10 Greatest Star Trek Callbacks

Lower Decks is filled with more callbacks than any other Trek series. From the return of Deep Space Nine and the Breen, to continuations of obscure episodes of The Next Generation, Lower Decks fully embraces Trek history. In fact, we could probably do a whole list specifically about Trek references in Lower Decks, so we're just going to focus on one of the best examples here.

Sam Rutherford had his personality completely changed after his memory was wiped and he was forced to have his cybernetic implant installed. In the episode Reflections, Rutherford's implant started to malfunction, causing his past personality to resurface. The two personalities were forced to fight it out inside a non-physical mindscape in Rutherford's brain. Eventually, they decided to have a race to decide who would become the dominant personality.

Sam could've made any ship for the race, but chose to build a reconstruction of one of his favourites: Voyager's custom vehicle, the Delta Flyer. The race itself was a great homage to the Voyager episode Drive, in which the Delta Flyer entered the Antarian Trans-Stellar Rally, a huge interspecies race. Rutherford even created replicas of the racing uniforms from Drive for him and his reconstructed friends.

Rutherford clearly loved the design of the Flyer and the story of Starfleet's first race in the Delta Quadrant. Honestly, who doesn't love this ship? Tom Paris, a pilot and a lover of old analog technology, designed the interior and controls to be as comfortable and stylish as possible.