Dos Cerritos (episode)

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Warning!

This page contains information regarding Star Trek: Lower Decks, and thus may contain spoilers.

A spatial anomaly forces the Cerritos crew to face their own faces. (Season premiere)

Summary[]

Teaser[]

Somewhere in the Beta Quadrant, a Haliian woman is in awe of a collector of Palor Toff's species, Yorif, and his collection of artifacts. Yorif boasts his wealth over it. When she spots a Veltan sex idol, Yorif boasts that he had to slash the wages of his Latinum mine workers to afford it. He flirts with her until a red alert goes off: an Orion ship is approaching. The captain, L'Kar, hails them – surrender or be brought to the sword. Yorif tells her to go back to her slime dungeon, which she takes as an insult, attacking the ship. The woman is scared, but Yorif is unfazed – they'll never get through his defenses and can control the ship from the very room. Glad to hear that bit of news, the woman suddenly breaks his arm and tosses him away. The woman contacts L'Kar as she drops the defenses and tells her to beam aboard before the Collector's security attacks.

The woman expertly drops the guards, forcing Yorif to ask who the hell she is. She reveals herself as D'Vana Tendi, Mistress of the Winter Constellations, which doesn't ring a bell to him. He attempts to attack, only to get a dagger to the hand for his troubles, L'Kar and other Orions joining them. The Orions beat up the other guards and L'Kar goes to kill the Collector before Tendi stop her, convincing her to not kill them to spread more fear. She has to stop Kita from dismembering another but gives up and allows Astrid to take Yorif's nose ornament, the Collector screaming in agony that it is prescription.

Act One[]

On the USS Cerritos, Beckett Mariner and T'Lyn are playing kal-toh when Brad Boimler busts in in excitement, causing Mariner to break the t'an apart. As T'Lyn fixes it, much to Mariner's annoyance, Boimler reveals that the newest issue of Fleet has arrived, excited that he's gonna be in that issue's "30 Under 30" feature. T'Lyn is surprised that they publish such a thing; Mariner explains that they interviewed him after his stint as acting captain. To Boimler's dismay, he is nowhere in the list. Even more, he's not even in the fifteen honorable mentions, one of them going to Naomi Wildman.

He hits his head on the desk, claiming he's plateaued. Mariner tries to reassure him, mentioning that Commander Jack Ransom assigned a group of ensigns to her, which she thinks is a bad idea. T'Lyn thinks that they'll appreciate that she "tells it like it is", but all Mariner's trying to do is not get thrown in the brig all the time and she isn't sure if she's cut out to be a leader. Suddenly, Sam Rutherford shows up, screaming that she'll do great, scaring her and Boimler. Boimler asks his disheveled roommate where he was, revealing he was working over in a dark corner. Boimler worriedly points out that he's been working himself to the bone since Tendi left and suggests a break, but he refuses; working keeps his mind off of the bad stuff. Mariner suggests some "hang time" and to go watch the warp stars. However, Captain Carol Freeman contacts them as they've reached their destination. Rutherford excitedly races out as it means more work.

As the three arrive, Mariner groans as it turns out that their destination is another quantum fissure, the third one this month. T'Lyn notes that they've been appearing abnormally regularly, and Freeman says someone has to close the "space-time potholes" lest some parallel universe object could appear. Ransom relays that tachyon levels are normal and the warp core should be fine. Boimler wonders about meeting people with "feet for hands" or "feet for eyes" in the other universe. Suddenly, the fissure goes wild and pulls the Cerritos in. Arriving on the other side, everything seems normal, and Freeman is ready to head back through when Barnes reveals someone's hailing them – the Cerritos. Freeman groans at that and goes to respond. On the other end is a variation of the crew with one major change – the captain is not an alternate version of Carol Freeman, but instead a version of Mariner, who introduces herself as "Becky Freeman".

