Star Trek: Lower Decks Turned Next Generation's Most Emotional Episode Into A Killer Punchline

This article contains spoilers for one of the most hilarious gags from the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

If it wasn't apparent before, it simply has to be considered official now: There isn't a single aspect of classic "Star Trek" lore that can be considered too precious or too sacred (or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, too hated) for "Lower Decks" to take a loving swipe at. The third episode of season 4, titled "In the Cradle of Vexilon," takes this to another level with one of its patented, rapid-fire jokes that packs so much "Trek" history into the briefest and most potent of punchlines. In this case, the writers of "Lower Decks" took that even more literally by overtly referencing a beloved episode from "The Next Generation" that spanned decades of Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) life in the blink of an eye.

Titled "The Inner Light," this all-time classic sci-fi story told a standalone tale that continues to resonate to this day. Upon encountering a mysterious alien probe, Picard is suddenly and inexplicably whisked away to another life in some other solar system far from home, where he has no choice but to live out his remaining years into old age on a planet that is doomed for destruction. After he settles down with his multi-generational family and confronts his mortality, the wonderfully poignant and bittersweet adventure turns out to be a nothing more than the probe's method of carrying on the legacy of its now-extinct creators, leaving Picard with the memories of an entire lifetime he once experienced ... but, in reality, never actually lived himself.

So, naturally, "Lower Decks" took one of the most emotional hours of television "Trek" has ever produced and turned it into one of its finest gags yet.

If anyone hit play on "In the Cradle of Vexilon" expecting a reference to "The Inner Light" in a B-story as silly as this — newly-minted junior grade lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) are convinced that their menial tasks are actually a form of hazing, leading them to prank their commanding officer Dirk – then I kindly request the numbers for next month's Powerball lottery. The sheer unpredictability of this section of the episode makes the entire build-up to this joke work as well as it does. We're so focused on Rutherford's accidental journey through that awful game Chula featured in "Deep Space Nine," in fact, that we completely forget about the entire trove of artifacts and Easter eggs sitting in Dirk's room once Rutherford makes it back to reality — and inadvertently triggers a probe that, while different in appearance from the exact one featured in "The Inner Light," still seems to have the exact same effect.

This time, the Picard stand-in comes in the form of a Betazoid gift box — a non-sentient object with a bit of a foul mouth (blame that on Dr. T'Ana!) that nonetheless gets a face full of probe energy, courtesy of a self-preserving Rutherford. While only mere seconds pass for us, the gift box clearly goes through an entire lifetime that shakes it to its core. "Was that an entire simulated life??" the box cries out once it returns to reality. "I miss my wife," he mutters to himself as we're left to imagine just how extensive and profound an existence a Betazoid gift box managed to eke out on some distant world.

10/10 and no notes! New episodes of "Lower Decks" stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.