Lower Decks (Season 1)
From Iwe
| Star Trek: Lower Deks | ||
| Season 1 | ||
| Promotional poster | ||
| Starring | Tawny Newsome Jack Quaid Noël Wells
| |
| Country of origin | United States | |
| No. of episodes | 10 | |
| Release | ||
| Original network | CBS All Access | |
| Original run | August 6 – October 8, 2020 | |
| Season chronology | ||
| Next → Season 2 | ||
| List of episodes | ||
The first season of the American television series Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in the year 2380. The season is produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and Titmouse, Inc., with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director.
Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero voice "lower decks" crew members of the Cerritos, with Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman also providing voices for the season. Lower Decks was ordered by CBS All Access in October 2018, with animation studio Titmouse beginning work by the following February. The main cast was announced in July 2019. Production shifted to taking place remotely by March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The season premiered on CBS All Access on August 6, 2020, and ran for 10 episodes until October 10.
Contents |
[edit] Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Second Contact" | Barry J. Kelly | Mike McMahan | August 6, 2020 | ||
| Ensign D'Vana Tendi arrives on the USS Cerritos and is given a tour by ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner. Boimler is asked by Captain Carol Freeman to report on any breaches of protocol made by Mariner. On a mission, Boimler catches Mariner giving equipment to local farmers. The pair are attacked by a farm animal which destroys Boimler's uniform and covers him in slime. Meanwhile, commander Jack Ransom unknowingly carries an alien virus from the planet surface to the Cerritos and it quickly infects much of the crew. Ensign Sam Rutherford is on a date with Ensign Barnes; they fight off infected crew members, but Rutherford loses interest because Barnes is not interested in the Cerritos's mechanics. Chief medical officer T'Ana uses the slime on Boimler to synthesize an antidote, receiving praise from Freeman. Boimler chooses not to report Mariner, to the chagrin of Freeman who is Mariner's mother and was looking for a reason to have her removed from the ship. Mariner thanks Boimler and decides to mentor him towards becoming a captain. | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Envoys" | Kim Arndt | Chris Kula | August 13, 2020 | ||
| Boimler is assigned to a mission to transport Klingon general K'orin to the Federation Embassy on Tulgana IV. Mariner has herself assigned to the same mission, revealing that she is old friends with K'orin. The pair drink and reminisce while Boimler flies them to the planet. After they land, a drunken K'orin steals the shuttlecraft. While tracking down K'orin, Boimler feels he is unprepared for field work compared to Mariner, and threatens to quit Starfleet. They are offered assistance from a Ferengi whom Mariner believes is trustworthy, but Boimler cautions against this and is proven correct when the Ferengi pulls a knife on them. Boimler scares the Ferengi away. The pair find K'orin and leave him at the embassy before returning to the Cerritos. Boimler teases Mariner about the Ferengi, unaware that Mariner had staged the incident. Meanwhile, Rutherford transfers from engineering to other divisions hoping to have more time to spend with Tendi. He decides that engineering is where he wants to be, and she chooses to spend time with him while he works. | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Temporal Edict" | Bob Suarez | Dave Ihlenfeld & David Wright | August 20, 2020 | ||
| The Cerritos is en route to Cardassia Prime for peace negotiations when it is re-assigned to instead deliver "diplomatic trinkets" to Gelrak V. This angers Freeman, who believes the Cerritos is not respected by Starfleet. The ensigns teach Tendi about "buffer time", a long-standing tradition in which the lower decks crew take time to relax between jobs. Boimler accidentally reveals this to Freeman, who institutes a time deadline for all tasks. The ship descends into chaos as the crew attempts to complete their work on time, and this causes the away team to take the wrong gift to Gelrak V. In anger, the people of Gelrak V attack the Cerritos. The crew is unable to respond until Boimler reminds Freeman that they need to be able to complete work in their own time. She halts the time deadlines and the crew are able to focus on repelling the attackers. Freeman later institutes a new mandate named "The Boimler Effect" that encourages crew members to take shortcuts, not blindly follow the rules, and build in "buffer time" whenever they deem fit. | |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Moist Vessel" | Barry J. Kelly | Ann Kim | August 27, 2020 | ||
| The Cerritos joins a joint mission with the USS Merced to tow a disabled generation ship. The ship carries terraforming material that converts inert matter to organic matter. Freeman gives Mariner the most disliked jobs in an effort to force her to transfer to another ship, but Mariner finds a way to make these tasks enjoyable. Freeman then promotes Mariner to lieutenant in an effort to bore her into transferring. During the mission, the terraforming material cripples the Merced and begins terraforming the Cerritos. Mariner works with Freeman to escape the terraforming and use environmental controls to return the ship to its previous state, as well as rescue the crew of the Merced. Meanwhile, Tendi's clumsiness prevents Lieutenant O'Connor's spiritual ascension. During the terraforming disaster, O'Connor nearly sacrifices himself to save Tendi's life. This act causes him to ascend with what appears to be painful results. Afterwards, Mariner is demoted back to ensign for making fun of an admiral's uncommon pronunciation of the word "sensor". | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Cupid's Errant Arrow" | Kim Arndt | Ben Joseph | September 3, 2020 | ||
