Bakula's Hilarious Enterprise Tech Sets the Stage for Star Trek's 24th Century

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 7 - "A Few Badgeys More"

Summary

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 7, the comedic and villainous character Badgey returns, seeking revenge. Lieutenant Rutherford undertakes experiments involving the incorporation of ancient Starfleet technology called grapplers into the shuttlecrafts of the USS Cerritos, leading to a series of amusing misadventures.

Grapplers, a relic of pre-tractor beam technology, have made a nostalgic and humorous comeback in Strange New Worlds. Star Trek recognizes the appeal of grapplers.

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, the amusing tech from Scott Bakula's Star Trek: Enterprise era returns. Episode 7, "A Few Badgeys More," reintroduces the malevolent Badgey (Jack McBrayer), seeking vengeance against his "father," Lieutenant Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and the USS Cerritos. During this time, Rutherford is engrossed in experimenting with incorporating a dated and rudimentary Starfleet technology, grapplers, into one of the Cerritos' shuttlecrafts.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Hilariously Brings Back Enterprise’s Grapplers

: The television series Star Trek: Enterprise is set in the 22nd century, a time period that predates the events of Star Trek: Lower Decks by two hundred years. However, due to being the pioneering Starship Enterprise to venture into the vastness of space during what Lieutenant Brad Boimler perceives as "the golden age of exploration," Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise have achieved a legendary status. Surprisingly, Archer's Enterprise managed to survive perilous encounters with the Suliban, the Xindi, and various other hostile extraterrestrial beings, despite having technology that was considered primitive in comparison to the later advancements of Starfleet. Instead of utilizing shields, the NX-01 relied on polarized hull plating, employed phase cannons rather than phasers, and lacked a tractor beam, relying instead on grapplers.

In episode 7 of season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Lt. Rutherford embarked on the installation of a grappler onto the shuttlecraft Sequoia. Together with Lt. D'Vani Tendi (Noel Wells), they had been diligently working on this project for quite some time. However, the grappler did not perform as accurately as Rutherford had hoped. It overshot the intended target, an apple, and instead ensnared Tendi to the wall. Later on, despite Sam's addition of an A.I. upgrade named Goodgie, the grappler inadvertently caught Boimler and pinned him to the bulkhead. Nevertheless, despite these mishaps, Boimler adamantly insists that grapplers are not foolish, and Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) wholeheartedly agreed, proclaiming that "grapplers are amazing."

The grapplers on the NX-01 Enterprise were a precarious technology before the advent of Starfleet's tractor beams. In the series premiere of Star Trek: Enterprise, titled "Broken Bow," the grapplers functioned as intended. However, during season 1 of Enterprise, the rudimentary grapplers proved inadequate when attempting to rescue Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) and Ensign Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) from the frozen depths of a comet. Nevertheless, the grapplers have gained renewed significance through their frequent mentions in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Grapplers Were A Great Strange New Worlds Crossover Joke

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds brilliantly revived the use of grapplers from Star Trek: Enterprise. In a hilarious crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks, Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) surprised everyone by proclaiming her love for grapplers. This tribute to Star Trek: Enterprise showcased the connection between Captain Archer's revered NX-01 and Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) USS Enterprise in the 23rd century. It was this connection that allowed Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner to travel back to their proper time in the 24th century.

Grapplers in Star Trek serve as a nostalgic technological element, similar to Doctor Octopus' arms in the franchise. They offer a more hands-on approach compared to tractor beams, and their occasional glitches have been used to create interesting storylines in shows like Star Trek: Enterprise and comedic moments in Star Trek: Lower Decks. Lt. Rutherford's decision to install a grappler on one of the USS Cerritos' shuttlecrafts remains unclear, even to him, as he acknowledges that the shuttle does not really require it. Nevertheless, grapplers hold a certain appeal and Star Trek is well aware of it.

Catch the stream of Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 every Thursday on Paramount+.