Back in the main universe, Tendi exhaustively returns to her room on the Orion ship and is hailed by her sister D'Erika Tendi. She's impressed with the loot she brought back, but a few lust idols aren't going to pay back the ship she was loaned. D'Vana is upset at this; she's at it for months and her crew can't stop trying to stab people. D'Erika teases her, knowing she prefers to be back debating "the ethics of goop", and reveals she has a way for her to solve her debt. She shows her a decrepit Orion ship from three hundred years prior, during the Great Plague. D'Erika bought the location from a rogue archeologist and only they know the location. D'Vana double checks that getting this ship will let her return to the Cerritos and when its confirmed, she decides to get it.

"Captain's Log, supplemental. The Cerritos is stranded in a parallel reality. Until we can determine a way to return home, we are stuck here with uncanny alternate reality versions of ourselves."

On the other Cerritos, the T'Anas growl and hiss at each other while the Shaxses complement each other on their strength and form while they arm wrestle. The two T'Lyns reveal that their universes have a .357 variance between each other, negligable but still there as the two utter different catch phrases. Mariner notes that it's as if they made dissimilar choices somewhere down the line. Boimler wonders how different he is to his counterpart, which he blows off as them being similar. Rutherford shows excitement towards his cybernetic counterpart, who tells him it's so he can work at peak efficiency.

Captain Mariner and other crew members arrive with good news: they have a way to get home. King Andy Billups explains that despite their side of the fissure closed, space-time is turbulant and the main Billups adds in that all they need to do is use a directed energy pulse to briefly reopen the fissure to let the Cerritos return home. King Billups explains that, to do so, they need to create an infrastructure to connect all four nacelles together so that the native Cerritos can fire the pulse and allow the main Cerritos to return home. During the explanation, both Ransoms get angry over how their universes and Cerritos are described, causing Captain Mariner to snap at them. The main Billups reveals they only have ten hours before the seal is permanent, causing Freeman to deduce they can get it done twice as fast by working together with their twins before asking where hers was. The alternate Ransom just sadly says that it's nice to see her again, which is shut down as Captain Mariner orders everyone to get to work.

As everyone leaves, the main Mariner catches up, wanting to know how she commands her crew before grousing that using "Becky" made her feel fifteen years older. Captain Mariner snarks that she could just use her middle name to distance herself from her mother, revealing "Mariner" is their middle name. The main Mariner once again asks how she can command her crew and the captain suggests she'll give her tips, which the main Mariner somewhat mocks but admits appreciating.

In the prime universe, over Alva IV, Tendi and her crew beam down to the wrecked ship. Kita expresses excitement over what they could plunder with the ship with Astrid's boasting being cut off by a panel activating. Tendi's surprised – the ship has regenerative auxiliary power systems? Pulling up a schematic of the ship and placing it on her PADD, she tries to move her crew to the bridge when Kita tries to get her to stop moving so fast. However, an unexpected visitor appears – a team of blue-skinned Orions. Tendi tries to defuse the situation, but both teams pull their disruptors and fire, causing Tendi to duck for cover.

In the alternate universe, the main Boimler is in awe of his counterpart, who is always on away missions with the bridge crew. When he opens the shuttlecraft bay doors, Rutherford grabs his counterpart, because he had no spacesuit on, only to learn he replaced all his internals so he wouldn't be affected. The alternate Boimler decides to head back in case Captain Mariner needs him, the real Boimler upset that he gets to be acting captain all the time, but his counterpart reassures him. Rutherford asks about his Tendi, only to learn he has no memory of her. The alternate Boimler reveals that their Tendi became a pirate full-time and it hurt Rutherford so much he deleted his memories of her. This prompts Rutherford to be "Otherford's" Tendi, the alternate Boimler finding the nickname adorable.

In one of the Cerritos, the two Mariners finish a story that happened to both their Boimlers. As they walk, the alternate Barnes panics and stands at attention, causing the main Barnes to snap in frustration. To Mariner's shock, Captain Mariner reveals that she keeps her crew organized through fear. Entering the shuttle bay, the two find others arguing with their duplicates. Captain Mariner whistles and everyone stops, her crew standing at attention. The captain snaps, saying there's no interpersonal conflicts on the ship. The alternate Taylor agrees, prompting her to brig him for brown-nosing, much to everyone's shock and Mariner's anger.

