So far, given its setting, Lower Decks’ particular areas of Trek fanservice have focused on the likes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine—give or take the occasional spacetime jaunt to Strange New Worlds. But in its season four premiere, the show is going to be casting its loving eye on the other Trek show of the ‘90s: the legendary Star Trek: Voyager.
Released by Entertainment Weekly today (you’ll have to click through to see), a clip from the first in a two-episode premiere for Lower Decks’ fourth season sets up the premise for the Cerritos crew’s newest mission: a top-secret escort of “the most beautiful work of art in Starfleet history,” as the alien curator who meets them tells them. He’s right, of course, because what they’re escorting is the USS Voyager.
It’s a very fun moment. The beauty shots of the ship, the fanfare of Voyager’s soaring title theme, and of course, Ensign Mariner losing her absolute shit at the prospect of getting to do something with Captain Janeway’s legendary vessel—at this point in Star Trek’s timeline, still relatively soon after its return from the Delta Quadrant. But it’s nice to see Lower Decks absolutely geek out about the ship in a way it’s not gotten to yet, compared to the TNG and DS9 fanservice before it. We got Tom Paris’ return last season, of course, but that was largely for Boimler to freak out over. Now everyone gets to freak out about Voyager in general, as they rightly should—although perhaps not for too long, considering the premiere episode is titled “Twovix,” in reference to perhaps Voyager’s most controversial episode ever.
Find out more about what transporter malfunction-based horrors may arise when Star Trek: Lower Decks returns to Paramount+ tomorrow, September 7—and be sure to stay tuned to io9 for our recap too!
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