9 Ups & 1 Down From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.3 — The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel

First, was Wesley Crusher asleep on the job again, because that was a whole heap of nanites. Of course not! He's still away travelling. Wesley's moment of youthful inattention did release a bunch of Federation-made mini-bots aboard the Enterprise-D, however, in Evolution. That episode also marked the first use of the word "nanites" (and, indeed, "nanotechnology") on screen in Star Trek. In-universe, Control's 'nanites' (specifically) had already had their way with Leland over a century prior.

Second, there were actual cetaceans for our observations in The Best Exotic… Starfleet does have a penchant for (space) whales, as Admiral Milius found out to his cost. "The Gormagander or the 'Galaxy's Child' thing?" Boimler was right to ask, citing Disco and TNG (directly) in one breath. "ALL OF THEM!" Milius replied. Comparatively speaking, in the micro-universe, was it Star Trek IV: The One with the Very Wee Whales?

And last, and very small, but not least, we had the crew of the Endeavo(u)r, Intrepid-class, whose captain was worried they were "doomed to live out [their] days the size of an amoeba". To me, that's a reference to the potential punishment from the Continuum for Q junior in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Q2, i.e., "eternity as an [Orprelian] amoeba". Though not quite the same, ships have been shrunk down to similar sizes plenty of times in Star Trek, too, including Voyager by another Q — Quinn — in Death Wish.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a space whale with my name on it that's not going to milk itself!