WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks' season 4 finale, "Old Friends, New Planets."
Summary
- Lieutenant JG Beckett Mariner tries to stop Nick Locarno from detonating his stolen Genesis Device, highlighting his bitter and resentful nature.
- The episode humorously acknowledges the similarity between Tom Paris and Nick Locarno, with Lt. JG Bradward Boimler failing to see the resemblance.
- Nick Locarno's character was deemed irredeemable in Star Trek: Voyager due to his role in the Nova Squadron scandal, while Paris was easier to redeem.
Star Trek: Lower Decks' season 4 finale makes a perfect joke about Star Trek: Voyager's Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and his Doppelgänger. In "Old Friends, New Planets", Lieutenant JG Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) tries to prevent Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) from detonating his stolen Genesis Device. Independent Captain Locarno has assembled Nova Fleet, a supposed coalition of equals that is nothing of the sort. Tossed out of Starfleet Academy for covering up a fatal accident, Nick Locarno is bitter and resentful, and has decided to make his own legacy, despite the cost to those who've joined his Nova Fleet.
Introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, Cadet Nick Locarno was the first of Robert Duncan McNeill's two Star Trek characters. Locarno was briefly considered as the pilot of the USS Voyager, but instead McNeill was cast as reformed Maquis traitor Tom Paris. Given a shot at redemption by Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Paris became a Starfleet legend thanks to his role in piloting Voyager across the Delta Quadrant. His legendary status was confirmed in the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", which is why Nick Locarno looks so familiar to one of the Lower Deckers in the season 4 finale.
