WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 4, episode 8, “Caves.”
With its nearly sixty-year history, Star Trek has recycled and reinvented many storylines (and sets) over the years, and a surprising number of episodes take place in caves. Sometimes, characters will crash land on a dangerous or inhospitable planet and seek shelter in nearby caves. Starfleet Officers are also sent specifically to study a cave. Whether because of a cave-in or a storm, characters will often get trapped in caves without the ability to contact their ship. These tropes have been used and reused in nearly every incarnation of Star Trek, from Star Trek: The Original Series all the way through Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Lower Decks season 4, episode 8, “Caves” pokes fun at the large number of caves in Star Trek, even pointing out how many of the caves across the galaxy look awfully similar. This was because the same set at Paramount Stage 16 named “Planet Hell” was used for many of the cave scenes during the Star Trek: The Next Generation era. From a practical standpoint, a cave set was relatively easy to design and could be used to represent caves on any number of planets. Plus, in-universe, it makes sense that lots of rocky planets would have elaborate cave systems, potentially with cave-dwelling life. Some great and truly iconic Star Trek moments happen in caves.
10 Star Trek: The Original Series – “The Devil in the Dark”
After reports of multiple deaths in a mining colony on Janus VI, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the USS Enterprise go to investigate. Nearly all of TOS season 1, episode 25 takes place in a cave system as Captain Kirk and his crew search for the creature that has been killing the miners. Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) soon find the creature, which looks like a large molten rock, but it doesn’t seem aggressive. Spock determines that it is a silicon-based lifeform and he attempts to mind meld with it. Spock learns that the creature is called a Horta and that the miners had unknowingly been destroying its eggs. “The Devil in the Dark” remains a classic episode of TOS, and exemplifies what Star Trek is all about – seeking out new life with curiosity rather than fear.
9 Star Trek: The Original Series – “All Our Yesterdays”
When Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) try to follow Captain Kirk through a time portal on the planet Sarpeidon, they find themselves 5,000 years in the past during the planet’s ice age. A woman named Zarabeth (Mariette Hartley) saves Spock and McCoy from freezing and brings them to a cave. Spock begins to develop feelings for Zarabeth and accepts the fact that he and McCoy cannot travel back through the portal. McCoy soon realizes that traveling back in time has caused Spock to revert back to the more emotional Vulcans of the past. McCoy eventually convinces Spock that they must go back to their own time, and Spock says a tearful goodbye to Zarabeth.
8 Star Trek: The Next Generation – “The Enemy”
While on an away mission, Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) falls into an underground cavern, trapping him on the planet Galorndon Core during a dangerous radiologic storm. As Geordi works to find a way to contact the Enterprise, he encounters a Romulan named Bochra (John Snyder) who had survived after his ship had crashed on the planet. The storms on the planet not only prevent transporting and communications, but they also cause neurological damage. Bochra begins to lose feelings in his legs and Geordi is having trouble seeing through his VISOR. The two enemies must work together to find the probe sent down by the Enterprise and get off the planet before the storms cause further damage.
7 Star Trek: The Next Generation – “Final Mission”
The most significant part of the story in TNG season 4, episode 9, “Final Mission” takes place in a cave after Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Ensign Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) seek shelter on an inhospitable desert moon. As his final mission before entering Starfleet Academy, Wesley travels with Captain Picard to Pentarus V, where Picard has been asked to resolve a dispute. En route to the planet, Picard and Wesley’s shuttle crashes on a desert moon, prompting the two to seek shelter in the moon’s cave system. After a rockslide seriously injures Picard, Wesley devises a way to access water in the cave and keep Picard alive until the Enterprise and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) arrive.
6 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Heart of Stone”
In DS9 season 3, episode 14, “Heart of Stone,” Constable Odo (René Auberjonois) and Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) find themselves stuck in a cave after pursuing a Maquis ship to a small moon. After a strange crystal immobilizes Kira and starts to encase her entire body, Odo works to free her and tells her about his life. Eventually, Odo confesses his love for Kira, and she responds that she loves him as well. Odo grows suspicious of this response, and Kira reveals herself to actually be the Female Changeling (Salome Jens) in disguise who tries to convince Odo to join the other Changelings in the Great Link. Both Odo and Kira’s relationship and Odo’s connection to the Changelings would be major plot threads moving forward.
5 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – “Waltz”
After the ship transporting former Cardassian leader Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) comes under attack, Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Dukat end up stranded in a cave on a nearby planet. Dukat begins to experience hallucinations and grows increasingly unstable, as the injured Sisko works to find a way out of his situation. What follows is a masterclass in acting from both Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo, as Sisko keeps Dukat talking and ranting about his treatment of Bajor. In the end, Dukat escapes, vowing to single-handedly destroy Bajor, and the battered Sisko is rescued by the USS Defiant.
4 Star Trek: Voyager – “Blood Fever”
After Lt. B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) contracts Vulcan pon farr from Ensign Vorik (Alexander Enberg) in Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 16, she sets her sights on Lt. Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill). While on an away mission to collect gallicite from a seemingly abandoned mine, B’Elanna runs off into the cave system. Tom finds her and tries to convince her to come back to the ship, but she just wants to have sex with him. Despite Tom’s own desire to be with B’Elanna, he refuses to take advantage of her questionable mental state. “Blood Fever” lays the groundwork for Tom and B’Elanna’s eventual romance, although the two won’t officially get together until season 4.
3 Star Trek: Enterprise – “Strange New World”
While on an away mission to study a newly discovered M-class planet, Sub-Commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock), Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer), and Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) are forced to take shelter in a cave during a storm. Travis and Trip both think they see alien lifeforms in the caverns, but T’Pol’s scans reveal nothing out of the ordinary. The members of the landing party grow more suspicious and erratic, eventually prompting Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) to emergency beam up one of the crew members. Phlox discovers that the landing party has been exposed to a hallucinogenic from the planet’s fauna. The antidote is sent down to the landing party, T’Pol administers it, and the crew waits out the rest of the storm.
2 Star Trek: Discovery – “Forget Me Not”
After the USS Discovery jumped 930 years into the future, their ship was inspected by officers from the United Earth Defense Force. One of these officers was a human named Adira (Blu del Barrio). Adira revealed that they had been implanted with a Trill symbiont and had no memories before their escape pod was found by the Defense Force. In Star Trek: Discovery season 3, episode 4, “Forget Me Not,” the Discovery takes Adira to the Trill homeworld in an attempt to access the memories of her symbiont, Tal. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Adira eventually make their way to the Caves of Mak’ala, where Adira enters the pools in the cave and learns more about their past.
1 Star Trek: Lower Decks – “Caves”
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 8, “Caves” hilariously pokes fun at the prevalence of caves in Star Trek. When Lieutenants Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) find themselves trapped in a cave, they reminisce about other cave missions they have been on. Unable to communicate with the USS Cerritos and surrounded by carnivorous moss, the Lower Deckers work to find a way to contact the ship using materials found in the cave. “Caves” references various Star Trek cave episodes, while also using the very tropes it’s mocking. As usual, Lower Decks excels at taking classic Star Trek tropes and turning them on their head with hilarious results.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
