Star Trek: Voyager had some bizarre storylines, and Star Trek: Lower Decks’ final season shows a fate that the crew of the USS Voyager could easily have experienced. Every season of Star Trek: Voyager had at least one story that felt like it was something out of a fever dream, and while that wasn’t unique to Voyager, it was the show that delved deep into the bag of weirdness more often than other franchise projects. Although Star Trek: Lower Decks has its fair share of unusual goings-on, the fact it’s essentially a canonical Star Trek parody gives it more leeway.
With more members of the Star Trek: Voyager cast starting to return in other franchise projects, the show has been returning to the public eye recently. For example, Kate Mulgrew coming back as Admiral Janeway as part of the Star Trek: Prodigy cast was a huge moment for Voyager fans – as was Tim Russ’ brief Tuvok cameo as part of the Star Trek: Picard season 3 cast. Outside Voyager, the characters have experienced slightly less other-worldly adventures, but Star Trek: Lower Decks includes a poignant reminder of the sorts of things Janeway’s crew went through back in the day.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Shows A Fate Captain Janeway’s USS Voyager Avoided
The microscopic USS Endeavour represents the wild kind of adventures Voyager used to have
The Intrepid-class ship in the nanite blob at the end of Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 3, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel,” could be easily mistaken for the USS Voyager at first glance. Voyager is by far the most famous Intrepid-cl ass starship, so it can’t be a coincidence that Lower Decks chose the category of ship to be found in a scenario that could easily have formed the basis of an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Captain Janeway and her crew often ran into apparent threats that turned out to be something far less deadly, which is the plot of “The Best Exotic Nante Hotel” and what the microscopic USS Endeavour is going through. Janeway’s ship being pulled into another universe where everything is much larger would be a perfect fit for a Star Trek: Voyager script, but Lower Decks pays tribute by giving the mini-arc to Captain Tersal (Gillian Vigman) and her tiny crew.
Lots Of Weird Things Happened On Star Trek: Voyager
Janeway & Paris turning into human salamanders was just the tip of the iceberg
There isn’t much known about Tersal’s ship, other than the nature of the universe from which it arrived. In short, the Endeavour’s reality is much smaller than Star Trek’s Prime Universe, and an almost identical version of Starfleet seems to exist. Captain Tersal’s mission to get her crew home in the face of all the weirdness brings to mind Janeway’s task as well, as Mulgrew’s character wasn’t short of strange challenges of her own.
The most prominent Star Trek: Voyager story that would classify as weird is when Captain Janeway and Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) evolve into salamander-like creatures and procreate in season 2, episode 15, “Threshold.” However, an ongoing war with aliens from a fluidic dimension (Species 8472), and Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers) being replacements from a duplicated Voyager are also among Star Trek: Voyager’s most off-the-wall (yet compelling) storylines that Star Trek: Lower Decks has paid homage to.