The Coolest References And Easter Eggs From Star Trek: Lower Decks 'Crisis Point'

Each new episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is another chance to build on the surprisingly complex characters on the animated series. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) especially has grown in leaps and bounds since we first met her cutting up poor Bradward Boimler's (Jack Quaid) leg with a Bat'leth. We've already seen Mariner start admitting why she goofs off so much on the Cerritos and that she cares more about her crewmates than she lets on, but that was only the beginning.

In the ninth episode of season 1, "Crisis Point," the story focuses almost entirely on Mariner's antagonistic relationship with her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis).

On this occasion, the Lower Decks gang works out Mariner's feelings through a movie-like holodeck program. As you might imagine, there are a ton of references to all the best Star Trek movies. These are some of the best references and Easter eggs we caught throughout "Crisis Point."

Before we get to the movie references, the opening scene of "Crisis Point" pays an extremely weird homage that we have to call out. Mariner steps in to alter the way a non-Federation planet operates. In its current state, a group of dog-like aliens are eating sentient lizard people. Mariner is altering the food chain.

What's interesting is that this is not the first time Star Trek has pitted aliens like these against each other. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Lonely Among Us," the Enterprise must host peace negotiations between the Selay and the Anticans — aliens who happen to bear a striking resemblance to the lizard and dog people we saw in "Lonely Among Us."

Meanwhile, Boimler is prepping for an interview with the Captain. In the holodeck he, Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) and Tendi (Noël Wells) are hanging out with a hologram version of Leonardo da Vinci. While Data (Brent Spiner) spent a lot of his holodeck time pretending to be Sherlock Holmes, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) liked to pal around with none other than da Vinci.

The most subtle reference, however, is about how the holodeck works. In order to prep for his interview, Boimler creates holographic versions of the crew by having the computer extrapolate personalities based on personal logs. In addition to being very creepy, this is also an homage to the way Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton) created a holographic version of starship designer Dr. Leah Brahms (Susan Gibney) in the TNG episode "Booby Trap."

Once Mariner takes over Boimler's holodeck program and rewrites it to be a movie in which she gets to take her frustrations out on her mother (who is the captain), we launch right into movie reference city.

Running through the movies one at a time, there is one specific reference to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. After receiving orders from an admiral, Captain Freeman and the crew take a shuttlecraft to see the refitted version of the Cerritos. The shuttlecraft travels around the entirety of the ship for way too long while the crew gets very emotional. There is a solid five-minute sequence in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in which Kirk (William Shatner) and Scotty (James Doohan) cruise around the Enterprise in a shuttlecraft just to show off the new design to the audience — there is a reason that Star Trek movie is sometimes referred to as "The Motionless Picture."

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is considered by many to be the best Star Trek movie. As such, there are a lot of Wrath of Khan references in "Crisis Point." Even the title of Mariner's movie, "Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta" is an ode to the title "Wrath of Khan."

All throughout the episode, the title theme Mariner comes up with is strikingly similar to the main theme for Wrath of Khan. The fake movie takes place on Captain Freeman's birthday, and Wrath of Khan begins with Kirk's birthday.

When Mariner (playing Vindicta) faces off against a holodeck version of herself, the holo-Mariner sacrifices herself to save the crew, just like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) does in, you guessed it, Wrath of Kahn.

"Crisis Point" even ends on Vindicta coming back to life after coming out of photon torpedo casing — just like Spock. In fact, this is a bonus two-part reference, because this is also a parallel with Data sacrificing himself and blowing up the Scimitar to save Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: Nemesis.

The other movie that is often attributed the title of "best Star Trek movie" is Star Trek: VI – The Undiscovered Country. If there is any movie that gets as many references as Wrath of Khan, it's this one.

In "Crisis Point," Mariner (as Vindicta) distracts Captain Freeman and her crew by quoting The Tempest by William Shakespeare. In Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, Klingon General Chang (Christopher Plummer) quotes Shakespeare often, even going so far as to suggest that Shakespeare was secretly a Klingon all along.

At the end of "Crisis Point," there's a fake movie credit roll in which everyone from the cast's name appears in cursive handwriting. If that sounds familiar to you, it's probably because this is also a reference to Undiscovered Country. While Kirk, Scotty, and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) would all return to Star Trek feature films one last time during the events of Star Trek: Generations, Undiscovered Country was the Star Trek: The Original Series cast's final foray as the lead characters of the franchise. As such, the cast of The Undiscovered Country ends their final film with their names written out in script.

There's a hodgepodge of other great Star Trek Easter eggs and references in "Crisis Point."

For instance, Tendi says she wants to be the voice of the ship's computer during the simulation. Gene Roddenberry's wife Majel Barrett (who also played Number One, Nurse Chapel, and Lwaxana Troi) served as the voice for most Starfleet computers.

Additionally, Lieutenant Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) mentions the Pah-wraiths, who were the evil wormhole aliens from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. While Mariner fights her holodeck duplicate, she says she used to dress up like a targ for Halloween. Targs are basically Klingon boars. On DS9, Molly O'Brien (who would likely be a similar age to Mariner by the time Lower Decks takes place) has a plush targ named Piggy.

But the biggest shout-out of all goes to Xon. Mariner jokes that Boimler won't really be in her movie because he's "more of a Xon." If you've never heard of Xon, it's because he technically never existed. Back before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry planned to do another series called Star Trek: Phase II. Spock actor Leonard Nimoy didn't want to return, so a new Vulcan character was written: Spock's fully Vulcan brother Xon. The part was cast with David Gautreaux in the role, but the series never materialized. The idea of Spock's half-brother rematerialized later in the form of Sybok for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

As usual, the references to Star Trek's past are so numerous on Lower Decks that you might not even catch them all. Thanks to Star Trek nerds with way too much time on their hands, however, there are articles like these to help make Star Trek: Lower Decks even more fun on the rewatch.