Act Two[]

On the wrecked ship, the two Orion crews are still in a firefight with each other. Tendi tries to convince the blue Orions that they don't have to fight, but their leader, K'Levin, says he'd rather die a thousand deaths. L'Kar decides he only needs to die once, stabbing him in the side. The blue Orions bail on their leader, fearing him dead, but Tendi convinces her crew to get to the bridge instead. She stays behind to mend K'Levin, who freaks out in a panic over what she did.

In the alternate universe, preperations are ready to initiate energy transfer and Freeman asks Ransom to activate it. Instead, both Ransoms get into a fight, causing Freeman to yell that her Ransom gets to push the button since its her ship. Ransom pushes the button and King Billups prepares to fire the pulse, getting a dig in at the prime crew. After Captain Mariner tells them to stop fighting, she proceeds with the activation. However, something goes wrong, and the pulse is stopped, causing the control panel to erupt into flames. King Billups snarks at the main Billups, claiming that their math is .327% harder. Freeman once again brings up her counterpart, but Captain Mariner shuts off comms. Even worse, the two Kayshons start arguing with each other trying to put the fire out, leading to the two getting into a fist fight. In anger, Captain Mariner uses her riding crop to try and strike the two, only for Mariner to stop her, the two arguing. Captain Mariner demands the main Mariner put her Kayshon in the brig and when Mariner refuses, she threatens to throw her entire crew in the brig, King Billups worrying revealing that his Cerritos is nothing but brigs. Kayshon convinces Mariner to let it go and do it, though she's definitely not happy with her.

As the crews get back to work, Rutherford tries to be buddies with Otherford, but he continues working. Boimler tries to cheer him up, but Rutherford realizes that he was heading in this direction as well. Boimler points out that he's getting dangerously close to being a Borg, prompting Rutherford to realize what he needs to do. Grabbing a tool, he makes an adjustment to Otherford's friendship matrix, returning him to his friendly, outgoing self, much to Boimler's joy. The alternate Boimler joins his main counterpart, and he once again tries to convince him to trust himself. When he tosses away his PADD to go and fix a stabilizer variance, Boimler grabs the PADD.

On the wrecked ship, Tendi and her crew are trying to get to the bridge when a blue Orion snatches her PADD and dives for a turbolift, K'Levin blasting a panel to prevent them from following. As Tendi bemoans her failure, K'Lar realizes she killed that Orion. When Tendi tries to blow it off, her crew draws their weapons, K'Lar declaring her a traitor.

On the alternate Cerritos, Mariner returns and complains to T'Lyn over her counterpart's attitude, only to realize that she was talking to her counterpart. Captain Mariner reappears, hailing the main Cerritos; King Billups has fixed the problem and they're ready to try again. The comms cut, she demands the crew of the other Cerritos off of her ship and out of her dimension, but stops her Mariner and asks her to her ready room. Mariner joins her, snarking that she was going to hit her with her riding crop, only for the captain to pull a phaser and stun her.

Act Three[]

Coming to, Mariner finds Captain Mariner looking at herself in the mirror. Realizing she's wearing her uniform and is shackled, Mariner quickly figures out that Captain Mariner is intending on replacing her, telling her how hacky such a stunt is. Captain Mariner tells her counterpart that meeting her reminded her of how good she had it, that being a captain turned her into everything she hated. She wants to go back being the loose cannon she once was and is happy to let the main Mariner be captain, giving her a sarcastic Vulcan salute as she leaves, Mariner realizing how it felt to be the recipient of such an act.

On the wrecked ship, Tendi's crew attempts to kill her, but Tendi defeats them and holds K'Lar at knife-point. She explains that she has her own pirate code: to do things without killing people. Her crew is confused: how can they get out if they can't kill? They explain that they look up to her, a pirate so badass that her family let her follow her own dreams. The three want to follow their own dreams: Astrid wants to bake, Kira wants to dance, and K'Lar wants to teach ethics at Orion University. Tendi explains that she didn't leave because she was badass, she left because she didn't want to hurt anybody. She does promise to help them if they promise to stop killing, which they agree with. Trying to figure out how to stop the blue Orions, Kira suggests trying to distract them with dance, only to kick a panel. The room they're in lights up, revealing it to be a sickbay; the ship was a medical frigate, not a warship. Kira realizes the ship has airways, which Tendi realizes would be advanced to clear the air, both of them getting an idea.

