The Cerritos needs repairs and must visit the oft-mentioned and always-maligned Starbase 80.

The base’s reputation is so bad that Mariner pleads for them to set course for the next closest base – which is over 400 years away at sub-warp speeds. This week we get plenty of callbacks to Enterprise what with the uniforms plus the infamous decontamination gel scene. Otherwise, it’s a homage to zombie stories but is too comic to truly be called horror.

It also basically plays out as A Quest – for the replacement parts they need. One team consists of the usual Lower Decks quartet, while the second is Freeman and Ransom. Alas, that makes for a rather thin episode even with the zombies thrown in. It’s little more than a series of near misses with them almost finding the part before, ooops, no, not there after all.

The base’s chief engineer leads Freeman and Ransom on a merry snipe hunt before confessing his true identity. Kassia Nox, another officer assigned to the base, helps Mariner and company try to avoid the zombies. We learn she’s El-Aurian (Guinan’s species) but not at all advanced in years. In an unsuccessful attempt at a red herring, it’s supposed to look like she’s working against them instead of with them.

The payoff for both storylines is weak. In another callback, the Tarchannen III parasite from the season 3 TNG episode “Identity Crisis” turns out to be causing everyone who uses their combadge to turn into a zombie. And the engineer just wanted help getting his own base repaired before Cerritos went on its way. After getting the replacement part, Freeman and crew do stay a bit longer to help with even more repairs on the Starbase.

The idea that a starbase can’t get – let alone replicate – the supplies it needs to maintain itself is utterly absurd, and not in a good way. It undercuts the intended (good) message that people judge Starbase 80 too harshly for things out of its control and shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

Verdict: A visit during which Starbase 80 redeems itself. 7/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com