Star Trek Guide

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Mariner Goes to War... With Herself?

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 9, "Crisis Point," now streaming on CBS All Access.

At the start of the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Crisis Point," Ensign Mariner gets into another fight with her mother, Captain Freeman. While on a mission on another planet, Mariner attempts to negotiate a peace between two alien races. However, Captain Freeman interrupts her, telling her the Prime Directive forbids them from interfering.

Mariner has always been one to defy the rules, but this time the Captain puts her foot down. And, to make matters worse, as punishment, she orders Mariner to go to therapy. Mariner, of course, has no interest in talking to Dr. Migleemo. But despite that, she ends up getting some much needed therapy -- in Boimler's latest holodeck program.

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In "Crisis Point," Boimler has an interview coming up with the Captain and in order to get ready for it, he loads a holodeck program that perfectly recreates the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos. However, Mariner rapidly changes the settings to alter the program and plunge Rutherford, Tendi and Boimler in a cinematic adventure worthy of a Star Trek film.

For this adventure, Mariner doesn't take on the role of a hero. No, instead, she casts herself as the main antagonist, a villainous marauder at the helm of her own ship. As the movie's villain, Mariner lets out all of her frustrations as she attacks the Cerritos and the members of its crew.

With Rutherford and Tendi at her side, she invades the Cerritos, blasting anyone who stands in her path -- and she takes great delight in it. Eventually, she finds her way to the Captain, where she plans to let even more steam out. However, she is interrupted by the program's version of herself: Ensign Mariner, a heroic Starfleet Officer dedicated to the protection of her mother, the Cerritos and its crew.

In the wreckage of the crashed Cerritos, Mariner engages in an epic battle against her digital self. The fight between the two is brutal, but it's through this confrontation that Mariner sees the other side of herself. As the marauder, she's the villain, someone on the fringes who always breaks the rules. But the program version of her is her best self, and reminds Mariner of her potential and what she believes in.

Because of this, Mariner gets the breakthrough she needs: she comes to accept her place aboard the Cerritos as a proud Starfleet Officer, dedicated to her mother and her fellow crew. Not bad for someone who didn't want therapy in the first place.

Streaming on CBS All Access, 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.

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Source: www.cbr.com