In the alternate universe, Rutherford bids farewell to Otherford, noting that he helped show him how dark his path could be and how cool being a robot could be. Otherford presses a button, which ends up being him saving his memories of him, thanking Rutherford for reminding him of his humanity. Captain Mariner joins her "friends", calling herself their "friendamundo", which confuses Boimler, but elicits enthusiasm from Rutherford. Returning to the main Cerritos, the alternate Ransom activates the pulse again and fires it, reopening the fissure. He bids Freeman farewell, telling her not to make too many mistakes that she gets sent to Starbase 80. Freeman is horrified; what did she do to get that punishment? As the Cerritos leaves, Mariner realizes she could free herself by using voice authorization and escapes, making her way to the bridge. She gets the alternate Boimler to hail them, but Captain Mariner dismisses it. Trying to get their attention, she tells the alternate Shaxs to fire on the Cerritos, much to his confusion.

On the wrecked ship, the blue Orions gloat at their impending victory before pink gas fills the halls. As they find themselves going into fits of laughter, Tendi and her crew get the drop on them, taking them out. However, their gas masks aren't working too well and the girls dissolve into laughter as well.

In the alternate universe, Mariner is trying to get the alternate crew to get the Cerritos' attention, but her actions are confusing them. Realizing her kinder nature is vastly against their captain's attitude, the alternate Boimler realizes this is the other Mariner and orders his Shaxs to fire on the Cerritos. When the ship is hit by a phaser, Freeman demands to hail the ship, but Captain Mariner claims that she hailed them and aren't responding, calling her "Mother", confusing the captain. When she sees the transmission, Captain Mariner throws herself at the captain's chair, begging not to go back. Freeman is impassionate to her pleas and answers the hail, quickly stopping Mariner from proving who she was and ordering the two swapped. Returned to her ship, Captain Mariner is quickly detained by her Ransom, who is happily declaring to send her to the brig. As Mariner bids her counterpart farewell with her own sarcastic Vulcan salute, the alternate Ransom tells his Boimler he's acting captain, the main Boimler impressed as they leave.

In the main universe, Tendi and her team leave the planet with the ship, leaving the blue Orions on the planet. At Douglas Station, the crew of the Cerritos relax, though Freeman worriedly bemoans what she could have done to get sent to Starbase 80. At a booth, Boimler looks at the PADD he swiped, learning that his counterpart was on the front page of Fleet. Mariner and T'Lyn soon join them, followed by Rutherford, who has cleaned up and had decided that he wants to be around his friends again. Spotting the ensigns she's about to train, she decides that she'll be the commander she wishes she had and not let herself become a screaming despot. T'Lyn utters "remarkable" at this, causing the three to worry that the other T'Lyn had swapped places as well, only for it to be a joke.

On Orion, D'Erika is impressed with D'Vana's victory and allows her to return to Starfleet. However, bad news has arrived—the blue Orions have declared war because of Tendi's supposedly un-Orion acts using laughing gas. D'Vana defends her actions that it was through Orion tech. D'Erika is ready to let her go, but D'Vana realizes she needs to clean up this mess and agrees to stick around. If it's a war the blue Orions want, it's what they'll get.

Log entries[]

Captain's log, USS Cerritos, 2382

Memorable quotes[]

"Merchant vessel, power down your shields or be put to the sword."
"Ugh. Crawl back to whatever slime dungeon you were born in, Orion."
"I would rather die than return to my childhood dungeon! Fire!"

- L'Kar and Yorif

"You've got great form!"
"I learned it from strangling Cardassians!"
"I did too!"

- Shaxs and Alternate Shaxs, while the two are arm wrestling

"Hey! I'm supposed to press the button, you sexy bastard!"
"This is my universe, you steamy hunk!"

- Ransom and Alternate Ransom

"What the hell?! You can't hit people!"
"They can either be your crew or your friends!"
"Weird, 'cause I don't hit either one!"

