Every Star Trek Reference In The New Teaser For Lower Decks Season 1

As we enter the second half of Star Trek: Lower Decks, one thing is abundantly clear: The writers for this show are Star Trek reference junkies. We've seen Romulan alcohol, there's been bat'leth fighting — heck, even the title font is a reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation. In literally every episode, there are references both obvious and subtle, enough to satisfy even the most hardcore Trekkie.

So, naturally, with half a season still to go, we got a glimpse of what's to come with a teaser trailer during the Star Trek Day live panels on September 8, 2020. As you might imagine, there are a lot of references to Star Trek in the minute of footage we saw. There are so many references, in fact, that it's possible you didn't catch them all.

Consider this a list of all the Star Trek references you might have missed in the latest teaser trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks, and a list of non-Trek references, too, because there's at least one extremely specific one in there you almost definitely missed.

The Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer starts not on an image, but on a familiar theme song — Star Trek: Voyager's theme song, to be exact. Yes, rather than the usual music we hear when viewing the USS Cerritos, we hear the smooth, Delta Quadrant tones of Voyager, perhaps suggesting the direction the remainder of this season will take. We've already heard mention of something called "The Janeway Protocol," the explanation of which is still sitting on the proverbial stage like the proverbial Chekhov's gun. We've also seen the Borg (albeit in holodeck form), and the Collective were Voyager's primary nemeses from season 3 onward.

Paired with the Voyager theme is the crew of Lower Decks in a shuttle craft heading towards the Cerritos and talking about what a handsome ship she is. This is also a reference to Star Trek's past. There have been many times we've seen a captain and their crew lay eyes on their ship from afar. Star Trek: The Motion Picture notoriously spends about 10 solid minutes with Kirk (William Shatner) admiring the Enterprise. On Lower Decks, there's a specific shot of the hull of the Cerritos in which its designation is emblazoned on the hull. There is an identical shot at the end of Star Trek: IV — The Voyage Home, when Kirk and the crew see the Enterprise 1701-A for the first time after having time traveled to save some whales (and Earth, as a result).

Despite the fact that so much of Star Trek: Lower Decks is focused on the late '80s and '90s era of Trek, there were a surprising number of shout-outs to Star Trek: The Original Series in the new teaser trailer.

In addition to the reference to the ship, we also caught a glimpse Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) getting chewed on by a bunch of Gorn. Kirk fought a Gorn in the eighteenth episode of the first season of Star Trek, "Arena," in one of the franchise's most-utilized settings: Vasquez Rocks. Interestingly, while we can't see the whole area in the trailer, it does look like Rutherford might also be facing off against the Gorn in an animated rendering of Vasquez Rocks.

The other major tip of the hat to the classic era comes when we see Mariner (Tawny Newsome) seated on what appears to be a throne while maniacally laughing. This whole moment has a very TOS vibe; it's especially reminiscent of Khan Noonian Singh.

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Let's also, however, point out the very specific eye makeup, which is exactly the same as Lexa's (Alycia Debnam-Carey) from The CW show The 100. Who knew Mariner is a big fan of post-apocalyptic YA?

Related to Khan, we do also briefly see the crew submerged in water with some eels. Khan used the Ceti eels to control minds in Star Trek: II — The Wrath of Khan, so could it be that these eels are their aquatic equivalent?

Most of this season's references on Lower Decks are from the TNG era, and this trailer is chock full of those. Early on, Tendi (Noël Wells) "updates" a dog, turning it into a mutant nightmare. While this is obviously a reference to John Carpenter's The Thing, let's also take a moment and acknowledge that this is not the first shape-shifting dog we've seen in Star Trek. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Aquiel," Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) temporarily adopts a cute little pup that turns out to be a sinister, coalescent organism.

We see some important aliens in the trailer: A Klingon Bird of Prey shows up, and we also briefly see the back of a Romulan officer, the color coding of whom suggests they are part of the Tal Shiar, the Romulans' most deadly organization. There's also a very nice TNG shout-out involving Tendi. There's a moment in which Tendi is in a fight and dressed in what you might mistake as a ninja outfit. In actuality, Tendi is wearing the same uniform Picard (Patrick Stewart), Worf (Michael Dorn), and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) wear while on their top-secret assignment infiltrating the Cardassians in the episode "Chain of Command."

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The biggest TNG reference of all, however, is none other than the appearance of Q, the omnipotent, puckish alien who put humanity on trial — he's even wearing his World War III judge's robes. It's been confirmed that John de Lancie will reprise his role as Q, arguably making this the most exciting tip of the hat to Trek so far.

Star Trek: Lower Decks airs on CBS All Access.