Star Trek: Lower Decks wasted the potential of Nova Fleet

Star Trek: Lower Decks brought in the Nova Fleet but wasted its potential.

Star Trek: Lower Decks came up with a great idea. One that could’ve redefined Star Trek as we know it, but because it’s a comedy, with minimal impact on the greater narrative of the franchise, they ended up pooching it for comedic effect. And if that isn’t the definition of this show’s history, we don’t know what is.

Lower Decks brought back Star Trek: The Next Generation character Nick Locarno, once again played by Robert Duncan McNeill. McNeill, who also played Tom Paris on Star Trek: Voyager, returned to his first Trek role as Locarno, the former leader of Nova Squad, an elite group of students at Starfleet Academy.

Locarno covered up the death of a classmate, and so was expelled from the academy. The former leader of the Nova Squad would later return to the fold, trying to recruit Beckett Mariner to join him, as they had a passing awareness of one another at the academy.

Locarno was responsible for destroying various ships across the quadrants, but his plan was bigger than that, recruiting a series of ships to join him in what he dubbed the Nova Fleet. Helping species from across the Alpha and Beta Quadrant rebel against their former governments, he built a new fleet filled with ships from other governments to form the Nova Fleet.

And what an idea. An idea that lasted an entire episode.

Star Trek: Lower Decks flubs the Nova Fleet

At the end of the season four finale, Locarno is killed off, all for a bad joke about the Ferengi. After his death, the fleet fled in various directions, seemingly ending the group before it made any headway. It was a great idea, with the perfect leader in Locarno, who could’ve really had a great villain arc in Trek.

But they killed him off, thus seemingly breaking up the group. Maybe they’re not done and gone, and maybe the Nova Fleet will return in time. But it won’t be the same, not without Locarno at the helm.

Now, there may be another twist, maybe with former Nova Squad member Wesley Crusher emerging as the new Nova Fleet leader, or maybe they would do a twist like revealing Sito Jaxa, who both Mariner and Locarno knew and linked the two together, was still alive after all and hadn’t died as we thought on the Next Generation’s “Lower Decks” episode.

While Lower Decks (the show) may have pooched the story arc, there is a way to revive it, but it may not be worth exploring further on Lower Decks, who treats everything for laughs. And a rogue, nWo style fleet taking on the powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant deserves to be taken seriously.