- Beckett Mariner and Becky Freeman, after the former stopped the latter from hitting Kayshon

"Don't you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute. Beckett! Huh, so that's how that feels."

- Beckett Mariner to Becky Freeman, after the latter trapped the former in a classic switcheroo

Background information[]

Title[]

This episode's title was first reported on 21 October 2024 by TrekMovie.com. [1]
The title was erroneously listed on Paramount+ as "Dos Cerrito". [2]
This is the first episode title in Spanish.
- Previous title languages other than English include Latin and French.

Story and script[]

Captain Becky Freeman's comment to the quarreling crews that "There's no interpersonal conflict allowed on [her] ship," is a nod to the prohibition on interpersonal conflicts among Starfleet crewmembers imposed by Gene Roddenberry in the early seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and devoutly, if sometimes circuitously, adhered to during the Berman era.

Cast and characters[]

Sets and props[]

Special effects[]

Continuity[]

The opening titles have changed for this season as well, adding the aura effect that the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation added to its logo and the alien fight includes Apollo's large green hand grabbing the Borg cube, Tholians using a Tholian web to trap everyone, and V'ger appearing in the background.
Naomi Wildman is mentioned as being part of a group of Starfleet personnel who received an honorable mention on a list of the top 30 under 30% of their lifespan, though Boimler decries her as being "like, 10". Despite her young chronological age, she was previously established in Star Trek: Voyager as having a faster developmental rate (at least from infancy to young childhood) due to her half-Ktarian heritage, so she may in fact be significantly older developmentally than his comment suggests.
The quantum fissure encountered in this episode (along with the others found by the Cerritos the same month) is later revealed to be part of a series of intentionally created fissures in LD: "A Farewell To Farms".
This episode reveals that Mariner's full name is "Beckett Mariner Freeman" and she used her middle name as her last name to distance herself from her mother.
This episode reintroduces the blue-skinned Orions from TAS: "The Pirates of Orion", re-establishing them as another faction of the Orion Syndicate, with a rivalry existing between them and their green-skinned counterparts.
Becky Freeman has a riding stick like Captain Styles of the USS Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Links and references[]

Starring[]

Tawny Newsome as
- Becky Freeman
- Beckett Mariner
Jack Quaid as
- Beard Boimler
- Brad Boimler
Noël Wells as D'Vana Tendi
Eugene Cordero as
- Otherford
- Sam Rutherford
Dawnn Lewis as Carol Freeman
Jerry O'Connell as
- Jack Ransom
- Jack Ransom (alternate)
Fred Tatasciore as
- K'Levin
- Shaxs
- Shaxs (alternate)
- Taylor
- Taylor (alternate)
Gillian Vigman as
- Astrid
- T'Ana (alternate)

Guest cast[]

Eric Bauza as Yorif
Jessica McKenna as
- Barnes
- Cerritos Computer (alternate)
Gabrielle Ruiz as
- T'Lyn
- T'Lyn (alternate)
Paul Scheer as
- Andy Billups
- Andy Billups (alternate)
Carl Tart as
- Kayshon
- Kayshon (alternate)
- Hupyrian guard
Kari Wahlgren as L'Kar
Ariel Winter as D'Erika Tendi

Characters with unidentified voice actors

Kita
Alternate Cerritos ensign (off-screen voiceover)
Blue Orion 1
Blue Orion 2
Blue Orion 3
Green Orion messenger

Background characters[]

USS Cerritos

USS Cerritos (alternate)

Fleet photos

Previous episode:

"Old Friends, New Planets"

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Season 5

Next episode:

"Shades of Green"

Dos Cerritos (episode)

Contents

Summary[]

Teaser[]

Act One[]

Act Two[]

Act Three[]

Log entries[]

Memorable quotes[]

Background information[]

Title[]

Story and script[]

Cast and characters[]

Sets and props[]

Special effects[]

Continuity[]

Links and references[]

Starring[]

Guest cast[]

Background characters[]

References[]

Yorif's collection references[]

Fleet references[]

Tendi's captain's trinket references[]

Tamarian language references[]

Becky Freeman's captain's trinket references[]

Opening title sequence references[]

Meta references[]

External link[]

Fan Feed