The Least Dangerous Game was written by Garrick Bernard and debuted on 1 September, 2022.
While Boimler (Jack Quaid) makes some big choices for his career (saying yes!), Mariner (Tawny Newsome) finds herself questioning Ransom’s (Jerry O’Connell) his leadership and away team structure while they are on a tropical planet. Billups (Paul Scheer) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) get mired in a diplomatic incident while Ransom and Mariner work on an orbital lift. She ignores his orders and plans to go down to the planet to help.
Boimler saying yes to everything leads to the ensign agreeing to be hunted by a large dangerous alien (with a couple of nods to Predator along the way).
The trivia and fun are plentiful in this episode Bat’leths and BiHnuchs is a riff on Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s hosted by Martok (J.G. Hertzler). There’s a nod to the Kelvin-verse with a skydiving scene.
This one is delightful and has a lot of great moments, as well as playing with some classic Trek tropes.
Mining the Mind’s Mines was written by Brian D. Bradley and it first aired on 8 September, 2022.
Tendi (Noel Wells) has her first day as a Senior Science Officer Trainee. She has a little trouble when she finds out her senior officer mentor is Dr. Migleemo (Paul F. Tompkins). She is worried she’s going to screw everything up, and goes to Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman) for some support.
The Cerritos reaches a remote outpost where a series of stones are bringing fantasies (and eventually nightmares) to life and turning people into stone statues. Boimler and the rest of his Beta Shift pals are going to have to figure it out, but they are also going to have to work with their counterparts from a sister shift, who aren’t too keen on talking or dealing with the Cerritos crew.
Apparently the Cerritos crew has a bit of a reputation.
Aboard the Cerritos, Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) seems to be clashing with her captain counterpart, Maier (Baron Vaughn), over diplomacy and… age?
The storylines come together when there’s a secret discovered, and it’s all thanks to Tendi and her other lower deckers.
Susan Gibney returns as Leah Brahms; we see the USS Hood; there’s a member of the Zaldan species who were last seen in Coming of Age, a Season 1 TNG episode, and there’s a Bridge Science Officer Manual written by Spock. And that cosmic Koala Bear gets another mention.
Room For Growth was written by John Cochran and first aired on 15 September, 2022.
Beta Shift clashes with Delta Shift
The Engineering Staff are ordered on mandatory relaxation leave. Freeman has been working them hard, so she’s organized a getaway for them, though none of them seem to want to go. But can they let go of any tech work and ‘relax’ or is that how they relax? And what if all of that breaks Freeman?
There’s a room lottery going on, which could lead to our lower deckers getting new quarters that aren’t in a hallway. This is the thrust of the main clash between Boimler and his fellow Beta Shifters and their nemesis Delta! But are they really enemies?
We get a hilarious look at T’Ana and Shaxs’ (Fred Tatasciore) holodeck program as well as a hint at their relationship.
There’s a reference to TNG’s Season 7 episode, Masks. Boimler steals a line from Sisko. There’s an engineer aboard Cerritos who has a VISOR like Geordi.
Damn, this episode is really funny. I love this series so much, and each episode works so well and it’s always Trek. Go boldly!
