The title, an inversion of the series’ name, indicates the focus in this episode on the bridge crew. It is the flip side of and a play on TNG: “Lower Decks”, an episode focused on the lower deckers when the series is mainly about the bridge crew.

Whatever Stardate it is, it’s Halloween on Cerritos. Although Picard seemed to be unfamiliar with the holiday in TNG: “The Big Goodbye”, McCoy makes reference to it in TOS: “Catspaw”. Mariner used to dress as Toby the Targ for Halloween (LD: “Crisis Point”) and Boimler dressed once as Christopher Pike (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”). As a bit of trivia, the registry number for the USS Discovery, NCC-1031, was allegedly chosen by Bryan Fuller because he loved Halloween.

V’Ger is the antagonist in TMP, and Mariner quotes the Ilia probe from the movie’s climax. This season, V’Ger joined the ever crowded starship battle in the opening credits.

Boimler’s mustache has finally joined up with his goatee, although his muttonchops have yet to. His line about how the lower deckers are the stars of the show while the commanders fade into the background is a meta comment on LD itself.

Steve Stevens makes another appearance, this time a speaking one, and he appears to be assisting Freeman now rather than following Ransom around as he used to.

Barnes is a Trill Operations Officer who used to date Rutherford (LD: “Second Contact”). The most memorable example of a pathogen causing devolution is from TNG: “Genesis”, where a mutated T-cell allowed dormant genes to be transferred from one person to another. Nurse Ogawa, in particular, devolved into an ape-like form.

The Clickets, an insectoid race that treated thanks as a hostile gesture, first appeared in LD: “Veritas”.

Shax’s hallucination reminds me of the multiple Shaxes Rutherford thinks about when he’s trying to figure out how Shax returned from the dead (LD: “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”).

Freeman says she doesn’t want the buhgoon defecating all over the hull. Coincidentally enough, the Cambodian word for “toilet” is bangkon, which is pronounced similarly.

Billups talks about Cordry Rocks in the ceiling which Ransom complains always fall on him when they take damage. This is the first time anyone in-universe has ever acknowledged the rock-like material that flies about whenever consoles explode since TNG. Billups starts to technobabble that that “their non-centrosymmetry disrupts the charge leptons in the isolinear pathways of the main deflector, which then causes…” but is cut off. The rocks may be named after Marian Cordry, who works at the Star Trek Archive & Library at Paramount Global.

The Professor is a Grazerite, the same species as Federation President Jaresh-Inyo (DS9: “Homefront”). Ransom calls the buhgoon “space cows”. They are an extremophile, much like tardigrades are known as “water bears”. Tardigrades in the Trek universe can grow to much larger sizes than their microscopic terrestrial counterparts, of course (DIS “Choose Your Pain”).

Delta Shift, formerly the nemeses of our Beta Shift, has been assigned the task of bringing a buhgoon on board. The auburn-haired ensign is Moxy, who first appeared in LD: “Terminal Provocations” (from her forehead markings she could be a Trill). The one blaming “Ensign Friendly” is Karavitus, who also first appeared in “Terminal Provocations”. The burly male is Hans Federov, better known as “Towel Guy”, who was finally given a first name in LD: “The Stars at Night”. “Friendly” is Ensign Castro (from Beta Shift), who first appeared in LD: “Envoys” and is also voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz (T’Lyn).

We see the shuttles Kings Canyon, Yosemite II, Joshua Tree II and Redwood, named after Californian National Parks. The original Yosemite shuttle crashed in LD: “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie” and Joshua Tree in LD: “Grounded”.

Tempasa was a settlement on Bajor, outside of which was located a Cardassian heavy weapons unit. Kira and her resistance cell raided and destroyed it (DS9: “Ties of Blood and Water”), although her father died while she was away on the mission. Shax’s flashback to Tempasa explains how he got his right eye scarred.

Nurse Westlake is named after Chris Westlake, composer for LD’s soundtrack. He first appeared in “Second Contact” and has been around throughout the show, although this is the first time we’ve heard him speak. Westlake talks about viruses that can make “everyone sing or whatever”. While not viral-based, a singing plague did strike in SNW: “Subspace Rhapsody”.

The PADD schedule notes Barnes’ sousaphone recital, a fertility event, and Winger Bingston Jr’s One Man Show, “The United Federation of Characters”, last seen performed in LD: “Moist Vessel”.

The buhgoon have a natural cloaking ability. Other species with biological invisibility include the Jem’hadar (DS9: “The Jem’hadar”), Tosk (DS9: “Captive Pursuit”), Xaheans (ST: “Runaway”), the itronok of Trill (DIS: “Jinaal”). Technically, the Devidians as well, since their natural state is being out of phase (TNG: “Time’s Arrow”).

Bingston’s line “Stuck out of phase, like Geordi and Ro wandering alone,” refers to the events of TNG: “The Next Phase”. The USS Manticore is a Manticore-class destroyer in Star Trek Online, but Bingston’s line implies this is an Oberth-class vessel of that name. Stevens wakes up clapping, much like Riker does in TNG: “Schisms”.

The alien ship is of Clicket design, last seen in “Veritas”.

“Dumber than Fletcher,” says one of the Delta Shifters. Fletcher was a dangerously incompetent officer who was eventually transferred off Cerritos (“Terminal Provocations”). His stint on the USS Titan lasted only six days, after which he was demoted and sent back to Earth.

Ransom has a habit of working out when trying to make decisions (LD: “No Small Parts”).

Ensign Meredith first appeared in LD: “Room for Growth” and is voiced by Charlotte Nicdao, whose Aussie accent some might recognize from Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest.

The Bynars are a race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids who are gifted in programming (TNG: “11001001”). They last appeared on LD in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”, and made an appearance in PRO: “Ascension”.

