Warning: SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode “Fully Dilated” are ahead!
The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks to premiere on the 2024 TV schedule brought with it some pleasant surprises. In addition to delivering a fun homage to the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Hidden Light”, “Fully Dilated” also featured Brent Spiner reprising Data, albeit a purple version from another universe whose head got stuck on a preindustrial planet. If you’re like me, seeing Data’s head all on its own made you think of the Next Generation two-parter “Time’s Arrow”. Not only were these episodes — which I highly recommend streaming with a Paramount+ subscription — referenced in true Lower Decks fashion, supervising producer Barry Kelly shared with me the improvised line that made it into this callback.
During his first conversation with Tendi in “Fully Dilated”, Purple Data mentioned that she should not be concerned that his body got burned up in the shuttle crash that left him stranded on Dilmer III, as he has “just been a head before.” Later in the episode, the android told her he struggled to build an electromagnetic field core when he was stranded in 19th century San Francisco. When she asked how she got back to her own time, he said “waited in a cave until Captain Picard, myself and some guy in a silver jumpsuit dug me out.”
Because “Time’s Arrow” is my favorite Next Generation story, I had to bring up the reference while interviewing Kelly, and he shared with me the below information:
That was completely in the booth that day. I don't remember what the original line was, but he never said that. I think [Brent Spiner] just said, ‘I was found in a cave.’ But then I think we just rewatched the episode right there like with him or just described it. Like, ‘Who found him exactly?’ Because we all remembered it differently. That's the funny part, we're all Star Trek fans, but what's it like when you think you remember something and then you learn it's wrong. I forget the term, but we all remember it differently and we had to go back to the episode to watch. We're like, Well, it's Picard, and then there's just some random guy in a silver jumpsuit.’ And we're like, ‘How about you just say that?’ It's so funny that it actually worked and that's what we ended up using. It just makes it more specific.
Serving as Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Season 5 finale and Season 6 premiere, “Time’s Arrow” opened with Data’s disembodied head being discovered in a cavern near Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco. The aforementioned silver jump suit guy showing “present day” Data and Jean-Luc Picard the strange sight, which was uncovered when Starfleet discovered that natives from Devidia II had been present on Earth 500 years before. Soon after, Data was transported back to the 19th century, where he met Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, and a younger version of Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan.
Although Data’s body made it back to the 24th century thanks to his comrades from the Enterprise-D coming to rescue him, his head was blown off in the process. So the 500-year-old head found earlier was ultimately reattached to Data’s body. Having Purple Data succinctly, yet amusingly summarize “Time’s Arrow” in this way was a fun treat, and now knowing that line was improvised makes it even better for me. While it’s a shame we didn’t see Data alongside his good friend Geordi LaForge, something Barry Kelly had hoped would happen on Lower Decks, at least his head got to be quickly reactivated this time rather than stay shut down like in “Time’s Arrow”.
The final three episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks drops Thursdays on Paramount+. After that, Strange New Worlds Season 3 will be released sometime on the 2025 TV schedule, and Starfleet Academy is also on the slate of upcoming Star Trek TV shows.
