Nitpicking Star Trek – PROOF that Lower Decks is Canon

Since its debut on Paramount+ the “canonicity” of Lower Decks has been questioned by detractors and supporters alike. “It’s humor,” “It’s animation,” “Roddenberry removed the animated series from continuity so ANY animation is outside canon,” are some of the more frequent claims.

Paramount’s official stance and the view of series creator, Mike McMahan, that Lower Decks is canonical does not sway the more vocal detractors. That said, we have TWO on-screen official canon links back to Lower Decks that should settle the controversy once and for all.

The first is the second season episode of Strange New Worlds wherein Mariner and Boimler time travel back to the time of Pike’s Enterprise (Those Old Scientists, SNW S2 Ep7). The second was found by guild member David W. and his wife Amber. If you watch “The First Duty” when Picard is walking across the Academy grounds to visit with Bootheby, you’ll see a cadet in the background. This cadet looks remarkably similar to Mariner’s flashback appearance in “Old friends, New Planets”. Coincidence? possibly. However the Lower Decks team spends far too much time making sure that the show fits into continuity that it almost has to be intentional that Mariner’s look at the Academy is almost identical to a cadet seen on screen. Thank you David and Amber for this gem.

Update 3/26 Comments at the Facebook group page and recieved have mentioned IT couldn’t be Beckett at the Academy (ignoring the fact the flashback clearly shows that to be the case) during “The First Duty” because of her age.

Why? Lower Decks has not stated how old Mariner actually is, just that she has done EVERYTHING she can during her career to be busted back to Ensign time and time again.

Let’s look at the facts. We don’t know how old a human cadet is required to be but Wesley Crusher was eligible for entrance to the Academy at age 16. So Mariner could be 16 years old (minimum) in 2368 giving her a birthdate of 2352.

Based on the stardates of Lower Deck season four the current year is 2381 for the series. This would make Mariner 29 years old (minimum). And THAT would be appropriate for her backstory.

Update 5/16 Timothy S. Brannan has found some very nice evidence that Captain Freeman served onboard the Enterprise-D and that Mariner was onboard. Also thanks for the shout out!

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