WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 9, "Crisis Point," now streaming on CBS All Access.

As Star Trek: Lower Decks reaches the penultimate episode of its first season, the Easter eggs and nods to previous Star Trek television series and films continue to fly in at warp speed for eagle-eyed viewers. The latest episode leans more towards the cinematic side of the iconic science-fiction franchise as Ensign Boimler develops a Holodeck program that will allow him to better prepare for an upcoming interview for a potential advancement opportunity with Starfleet. And as the overanxious junior officer immerses himself in his program, the sequence begins with a direct nod to the franchise's inaugural film, 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The program opens with Boimler watching as Captain Freeman accepts her next mission straight from Starfleet Command back at Space Dock, Starfleet's orbital space station around Earth housing its armada between their various interstellar missions. Boimler joins the senior officers as they take a shuttlecraft and fly around the docked Cerritos, marveling at its grandeur as orchestral score wells and Chief Engineer Billups becomes visibly emotional during the extended flyby.

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The sequence is a direct nod to Admiral James T. Kirk's return to the Enterprise in The Motion Picture, the first live-action Star Trek adventure since the cancellation of the original television series in 1969 and the inaugural outing for the franchise on the big screen. For nearly five minutes, Kirk and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott flew around their signature starship via shuttlecraft inside of Space Dock, admiring virtually every panel of its hull in a mostly silent sequence, with only the score and ambient noise in the background as the admiral moved to retake command of his old vessel for a new mission to save the United Federation.

Upon its theatrical release in 1979, The Motion Picture was criticized for its slow pacing and bloated length by audiences and critics alike, an assessment which has not noticeably mellowed over time. While admittedly a visually impressive sequence, the extended flyby tour of the Enterprise's exterior perhaps best exemplifies the pacing and overly self-serious tone of the movie. And complete with its own soaring orchestral score, grainy film quality and the awestruck senior officers overwhelmed with emotion as they approach their starship, Lower Decks has included yet another overt allusion to the enduring Star Trek mythos.

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Nine episodes in and Lower Decks still knows how to good-naturedly poke fun and homage the expansive lore of the franchise. While still clearly a love letter to Star Trek as a whole, the crew of the Cerritos programmed by Boimler are the most prominent fourth-wall-breaking characters the franchise has seen, with them being self-aware of the franchise tropes in their constructed projection of what Star Trek can and should be. And with only one episode in the inaugural season and plenty of space left to explore, it will be interesting to see what references Lower Decks has saved as it boldly goes into its first season finale.

Star Trek: Lower Decks stars Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as Ensign Tendi, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, Gillian Vigman as Doctor T'Ana and Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs. New episodes premiere Thursdays on CBS All Access.

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