The Grazerite Professor (whose name is Zurkel) is revealed as a Clicket, in a reveal that reminds me of when the Visitors in V were exposed as reptilian rather than humanoid. It’s also reminiscent of the Bug coming out of its human disguise in the first Men in Black movie and the Raxacoricofalapatorians from Doctor Who.

As noted above, Freeman dealt with the Clickets in “Veritas”, which makes Zurkel’s infuriation understandable.

Billups’ situation is reminiscent of Spock’s death scene in ST II, where he too was dying in a tube, except that opening it would release radiation, not coolant.

Billups’ first name, Andarithio (his friends call him “Andy”) was revealed in “Veritas”. The unnamed cadet first appeared at the end of LD: “wej Duj”.

“Zo”, or Admiral Alonzo Freeman, is Carol Freeman’s husband and Mariner’s father. We last saw him in “Old Friends, New Planets”. The holodeck is set to Paris, and is similar to the view from the Cafe Des Artistes seen in TNG: “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

Shax is drinking out of a purple Highwave Hotjo 14 oz travel mug used in DS9. The purple ones were custom colored for the show, but they are currently available from Highwave (US and Australia shipping only) if you want them, in Deep Space Purple.

Written by: Cullen Crawford

Directed by: Bob Suarez

• Though the episode title, “Fully Dilated”, is referring to the time dilation effect of the planet, Dilmer III, in “Disaster”, Worf described Keiko O’Brien as being, ”fully dilated to ten centimetres,” while she was in labour.

• Cap’n Freeman records the stardate as 59499.6 in her log.

• The USS Cerritos has been dispatched to deal with the season’s B-plot, a dimensional fissure. The fissures have factored into three other episodes this season, “Dos Cerritos”, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”, and “A Farewell to Farms”.

    • A purple iteration of the USS Enterprise D crossed over to the prime universe while, apparently, battling evil clones of Tasha Yar. Assuming the purple universe is on the same timeline as the prime universe, that would indicate that their Enterprise D was not destroyed during the events of “Star Trek Generations”, and that their Data did not die in “Star Trek Nemesis”.

• This is the first mention of the Viltan Flats on screen, but they originated in the “The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans” sourcebook for Last Unicorn Game’s “Star Trek Role Playing Game”.

• Cap’n Freeman mentions filling the senior science officer position. Tendi was transferred from sickbay to senior science officer training in “First First Contact”.

• A new development in the season’s A-plot is that after the events of the previous episode, Rutherford is now also growing a beard in an attempt to mimic the success of the minor universe’s Beardler. As opposed to finding a more successful version of himself to emulate.

    • Boimler’s beard growth continues, but it seems to have slowed down, which is saying something.

• ”The position should go to the most qualified candidate, not just the one who’s dreamt about it since they were old enough to carry a dagger.” Tendi has dreamt about become a Federation science officer since she was eight months old.

• T’Lyn claimes to be, “particularly sensitive to odour.” As per “Broken Bow”, Vulcan females have a heightened sense of smell.

• ”This is going to be a fun alternate dimensional technology recovery girls’ trip.” Mariner and Tendi also referred to their running an errand for Doctor T’Ana in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” as a girls’ trip.

• ”Oh, it’s like that planet Voyager went to.” Tendi refers to the events of “Blink of an Eye”, where the USS Voyager visited the Weird Planet Displaced in Time, though while Dilmer III’s time dilation causes a week to pass on the surface for every second in orbit, the WPDiT experienced one day every 1.03 seconds.

• Snell is played by Eric Bauza, who has voiced a number of characters across LDS, PRO, and the “Very Short Treks”, including Barniss Frex, as well as both Screwhead and Ass Face.

• Hey, it’s purple Data! From purple Star Trek! Purple Data is voiced by Brent Spinner, who has a story credit on “Star Trek Nemesis”,

• *”My away mission résumé is going to be more padded than a Romulan’s shoulder.” We first saw Romulan uniforms with somewhat robust shoulder padding in “The Neutral Zone”.

• ”This is starting to feel like when Picard got duped into thinking he was a family man by that probe.” Mariner is referring to the events of “The Inner Light”.

    • ”I gotta find a flute!” Despite Mariner’s chastising Boimler earlier in the episode for ”plagiarizing someone’s vibe,” she’s pretty quick to take away the wrong lesson from Picard’s probe experience.

• ”Why’s there always a suspicious lurker when you’re in a Carbon Creek situation?” Carbon Creek is the name of the town where T’Pol’s grandmother, T’Mir lived for some time after her survey team’s ship crashed on Earth prior to first contact, as well as the name of the episode where she shares the story. Notably, there wasn’t actually anyone doing much lurking in the episode.

    • Archer and Trip were skeptical of the story T’Pol told, though she did claim the information was documented in the Vulcan archives.

• ”Do not be concerned, I have been just a head before.” Purple Data apparently experienced the events of “Time’s Arrow” and “Time’s Arrow, Part II”.

    • Purple Data further confirms the purple universe engaged with their own “Time’s Arrow” by claiming that it was himself, Picard, and ”some guy in a silver jumpsuit” who located his missing head, as was the case in the prime universe.

    • Data was also just a head in “Disaster”.

• Apparently food is not allowed in the transporter bay. In “Tomorrow is Yesterday”, we saw there was food synthesizer in the transporter room aboard the USS Enterprise, and in “The Dauphin”, Wesley brings a visiting head of state a chocolate mousse in the transporter room before she leaves.

• Purple Data points out to Tendi that Vulcans rarely require sleep. In “The Paradise Syndrome”, Spock claimed he could go without sleep for weeks, and in “Muse”, Tuvok stayed awake for a full ten days.

• ”That is some Edo level bullshit, right there.” In “Justice”, the Edo legal system’s only punishment was execution via poison needle, so Mariner is exaggerating the consequences of her actions.

• Tendi is attempting to construct a transporter using resources available on Dilmer III.

