WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 9, "The Inner Fight".
Summary
- Lt. JG Beckett Mariner is revealed to have been friends with Ensign Sito Jaxa, connecting "Lower Decks" to "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and potentially paving the way for Sito's return.
- Ensign Sito Jaxa was killed by Cardassians while on a dangerous mission, deeply impacting Worf, Captain Picard, and Mariner in "Lower Decks."
- Ensign Taurik was intended to become a recurring character in a potential eighth season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but plans changed when the movie franchise was launched.
Star Trek: Lower Decks was heavily inspired by the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of the same name, but what happened to these original Lower Deckers after TNG ended? "Lower Decks" focused on four of the USS Enterprise-D's junior officers, Ensigns Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill), Taurik (Alexander Enberg), Sam Lavelle (Dan Gauthier) and Nurse Alyssa Ogawa (Patti Yasutake) as they awaited news of their potential promotions. The TNG episode is one of Mike McMahan's favorites, and it heavily influenced his animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is also purely focused on the lives of the junior officers aboard the USS Cerritos.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9 confirmed that Lt. JG Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) had been friends with Sito Jaxa at Starfleet Academy. In connecting Beckett and Sito Mike McMahan explicitly confirms Star Trek: The Next Generation and its own Lower Deckers. Now that he's built that bridge, it would be interesting to see if TNG's original Lower Deckers make a comeback in Lower Decks' season 4 finale or beyond.
Star Trek TNG Villain Returns In Lower Decks Season 4 Finale Preview
In a preview for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale, Lt. Beckett Mariner confronts TNG's disgraced ex-Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno!
Ensign Sito Was Killed By Cardassians
Ensign Sito Jaxa was selected by her mentor, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn), and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) for a dangerous mission into Cardassian space. Posing as a Bajoran terrorist, Sito piloted Joret Dal (Dan Reilly), a Cardassian informer back behind enemy lines in a "stolen" shuttle from the USS Enterprise. Once she'd returned Dal to Cardassian territory, Sito was supposed to flee back to the Enterprise in an escape pod. Tragically, she was killed while fleeing the scene, with the Enterprise only finding the wreckage of her escape pod when they arrived at the rendezvous. Cardassian security forces later confirmed that they had killed an escaping Bajoran terrorist.
Sito's death impacted Worf, who grieved her loss with the other Lower Deckers in Ten Forward. Captain Jean-Luc Picard was also deeply affected by Sito's death, making a shipwide announcement that honored her strength of character. The death of Sito also left a huge impact on Star Trek: Lower Decks' Mariner, who wished to remain as an Ensign so that she would never have to put officers like her friend in harm's way. Mariner has reconciled this with the help of her Klingon counselor Ma'ah (Jon Curry) and will hopefully honor Sito's legacy by foiling the plans of Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) in Lower Decks' season 4 finale.
Ensign Taurik Would Have Starred In TNG Season 8
Despite anxiety over living up to the legacy of Leonard Nimoy's Spock and, crucially, doing something different, Alexander Enberg's Ensign Taurik made a big impression in "Lower Decks". It was hoped that, if Star Trek: The Next Generation was to continue past season 7 that Taurik would become a recurring character like Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) or Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). From watching "Lower Decks", it's easy to see how Taurik would have comfortably fit into engineering alongside his frustrated mentor Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). These plans were ultimately abandoned when Paramount decided to launch the TNG movie franchise instead of an eighth season.
Instead of reprising the role of Taurik in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Alexander Enberg played the very similar role of Ensign Vorik in Star Trek: Voyager. Although never confirmed in on-screen canon, Voyager and TNG producer Jeri Taylor - who was also Enberg's mother - suggested that Taurik and Vorik were identical twin brothers. This was later "confirmed" in the non-canon Star Trek: Starship Creator game. Vorik appeared in eight episodes of Voyager from season 3 to 7, and narrowly avoided being killed off in the episode "Friendship One". As Vorik is still alive, it's entirely possible that he could appear in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 aboard the brand-new USS Voyager-A.
Star Trek: Voyager Episodes To Feature Ensign Vorik |
|
|---|---|
Episode Title |
Season & Episode Number |
Fair Trade |
Season 3, Episode 13 |
Alter Ego |
Season 3, Episode 14 |
Blood Fever |
Season 3, Episode 16 |
Day of Honor |
Season 4, Episode 3 |
Demon |
Season 4, Episode 24 |
Extreme Risk |
Season 5, Episode 3 |
Counterpoint |
Season 5, Episode 10 |
Renaissance Man |
Season 7, Episode 24 |
Ogawa Became A Lieutenant And Battled The Borg In Star Trek: First
Alyssa Ogawa was the most trusted medical colleague of Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. After Ogawa's first Starfleet promotion in TNG, she married Lt. Andrew Powell with whom she had a child. It was Ogawa's unborn child that provided the cure for the horrifying effects of Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome in the TNG episode "Genesis." Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) used the natural immune barriers in Ogawa's amniotic fluid to create an antidote for the disease. Unlike Taurik and the rest of her fellow Lower Deckers, Ogawa appeared in the first two TNG movies.
Ogawa is seen aiding Dr. Crusher in her analysis of Geordi after he's recovered from the Duras sisters in Star Trek Generations. And then, in Star Trek: First , Ogawa helped Dr. Crusher evacuate the sickbay on the USS Enterprise-E when it was overrun by Borg drones. Ogawa wasn't seen in either Star Trek: Insurrection or Nemesis, suggesting that she'd moved on since the events of First . The non-canon Star Trek: Titan novel Taking Wing could provide an answer to why Ogawa left the Enterprise, as it states that her husband Andrew was killed during Starfleet's tragic war with the Dominion.
Sam Lavelle Inspired Lower Decks’ Boimler
There are clear aspects of Sito Jaxa in Mariner, Ogawa in Lt. JG D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Taurik in both Lt. JG Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Provisional Lieutenant T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz). However, the biggest influence on Star Trek: Lower Decks, and the character of Lt. JG Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid) is Sam Lavelle from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In "Lower Decks", Sam awkwardly tries to bond over a shared Canadian heritage with Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) - who grew up in Alaska. It's not that far from Boimler's hilarious attempts to ingratiate himself with Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) by pretending to be from Hawaii.
Lavelle is definitely more like "Bold Boimler", but the awkwardness and eagerness to please is still there. In the lead up to Star Trek: Lower Decks' premiere in 2020, Mike McMahan stated that Boimler was influenced by Dan Gauthier's Star Trek: The Next Generation character. McMahan outlined the connection between Lavelle and Boimler for Trek Movie in 2020, stating that they're both "so dedicated to trying to rank up" that they're too frightened to take the big risks that would make them the next Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Lavelle didn't feature in any subsequent Star Trek series, but his legacy lives on in Boimler who, maybe one day, might just get to be Kirk.
Star Trek: Lower Decks' season 4 finale streams November 2nd on Paramount+.