mariner from exaltation to anger. As the two argue for the umpteenth time, the captain ends up giving the ensign the only punishment worse than the brig: therapy.
After the credits, Mariner pays her penance, sitting down with the ship's therapist, who's equal parts bird and food pun enthusiast. Still steaming at her mother's treatment of her, she goes to the holodeck to shoot some skeet with Tendi (Noel Wells), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Leonardo Da Vinci. They're soon interrupted by Boimler (Jack Quaid), who's got his own holo-business to attend to.
The ensign is interviewing with Freeman later today for an Advanced Diplomacy workshop. He wants to practice on a simulated crew to prep for it, which he created using archives of several years of private logs. While Boimler starts his pre-interviewing to get a sense of greeting etiquette, Mariner is struck with inspiration. Some new parameters and a quick script later, the simulated bridge fades away to reveal nothing but a title: Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta.
Mariner has gone rogue with her own form of therapy, using Boimler's program to create a cinematic form of catharsis. While Tendi and Rutherford are excited at playing a part, Boimler refuses to participate, angry his prep has been hijacked. As the others leave, he goes from dodging approaching credits to falling into the first scene, as the Cerritos crew is enjoying a day off of jet skiing and fun at Shaxs' (Fred Tatasciore) expense.
Boimler awkwardly crashes the party to continue his pre-interviewing, but the shoehorning quickly ends when the crew is called onto a mission. They're briefed by a ship posing as a Starfleet vessel that made second contact with a planet, and the Cerritos has been recruited to investigate this imposter. The crew is immediately taken to the ship, revealed in a magnificent, resplendent, and all-too-long sequence parodying Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The panning shots and overuse of lens flare follow them aboard the bridge, as they epically jump to warp.
The Cerritos arrives at the planet in question to face down with a decloaked Warbird. Inside is Mariner, playing the role of "Vindicta" and doing her best Khan impression. She sits in the captain's chair, caked in dark eye make-up and a thirst for vengeance. By her side are the pirate queen Tendi (who objects to the stereotyping of Orions), bionic Rutherford and a clear analog to Boimler, who quickly gets killed when he brings his boss the wrong drink. Vindicta digs into Freeman, calling her a "propped-up errand girl" obsessed with licking Starfleet's boots. The crew is confused and enraptured, which is why by the time they notice her message was prerecorded, it's too late because they've been boarded.
Vindicta immediately goes into slaughter mode, earning a wide-eyed response from Tendi. Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) tries to subdue her, but he is quickly shot before Boimler could even get Freeman's food allergies out of him. Rutherford has his own epiphany about this simulation and goes off to tell his boss Billups (Paul Scheer) about how he wants to be the best engineer in Starfleet. Despite Billups jumping into action upon seeing the enemy, the two find some common ground as they work together to keep the ship afloat amongst all its damage.
Meanwhile, Vindicta continues to tear through the Cerritos, graphically blowing up Shaxs with a Borg head bomb. When she offers to torture Tendi's boss, that's one step too far for the Orion. Tendi leaves the simulation, saying this is not healthy and telling Mariner, "This is not you." However, those words fall on deaf ears as Vindicta finally reaches the bridge and Freeman. As she continues to rip into the captain about being treated like the bad guy all the time, she shows her ambition's lack of boundaries and blows up her own ship. The resulting shockwave knocks the Cerritos out of orbit, sending them into a crash landing larger than Star Trek: Generations.
Thanks to Rutherford doing the literal impossible, most of the crew gets beamed out in the nick of time, leaving a select few aboard. That includes Freeman, who finally goes fist-to-fist with Vindicta. When Vindicta has the captain on the ropes, a savior arrives in the form of Mariner. As she beams Freeman away, the fight continues, but now the therapeutic nature of this exercise comes to the forefront as Mariner fights herself.
During their exchange of blows and words, a lot comes out about Mariner's inner psychology. She only breaks the rules because that's what people expect her to do. Despite saying she's too cool for it, she loves the warp core. She's casting herself as the villain instead of taking the harder route of being a good officer. And, most heavily, she would do anything for her mom, despite her overbearing parenting. Mariner shows the extent of that when she self-destructs the Cerritos, sacrificing herself and ending the simulation (saving Boimler, who was tossed off a cliff after discovering the captain has a chocolate allergy the hard way).
Mariner comes out of the holodeck, stunned at her revelations. As Rutherford gains further admiration for his stone-cold, soup-sipping boss, Mariner apologizes to both Tendi and Freeman for her behavior before. The latter does not take the apology at face value, though, and we see her talk in her own therapy session about her paranoia as a mother. It's a great reminder that --to use a phrase that the ship's therapist has probably used many times --the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.
Boimler dives back into the simulation one last time, crashing the middle of Freeman's eulogy for Mariner. The ensign gets information, but definitely not what he was expecting, as holo-Freeman reveals to the crew that Mariner was her daughter. And she underlines the impact of the revelation, saying anyone who knew about their relationship would immediately be fired and possibly court-martialed. It's the exact opposite thing Boimler wanted to hear as he goes to his interview, stunned into silence. All he has is Mariner on the brain, leaving him a babbling mess for the captain that has him running out in the middle of their conversation. Despite all his preparation, Freeman perceives him as unprepared for the interview and marks him down as such.
As The Next Generation's Reg Barclay can attest to, the holodeck can serve as a form of release for characters. In true Lower Decks fashion, "Crisis Point" changes that formula, turning a scenario into a full-out, action-packed dive into both the thirteen Star Trek films that have been made up to this point and the characteristics that make surprisingly deep Mariner tick. Considering the depths to plumb when it comes to parody, it would be no surprise if, like Vindicta out of her Genesis pod at the end of this episode, the holodeck movie format comes back in the future.
Star Trek: Lower Decks stars Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as Ensign Tendi, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, Gillian Vigman as Doctor T'Ana and Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs. The show premiered on CBS All Access on Aug. 6.