    • In “The City on the Edge of Forever” Spock constructed a mnemonic memory circuit, while stuck on Earth in the 1930s

    • In “Time’s Arrow”, Data built a device to track time shifts while in 1893

    • In “Carbon Creek”, Stron was attempting to build a subspace transceiver in 1953 before the Vulcan survey team was rescued

• ”Wow, you really are fully functional.” Data claimed to be fully functional, and programmed ”in a broad variety of of pleasuring,” in “The Naked Now”. Programming, which apparently includes eating ropes.

• Mariner’s prison pals call her ”Big Mare,” which is also the name Tawny Newsome coined for Mariner’s depiction on large advertising banners at real life events, such as San Diego Comic Con.

Hi there. I just wanted to discuss something positive and uplifting. As we surely all know, Star Trek has a very big fandom that is super inclusive and positive (for the most part). Had a thought that for many fans, their passion is life-long. Maybe it would be nice to share a positive memory (maybe a few) you associate with Trek; whatever you are comfortable sharing. I kick it off (my list is chronological).

1. Getting to go on The Klingon Encounter at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a family trip, I was seven (I recently found out I was off by year) in 1998. My grandfather was working at the time for a Chinese apparel brand. He took us to an industry convention he was attending for work. So my mom took me to the Hilton. There was walls of Borg statues, actors dressed as Klingons walking the casino. Only got to go on The Klingon Encounter, a Star Tours style ride. The premise is an entertainment experience with live actors which you are mysteriously transported to the future where you switch places with Picard. Klingons are behind it. They believe your group has an ancestor among you. You head to a transporter to escape to a shuttlecraft, and flee the Klingons. The case eventually leads you over The Las Vegas Strip. The ride also included pre-recorded video from TNG cast as part of the story.

2. Watching ENT when it first broadcast. I was ten years old. As an aside, I’ve always lived with my maternal grandparents. Anyways, my grandfather was excited for it. He let me stay up late on Wednesdays to watch with him. It was the first series (pretty much the only from start to end) I watched first broadcast. Watched every episode with him.

3. Finally going to my first convention, STLV (formerly Star Trek Las Vegas) this year. Such an incredible four days that I can never forget. Getting to see the community up close changes how important this means. Everyone was such wonderful people. The one public event I’ve attended in my life where I felt truly accepted and safe.

The title refers to the time dilation effect on Dilmer III, and is a pun on either fully dilated pupils in drug use or fully dilated cervixes in labor, or both.

The stardate is 59499.6. The dimensional fissures leading to parallel dimensions have been a recurring thing this season, starting with LD: “Dos Cerritos”.

The purple Enterprise is a Galaxy-class, meaning Enterprise-D. In the Prime Universe, by 2381 the 1701-D had already crashed on Veridian III and the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E had been in service for about a decade. Tashar Yar was the original security chief of Enterprise-D, but was killed in TNG: “Skin of Evil”. No, I’m not getting into TNG: “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and Sela now, so don’t ask. Mariner talks about the carpets on Enterprise-D, a running joke that was even echoed in PIC’s 3rd season when the reconstructed ship was reactivated (PIC: “Võx”).

T’Lyn says her home was an outcopping of jagged rocks in the Viltan Flats. That location originally comes from the Last Unicorn RPG module The Way of Kolinahr, and is in the province of Tat’Sahr on Vulcan.

Boimler’s beard has progressed further, and the goatee has almost joined with his moustache. Rutherford seems to be also getting into the game, if his stubble is any indication. Freeman’s order to retrieve the wayward tech is so as not to violate the Prime Directive, which forbids any interference with the natural technological or social development of a civiilization. Dilmer III is pre-industrial, so the Prime Directive is in full force.

Dr T’Ana does a more foul mouthed version of the classic “I’m a doctor, not a…” catchphrase first properly used by McCoy in TOS: “The Devil in the Dark”.

Undergoing temporary surgical or genetic modification for Starfleet away teams is standard protocol. Examples can be found in TNG: “Who Watches the Watchers?”, TNG: “First Contact” and in SNW: “Strange New Worlds”.

Vulcans are known to have sensitive olfactory senses. females especially. In ENT: “The Andorian Incident”, T’Pol used a regularly injected nasal numbing agent to suppress the smell of humans.

Rutherford jokes about churning your own butter, a reference to stereotypes of primitive, pioneer peoples (seen today in renactments or in communities like the Amish) who still manufacture butter with manual methods.

A michelada is an Mexican drink, often called a “Mexican Bloody Mary”, made from beer, lime juice, hot sauces and chili slices. There are several variations throughout Mexico, but Boimler and Rutherford’s version is a bit excessive, as is usual for them.

Dimler III has a time differential of a week on the surface for every second aboard ship. As Tendi remembers, in VOY: “Blink of an Eye”, Voyager came across a planet surrounded by a tachyon field that experienced 58 days for each minute of shipboard time. Mariner’s explanation of time dilation alludes to an old joke attributed to Einstein: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”

The architecture of Dimler III reminds me of Beta III in TOS: “The Return of the Archons”, but earlier - I’d peg it around an 1870s American frontier town, like Walnut Grove, MI in Little House on the Prairie.

The head they find is of course that of an alternate, purple Data, who also lost his head in TNG: “Time’s Arrow”. In the Prime Universe, at this point Prime Data is dead, having sacrificed himself in Nemesis (2379) - although as we see in PIC, he kind of gets better later.

T’Lyn poses as a traveling performer, much like what Picard & Co. did in “Time’s Arrow” when they claimed to be a troupe of actors. Snell is voiced by Eric Bauza, who does a great imitation of the immortal Wallace Shawn, who was Grand Nagus Zek in DS9 and is probably best known to geeks as Visini from The Princess Bride.

As Tendi notes, TNG-era Romulan uniforms had hilariously overpadded shoulders. Mariner refers to TNG: “The Inner Light” when Picard was hit by a beam from a Kataan probe which made him experience an entire lifetime as a Kataan farmer while only a matter of minutes passed for his crew (and learned the flute). The last time we saw a Kataan probe (or something very similar) was in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”.

