Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 9 – “Crisis Point”
Star Trek: Lower Decks brilliantly parodied the Star Trek movies in episode 9, “Crisis Point”, and here’s every reference the animated comedy series dropped. Each episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is jam-packed with Easter eggs and jokes about numerous characters, aliens, and plot points from the various Star Trek TV series and movies, but Crisis Point is the first lovingly detailed, full-on parody by Star Trek about its own movies.
Primarily a holodeck episode, “Crisis Point” is about Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) working out her issues with her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) by creating an elaborate movie where Mariner portrays a Khan-like villain named Vindicta out for revenge on the Captain of the Cerritos. As part of her therapy, Mariner recruits her fellow Lower Deckers, Orion D’Vana Tendi (Noel Wells) and cyborg Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) to portray Vindicta’s henchmen. Vindicta also refers to Tendi, Rutherford, and Shempo, a stand-in for Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), as “my Three Horsemen of the Vin-pocalypse”, which is perhaps a wink at the mutant villains in X-Men: Apocalypse.
“Crisis Point” doesn’t limit itself to evoking Star Trek movies, either. Early in the episode, Captain Freeman orders Mariner to go to therapy, and her daughter objects by saying, “It’s the ’80s, dude!” but Freeman calls her “a loose cannon”. This is actually a very sly nod to Lethal Weapon, where Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is sent to see the LAPD psychiatrist and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) discusses how sensitive men are in the 1980s. There’s also a pointed parody of Aliens when Mariner orders Vindicta to “Get off my mother, you b*tch!” just like Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) threatened the Xenomorph Queen.
Star Trek: Lower Decks specifically pokes fun at Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek Generations, and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2009, but “Crisis Point” also sends up some of the other Star Trek movies as well in one of the best episodes of the animated series’ freshman season.
Crisis Point’s Star Trek II-Style Theme And Opening Credits
The title and opening credits of Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta resemble the credits of most Star Trek movies with a blue font over a starfield, but it specifically evokes Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is one of Mariner’s main inspirations for her film. Of course, Beckett Mariner’s name is all over the credits of her film, just as Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner’s names are prominent in the Star Trek movies they produced, conceived the stories for, and directed.
The musical score in “Crisis Point” also resembles the nautical adventure-inspired music composed by James Horner for Star Trek II, which drives home the film’s inspiration as “Horatio Hornblower in outer space”. The stirring score amalgamates Star Trek II‘s rousing anthem with Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ theme composed by Chris Westlake, which is itself a riff on Star Trek: The Next Generation’s theme, which was originally Star Trek: The Motion Picture‘s anthem composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
“Who’s Xon?”
When Boimler protested about being in Mariner’s movie, she responded, “That’s okay, you’re kind of a Xon, anyway. You probably weren’t gonna make the final cut.” When Brad asked, “Who’s Xon?” Mariner replied, “Exactly.”
Xon (David Gautreaux) was a full-blooded Vulcan character intended to replace Spock in the aborted Star Trek: Phase II TV series when Leonard Nimoy refused to return as Spock since he was fighting Paramount in litigation over royalties. The idea behind Xon was for Kirk to have a younger Vulcan who would challenge him in ways Spock didn’t. Xon was dropped from Star Trek: The Motion Picture when Nimoy agreed to return as Spock; Gautreaux instead portrayed Starfleet Commander Branch at the start of the film and Xon simply faded into Star Trek trivia as the Vulcan who never was.
Boimler Falls Into Water Like Worf And Dr. Crusher
When Crisis Point begins, Boimler is still on the holodeck and he plummets into a lake as the Cerritos‘ senior staff arrives on jetskis. Boimler getting all wet is a nod to Worf (Michael Dorn) being forced to walk the plank as part of his holodeck promotion to Lt. Commander in Star Trek Generations. Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) mistakenly gave the order “remove the plank!” instead of “retract the plank”, which sent the Klingon into the sea. Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) then pushed Dr. Beverly Crusher overboard and sent her into the water, mistaking his act for a practical joke.
Shuttle Approaching Cerritos Just Like The Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
At Douglas Station, the crew of the Cerritos rides a shuttlecraft and gaze lovingly at their “upgraded” starship in drydock, complete with tears in the eyes of Chief Engineer Andy Billups (Paul Scheer). This sequence is a spot-on parody of the most famous scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture when Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Scotty (James Doohan) take a shuttle pod to the refitted Starship Enterprise in drydock and they take their sweet time examining the vessel from every angle before docking. The Cerritos is given the same level of admiration as the Enterprise got, although the sequence in “Crisis Point” was a fraction of the length of Star Trek: The Motion Picture‘s.
Cerritos’ Bridge Lit Like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek
Mariner’s film upgraded the bridge of the Cerritos (and outer space) with movie lighting and lens flares, just like the Enterprise‘s bridge in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2009. This is also a reference to how the Enterprise‘s lighting changes in Star Trek movies; the Enterprise-D’s bridge other sections of the starship were lit to be darker and moodier in Star Trek Generations compared to the bright, even lighting in TNG. Star Trek: Lower Decks episode 5, “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”, also parodied the Enterprise‘s lighting in Star Trek Generations during Mariner’s flashback to her old starship, the U.S.S. Quito, which was lit like Ten-Forward was in Star Trek Generations.
