A minor Star Trek: The Next Generation character gets amusing update

Star Trek: Lower Decks revisits a Star Trek: The Next Generation character.

Star Trek: Lower Decks has a way of including Easter eggs in the most amusing way, and they’re often so subtle if you blink, you’ll miss it. That’s what happened with the season three premiere of the series. It opens with a Federation News Network broadcast recapping the wrongful arrest of Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and sets up her upcoming trial. But it’s the bottom of the screen, as Screenrant points out, where fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will get a chuckle.

In the first season finale of The Next Generation, “The Neutral Zone,” the Enterprise encountered an abandoned spacecraft carrying cryopods. There were three people, all from the 21st century, still alive inside the pods, and when Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) woke them up, it was a shock to their system, well, to all but one of the—country singer L.Q. “Sonny” Clemonds who felt right at home. And that’s where the bottom of the news broadcast from Lower Decks comes into play.

Giving an update on such a minor character from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a laugh-out loud moment.

As it turns out, Sonny’s career is on the upswing, and he’s living the good life in the 24th century. There is one downside to his revamped singing career as, according to ticker at the bottom of the broadcast, a group of excited teenage fans were injured in a “Country Stampede” as they tried to get closer to the singer.

This nod to the first season of The Next Generation was a pure stroke of comedic genius and a great way to make sure fans really pay attention when they’re watching (or watch each episode more than once).