9 Ups & NO Downs From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.9 - Fissure Quest

Just when you thought this episode couldn't get more high-powered special guest star, they go nova by casually throwing "[not quite] built the first warp drive with Zefram Cochrane" in the Khwopian brig. Definitely… not… Swedish! In other words, "Holy s**t. You're Lily Sloane!" Alfre Woodard returns to the role she played with aplomb nearly three decades ago.

More than that even. In Fissure Quest, we found out that Sloane and crew of the Beagle — shout out to Archer and Darwin — had been creating the fissures in their efforts of exploration. The unintended side effect of their "quantum reality drive" was the arc of the fifth season. Each use of the drive generated a second rift through the transdimensional conservation of energy — and some "spooky action at a distance" — accompanied by an influx of radial tachyons. And that is practically Star Trek in a sentence.

More than that yet again. The Beagle itself best resembled the XCV 330, one of the Enterprises in the long line. Based on one of Matt Jefferies' earliest sketches for the Enterprise of The Original Series, the XCV 330 was first seen on screen as an image on the recreation deck of the refit of The Motion Picture. It appeared again on a mission patch and painting at the 602 Club in First Flight of Star Trek: Enterprise, and once more as a model in Admiral Marcus' office in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

In Fissure Quest, Lily was also dressed in a purple jumpsuit of Enterprise-season-one-style, with Beagle patch on the arm. Her crew wore the bluer-style outfits that were introduced in season two. The interior of the Beagle itself was a logical homage — consoles and all — to the NX-01. T'Pol must have felt, to the appropriate degree for a Vulcan, right at home!