Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – "Old Friends, New Planets"
Summary
- The season 4 finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks features a cameo by Wil Wheaton, reprising his role as Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- The episode includes a flashback to Wesley's time at Starfleet Academy and reveals his involvement with Nova Squadron alongside Beckett Mariner.
- Fans had hoped for Wesley's return in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but his appearance in Lower Decks is a happy reminder that he can still make appearances in the Star Trek universe.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale, "Old Friends, New Planet," kicks off with the huge Star Trek: The Next Generation cameo that didn't happen in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, "The Inner Fight" saw Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) reveal that she knew the members of Nova Squadron at Starfleet Academy, who are infamous from TNG season 5, episode 19, "The First Duty." Mariner was friends with and idolized Ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill), who tragically died in the line of duty in TNG season 7, episode 15, "Lower Decks," which scarred and defined Mariner's own feelings about Starfleet.
Disgraced former Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) is the villain who attacked non-Federation ships throughout Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4. After Locarno beamed Mariner aboard his starship, Nova One, Beckett learned Nick formed his own armada he calls Nova Fleet with Lower Deckers from various alien ships. Locarno's plan was to use a stolen Ferengi Genesis Device to assert his own power over the United Federation of Planets. Locarno and Mariner weren't exactly friends back at Starfleet Academy, however, although Nick called Beckett "practically a junior member of Nova Squadron." But someone who actually was a part of Nova Squadron finally appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