Mariner refers to ENT: “Carbon Creek”, when a trio of Vulcans - one of them T’Pol’s great-grandmother - were stranded temporarily in Carbon Creek, PA in 1957. While it is true that in most stories like this there is a suspicious neighbor that gets the protagonists in trouble, I don’t recall there one being in “Carbon Creek”. T’Lyn uses a quill to write.

Purple Data’s voice is provided by Brent Spiner. He says he has been just a head before, which means that the events of “Time’s Arrow” also occured in his reality (as he confirms later when he says he built a magnetic field core in 19th Century San Francisco).

Tendi says that Orions aren’t usually science officers (part of it may be due to the stereotypes surrounding Orions). Her great-grandmother Astrea did serve on the Orion science vessel D’Var (SNW: “Those Old Scientists”).

Purple Data alludes to his positronic matrix, which is also the basis for Soong-type androids in the Prime Universe. Positronic brains for artificial beings in Star Trek is a homage to the works of Isaac Asimov, who used such brains for his robots in his Robot Stories.

The alien writing on the front of the saloon I’m pretty sure is a substitution alphabet (like Orionese as seen in LD: “Something Borrowed, Something Green”) which just reads “SALOON”.

I’m also pretty sure Tendi saying that she can’t compete with T’Lyn’s giant melons is an intentional double entendre. Others include Ransom’s “Purple D” and Mariner’s “carpet matches the hull” lines.

Mariner refers to the Edo (TNG: “Justice”), who doled out what we might consider overly harsh punishments, like capital punishment for damaging plants.

Purple Data says Tendi requires her full strength to function at “peak performance”, which is the name of a TNG episode that focuses on Prime Data and his self-doubt when he experiences defeat.

The “guy in a silver jumpsuit” was the unnamed scientist that led Picard and Prime Data to his time-displaced buried head under San Francisco (“Time’s Arrow”).

Tendi says Purple Data really is “fully functional”. In the infamous TNG: “The Naked Now”, Prime Data claims, when an intoxicated Tasha Yar is trying to seduce him, that he is “fully functional” and “programmed in multiple techniques”.

Mariner’s cell neighbor calls her “Big Mare”. In LD: “Starbase 80?!” Boimler calls her “Mare Bear”. I am not comfortable with either of these nicknames.

Having her alien family “be here all along” is a common trope (The Wizard of Oz comes to mind) where protagonists realize that what they were seeking was actually around them all the time (“The true treasure was the friends we made along the way!”).

Purple Data misunderstanding the use of metaphor is a trait the Prime version often exhibted, especially in early TNG seasons. And of course he had a close relationship with Geordi La Forge, the Chief Engineer of Enterprise.

Rutherford blames the snafu on LCARS issues, LCARS (Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) being the operating system used on TNG-era starships, as opposed to S/COMS for ENT and TOS-era ships and TCARS for 29th Century timeships.

Purple Data says he spent a year in the field with the away team. 12 months or so on Dimler III translates to about 52 seconds in shipboard time. However, considering that Tendi didn’t reactivate the head until about 4 months in, the time could have been as long as 14 months (64 seconds).

Freeman sends Purple Data back through the fissure in a photon torpedo tube, much like how Spock’s body was shot towards the Genesis Planet at the end of ST II.

Apparently this is the name of a construction/engineering firm here in Lisbon Portugal. Amusing coincidence

Did writers forget about “Barge of the Dead” in season 7? During “Imperfection”, Seven ask B’Elanna if she believes in afterlife. Her response is ‘I hope so.’

She literally went to hell and back. How does that not make her believe in it?

Kind of a trashy headline - here's the full quote:

we keep writing it, and we keep turning things in, and they keep saying, 'Please keep writing.' So, as long as they allow us to do that and they don't say, 'Stop. Close your computers and go home,' we'll continue making it.

• Ransom records the stardate as 59482.3 in his log.

• The USS Cerritos is hosting peace talks between two different photonic species, the creatively named Orbs and Cubes. Previous photonic lifeforms encountered include:

    • Beings interpreted as the monster Grendel by holodeck characters - “Heroes and Demons”

    • A trans-dimensional species that entered the holodeck, and promptly found themselves in a war against the pulp character Chaotica - “Bride of Chaotica”

    • Photonic fleas - “The Voyager Conspiracy”

• Among the bits of circular furniture ensign Olly is attempted to stack on a hover sled is a “ball chair” like the one Worf had in his quarters for much of TNG, and a dabo table, as seen in Quark’s in DS9.

• The USS Reseda has not been mentioned previously, but is likely a California-class, based on being named after a neighbourhood in Los Angeles.

    • According to Mariner, the crew of the Reseda is entirely reformed Maquis. Most of the Maquis were wiped out by the Cardaissian Union and the Dominion, as per “Blaze of Glory”.

• Olly is descended from the Greek god Zeus. We learned in “Who Mourns for Adonais” the Greek pantheon wer actually alien beings who visited Earth and were sustained by the worship of humans.

    • ”Didn’t Kirk kick their asses?” To the best of our knowledge, Kirk only encountered Apollo. The USS Enterprise destroyed his power source, a temple, from orbit.

    • ”I thought they all went off and became ‘one with the wind,’ or whatever.” In “Who Mourns for Adonis”, Apollo does claim the other Greek gods, ”returned to the cosmos on the wings of the wind.”

• Admiral Vassery was introduced in “Moist Vessel”.

• Olly has been removed from six ships before arriving to the Cerritos. In “Hollow Pursuits”, Captain Picard said of Reginald Barclay, “It’s easy to transfer a problem to someone else. Too easy.”

• Boilmer’s beard growth remains the most consistent storyline this season.

• In Rutherford and Boimler’s quarters, we see that Boimler has added a doll of Data in the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform to his Mirror Archer and Spock figures. On Rutherford’s shelf, there’s the model of DS9 he got in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers”, as well as a recreation of Wesley’s portable tractor beam from “The Naked Now”.

