The Biggest Twist In Lower Decks Continues A Classic Star Trek Storyline

Spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" follow.

The overarching thread of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 4 so far has been a mysterious ship attacking a variety of ships throughout the Alpha Quadrant: we've seen it take one Klingon, Romulan, Orion, Ferengi, and Bynar ship each.

The season's penultimate episode, "The Inner Fight," reveals the pilot of this hostile ship, and it's a twist that no one saw coming. The ship doesn't belong to a new alien race, but someone with a more personal connection to Starfleet: Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), a Starfleet Academy washout turned pilot for hire. The Cerritos crew discovers blueprints for the ship at Locarno's hideout while he abducts Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to the ship. The episode ends with Mariner and Locarno face to face, and they seem to have a history.

Now, the episode doesn't explain why Locarno built the ship and has been attacking others. Since there could be a last-minute twist in the finale, I'll hold off on officially declaring him the big bad of "Lower Decks" season 4. However, if you want to know about the character, you're in luck. Locarno originates from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" season 5 episode, "The First Duty."

"The First Duty" is best remembered as the episode that takes Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) down a peg. The thing is, the episode (scripted by Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar) is actually quite a strong dramatic piece.

In "Next Generation" season 4, Wesley went off to study at Starfleet Academy on Earth. "The First Duty" reveals he picked up piloting as an extracurricular. Wesley joins the flight team Nova Squadron, headed by Locarno, but tragedy strikes when one of the team, Joshua Albert, is killed in an accident. The episode that follows is about the inquiry; the Enterprise-D is visiting, and Captain Picard, noticing Wesley, Locarno, and co. aren't forthcoming, does some digging.

It turns out the Nova Squadron had been trying to pull off an illegal stunt (a "Kolvoord Starburst") with their ships and that caused the accident that killed Albert. Locarno is urging them to keep quiet and avoid the consequences. Picard confronts Wesley, delivering the stern fury you might see in a father disappointed in his son. His words give the episode its title:

"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth! Whether it's scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth! It is the guiding principle upon which Starfleet is based! If you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform."

I'd recommend watching the scene on the official "Star Trek" YouTube channel; it's one of Patrick Stewart's finest acting moments in a series full of them and a reminder that, if the scene calls for it, he can be downright scary.

Wesley is given an ultimatum by Picard: tell the truth or he will. He does so at the final hearing; Locarno takes responsibility and is expelled, while Wesley and the others are held back a year.

The aired version of "The First Duty" is different from what Moore and Shankar first envisioned. In a Q&A hosted on AOL way back in 1997, Moore explained how the circumstances of the story would have been different, and how that would have shaped Wesley's actions. In Moore's version, the entire Nova Squadron was going to be expelled, not acquitted like in the final cut. Wesley would stay silent, still showing courage but in a different way than in coming forward. Instead, it's Locarno who fesses up to save his friends.

Locarno almost reappeared much earlier, on "Star Trek: Voyager." Rather than reusing the character, the crew created a new character, Tom Paris, in his mold: a Starfleet washout who accidentally got someone else (three people in Paris' case) killed in a piloting accident. "Voyager" even recruited McNeill to play Paris. There's speculation that the "Voyager" team didn't reuse Locarno so as to avoid royalty payments to Moore and Shankar, but for what it's worth, McNeill feels his two characters are opposite: "Locarno seemed like a nice guy, but deep down he was a bad guy. Tom Paris is an opposite premise in a way. Deep down he's a good guy. He's just made some mistakes."

The "Lower Decks" team seems to agree with the assessment that Locarno was ultimately a bad guy. Interestingly, McNeill previously made a guest appearance as Paris in "Lower Decks" season 2 episode "We'll Always Have Tom Paris." Will there be a joke about the resemblance in the finale? Such meta gags are the forte of "Lower Decks," after all.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" is streaming on Paramount+.