Twenty-four years beforeStar Trek: Lower Decks,Star Trek: Deep Space Ninehad a lower decks episode of its own. Technically,Star Trek: The Next Generationseason 7, episode 15was the first “Lower Decks” episode that broke away from the classic cast of bridge crew and chief officers to focus instead on a few junior officers on USS Enterprise-D. That popular reversal inspiredStar Trek:Lower Decksand its castof low-ranked officers.
Part of what has makesStar Trek: Lower Decksso popular across its five-season run is the loving attention it pays to all theStarTrekthat’s come before.Star Trek: Lower Decksbrings back characterswhose shows ended years ago and references popular fan theories in almost every episode.Star Trek:Deep Space Nine,in particular, has been referenced several times onLower Decks.Years before Lieutenants Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome),Deep Space Ninealso took an episode to give its low-ranked officers a moment in the spotlight.
“Empok Nor” Is A Star Trek: DS9 Lower Decks Episode
Junior Officers Are Tested, With A Twist
Star Trek: Deep Space Nineseason 5, episode 24, “Empok Nor” is essentiallyDS9’s version of “Lower Decks.” In “Empok Nor,” Chief Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney), Nog (Aron Eisenberg), Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson), and four engineering crewmen from Deep Space Nine go on a salvage mission to theabandoned Cardassian station, Empok Nor. By focusing on an away mission of mostly low-ranked personnel,“Empok Nor” tests a group of crewmen who might otherwise have remained anonymous.This is the same classic formula that made “Lower Decks” work onTNGand set up all ofStar Trek:Lower Decksfor success.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Cast & Character Guide
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had the biggest cast of characters of any Trek show, meaning that Captain Sisko had numerous allies in the Dominion War.
Of course, things do not go smoothly for Chief O’Brien’s lower deckers in “Empok Nor.” Most of the time, whenStar Trekturns the spotlight on the crewmen who work behind the scenes, they grow and succeed over the course of their episodes or seasons. In “Empok Nor,” they die.Of the eight-person-away missions that flew away from Deep Space Nine, only Chief O’Brien, Garak, and Nog live to return.Although junior officers die all the time inTrek, those deaths hit ten times harder in “Empok Nor” because crewmen who die are all full characters with names, goals, and personalities.
“Lower Decks” andStar Trek: Lower Deckswork because they show the hidden potentials of the entire crews of Federation vessels…
Because most of DS9’s lower deckers die,Nog’s survival, in particular, seems all the more important.The fact that the wily Ferengi was able to out-maneuver Garak on a drug-induced murder spree makesCadet Nog’s position in Starfleet Academyall the more earned. Both “Lower Decks” andStar Trek: Lower Deckswork because they show the hidden potentials of the entire crews of Federation vessels; “Empok Nor” works because it shows that same hidden potential in a character who began as a civilian.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Has 2 Big DS9 Connections
Both Mariner And Shaxs Know Deep Space Nine Well
Even beyond the parallel structure and focus between “Empok Nor” and Mike McMahan’s animated comedy,Star Trek:Lower DecksandDeep Space Ninehave other important connections. As early as Star Trek:Lower Decksseason 2,Ensign Mariner reveals that she served on Deep Space Nine in the past.InLower Decksseason 3, Colonel Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) recognizes Mariner and asks if she has been swapping war stories with Quark (Armin Shimerman). These anecdotes reveal that Mariner served on Deep Space Nine during the Dominion War, and her experiences with that conflict are an essential part of her self-sabotage in later seasons.
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Beckett Mariner is not the only member of the USSCerritoscrew withDeep Space Nineconnections. Lieutenant Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) is a personal friend of Colonel Kira.Shaxs and Kira served together in the Bajoran Militia,and they have both saved each other’s lives numerous times. The interpersonal connections that linkStar Trek: Deep Space NineandStar Trek: Lower Decksmake the universe ofStar Trekfeel fuller, and they sell the notion that every background officer in the Federation is only a few degrees of separation from the most beloved characters inStar Trek.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Cast
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
Star Trek Lower Decks
The animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew on one of Starfleet’s least significant ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Tendi (Noël Wells) have to keep up with their duties and their social lives often. At the same time, the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