• Rutherford is aware that Boimler keeps looking at the PADD he stole from the minor universe in “Dos Cerritos”.

    • ”Also it’s red.” We’ve seen red PADDs in “Coming of Age”, “Clues”, “Lower Decks”, “Homefront”, and “Image in the Sand”.

    • Tendi is also aware of Boimler’s stolen PADD.

• ”Good joke. We got a real Roland B. Moore over here.” Ronald B. Moore was a visual effects supervisor on TNG, and, according to a display outside the holodeck, was also the name of the stand-up comedian program played by Joe Piscao in “The Outrageous Okona”. Based on the fact that Boimler is claiming Rutherford was being funny, I believe we can assume he was talking about the visual effects supervisor.

• Apparently Olly was assigned Mariner’s old bunk, which we haven’t seen since the Lower Deckers moved out of the hallway bunks in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• ”You don’t have to be Dixon Hill to see that some bad shit went down in here.” Dixon Hill is the fictional private investigator whose adventures Picard likes to relive on the holodeck, as per “The Big Goodbye”.

• ”If we get some Ferengi blood, we’ll have an entire rainbow!” Ferengi blood is yellow, as first seen in “Mugato, Gumato”.

• ”What about Shaxs? You’re in the bear pack.” Boimler was made a member of the bear pack in “Empathalogical Fallacies”.

• The Sphere Rondus, as well as the gestalt Sphere, Orbiculus, are voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who voices Shaxs.

• ”Didn’t you learn this with the whole Hawaii thing?” Tendi is recounting the events of “wej Duj” when Boimler claimed to be Hawiian to be able to join Ransom’s group of other [fake] Hawaiians.

• The Cube Sexagus, as well as the gestalt Omegacube, are voiced by Carl Tart, who is the voice of Kayson.

• The Sphere Spheronius is voiced by Jerry O’Connell, who is the voice of Ransom

• ”To be fair, Qs are more annoying than scary.” In “Q-Less”, Sisko punches Q in the face and he never returns to Deep Space 9.

• The Cube Quadralon is voiced by Jack Quaid, who voices Boimler.

• The Sphere Radiara is voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz, who voices T’Lyn.

• We learn that Quadralon and Radiara were not murdered, but instead ran off together after a night of passion that trashed Quadralon’s room. No confirmation as to what the square shaped “photonic residue” on the walls of the chamber were. “The Outrageous Okana” also featured a “Romeo and Juliet” romance between two children of conflicting colonies, resulting in a pregnancy.

• SquAaron is voiced by Roan Lai, who was also the voice for the moopsy in “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”.

• ”I love the brig, this is my favourite place.” Olly echoes Mariner’s words to Ransom from “Temporal Edict”. However, she’s a bit more chill so she doesn’t also claim that she’s going to ”dance in [anyone’s] blood.”

The title alludes to the Robert Burns’ 1785 poem To A Mouse (“The best laid schemes of o’mice and men / Gang aft agley”), which was used as the title to John Steinbeck’s 1937 Novella Of Mice and Men. It also plays on the association of angels, messengers of God, with the “typo that is not a typo” angles, referring to the geometric shapes of the Orbs and Cubes. Additionally, “Of Gods and Men” is an entry in the fan film series Star Trek Continues and VOY: “Heroes and Demons” dealt with photonic life forms.

The stardate is 59482.3. The Veraflex Nebula is new, as are its inhabitants the Orbs and the Cubes.

The Orbs and Cubes are photonic species, of which as noted VOY encountered one in Heroes and Demons” and another in VOY: “Bride of Chaotica”. VOY also suffered from an infestation of photonic fleas in VOY: “The Voyager Conspiracy”. Artificial photonic lifeforms might include sentient holograms like the Doctor (VOY), Moriarty (TNG: “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle”), Vic Fontaine (DS9: “His Way”, et al.), Lewis Zimmerman’s assistant Haley (VOY: “Life Line”) and a colony of Yaderans (DS9: “Shadowplay”).

The war that began when the Orbs and Cubes’ nebulae collided reminds me of the sentence that begins the Golden Age science fiction Lensman saga in E.E. “Doc” Smith’s novel Triplanetary, of the perpetual war that begins between the Arisians and Eddorians when their galaxies collide (or rather pass through) each other.

The stack of circular furniture on the antigravity sled includes Worf’s chair from his quarters from TNG, a Romulan cloaking device (TOS: “The Enterprise Incident”, last seen on Cerritos in the Anomaly Storage Room in LD: “In the Cradle of Vexilon”) and a dabo table (DS9).

Ensign Olly is newly transferred from the USS Reseda. Reseda is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, so the ship is presumably a California-class ship, one that is crewed by reformed Maquis. Olly is a descendant of Zeus who as per Greek legend was prone to procreating with mortals. Her name could be a short form of “Olympia”, a site sacred to Zeus where the ancient Olympic Games were conducted.

Mariner alludes to Kirk’s encounter with one of these beings, who posed as gods in Ancient Greece, but was actually with Apollo (TOS: “Who Mourns for Adonais?”) who had set his sights on Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas. “One with the wind” refers to how Apollo said Hera “spread herself upon the wind” when she decided to die.

In the New Frontier novels, Mark McHenry is the con officer for the USS Excalibur and is also a descendant of Palamas, who had been impregnated by Apollo. Unlike Olly, McHenry’s powers initially manifested themselves as a preternatural knack for stellar navigation.

Olly’s lineage explains why she’s wearing a laurel wreath similar to Apollo’s. We find out later that it’s a bioluminescent construct that does not come off.

Vassery is the “sen-SORs” Admiral who is in command of Douglas Station, last seen in LD: “Old Friends, New Planets”.

