The USS Cerritos crew has encountered plenty of dimensional fissures this year, but the latest rupture in space and time carries the most unlikely of guests to the Alpha Quadrant. In "Lower Decks" season 5 episode 7, "Fully Dilated", Captain Freeman and her crew encounter a purple version of the USS Enterprise-D — and there are much bigger questions to answer than whether the carpets match the hull.
Spoiler warning! Caution advised if you're yet to watch this week's episode.
Lieutenants Beckett Mariner, D'Vana Tendi, and T'Lyn are sent on an away mission to recover some Starfleet wreckage on the surface of pre-warp planet Dilmer III. The technology they encounter goes way beyond a smashed-up shuttlecraft, however, as they discover the disembodied head of a certain Lt Cmdr Data — albeit a model who's shifted significantly to the violet end of the spectrum.
Data should be dead in official "Trek" continuity but, as we explain below, the most final of frontiers has never stood in the way of the android's continued participation in the franchise. Here we explain how Data is able to return in "Lower Decks".
Isn’t Data supposed to be dead?
Yes, the yellow-eyed Lt Cmdr Data we all know and love sacrificed himself to save Captain Jean-Luc Picard from a thalaron radiation explosion on Romulan/Reman warbird the Scimitar.
That fateful incident — which saw the Enterprise's resident android comprehensively obliterated — occurred in “Star Trek: Nemesis” (2002), set in 2379. "Lower Decks" season 5 takes place in 2382, so he should be very dead indeed at this point in the "Star Trek" timeline.
Where does this Data come from?
Historically, Data has been even better at cheating death than fellow Starfleet know-it-all Mr Spock.
Although efforts to download his memories into prototype "brother" B-4 proved to be a dead end (as revealed in the first season of "Star Trek: Picard"), his essence survived in a quantum simulation created by AI expert Dr Bruce Maddox. Picard shut down Data's consciousness at his friend's own request so he could experience death.
Even that wasn't the end, however, because "Picard" season 3 revealed that Altan Inigo Soong, son of Data's original creator Noonien Soong, had created a new "golem" body incorporating memories of Data, evil twin Lore, B-4, Data's daughter Lal and Altan himself. Data eventually fought off Lore's malevolent influence to become the dominant entity in that famous positronic brain.
But all that stuff happened a couple of decades after the ongoing voyages of the USS Cerritos. In the "Lower Decks" era the yellow-eyed model is — as previously stated — very much dead.
The Data we meet in "Fully Dilated" — who continues the unfortunate Soong-type android habit of turning up as a decapitated head — actually hails from another parallel dimension. He's a doppelganger of the original model, who's had completely different life experiences to "our" Data, just as Kirk and Spock's backstories in the Kelvin universe are rather different to those of their prime timeline counterparts.
And just in case it's not obvious that this isn't yellow-eyed Data in disguise, he arrives on an iteration of the USS Enterprise-D, a ship that crash-landed in spectacular fashion in "Star Trek: Generations" (1994), three movies prior to "Nemesis". (The ship will be rebuilt in time for the "Star Trek: Picard" finale, set two decades later, but the Cerritos crew don't know this yet.)
Also, this Data — much like the starship he calls home — is a fetching shade of purple. As this new Data says, "[a grey Enterprise] seems like a missed opportunity when purple is an option".
How many roles has Brent Spiner played in the "Star Trek" franchise?
Beyond the legendary original model Data, Spiner has played: twin brothers Lore and B-4; creator/father Dr Noonien (or Noonian, depending on your source) Soong; ancestors Adam ("Picard" season 2) and Arik ("Enterprise") Soong; Noonien's son Altan Inigo Soong ("Picard" season 1); the Data/Lore/B-4/Lal/Altan hybrid ("Picard" season 3); and now (voice only) purple Data ("Lower Decks").
We make that nine separate characters in the franchise, which surpasses Peter Sellers in "Dr Strangelove" (three), Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor" (seven), and Alec Guinness in "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (eight).
Which other "The Next Generation" characters have turned up in "Lower Decks"?
There have been plenty of "TNG" voice cameos in the animated show. Many of the characters were just guest stars in the TV show, however, ranging from the obscure (Susan Gibney as Dr Leah Brahms, Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa) to the iconic and recurring (John de Lancie as Q).
Despite regular references to Picard and co, bridge officers have been in relatively short supply on the Cerritos. Spiner's cameo follows appearances from Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), and Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker).
How does purple Data cross paths with the Lower Deckers?
Before closing the fissure to the purple universe, the Cerritos discovers a Starfleet power signature on the surface of Dilmer III. Because Dilmer III is a pre-warp civilization, the Prime Directive decrees that the crew must remove the futuristic tech to avoid any interference with the evolution of its resident humanoids.
Mariner, Tendi and T'Lyn are chosen for the away mission, and discover the remains of a shuttle crash. They find purple Data's head among the wreckage.
How does Tendi get purple Data operational again?
There's no shortage of time on Dilmer III, thanks to some "Interstellar"-style relativistic effects. The planet's core has created a "spacetime differential", meaning that every second on the Cerritos will be equivalent to a week on Dilmer III's surface. (When Tendi compares it to "that planet Voyager went to", she's referring to the world Janeway, Chakotay and the gang encountered in season 6 episode "Blink of an Eye".)
This wouldn't normally be a problem but Boimler and Rutherford's cocktail-induced transporter malfunction leaves the away team marooned for an entire Dilmer III year.
The trio use their time in different ways. Mariner has ambitions of learning to play the flute, aspiring to be like Jean-Luc Picard in classic "The Next Generation" season 5 episode "The Inner Light". T'Lyn, meanwhile, becomes a master gardener, growing giant grapes and melons so large they won't fit through doors. She also develops a successful sideline selling beauty projects to the locals, improving their self-esteem in the process.
But, with the position of Cerritos senior science officer up for grabs Tendi gets extremely competitive. In her efforts to "out-science" her Vulcan rival for the job, she rigs up an ingenious DIY generator to power purple Data's head. He becomes her confidant and advisor, answering all of her science questions "as long as it does not require hands, feet or torso".
How do they get back to the Cerritos?
As Mariner points out, away missions like these are always interrupted by a suspicious lurker with no other agenda, and on Dilmer III Snell is that man. Unfortunately, T'Lyn's juggling skills can only distract him for so long, and his excessive sneaking around eventually strikes gold — or should that be purple?
After discovering Tendi's pet head, Snell accuses the Starfleet trio of being witches conversing with a "talking demon head", and ties up T'Lyn and Tendi. (Mariner's locked up in prison elsewhere.)
Luckily, the "fully functional" Data (an in-joke stretching back to "The Next Generation"'s first season) takes inspiration from his old shipmate Mr Worf, and chews through the Lower Deckers' bindings. Then, with the Cerritos spillage incident resolved, they're able to beam back to the ship.
What happens to Data after he's saved Tendi and T'Lyn?
His head is sent back through the fissure in a photon torpedo reminiscent of the one that carried the (then-) late Mr Spock to his (temporary) resting place on the Genesis planet in "The Wrath of Khan" (1982).
He will not be forgotten, however, as his words of wisdom lead to Tendi and T'Lyn being offered a job share in that senior science officer role.
New episodes of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 5 debut on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.
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