WARNING: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 3, ‘The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel’Star Trek: VoyagerSeason 4’s acclaimed double episode “Year of Hell” can be added to the long list of Star Trek properties lovingly ridiculed by Star Trek: Lower Decks. It’s not the first time that Star Trek: Voyager been in Lower decks‘line of fire. The season 4 opener of the animated comedy, “Twovix,” was filled with references to some of the weirdest things to happen in Star Trek: Voyager. Lieutenant Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) starred in the film Lower decks episode named after him, “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” from season 2.
In Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 3, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel”, the USS Cerritos is tasked with exterminating a “melancholy“of nanites from the Cosmic Duchess, a luxury interstellar cruise ship. Instead of being a colony of sentient microorganisms like those of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lower decks‘nanites are controlled by a central source. The source of the nanites’ power is the USS Endeavour, a microscopic Intrepid-class starship. who has been lost in the Prime Universe for an entire month as the crew tries to return to their own alternate reality.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Mocks Voyager’s Hell Year
The USS Endeavor is a microscopic version of the USS Voyager
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 3, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” mocks Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episodes 8 and 9, “Year of Hell”, featuring the microscopic USS Endeavour, which, like the USS Voyager, is an Intrepid-class starship with a female captain. Upon being discovered by the junior officers of the USS Cerritos the exhausted Captain Tersal of the Endeavor says they passed through “a month of hell.” Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) responds with “A month?“highlighting the discrepancy between Star Trek: Voyagerof the “Year of Hell” and the much shorter time period of the USS Endeavour.
Star Trek: Lower Decks‘USS Endeavor is the third Intrepid-class starship named in Star Trekafter the USS Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Ninefrom the USS Bellerophon.
That the USS Endeavor is a tiny twin of the USS Voyager winks to Star Trek: Voyagerof the shrunken “Year of Hell” itself. Endeavour’s home universe exists on a much smaller scale than Star TrekIt’s the Prime Universe, so that’s funny that The Intrepid-class starship spends a smaller unit of time in so-called hell. The USS Endeavor’s hellish month in Star Trek: Lower Decks also makes reference to how Traveler reduced “Year of Hell” from a full season to a two-part episode, after the disastrous year was first predicted in Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 21, “Before and After.”
Star Trek: Voyager’s “Year of Hell” Story Explained
Captain Janeway spends a year fighting the time weapons of the Krenim Empire
In Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episodes 8 and 9, “Year of Hell,” Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and the crew of the USS Voyager repeatedly evade the efforts of Annorax (Kurtwood Smith) and the Krenim Imperium to erase the USS Voyager from time. Annorax sees Voyager as the only anomaly stopping him from restoring the Empire, which would also restore Annorax’s wife and family. Over the course of the eponymous hellish year, the USS Voyager experiences dwindling resources and increasing casualties.and Janeway’s patience runs out. It’s a darkly refreshing change of pace for Star Trek: Voyager.
The “Year of Hell” is often considered among Star Trek: Voyagerbest episodes. Annorax and Janeway are equal in their dedication to protecting those they love —Annorax with her family and Janeway with her crew—so the question of who will triumph is answered by who is willing to risk everything for her cause. (Of course, it’s Janeway.) The Krenim weaponizing time-altering technology to protect their lost Empire is a creative science fiction concept rarely seen in Star Trek. These concepts could have been explored much more if “Year of Hell” had followed its original plan.
Why Star Trek: Voyager Didn’t Have a True ‘Year from Hell’
Voyager’s “year from hell” was supposed to last an entire season
Star Trek: VoyagerThe “Year of Hell” was originally supposed to last an entire season, reflecting the actual year the USS Voyager spent fighting the Krenim, but the story was compressed into a “Fortnight of Hell” as a Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode. Star Trek was just starting to experiment with serialization with Star Trek: Deep Space NineThe ongoing story arc of the Dominion War, which was a big risk in a pre-streaming, pre-DVR era. Without a way to easily keep track of missed episodes, Star Trek was not interested in taking the same risk with Star Trek: VoyagerProposed Krenim arc lasting one year.
It would have been interesting to see Star Trek: Voyager shaking up its tried-and-true storytelling format rather than relying on a weekly reset, but there is no guarantee that the risk of a true “year of hell“It would have been worth it. Star Trek: VoyagerSeason 4 already introduced a new variable by adding Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine, and such a drastic format change may have been difficult to balance. With its episodic stories and ongoing arc throughout the season, Star Trek: Lower Decks commitments very well, and the Intrepid-class USS Endeavor”hell month” suggests that more variants of familiar ships may be ahead.