Annotations for *Star Trek: Lower Decks* 4x10: “OId Friends, New Planets” (SPOILERS)

The narrator for the “Previously on…” segment sounds like Jonathan Frakes.

Starfleet Academy was founded in 2161 and first appeared on-screen in TNG: “The First Duty”. The flashback takes place in 2368 (13 years prior to 2381), the same year that episode took place.

Josh is Joshua Albert, the member of Nova Squadron who died when rehearsing the Kolvoord Starburst maneuver which underpins “The First Duty”. He was already deceased when the episode began, so never made an appearance. With him are Nick Locarno, Sito Jaxa (voiced by Shannon Fill) and Wesley Crusher (voiced by Wil Wheaton). Jean Hajar is missing, but she could be the small figure that is walking with the group and then turns to jog away at the start of the flashback.

Since Locarno is planning the Starburst maneuver, this means that it’s nearing the end of the academic year of 2367-2368. Mariner’s presence confirms that the latest she could have joined the Academy is in 2367, and since the earliest age she could have joined is 17, she is at least 31 in the present day. Sito’s remark about Mariner sounding like her “when I was a first year” seems to confirm this is Mariner’s freshman year.

Mariner’s xeno-history class covers the Preservers, who were a precursor race that transplanted a group of Native Americans to another planet (named in the script but not on-screen as Amerind), leaving behind an obelisk to protect the planet from asteroids (TOS: “The Paradise Syndrome”). The Xindi were the multi-species race that were the principle antagonists in ENT’s third season.

Nova One and Nova Fleet are obviously named after Nova Squadron. Coupled with the Kolvoord Starburst logo on his jacket (and the Klingon Bird of Prey), it seems Nick has had trouble letting go of the past.

Admiral Vassery last appeared in LD: “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”. Admiral Alonzo Freeman, Mariner’s father, last appeared in LD: “Grounded” (although a photo of him also appeared in LD: “Mining the Mind’s Mines”).

Of course, Locarno looks like Tom Paris because both characters are acted by Robert Duncan McNeil. Let’s not go into the whole royalty urban myth here.

The Maquis were an insurgent movement trying to drive the Cardassians out of the Demilitarized Zone set up after the Federation-Cardassian wars. They were introduced in DS9 and played a major role in that series as well as in VOY.

Crews listening to Locarno’s address include Andorians, Independent Archeologist Petra Aberdeen (last seen in LD: “The Stars at Night”) and Tamarians. The “Detrion” system could be a misspelling of the Detrian system, a planetary system visited by the Enterprise-D in TNG: “Ship in a Bottle”.

Ransom summarizes Locarno’s sins from “The First Duty”.

Locarno unveils a black market Ferengi Genesis Device seen in “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”. The Genesis Device was first seen in ST II and is capable of terraforming planetary environments instantly, wiping out any existing ecosphere (which is why it was supposed to be tested on a currently lifeless planet). Potentially, it could create planets, and did once, albeit an unstable one, in ST III.

The Trynar Shield is so named because it has three Bynars operating it.

Goodgey, the good part of the now-ascended ex-homicidal AI Badgey, was last seen in LD: “For a Few Badgeys More”, where the other lower deckers were understandably cautious about his working on the ship.

“Cerritos strong” as a rallying cry was first used by a holographic version of Freeman in LD: “Crisis Point” and by the real Freeman in LD: “First First Contact”. T’Lyn has been reading the ship’s logs, one assumes.

The ship that Mariner commandeers is a Steamrunner-class, first seen in ST: FC. The ship itself is the USS Passaro, NCC-52670, named after Fabio Passaro, a CGI artist who has worked on Star Trek related media like the Eaglemoss models, but has since passed away. Another USS Passaro, a Gagarin-class, was seen in PIC: “The Last Generation” near Sol Station.

(According to @BradinLA on X, this Passaro is a Sabrerunner-class, with Steamrunner-class aesthetics in a Sabre-class size.)

Freeman’s command code override is 06107.2. Mariner has had a lot of practice escaping space stations and stealing ships. Her workout program on the holodeck is staging Cardassian prison breaks and stealing a starship to escape (LD: “Strange Energies”).

D’Erika and Orion last appeared in LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”. Sword and Scabbard is perhaps the melee weapon equivalent of Guns & Ammo magazine?

Mariner questions whether you can have three Bynars, since Bynars usually work and live in pairs (TNG: “11001001”). Her moving into the ring system of the planet is reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon hiding in an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back.

Rule of Acquisition 91: “Your boss is only worth what he pays you” and Rule 289: “Shoot first, count profits later” are new rules, never mentioned before on-screen or in beta canon.

Billups’ willingness to defend the Cerritos’s honor as her Chief Engineer is what Scotty did in TOS: “The Trouble with Tribbles”, where he kept his cool while the Klingons insulted Kirk, but finally lost it when they trash talked the Enterprise.

“Look at the size of that thing!” was Wedge Antilles’ reaction when first seeing the Death Star in Star Wars.

ENS Livik is Rutherford’s nemesis/rival, first introduced in LD: “I Have No Bones and I Must Flee”. Sorting things out with a stint on the Mark Twain riverboat holodeck program is from the same episode.

Ion storms are standard hazards in Star Trek, appearing in many episodes. This particular one is reminiscent of the Mutara Nebula in ST II, especially the camera angles, music, lighting, and static effects on the viewscreen when Locarno pursues Mariner into it.

Not exactly sure how 12-dimensional chess would work, but 3-dimensional chess is a regular game in Star Trek (first seen way back in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”), with the Four Dimension variant introduced in Diane Duane’s novel My Enemy, My Ally.

The James Horner ST II style music is strong in the Orion destroyer sequence. The shot of the destroyer crashing into the shield is like the Super Star Destroyer crashing into the Death Star in Return of the Jedi.

Boimler’s remark about never seeing someone actually using the captain’s yatch is true. We saw Cerritos’s captain’s yacht in several episodes but it was never taken out. Similarly, the Enterprise-D had one (the Calypso) but it was never used. The Enterprise-E’s yacht, the Cousteau, was used in ST: Insurrection.

Locarno points a pump-action phaser rifle at Mariner, the same type used by Beverley Crusher in PIC: “The Next Generation”.

“Mirab, with sails unfurled,” is Tamarian for “Let’s depart/travel,” (TNG: “Darmok”).

The Genesis Device detonates much the same way its predecessor blew up the Reliant at the end of ST II, with the same nebula rings accompanying it while the yacht zooms off like the Enterprise did. It even forms an M-class planet like the Genesis Planet, except this one seems stable. Starfleet names it Locarno, since his atoms are part of it. Start your speculations on whether this will bring him back to life.