On the asteroid penal colony Tars Lamora, Dal R'El plots his escape, aided by some unlikely new friends.
Tropes:
- Apologetic Attacker: Rok-Tahk apologizes profusely to Gwyn after restraining her, and this is after about a minute of Gwyn trying to kill all of them.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Justified by Rok-Tahk's tough skin allowing her to grab Gwyn's blade with her bare hand. Gwyn has to melt and then reform the blade in her other hand to keep fighting.
- Beam Spam: The Protostar unleashes a serious phaser volley during the escape.
- Buffy Speak: Dal tells Rok-Tahk to find the "pew-pew-pew" button to fire the phasers, since he can't think of the proper name off the top of his head.
- Buried Alive: Averted, thanks to Rok-Tahk's Brikar physiology allowing her to survive the cave collapse that would have buried and/or crushed both her and Dal.
- Containment Clothing:
- As a Medusa, Zero had to build one herself (which she thinks is quite a feat for an Energy Being with no hands) to stop her driving insane anyone who lays eyes on her.
- Subverted with the Diviner who lives in what appears to be a Healing Vat...until the end of the episode when he smashes it open so he can access a starmap to search for the Protostar.
- Contrived Coincidence: Dal and Rok-Tahk just so happen to end up in the place where the Protostar has crashed, a ship that the Diviner has spent years searching for.
- Critical Staffing Shortage: Zero notes that a ship the size of the Protostar would require a crew of at least twenty (or thirty-seven appendages, depending on species). When Dal asks the bare minimum to get the ship into space, Zero lowers that requirement to an engineer, given its state of disrepair.
- Curse of Babel: Tars Lamora has outlawed the use of translation devices, as it keeps the prisoners from coordinating in anything other than the most basic of ways. Gwyn serves as a living Universal Translator, knowing every language the prisoners speak. Zero, meanwhile, can bypass the problem by communicating telepathically. Once Dal and Rok-Tahk find a Starfleet commbadge, communication is no longer an issue.
- Cute Kitten: The juvenile Caitian. Even cuter when Gwyn purr-fectly converses with it.
- Cut the Juice: When Dal is about to escape through an anti-gravity ore line that leads into orbit, the Diviner cuts power to the facility, literally killing his momentum once the gravity returns to normal.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Dal realises this is the best strategy to negotiate with a Tellarite.
- Extra-Long Episode: This is 45 minutes long rather than 22 minutes like the rest of the show.
- Facial Dialogue: Gwen can't help smiling when shown a hologram of the would-be escapee Dal, despite disparaging him in her conversation with the Diviner.
- Falling into the Cockpit: None of the characters have any experience with Federation technology, so their maiden flight of the Protostar is largely based on the most obvious controls they can decipher at a glance. Zero even admits to having almost no idea what they're doing, though they pick up basic maneuvering well enough. When it comes to firing weapons, they luck out when Murf lands on the panel responsible for that subsystem.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Murf activates the phasers, the panel also displays a photon torpedo inventory with various technical specifications on the weapons.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Gwyn talks the Diviner into giving her a chance to persuade Dal to find Zero, instead of handing him over to Drednok for interrogation. When Dal fails to come up with the goods Drednok takes over, but uses a Tricked into Escaping ploy rather than torture.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Dal steals Jankom's cargo transport during his first escape attempt.
- Hostage Situation: Dal suggests taking Gwyn hostage to escape from Drednok, which Zero initially rejects but Jankom decides is a great idea, forcing everyone else to go along with it. Taking her hostage ultimately proves to be redundant, however, as the ship itself is of far greater value to the Diviner and his unwillingness to damage it is what allows them to escape.
- Indy Ploy: It lampshaded constantly that Dal is just making a series of bad decisions and hoping it all works out.
- Liar Revealed: Downplayed. When Zero reveals Dal's deal with Gwyn, Rok accuses him of lying to them. Dal immediately points out that they've only been able to communicate for a short time, so he hasn't had time to lie to them.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The Diviner is hiding the existence of the USS Protostar from Gwyn because he does not want the ideals of the Federation affecting her judgement before she is ready. When Drednok says the ship's name in her presence, revealing that he's always known it was on Tars Lamora, the robot sardonically tells her that this is what her father has been trying to find.
- The Most Wanted: Zero is this to the whole prison, as them remaining at large gives hope to the other prisoners, something the Diviner doesn't want.
- Mythology Gag: Dal echos the Romulan commander from "Balance of Terror".Dal: You know, different circumstances, we could have been friends.
- Psychic Block Defense: Zero notes that the Diviner's mind is unreadable, though his intent comes through.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The Diviner's final line in the episode.The Diviner: Get. Me. MY SHIP!
- Scotty Time: Jankom Pog wants a week to get the Protostar flying. Dal gives him one day on account of the deal he cut with Gwyn.
- Shout-Out: Dal does his best Jack Sparrow impression as he ascends on the ore cart.
- Slow Doors: Averted; Dal gets his stolen transport stuck in them, and breaks the front pilot section free in a huge explosion.
- Switch to English:Gwyn: (speaks Vau N'Akat)
Diviner: Progeny of Solum, you may speak in Standard. I know you favor this primitive tongue. - Tempting Fate: Dal muses to himself that the tunnel labeled "ore smasher" probably isn't as bad as it sounds. It's actually much worse, being a lengthy tunnel with dozens of rock smashers.
- Vocal Dissonance: Once the Universal Translator starts working, Dal is surprised to find the growling Rock Monster is actually a little girl, and nowhere near hostile.
- Weaponized Exhaust: When he's grabbed by Drednok and about to be killed, Dal communicates to Zero to turn the ship sideways. The act of doing so fires a maneuvering thruster that sends Drednok flying, causing him to drop Dal in the process.
- Who's on First?: Dal briefly mistakes "Rok-Tahk" for the name of her language, instead of her proper name.
- Working on the Chain Gang: A variation in that it happens for safety reasons.