Star Trek: Lower Decks Confronts The Elephant In The Room With A Hilarious Meta Joke
This post contains spoilers for the season 4 finale of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."
At the end of the last episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," the season's villain was finally revealed. Throughout the season, a mysterious white UFO was flying about the quadrant, merrily exploding random non-Federation ships. Over the course of several episodes, it was revealed that the UFO, its pilot unknown, was actually transporting its victims to a distant planet, and not killing them. In "The Inner Fight," the face of the pilot was finally revealed: It was none other than Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), a character not seen since a 1992 episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Locarno was, of course, a hotshot would-be pilot attending Starfleet Academy in the episode "The First Duty" (March 30, 1992). In the episode, he convinced several friends — including Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) — to fly a particularly dangerous stunt maneuver during a flight show. The stunt ended up killing a classmate, and Locarno likewise convinced his friends to cover up his culpability. He was eventually caught and drummed out of Starfleet. Now, 13 years later, Locarno has re-emerged and is even played by the same actor.
McNeill, however, also played a very similar character named Tom Paris, one of the regular characters on "Star Trek: Voyager." Paris, it seems, was directly modeled on Locarno, and the "Voyager" creators even briefly considered making them the same character. But Locarno was rejected because he killed a student, and that wasn't a good place to start with a new series.
In the newest "Lower Decks" episode, Lieutenant Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) comments that Locarno looks an awful lot like Tom Paris. Lieutenant Boimler (Jack Quaid), meanwhile, claims he doesn't see the similarity.
Tom Paris, meet Nick Locarno
The exchange between Boimler and Rutherford is, of course, a cute way for the makers of "Lower Decks" to acknowledge that both Nick Locarno and Tom Paris are played by the same actor. Indeed, mixing them up is a sweet wink to Trekkies who know about the production history of "Voyager," and the brief, above-mentioned consideration of making Locarno a regular character on that show. When audiences first met Tom Paris, he was in prison, likely the same place Locarno would have been when "Voyager" began.
As far as I can recall, this might be the only time in "Star Trek" history when such an acknowledgment has been made. It's rare that an actor will return to "Trek" and characters on the show will remark on their striking similarity to another person. This will only happen if the same actor is playing two members of the same family (Denise Crosby playing both Tasha Yar and Sela, for instance, or the many members of the Soong clan played by Brent Spiner). Jeffrey Combs, for instance, played six characters throughout various "Star Trek" shows, and not once has anyone remarked that they all look or sound kind of like Jeffrey Combs. Actor Vaughn Armstrong currently holds the record for having played the most "Star Trek" characters on camera, holding steady at 11. No one told the Hirogen Alpha, however, that he looked a lot like that one Vidiian captain.
Robert Duncan McNeill has only played the two roles on "Star Trek," but how entertaining for the makers of "Lower Decks" to point that out.
Technically, McNeill played three roles, as his voice cameo as Tom Paris on "Lower Decks" was that of a hallucinated talking Tom Paris collector's plate.