Boimler’s mustache and goatee are growing, as are his side burns. Behind him as he scrolls through the PADD he stole from the parallel universe (LD: “Dos Cerritos”) are his action figures of Mirror Archer, Monster Maroon Spock and First Contact Data (LD: “I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee”). On the other shelf is Rutherford’s model of DS9 (LD: “Hear All, Trust Nothing”) and a replica of Wesley Crusher’s repulsor beam from TNG: “The Naked Now” (also seen in “I Have No Bones…”).

Photonic beings feed on power, like the photonic fleas attracted to plasma particles in Voyager’s sensor grid (“The Voyager Conspiracy”).

In TNG: “The Outrageous Okona”, Data tries to learn about humor from a holographic simulation of a 20th Century stand-up comedian called “Mr Comic” in the episode. However, on the program list Mr Comic was identified as Ronald B. Moore (as opposed to Ronald D. Moore), named after the special effects supervisor on TNG, VOY and ENT.

The alt PADD’s bevel is 3.7% deeper, and it’s red. The variance between the two universes was 0.327% (“Dos Cerritos”). In the corridor, we see the hijab-wearing Operations crewman, last seen in LD: “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”.

Kayshon says, “Rajik, when he fell in the chasm”, in context probably meaning “disappeared”.

Tendi says if they get Ferengi blood, they’ll have a rainbow. Ferengi blood is yellow (LD: “Mugato, Gumato”, PIC: “Disengage”).

While examining the crime scene we get a mention of pulp detective Dixon Hill (TNG: “The Big Goodbye” et al.). Up against the wall of the gym we see some anbo-jyutsu gear (TNG: “The Icarus Factor”), last seen in LD: “wej Duj”.

The Orbs use round PADDs, although how they hold them without any limbs is a question. Wait, one of them was doing bench presses in the gym. Never mind.

“The whole Hawai’i thing” refers to when Boimler pretended to be Hawaiian in LD: “wej Duj” so he could ingratiate himself with Ransom.

In the hangar bay, we see Cerritos’s shuttles named after Californian State Parks: Yosemite, Redwood, Joshua Tree II (the original was damaged in LD: “Grounded”) and Pinnacles.

We also get a glimpse of Steve Stevens, formerly Ransom’s sycophant, whom we haven’t seen since LD: “Twovix”.

Olly says that she and Mariner are nothing alike, but then she says “I love the brig. This is my favorite place,” which is more or less what Mariner told Ransom in LD: “Temporal Edict”.

Written by: Keyshawn C. Garraway

Directed by: Brandon Williams

Star Trek official website
https://www.startrek.com/news/warp-five-lower-decks-s5-dawnn-lewis-starbase-80

CinemaBlend
https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/star-trek-lower-decks-dawnn-lewis-told-us-touching-comments-from-fans-about-carol-freeman
https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/star-trek-dawnn-lewis-on-getting-friendly-nichelle-nichols-sneaking-onto-set-lower-decks

TrekMovie
https://trekmovie.com/2024/11/16/interview-dawnn-lewis-on-why-captain-freeman-is-still-haunted-by-starbase-80-on-star-trek-lower-decks/

The Beat
https://www.comicsbeat.com/interview-dawnn-lewis-on-captaining-the-cerritos-on-star-trek-lower-decks/

Thought this was a fun tidbit:

LEWIS: Yes. I am a singer, and they wanted me to participate in the talent show. And Mike McMahan and the producers know that I’m a singer. And they asked, “Dawnn, would you want to sing a song? I don’t know if we can get licensing for it, but you can sing. You have such a beautiful voice.”

I said, “I’ll tell you what. Let’s not do any of that, and let me just be goofy and not be able to sing.” So I just started scatting really badly. And they were on the floor in the booth. So then they just started writing it in; scat competitions and all these kinds of things.

That was a lot of fun. That was one of those opportunities where the creative team just dropped the ball in our lap and said, “Go ahead and play,” and it ended up on the screen.

Feel free to post any that I missed in the comments.

In Trek fandom, we often think about the badmirals. However, we never consider radmirals. With that in mind, who do you think is the best admiral? This includes commodores, vice admirals, rear admirals, etcetera.

I’m not counting main characters who got promoted after their main series e.g Picard, Kirk, Janeway, La Forge, etcetera.

The title is the same as the famous two-part TNG episode that brought Leonard Nimoy as Spock back to our screens and possibly an allusion to bringing several parts of Star Trek together. It is being released on the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek: Generations.

The opening epigraph, “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life,” is from ST II, when Kirk is flippantly answering Saavik’s queries about the unfairness of the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario.

The figure floating in space is Gary Mitchell, the former navigator of the USS Enterprise and Kirk’s former student and best friend, who gained god-like powers after the ship went through the barrier at the edge of the Galaxy in TOS: “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, developed megalomania and was eventually killed. Commander Jack Ransom, XO of the USS Cerritos went through something similar but survived in LD: “Strange Energies”. Gary Lockwood, Mitchell’s original actor, is credited, as he came back to do motion capture for the footage.

There follow a series of quick scenes, some of them taken from the previous Roddenberry Archive short films/teasers “765874: Memory Wall” and “765874: Regeneration”. “Memory Wall” refers to an unproduced scene from TMP where Kirk and Spock explore an information storage chamber inside V’Ger.

TNG-era Spock is standing on Veridian III, where Kirk and Picard fought Soran in Generations. The scaffolding and bridge is from where Soran planned to launch a missile to destroy Veridian’s sun and alter the course of the temporal Nexus. Kirk and Picard stopped him at the cost of Kirk’s life. The real-life location of this is the Silica Dome, Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Spock is played by actor Lawrence Selleck with a combination of prosthetics and CGI to make him resemble the late Leonard Nimoy.

A futuristic city that is probably 23rd Century San Francisco, seen in “765874” and with TMP-era Spock looking over it in “Regeneration”.

A blurry shot of someone performing a mind-meld on a Vulcan child, seen more clearly in “Memory Wall”.