Cerritos’ Rainbow Warp And Abrams-Style Effects
The Cerritos jumping into warp had the same rainbow-colored streaks the Starship Enterprise had in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a visual effect that wasn’t used afterward (until Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ parody). Along with the monochromatic 1970s-style Starfleet uniforms and the interiors of the Enterprise like the massive recreation room, the rainbow warp effects were concepts abandoned after Star Trek: The Motion Picture but are part of the original Star Trek film’s unique visual style. But the Cerritos jumping to warp also evoked the way warp is depicted in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies.
Vindicta Quotes Shakespeare
Mariner takes on the villainous persona of Vindicta, a space marauder who says, “Hell is empty. And all the devils are here! Our revels now are ended”. Vindicta is quoting from The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. A Star Trek movie villain who quotes Shakespeare is a riff on General Chang (Christopher Plummer), the devious bald Klingon who constantly taunted Kirk with Shakespeare quotes in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Vindicta is also inspired by Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), who Mariner has referenced several times in previous Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes and Khan also taunted Kirk with quotes from Moby-Dick in Star Trek II. While Khan is the obvious template of the Star Trek movie villain seeking vengeance on a Captain, Vindicta’s facial tattoos evoke Nero (Eric Bana), the tattooed Romulan villain of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2009, and she also bears some similarities to Lursa (Barbara March) and B’Etor (Gwyneth Walsh), the Klingon sisters who were villains in Star Trek Generations.
The Cerritos’ Crash Landing Is Like The Enterprise In Star Trek Generations
Vindicta detonated the warp core of her own ship and the resulting shock wave damaged the Cerritos, forcing it to crashland on the planet Idlocana VI. This is a hilariously spot-on parody of the Klingon Bird-of-prey’s explosion forcing the Enterprise-D‘s saucer section to crashland on Veridian III in Star Trek Generations. Of course, the Cerritos‘ version did it comedically, with the starship’s saucer rolling on its side before stopped by wedging itself in a mountain. Later, the Cerritos exploded like the Enterprise-D did when the Nexus struck Veridian III.
Impossible Beaming
Before the Cerritos crashed, Rutherford saved the crew by using a rapid repeating emergency transwarp sequence to beam them off the ship onto the planet. When Billups said that was impossible, Rutherford replied, “No, it’s a movie. You can do whatever you want. You do all sorts of beaming stuff in a movie.”
This is a sly jab at how the J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies ignore what are supposed to be the limitations of Starfleet tech for the convenience of the plot. Examples of “impossible” stunts using the transporter include Scotty (Simon Pegg) using transwarp beaming to send Kirk (Chris Pine) and himself to the Enterprise while it’s in warp in Star Trek 2009 and Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) transporting himself from Earth to Qo’noS using transwarp beaming in Star Trek Into Darkness.
“We Were Supposed To Fight On A Rickety Metal Catwalk!”
Vindicta’s revenge on Captain Freeman is ruined by the arrival of the holodeck’s version of Beckett Mariner, who fights the space pirate in order to save her mom. Vindicta complains, “Thanks for ruining the awesome Captain murder this was all building to! We were supposed to fight on a rickety metal catwalk!” This is, of course, a reference to the infamous death of Captain Kirk in Star Trek Generations, who fought Dr. Tolan Soran (Malcolm McDowell) on ‘rickety catwalk’ and died after falling from the metal structure, which landed on him and pinned him to the ground.
There have also been numerous instances of Star Trek characters fighting doppelgangers throughout the franchise, starting with Kirk facing an evil version of himself in the TOS episode “The Enemy Within”, and including Commander Data fighting his android brother Lore in TNG and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) facing his clone Shinzon (Tom Hardy) in Star Trek Nemesis.
Mariner’s Sacrifice Is Like Data’s
Mariner kept Vindicta distracted so that they would both perish when the Cerritos exploded by self-destruct. This mirrors how Data sacrificed his life to save the Enterprise-E by causing Shinzon’s thalaron weapon to explode in Star Trek Nemesis, and it also evokes Spock’s heroic sacrifice to save his ship and crew in Star Trek II. Kirk also activated the Enterprise‘s self-destruct to kill the invading Klingons in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Vindicta’s Spock-Like Resurrection
However, Vindicta escaped death inside an escape pod just like how Spock was brought back to life after the photon torpedo carrying his corpse landed safely on the Genesis Planet at the end of Star Trek II. Of course, Spock wasn’t immediately killed by Leonardo Da Vinci like Vindicta was, and Star Trek: Voyager fans remember that Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) often studied under Da Vinci in the holodeck.
The Star Trek: Lower Decks Cast Signs Their Names In Space
The closing credits of “Crisis Point” feature the names of the Lower Deckers who starred in the film, Samantham Rutherford, D’Vana Tendi, Beckett Mariner, and Bradward Boimler, signing their names across the stars. This is a nod to the end credits of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when the cast of TOS signed their names in outer space as a final farewell to movie audiences. Star Trek VI‘s credits are so famous, they were copied by Avengers: Endgame when the original six Avengers actors signed their names across the screen as well.
