Movies - TV
Star Trek: Lower Decks Directly Addresses One Of Starfleet's Biggest Blindspots
By JEREMY MATHAI
Spoiler Warning!
This story contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" Season 3: Episode 9.
Trekkies have long poked fun at the ongoing narrative of Starfleet arriving on an alien world, finding some obscure loophole around the Prime Directive to interfere in their affairs, and promptly leaving orbit never to return. Season 3 Episode 9 of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” finally confronted this recurring trope head-on.
The episode entitled “Trusted Sources” expands on Carol Freeman’s “swing-by” initiative as they travel back to Ornara, a planet that Captain Jean-Luc Picard once famously came across in an episode of "The Next Generation." Having once again set off to other parts of the universe and left the planet to fend for itself, Picard's actions ultimately necessitated the Cerritos' new follow-up mission 17 years later.
Ornara has flourished since Starfleet's intervention, but the crew stumbles upon an occupation force of the villainous Breen on their planetary neighbor, Brekka — a development they never would've discovered if they hadn't circled back. This not only proves the wisdom of Carol’s initiative, but it also finally addresses a longstanding (and quite amusing) blindspot in the Starfleet MO.