Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 9 – “The Inner Fight”
Star Trek: Lower Decks introduced a strange new world that could be the evolution of the Planet of Galactic Peace William Shatner introduced when he directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, “The Inner Fight” solves the mystery of who is behind the attacks on non-Federation ships throughout the season: disgraced ex-Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill). Locarno has not only been destroying alien starships, but he kidnapped their crews and stranded them on the planet Sherbal V. The junior grade Lieutenants of the USS Cerritos also found themselves on Sherbal V and found Klingons, Ferengi, Cardassians, Romulans, Bynars, and Orions on the planet.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier created the so-called Planet of Galactic Peace, Nimbus III. Located in the Romulan Neutral Zone, Nimbus III was intended to foster galactic cooperation between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire. Founded 20 years before Star Trek V, the grimy desert planet and its capital, Paradise City, became a backwater populated by the galaxy’s undesirables. However, it was also the only place in the galaxy that housed a Romulan, Klingon, and Federation delegate, which made it a target for the Vulcan heretic Sybok (Lawrence Luckinbill) to lure a starship so he could fulfill his quest to find the God of Sha Ka Ree. It was the USS Enterprise that came to liberate Nimbus III, but after Sybok commandeered the ship, Star Trek left the “Planet of Galactic Peace” behind, never to be seen again.
Lower Decks’ Sherbal V Could Be The Evolution Of Star Trek V’s Planet of Galactic Peace
Mariner brings the hostile aliens stuck on Sherbal V together.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9’s planet Sherbal V may not have been intended to be a new version of Nimbus III, but it has the potential to be. With a hostile jungle environment and constant lightning storms, Sherbal V is an intimidating world, but in a different way than the barren Nimbus III was in Star Trek V. However, thanks to Nicholas Locarno, Sherbal V also contained Klingons, Ferengi, Romulans, Bynar, Orions, and Cardassians – a significant representation of the galactic powers of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, especially after Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ cast members, Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), D’Vana Tendi (Noel Wells), and T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), found themselves on Sherbal V. Mariner and Boimler added humans to the mix, and T’Lyn also became Sherbal V’s resident Vulcan for a brief time.
The various aliens stranded on Sherbal V fought each other out of mistrust, hatred, and over limited resources until Lt. Beckett Mariner and Lt. D’Vana Tendi convinced them to halt their aggression and work together. Although Mariner was beamed aboard Locarno’s ship, everyone else was inspired by Beckett to act as one and lure an orbiting Klingon Bird-of-Prey down to the planet’s surface. Once united, it was a simple matter for the various aliens to commandeer the Bird-of-Prey – a greater display of galactic cooperation in Star Trek: Lower Decks than was ever found on Nimbus III in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. If all of those aliens chose to continue their alliance, Sherbal V could actually become the next generation of the Planet of Galactic Peace, and far more successful than Nimbus III was.
Lower Decks Reminds How Much Bigger TNG Made Star Trek’s Galaxy
Star Trek: The Next Generation significantly expanded the galaxy.
In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’s late 23rd century, the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans represented the Big Three powers in the galaxy. As evident by who was gathered in Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ Sherbal V, Star Trek: The Next Generation expanded the aliens all over the galaxy. The Bynars, the Cardassians, and the Ferengi were introduced in TNG, with the latter two species fully explored on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Romulans and Klingons were also better developed on TNG and DS9, while current shows like Star Trek: Lower Decks have expanded the Orions’ culture significantly.
The Star Trek galaxy in Lower Decks‘ late 24th-century era is far bigger and more complex than it was in Star Trek: The Original Series‘ time. This is why a world dedicated to fostering intergalactic cooperation – a new Planet of Galactic Peace – might be an idea better realized in the 24th century than it was in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier‘s 23rd century. Even though everyone escaped Sherbal V, Star Trek: Lower Decks could have planted the seed for Nimbus III’s replacement.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
