Star Trek: Lower Decks has connected itself to an iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.
Star Trek: Lower Decks has promised some big moments in the final few episodes of the fourth season and series creator Mike McMahan has not disappointed. In the ninth episode of the season, “Cave”, we find out that Beckett Mariner, the featured character of Lower Decks has a depressing past that involves the Next Generation’s saddest characters.
In an emotional reveal to a Klingon, Mariner reveals that she’s the way she is because of what happened to her friend, former Next Generation character Sito Jaxa. Jaxa appeared in “The First Duty” and later “Lower Decks”, the latter of which we find out about her death in an undercover mission gone wrong.
Her death apparently rocked Mariner, who decided she never wanted to be someone in a position of power, so she never had to send her friends to their possible deaths. It’s a heart-breaking reveal that smartly ties Lower Decks to its namesake.
Star Trek: Lower Deck borrowing from its namesake was just smart.
Considering that the Lower Decks show took its name from The Next Generation’s season seven episode, aptly named “Lower Decks”, it only makes sense that the show would borrow one of its better characters.
Sito Jaxa is one of The Next Generation’s most sorrowful characters. A member of the famed academy group, Nova Squad, she was involved in a wrongful death coverup that affected her career, but when she came back for Lower Decks, she was hellbent on earning her spot and proving to everyone she was better than her mistakes.
And so when the reveal at the end of the aptly dubbed episode came, and fans found out about her passing, everyone was shaken. It was such an out-of-nowhere reveal and fans still to this day talk about how upsetting it was.
To have Lower Decks come in, talk about that moment, and tie its lasting effects to a modern character was a genius maneuver. It gave some heft to the moment that didn’t seem to last beyond the episode and it gave Mariner a realistic motive for her erratic and unbecoming behavior.