Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – "Old Friends, New Planets"
Summary
- Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4's finale tops a joke in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 about a starship "throwing an asteroid."
- Lieutenant Boimler takes on the role of Acting Captain in Lower Decks and expertly uses the USS Cerritos' tractor beam to throw a battleship at the Trynar Shield, successfully rescuing Mariner.
- Boimler's battle tactic precedes Riker's asteroid throw, as Lower Decks is set 20 years before Picard, highlighting Boimler's character development and his experience serving under Riker on the USS Titan.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale just topped Star Trek: Picard season 3's joke about a starship "throwing an asteroid." Lower Decks' season 4 ender, "Old Friends, New Planets," saw the USS Cerritos defy Starfleet's orders to rescue Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), who was trying to stop disgraced ex-Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) from using a stolen Ferengi Genesis Device against the United Federation of Planets. Lt. D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) turned to her sister in the Orion Syndicate and made a huge personal sacrifice to save Mariner.
Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) throwing an asteroid at the Shrike, commanded by Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer), was one of the highlights of Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4, "No Win Scenario." After Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) realized the Ryton Nebula was a living organism about to give birth, an audacious was hatched for the USS Titan-A to escape the Nebula. The Shrike tried to stop them, but Riker remembered how Captain Vadic used her ship's tractor beam to hurl Dr. Crusher's starship, the SS Eleos XII, at the Titan. Turnabout was fair play as Riker used the Titan's tractor beam to throw an asteroid at the Shrike, disabling it so the Starfleet heroes could warp out of the danger zone and back to Federation space.
