Warning: Spoilers ahead forStar Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 3, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel.“Star Trek: Voyagerhad some bizarre storylines, andStar Trek: Lower Decks' final season shows a fate that the crew of the USS Voyager could easily have experienced.Every season ofStar Trek: Voyagerhad at least one story that felt like it was something out of a fever dream, and while that wasn’t unique toVoyager, it was the show that delved deep into the bag of weirdness more often than other franchise projects. AlthoughStar Trek: Lower Deckshas its fair share of unusual goings-on, the fact it’s essentially a canonicalStar Trekparody gives it more leeway.
With more members of theStar Trek: Voyagercaststarting to return in other franchise projects, the show has been returning to the public eye recently. For example, Kate Mulgrew coming back as Admiral Janeway as part of theStar Trek: Prodigycastwas a huge moment forVoyagerfans - as was Tim Russ' brief Tuvok cameo as part of theStar Trek: Picardseason 3 cast. OutsideVoyager, the characters have experienced slightly less other-worldly adventures, butStar Trek: Lower Decksincludes a poignant reminderof the sorts of things Janeway’s crew went through back in the day.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Shows A Fate Captain Janeway’s USS Voyager Avoided
The microscopic USS Endeavour represents the wild kind of adventures Voyager used to have
The Intrepid-class ship in the nanite blob at the end ofStar Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 3, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel,” could be easily mistaken for the USS Voyager at first glance.Voyager is by far the most famous Intrepid-class starship, so it can’t be a coincidence thatLower Deckschose the category of ship to be found in a scenario that could easily have formed the basis of an episode ofStar Trek: Voyager.
The Endeavour’s captain says her crew has been through a “month of hell,” which is a tongue-in-cheek reference toStar Trek: Voyager’s “Year of Hell” two-parter.
Captain Janeway and her crew often ran into apparent threats that turned out to be something far less deadly, which is the plot of “The Best Exotic Nante Hotel” and what the microscopic USS Endeavour is going through. Janeway’s ship being pulled into another universe where everything is much larger would be a perfect fit for aStar Trek: Voyagerscript, butLower Deckspays tribute by giving the mini-arc to Captain Tersal (Gillian Vigman) and her tiny crew.
Lots Of Weird Things Happened On Star Trek: Voyager
Janeway & Paris turning into human salamanders was just the tip of the iceberg
There isn’t much known about Tersal’s ship, other than the nature of the universe from which it arrived. In short, the Endeavour’s reality is much smaller thanStar Trek’s Prime Universe, and an almost identical version of Starfleet seems to exist. Captain Tersal’s mission to get her crew home in the face of all the weirdness brings to mind Janeway’s task as well, asMulgrew’s character wasn’t short of strange challengesof her own.
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The most prominentStar Trek: Voyagerstory that would classify as weird is whenCaptain Janeway and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) evolve into salamander-like creaturesand procreate in season 2, episode 15, “Threshold.” However, an ongoing war with aliens from a fluidic dimension (Species 8472), and Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers) being replacements from a duplicated Voyager are also amongStar Trek: Voyager’s most off-the-wall (yet compelling) storylines thatStar Trek: Lower Deckshas paid homage to.
Star Trek: Voyager
Cast
In this sci-fi series, the starship Voyager becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light-years from Earth. The diverse crew, led by Captain Janeway, embarks on a perilous journey home, encountering unfamiliar species and challenges while adhering to Federation principles in uncharted space.
