Summary
- Star Trek: Lower Decks reminds fans of how Ensign Nog was saved on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with similar medical technology.
- Biosynthetic limbs in Star Trek are not simple plug-and-play attachments and require counseling and physical therapy for recipients.
- Biosynthetic body parts, like the leg grown for Nog and Asif, are more common in Star Trek than cloning for spare parts.
Warning: Contains Spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 8 – "Caves"
Star Trek: Lower Decks reminds fans how Ensign Nog (Aron Eisenberg) was saved on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when a similar 24th century medical technology is referenced. While Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), D'Vana Tendi (Noel Wells), and Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) are trapped together in a cave on an away mission to study alien moss, they pass the time by recounting previous missions when they were also trapped in caves, albeit separately. Mariner recalls a mission leading Delta Shift, during which a shuttle crash leaves Ensign Asif (Asif Ali) with a badly broken leg.
While attempting to reach a needed mineral that can repair the away team's communicators, Lt, Mariner and Ensign Karavitus (Artemis Pebdani) discover it's surrounded by a chroniton field that prematurely ages them. Ensign Asif, however, is young enough that he won't die of old age, and Mariner orders him to help harvest the mineral despite his grotesque injury. To Asif's horror, his broken leg rots and falls off, and Mariner elects to leave the limb behind in the cave instead of retrieving it, explaining, “I’m done being old, so we’re just gonna have the doc grow you a new one.”
