Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 3 – “Grounded”
The Ensigns of Star Trek: Lower Decks visit the historic site of Star Trek: First Contact and Trekkers finally get to see what Commander George La Forge (LeVar Burton) only hinted at to Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell). Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3 picks up from the season 2 finale cliffhanger when Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) was arrested for blowing up Pakled planet. Carol’s daughter, Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), doesn’t take it lying down and leads her Lower Decker friends in a plan to save their Captain, which brings them to Bozeman, Montana, the site of First Contact.
Star Trek: First Contact is generally favored as the best and most popular of the four movies starring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In First Contact, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) wages a battle against the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) when her cybernetic minions invade the USS Enterprise-E. But in the equally entertaining B-story, Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) leads an Enterprise contingent to ensure First Contact with the Vulcans on April 5, 2063, happens as history records it. This means motivating a reluctant (and usually inebriated) Zephram Cochrane to launch his starship, the Phoenix, on schedule so that he can make Mankind’s first warp flight, which will be noticed by the Vulcans. Cochrane is also destined to make First Contact with the Vulcans when they land in Bozeman, Montana. This was easier said than done since Zephram cringed at the thought of being a key historical figure, and he was not pleased when Geordi La Forge tried to explain that there would be a statue honoring Cochrane by the 24th century.
Related: Why Strange New Worlds’ Star Trek Crossover Is Genius
One of the best parts of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3’s premiere is seeing Bozeman, Montana just as Geordi described in Star Trek: First Contact. In fact, it was even better than La Forge said because Bozeman is a theme park in the 24th century. Star Trek: Lower Decks packed Bozeman with First Contact callbacks and jokes like the Crash and Burn Bar with “its famous one-song jukebox” (that song is “Ooby Dooby” by Roy Orbison, a Zephram Cochrane favorite). The Vulcans’ ship is also available for parkgoers to enter for photo ops. Best of all, visitors can ride the Phoenix into orbit and recreate Cochrane’s inaugural warp one flight, and the hologram of Zephram (voiced by James Cromwell), not only pilots the Phoenix but plays Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride,” just as how it happened in Star Trek: First Contact.
Why Star Trek: First Contact Is Still The Most Important TNG Movie
Star Trek: First Contact isn’t just the most popular TNG movie, it has become the most important to the overall franchise. Star Trek Generations may have ended with the death of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) but it’s not regarded as a particularly great film. Star Trek: Insurrection is largely forgotten about, and Star Trek: Nemesis ranks low in the list of the best Star Trek movies, even though Data died at the end. Meanwhile, First Contact was the ideal mix of sci-fi action, adventure, and humor, and it featured the debut of the Borg Queen, Star Trek’s greatest villain other than Khan (Ricardo Montalbán). Further, First Contact depicted one of the most pivotal events in Star Trek history, and how Captain Picard’s crew basically rescued the origin of Star Trek itself.
By TNG‘s 24th century era, First Contact Day is a holiday in the United Federation of Planets. But it turns out every day is First Contact Day in Bozeman, Montana’s theme park. After 26 years of imagining it, it took Star Trek: Lower Decks to finally show Bozeman, Montana in the 24th century, and the recreation of post-World War III era Bozeman is even better than how Geordi La Forge described it to Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
