Star Trek: Lower Decks Built An Entire Subplot Around Deep Space Nine's Most Hated Episode
In the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," called "In the Cradle of Vexilon," Lieutenants Tendi (Noël Wells), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Mariner (Tawny Newsome) are assigned a maddeningly difficult and menial task by their superior officer, a man they only refer to as Dirk. They are required to comb through hundreds and hundreds of isolinear computer chips, looking for the one that has an error. The room they're in fills with toxic gasses every few minutes, and the temperatures get unbearably hot. After a few hours on the job, the three lieutenants begin to surmise that their job isn't strictly necessary and that Dirk is secretly putting them through some sort of hazing ritual.
They instantly think of their revenge: Make Dirk play Chula.
Earlier in the episode, the trio entered a storage warehouse on the USS Cerritos and found it stocked with items and widgets seen in previous "Star Trek" episodes. Easter egg hunters will want to keep their eyes peeled.
One of the widgets is a Wadi game called Chula, an object that will be immediately recognizable to fans of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." As seen in the first-season episode "Move Along Home," which first aired on March 14, 1993, Chula was an elaborate escape-room-type game wherein the players are whisked into a pocket dimension to solve puzzles and pass through a series of increasingly elaborate chambers. An early room sees the players merely playing hopscotch, while a higher-level room fills with toxic gas. The game was brought on board Deep Space Nine by a traveling retinue of Wadi hailing from the Gamma Quadrant. Naturally, the crew of DS9 is unwittingly whisked into the Chula game.
"Move Along Home" is widely hated by Trekkies for its silly-ass conceit. Of course "Lower Decks" has mentioned it multiple times.
Allamaraine, count to four
The first appearance of the Wadi on "Lower Decks" came in "Reflections," the episode last season in which Ensigns Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Mariner (Tawny Newsome) were forced to work at a Starfleet recruitment tent at an off-world jobs fair. The job was boring, and the Starfleet tent was often overlooked by passers-by. Potential recruits instead were drawn to booths that hawked archaeology or collecting worldly goods. And yes, a nearby tent featured several Wadi hawking their Chula game. Later in "Reflections," Boimler has something of a meltdown over civilians insulting the integrity of Starfleet, and he begins to smash other tents, raving that a life in Starfleet is a more worthwhile life than anything the Wadi can provide. Boimler screams at the Wadi to stop trapping people in their games.
Judging by dialogue from "In the Cradle of Vexilon," the details of the Chula game are well-known across Starfleet, and, as we have now seen, one of the games is being stored in the above-mentioned warehouse. Mariner, Tendi, and Rutherford understand that they can trap people inside the game's pocket dimension, and they jury-rig the Chula game just inside of Dirk's quarters so he'll be forced inside of his when he returns to his bunk. Nothing goes as planned, however, and a different character ends up inside. Luckily, they know how to speed-run Chula, and that character hastily re-enacts scenes from "Move Along Home." It seems that, for these characters, playing Chula is like re-playing World 1-1 in "Super Mario Bros." Anyone can do it without thinking.
The "Lower Decks" characters see Chula as fascinating, but ultimately bothersome and annoying, a keen tool for a cruel prank. The characters on the show are simpatico with the Trekkies watching them. The showrunners clearly wanted to roll with the reputation of "Move Along Home" as one of the worst episodes of "Deep Space Nine," letting Mariner, Tendi, and Rutherford express just as much frustration with Chula as many viewers have.
Chula Vista
There may be something of a continuity error in "In the Cradle of Vexilon," however. And because we are Trekkies, our nitpicking muscles are incredibly well-developed.
Dirk mentioned that he encountered Chula when he was a boy. Note that Chula wasn't known in the Alpha Quadrant until the first season of "Deep Space Nine," which takes place in the year 2369. The fourth season of "Lower Decks," meanwhile, takes place in about the year 2383, only 14 years after "Move Along Home." Dirk says he was only a boy when he encountered the Wadi game, meaning he was — by a fair and general estimation — 11 at the oldest. That would mean Dirk — if he encountered Chula soon after it was seen on "Deep Space Nine" — is only 25 years old, max, by the time he served as a lieutenant on the USS Cerritos on "Lower Decks." The tragic tone of Dirk's story, however, implies that he was younger than 11, perhaps even as young as five or six. Given his rank and his receding hairline, he is definitely not 19 or 20. Cadets are usually 19 or 20. Something about Dirk's story doesn't shake out.
Of course, later in the episode, this discrepancy is cleverly accounted for in a subtle line of dialogue (no spoilers here), so maybe I'm nitpicking for no good reason. But then, nitpicking for no good reason is, as stated, a Trekkie's favorite hobby, so I thank you for the indulgence.