Yep, Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Doesn't Ignore The Strange New Worlds Crossover
This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 4.
With over a half-century of TV shows and films to sort through, I'm always surprised at how well each new "Star Trek" show manages to connect back to the official canon. Sure, "Star Trek" has been subject to many a retcon over the years – including several welcome improvements to outdated '60s Trek – but for a franchise with 12 shows to its name, it's often kept its lore surprisingly tidy.
With its late place in Trek chronology and "second contact" premise, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" has always been especially good at pointing out plot holes and updating mythology, and now, with its latest season, Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Mariner (Tawny Newsome) have become a part of that mythology. Between seasons 3 and 4 of the animated series, the dynamic (and chaotic) duo popped over to "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," making a live-action debut in an episode that melded the sensibilities and humor of both shows.
'That Pike thing'
In the season 4 premiere of "Lower Decks," Mariner makes it clear that, unlike some TV crossover events that seem to be forgotten by each character as soon as they happen, the events of "Those Old Scientists" were canon. When Boimler gets nervous about handling the historically important equipment on the Voyager, Mariner points out that this should actually be really low-stakes compared to what they did during the off-season. "Dude, this is nothing compared to, you know, that Pike thing we aren't supposed to talk about," Mariner discreetly notes when no one is listening.
It makes sense that the pair wouldn't talk much about their time aboard the original Enterprise, given that their portal time-traveling side quest could have messed up their entire future if they didn't zip it. They didn't follow directions well at the time, but now that they have a new secret to guard — the fact that they used future knowledge to help rehabilitate the reputation of Orion culture back in the past — Boimler and Mariner would do best to keep quiet about their crossover.
Why didn't we hear more about the crossover?
Fans looking for more references to the live-action adventure will be disappointed in the premiere, as we only get this one-off line that was already featured in the season's trailer. Aside from the logical narrative reason for the pair to keep quiet, it's also possible that there were production reasons for the brief mention. The crossover event was announced in summer 2022, but it's unclear when it was written in relation to the regular season episodes of both shows.
Perhaps the "Lower Decks" writers wanted to avoid the problem that's befallen interconnected shows and films in the MCU and DCEU before, when one project includes an overly specific reference that ends up making no sense when the other project comes out. Instead, they kept the Pike mention simple, so we know that it actually canonically happened without muddying the waters between the two shows more than we need to. Frankly, the quick aside also seems par for the course for "Lower Decks," a brisk show in which so many wild misadventures happen per episode that it's hard for us — or the Lower Deckers — to keep track of them all.
Regardless, we can all sleep peacefully now knowing that even if he never told Tendi (Noel Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) about it, Boimler did in fact get to meet the guy he dressed as for Halloween — and help him avoid an interplanetary incident. Boimler and Mariner's adventure might not end up in the history books, but they still made it into the canon.
New episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" stream Thursdays on Paramount+.