A group of people on a mesa from “Memory Wall”. I am unable to identify the significance of the Eye of Sauron-like relief on the ground, but I am told it resembles an image of V’Ger, another allusion to the “Memory Wall” scene and a quick flash of V’Ger’s Voyager 6 name plate in that film.

The woman dressed in a uniform from TOS: “The Cage” is Yeoman J.M. Colt, who was Pike’s yeoman in that original pilot. Originally played by Laurel Goodwin in 1964, she is played by Mahé Thaissa, who previously played her in “765874”, “765874: Memory Wall” and “765874: Regeneration”.

765874 is Colt’s Starfleet service number, taken from Star Trek: Early Voyages Vol. 1 #13 (Feb 1998) (she was given the name Mia in the comic).

A shot of the USS Enterprise-D saucer after it crashed on Veridian III during the events of Generations, from “Regeneration”.

Mia Colt touching her finger to a mysterious wall of floating particles, from “Memory Wall”.

A new scene of TMP Spock melding with a Vulcan child. Given what happens later in the short, I’m confident this is Saavik, from when Spock found her as a child on the planet Hellguard in 2274 (between TMP and ST II) and took her in (TOS novel The Pandora Principle). While not on screen canon, Saavik’s backstory has been well established in novels and comics.

A new scene of Colt, now dressed in a Kelvin Timeline short-sleeved skant, in a chamber showing scans of Kirk. I can’t make out most of the words on the displays, but one relates Kirk’s service record and another ends with the words “… by the Director of Starfleet Intelligence”. This reminds me of where Kirk’s body was stored on Daystrom Station and its reference to a mysterious “Project Phoenix” (PIC: “The Bounty”).

Kirk, in his uniform from Generations and looking like his age there, walks through a peaceful garden. He is played by William Shatner, returning to the role at the age of 93 and is presumably made to resemble his younger self in the same way Selleck did Spock. We also see Robin Curtis as an aged Saavik. First played by Kirstie Alley in ST II, Curtis replaced Alley as Saavik in ST III and ST IV.

One of the crowd is a man with white hair is dressed in a 2375-era Starfleet captain’s dress uniform, but with white trousers instead of black. This character is credited as “Crusher”, played by John Daltorio, but otherwise his presence is not explained. The most likely Crusher would be Wesley, who as an interdimensional Traveler (TNG: “Journey’s End”, PIC: “Farewell”, PRO: “Into the Breach”) would be the obvious choice. His being in the dress uniform could be a reference to Wil Wheaton’s mostly deleted cameo in Nemesis at the Riker-Troi wedding.

The Vulcan that Saavik introduces Kirk to is Sorak (played by Mark Cinnery). He is Spock and Saavik’s son, according to the accompanying featurette “Robin Curtis: Becoming Saavik”. Fandom has discussed for decades about whether Spock did indeed impregnate Saavik on Genesis during his pon farr in ST III and whether or not she stayed behind on Vulcan in ST IV because she was pregnant. Given that Sorak seems relatively old, this is likely where this comes from.

We know that Spock did marry (TNG: “Sarek”), but the wife’s name was never mentioned on screen. The novels have him marrying Saavik (Vulcan’s Heart, which apparently inspired this scene) after a very long courtship. Given how long Vulcans live, it’s not as icky as it sounds.

The alien Kirk meets is Yor (played by Gorden Tarpley), a Betelgeusian Lieutenant Commander who was a Time Soldier from the year 2379 of the Kelvin Timeline who fought in the Temporal Wars (DIS: “Terra Firma, Part 1”). We previously saw him as a hologram and cautionary tale as he died in agony in the Prime timeline sometime around the 31st Century, a side effect of having been transported across both universes and time periods. Yor hands Kirk a Starfleet badge - the same one Kirk wore in Generations and that Picard placed on Kirk’s grave.

Sam Witwer, notable for his roles voicing Darth Maul in Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, among many other genre credits, is also credited as Kirk, and may be playing the TOS Kirk with CGI prostheses.

When Generations-Kirk switches with TOS-Kirk, we hear a bridge chirp sound effect very briefly in the mix. The three Kirks are from different eras: TOS, ST II and Generations.

“There are always possibilities…” is taken from the last Captain’s log from ST II. On the wall is hung a set of Vulcan chimes (TOS: “Amok Time”) and a Vulcan lyre (TOS: “Charlie X”). On the table is an IDIC pendant (TOS: “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”) and a piece of jewellery shaped like Vulcan script and, although covered, the photograph of Kirk & Co. (taken on the bridge of the NCC-1701-A during ST V) that Prime Spock bequeathed to Kelvin Spock in Star Trek Beyond. In a teaser to this film, Colt is shown placing the photograph on the table in this scene.

Kirk approaches old Spock and they grasp hands in the same way that Spock did to him during TMP (“This simple feeling is beyond V’Ger’s comprehension.”) and of course he does his famous eyebrow raise at Kirk’s presence. Spock died in the Kelvin Timeline on January 2, 2263 on New Vulcan at the age of 161, having also been transported back in time and across universes.

The sky and landscape outside the window is reminiscent of Vulcan, so the Kelvin Timeline Vulcans must have found a similar planet to settle on after its destruction in ST 2009. It is portrayed that way in the 2013 Star Trek video game, when it is invaded by the Gorn.

There is a special thanks to Kevin Feige, who apparently made some things possible for the production and is a huge Trek fan.

• The episode title refers to the previously unseen Starbase 80, first mentioned in season one’s “Terminal Provocations”. It has the reputation of being a place where Starfleet consigns it’s worst officers.

    • In the season premiere, “Dos Cerritos”, we learned that the Cap’n Freeman of the alternate universe featured in that episode was stationed at Starbase 80.

• This season’s ongoing plot, Boimler’s facial hair, has progressed to the point where he’s got a little chin beard situation. Good for him.

