The Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Premiere Is Jam-Packed With Voyager Easter Eggs
This post contains spoilers for the season 4 premiere of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."
The first episode of the fourth season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," called "Twovix," plunges Trekkies straight into a cauldron of "Star Trek: Voyager" references. It's as if the writers had been saving up all their "Voyager" jokes and, golly, just couldn't stand holding back any longer. Fans of Captain Janeway and her famous, decades-old vessel will have a bloody field day spotting all the references to particular 1990s episodes, and seeing the hallways and bridge of the U.S.S. Voyager realized in animation will certainly provide a thrill. The makers of "Lower Decks" even threw in a few notable notes from Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral theme song, and cast "Voyager" actor Ethan Phillips in a notable supporting role. Those "Voyager" fans are of an intrepid class.
Even the plot of "Twovix" is a spiritual sequel to the "Voyager" episode "Tuvix" (May 6, 1996), an infamous chapter in the show's history wherein a transporter accident merged the characters of Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Neelix (Phillips). The resulting entity, Tuvix (Tom Wright) argued that it loved being alive in its new state and that Tuvok and Neelix were now dead. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) found a way to separate Tuvix back into her two old crew members and proceeded to resurrect them ... at the express protestations of Tuvix. He pleaded for his life, and Janeway murdered him.
The episode still comes up to this day, and Janeway is often lambasted for outright killing Tuvix in cold blood. Indeed, Ensign Mariner (Tawny Newsome) even points out Janeway's ethical failure. "Twovix," thanks to Voyager's propensity for such things, sees two of the characters from the U.S.S. Cerritos "Tuvixed" into one. Then two more are Tuvixed. Soon, a dozen characters have become a half dozen characters.
Oh, and there's much more besides.
The Voyager Museum
"Lower Decks," it should be remembered, takes place only shortly after the events of "Star Trek: Nemesis," about five years after the conclusion of "Voyager," but a few decades prior to the events of the third season of "Star Trek: Picard." That means in "Lower Decks," the U.S.S. Voyager has only recently been decommissioned and is in the process of being converted into a museum. The ship is to be transported to Earth, where it will stay for a few years before eventually being transported to a starship museum out in the solar system by the time "Picard" takes place. The Voyager is in full working order and has holo-emitters installed in every hallway. The Cerritos crew has the job of arranging mannequins (wearing mission-worn uniforms) and dusting off the exhibits commemorating notable adventures the ship has been on.
While prepping the Voyager, the "Lower Decks" characters throw out multiple jokey references. Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) is impressed by the ship's bio-gel computer systems and makes a reference to the episode "Learning Curve" (May 22, 1995), specifically about how Neelix once produced a rare kind of cheese that infected the biological elements of the ship. "I'm familiar with the Neelix cheese," Ethan Phillips' guest character whines.
Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid) carries a mannequin of Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), a "Voyager" character famous for remaining an ensign for seven straight years. It might be telling that a "Lower Decks" character — notoriously disrespected and ignored — should be holding a mannequin of the Voyager's least-respected crew member. Janeway, Tuvix, Neelix, Tuvok, and Chakotay are all mentioned by name, but no one says anything about Harry Kim.
Michael Sullivan, the Clown, and Chaotica!
While the crew of the Cerritos has to wrangle various characters being Tuvixed, others have a heck of a time dodging even more references. It seems one of the massive flying virus monsters from the episode "Macrocosm" (December 11, 1996) has survived on board, and has begun wreaking havoc. The virus monster accidentally activates some long-dormant holographic programs in the ship's database, and manifests a trio of villains that immediately attack. There is the 1950s sci-fi villain Doctor Chaotica (Martin Rayner), who served as the antagonist of Tom Paris' favorite holodeck adventure series, and who appeared in three notable "Voyager" episodes.
Also present is Michael Sullivan (Fintan McKeown), the holographic 19th-century Irish barback whom Captain Janeway briefly considered dating. He wasn't really a villain, but he was noted as an intense distraction; Michael Sullivan makes out with Ensign Mariner. The character only appeared in two "Voyager" episodes in 2000.
Curiously, the Voyager also manifests the Clown (Michael McKean), the villain from "The Thaw" (April 29, 1996), one of the best "Voyager" episodes. As Mariner points out, however, the Clown was not a holodeck program. The Voyager crew once found a small group of people held in cryogenic stasis pods on a distant planet. To keep their minds occupied, the frozen people had their brains wired into a V.R. machine similar to the Matrix. Their emotions, however, began to manifest as physical beings inside the simulation, and their collective fear became the Clown, a sadistic creature that enjoyed torturing and killing them.
Mariner's confusion is appropriate. Why would the Voyager crew create a holographic simulation of a fear monster they abandoned on a distant planet? Regardless, the Clown is here.
The clarinet, the salamanders, the stench of Borg
And there are even more references to be found. One of the macrovirus monsters can be seen flying through the air with a clarinet stabbed through its body. That clarinet is, of course, the instrument played by Harry Kim throughout the series. The macrovirus also knocks over one of the Borg alcoves used by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), the Voyager's cyborg crew member. It seems there are still some Borg nanobots residing inside the alcove, as the macrovirus is assimilated and immediately became a Borg/virus/clarinet monster.
Also assimilated by the borg is a robotic salamander that one might glimpse in a miniature diorama in one of the Voyager's hallways. The salamander exhibit is clearly paying homage to the episode "Threshold" (January 29, 1996) wherein Tom Paris and Captain Janeway break the Warp-10 barrier, forcing them to evolve into salamander creatures. They mate and have salamander babies before being rescued and restored to their human shape. Perhaps embarrassingly for Paris and Janeway, the event will be forever commemorated in a robotic diorama.
And yes, because there were so many Borg characters on "Voyager," a "Lower Decks" character must comment that the ship smells like Borg. I imagine the Borg have the same odor as an overheated office printer.
It's telling that, apart from Michael Sullivan, the "Voyager" references all come from the early seasons of the series. It may be that the makers of "Lower Decks" — along with many Trekkies, if we're being honest — tuned out of "Voyager" after the first three years or so. As such, the first three seasons stand out in the memory more sharply than the later ones; characters know more about Neelix cheese than they do about, say, Unimatrix Zero.