| Boimler welcomes his girlfriend, Barbara, onto the Cerritos. Mariner believe Barbara cannot be sincerely interested in Boimler, and becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories about her. The Cerritos provides support to the USS Vancouver in the controlled demolition of an unstable moon, as Freeman deals with the alien politics involved before it can proceed. Rutherford and Tendi are excited to tour the much more advanced Vancouver with its state-of-the-art technology. After a brief competitive exercise, Lt. Commander Docent demands to transfer one of them to the Vancouver, against their wishes, resulting in a brief scuffle. Docent later admits he can't handle the exciting and epic adventures on board the Vancouver and was hoping to swap with them to a more boring ship. Mariner discovers that Barbara is under the influence of an alien parasite attached to Boimler, which she removes. Barbara leaves Boimler, while Mariner and Barbara find they have much in common and become friends. Freeman completes the demolition of the moon. | |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Terminal Provocations" | Bob Suarez | John Cochran | September 10, 2020 | ||
| The Cerritos finds itself in a standoff with the Drookmani over the salvage of an old Starfleet ship. Mariner and Boimler's friend, Ensign Fletcher, offers to recalibrate the ship's isolinear cores for them, so the two can leave work early to attend a concert. They return to find him the victim of an attack, with the shield core missing. Rutherford shows off his new holographic assistant, an anthropomorphic Starfleet badge named Badgey, to Tendi in the holodeck. The Drookmani begin to attack the Cerritos, now without shields, causing a holodeck malfunction. This results in Badgey becoming homicidal and attacking Rutherford and Tendi. They defeat him by changing the holodeck program to a mountaintop which freezes Badgey. Boimler and Mariner discover Fletcher staged the attack because he was unable to complete the work. The missing core goes on a rampage before being blown it out of an airlock. It drifts to the Drookmani ship and disables it. Fletcher is rewarded for stopping the Drookmani with a transfer to the USS Titan, where he is shortly discharged. | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Much Ado About Boimler" | Barry J. Kelly | M. Willis | September 17, 2020 | ||
| Boimler volunteers to test Rutherford's new transporter upgrade, which malfunctions and leaves him "phasing". Tendi genetically engineers a dog with an array of freakish abilities. Both are transferred for medical care to "The Farm" on board the USS Osler. Other patients on board believe The Farm does not exist. Freeman is assigned to a covert mission, and Mariner's old friend Captain Amina Ramsey takes temporary command in their absence. To avoid being promoted by Ramsey, Mariner displays uncharacteristic incompetence, but is forced to confidently take control when the Cerritos finds the USS Rubidoux being torn apart by a hatching space-born entity. The patients on the Osler attempt a mutiny, but are betrayed by Boimler who recovers from his phasing and attempts to make peace. As the patients are about to blow him out of an airlock, they arrive at The Farm, which is a real, luxurious medical spa planet whose inhabitants receive the best care. Boimler tries to stay, but is sent back to the Cerritos. Ramsey parts amicably with Mariner. | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Veritas" | Kim Arndt | Garrick Bernard | September 24, 2020 | ||
| Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford are brought before an alien court by Clar, who demands they testify about the actions of the Cerritos' senior crew. Mariner relates a story about a mishandled standoff with the insectoid Clickets, who are aggravated by Mariner misunderstanding Freeman's orders. Rutherford recalls a high-stakes mission stealing a Romulan Bird of Prey from a Vulcan museum but has gaps in his memory due to his cybernetic implant. Tendi testifies about being mistakenly brought on a covert mission on the Bird of Prey to Romulus to steal a package. Clar doubts these stories, claiming that Starfleet officers should know what is happening on their ship, but Boimler assures him that Starfleet crew members make mistakes all the time (including antics with Q or boarding the wrong vessel), and accuses Clar of holding a drumhead trial. Clar clarifies that this is a actually a party celebrating his rescue from Romulus by the Cerritos, and he was just seeking an account of those events. The ensigns later ignore another encounter with Q. | |||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Crisis Point" | Bob Suarez | Ben Rodgers | October 1, 2020 | ||
| To prepare for an interview with Freeman, Boimler creates a holodeck program using the crews' private logs to produce an accurate simulation of the Cerritos. Freeman sends Mariner to therapy, where she insists she is fine. Later, Mariner spitefully takes over Boimler's program to create a movie-like experience where she plays the villainous Vindicta. She invades the simulation of the Cerritos with her friends and kills the crew. Boimler and Rutherford join the holographic crew to fight against Vindicta, while Tendi leaves the simulation after being disturbed by Mariner's behaviour. Mariner ultimately crashes the simulation of the Cerritos and then fights a holographic recreation of herself, causing her to realize her true feelings for her mother and Starfleet as she does. Concluding this "therapy" has worked, she leaves the holodeck. Boimler completes the simulation and accidentally discovers that Freeman is Mariner's mother. With this knowledge, Boimler panics and flunks his interview with the captain. | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | "No Small Parts" | Barry J. Kelly | Mike McMahan | October 8, 2020 | ||
| Boimler inadvertently reveals to the crew that Mariner is Freeman's daughter. The Cerritos picks up new crew members, including an Exocomp named Peanut Hamper. They receive a distress call from the USS Solvang, and find it destroyed by the Pakled, who have become a threat while being ignored by Starfleet. They begin tearing apart the Cerritos. Rutherford plans to disable the Pakled using a computer virus developed by Badgey. Peanut Hamper refuses to deliver the virus, forcing Lieutenant Shaxs and Rutherford to fly a shuttle to the Pakled ship. There, Badgey uploads the virus but also engages the ship's self-destruct to kill Rutherford. Shaxs takes Rutherford's cybernetic implants and sacrifices himself to help Rutherford escape; the latter loses his long-term memory. When more Pakled ships arrive, the Cerritos is saved by the USS Titan, captained by William Riker. A funeral is held for Shaxs. Freeman makes peace with Mariner and proposes they work together to bend Starfleet regulations. Boimler accepts a promotion to the USS Titan. | |||||||
[edit] Cast and characters
- Main article: List of Star Trek: Lower Decks characters
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