• It’s Matt and Kimolu! From Star Trek! The Cetacean Ops whales have technically not been seen since “Trusted Sources” in season three, though we were introduced to Swhale Swahlens, the gestalt being who was a combination of Matt and Steve Stevens in “Twovix”.

• The pleasure planet Casperia Prime was first mentioned in “Change of Heart”.

• ”I’m hosting their first annual scatting battle.” We learned that Cap’n Freeman performs vocal jazz in “Moist Vessel”.

• ”Nooooooooooooooooo!” Mariner was reassigned to Starbase 80 in “Trusted Sources”, and it resulted in her temporarily resigning her commision.

• The shuttlecraft that flies at the screen appears to be a Type 15 shuttlepod.

• ”Check me out, I’m a total T’Pol over here.” The USS Cerritos crew needs to slather themselves with a gel, in a scene inspired by ENT’s somewhat maligned decon chamber scenes.

• The corridors of Starbase 80 are modeled after those of the USS Enterprise as we saw them in TOS, down to the ascending Jeffries tubes, intercom units on the walls, and multi coloured caples across the ceiling supports. Everything is just somewhat more distressed. The most noticeable departure is the access hatch doors are octagonal as opposed to rectangular.

    • The turbolifts are also modeled after what we see aboard the Enterprise, requiring handles to be turned to operate.

• We are introduced to commander Kasia Nox, who appears to be wearing a pre-Federation, ENT style uniform, including the gold piping for command. Though she has gold circular rank pips, and not the rectangular ones used by the crew of the NX-01.

    • In “Trusted Sources”, the Starbase 80 crew who arrived on the Cerritos to transport Mariner were wearing yellow jumpsuits. We also see green, and blue jumpsuits in this episode.

• Chief engineer Gene Jakobowski is played by Stephen Root, who also played Klingon captain K’Vada in “Unification I” and “Unification II”.

    • Like Nox, Gene wears an ENT style uniform. Later, in the arcade, Gene is also wearing a vest similar to the one Scotty first wore in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”.

• ”Yeah, this base is basically controlled by a knife gang.” The Acamarians were introduced in “The Vengeance Factor”, and we learned about the Gatherers, a group of Acamarians who refused to accept the peace of nearly 300 years of blood feuds between clans, and became roving marauders.

    • One of the vendors in the food court area aboard SB80 has a sign advertising Parthas, a dish the Acamarian assassin Yuta prepared for commander Riker.

    • Another vendor’s sign reads ”Lornak’s.” the Lornak clan was wiped out by the blood feuds.

• Among the…second hand items at the vintage clothing store are:

    • TOS style female red operations uniforms

    • TOS style male blue sciences uniform shirts

    • Command gold ”new” uniform jackets of the sort worn by the Enterprise crew in DIS season two

    • SNW style female gold command uniform skants

    • TNG season one and two, blue science uniform top

    • A mirror universe dagger

    • A TMP security officer helmet

    • A TMP style admiral’s uniform

    • The jacket worn by Ruk in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”

    • The fedoras worn by Kirk and Spock in “A Piece of the Action”

    • A TOS style Klingon uniform with baldric

    • One of the harnesses worn by the Edo, including testical bulge

    • A Nazi officer’s cap, presumably from “Patterns of Force”

    • A type-3 phaser rifle of the sort introduced in “Star Trek: First Contact”

    • A movie era command division maroon uniform jacket

    • A movie era expedition jacket, as introduced in “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”

    • A hat seen worn by Vulcan technicians in “Star Trek: The Voyage Home” and Tendi when she attempts to help O’Connor ascend in “Moist Vessle”

    • TOS era tricorders

    • One of the Starfleet cylindrical shoulder bags occasionally seen on TNG

    • A giant pile of TOS era red shirts

• Doctor Harrison Horseberry was affected by the Tarchannen parasite that affected a Starfleet Outpost on Tarchannen III, as well as the away team of the USS Victory sent to investigate, including Geordi, as recounted in “Identity Crisis”.

    • The victims of the Tarchannen parasites turn invisible to the human eye, but apparently being cured prevented the half of Doctor Horseberry that was genetically rewritten from displaying that trait.

• ”I’m El-Aurian, I think I know how to fight.” Though we did see Soren fight both Kirk and Picard in “Star Trek Generations”, it has never been established that fighting is something El-Aurians are well known for.

• ”We don’t have combadges, we use old wall comms.” The SB80 officers who came to pick up Mariner in “Trusted Sources” did have combadges.

• In the arcade we see:

    • A “Space Invaders” style game where the player controls a Valdore-class Romulan ship defending against descending Starfleet Constitution-class ships

    • A game called “Cardboard Chinos” which has a sign that appears to be a Caitian in a box, much like we saw Doctor T’Ana playing with a box in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”

    • A game featuring the Koala. Why is he smiling? What does he know?

    • A game called “Ferengi’s Fortune” that looks to play like “Joust”

    • A game called “The Captain’s Chair”; there is a real world video game titled “Star Trek: Captain’s Chair” though this does not appear similar

• Jet is riding a Toby the Targ children’s ride. Toby the Targ. B’Elanna had a Toby the Targ plush with her aboard the USS Voyager according to Tom Paris in “Tsunkatse”.

• Doctor Horseberry discovers there is an anaphasic consciousness named Clem controlling Matt. Doctor Crusher’s deceased grandmother’s body was controlled by the anaphasic being Ronin in “Sub Rosa” and he used her to attack Data and Geordi with tendrils of green energy.

• Doctor Horseberry is able to exorcise Clem by hitting Matt with a pool net. Violence also disrupted Ronin’s influence in “Sub Rosa” when Doctor Crusher attacked him with a phaser.

• The SB80 crew is able to provide Clem with a stable vessel for them to inhabit. In “Sub Rosa”, Ronin’s being was tethered to an ancient candle holder.

    • Clem’s vessel looks a lot like a microwave, which is kind of a modern candle when you think about it.