WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 8, "Veritas," now streaming on CBS All Access.
In the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, "Veritas," the Command crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is given full honors by an alien species known as the Primes for the rescue of one of its leaders. Part of the ceremony includes an interview of all the people involved in the mission, so they may give the detailed story of their heroic efforts. For that reason, Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi are brought forward, and because the celebration looks more like a trial than anything else, they misread the entire situation.
As a result, Boimler explains that, as members of the lower-decks crew, they aren't privy to all of the information their superiors have. Sometimes, they make mistakes, and so do the members of Command. And he exemplifies that by poking fun at one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's weirdest episodes.
Boimler testifies to times when Command officers weren't perfect heroes, but instead simply didn't know how to deal with a specific situation. He lists Captain Picard's first confrontation with the Borg, and when Captain Kirk learned about the existence of a giant Spock. Then, Boimler recalls a predicament that befell the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's own Beverly Crusher.
"Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time?" he says. "That whole thing."
Of course, fans of The Next Generation will know Boimler is referencing the events of the Season 7 episode, "Sub Rosa."
In the episode, Crusher visited the house of her deceased grandmother. While there, she fell in love with a man named Ronin, who turned out to be an "anaphasic lifeform" -- a ghost-like cloud -- that bonded to an old candle that had been in the Crusher family for generations. Ronin was able to influence the Crusher women he haunted, making them fall in love with him. He played the same trick on the doctor, until she finally broke free and killed him.
In seven seasons, the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation went through a lot. But even for the scientifically inclined Star Trek, the presence of a ghost was definitely bizarre -- and even Boimler recognizes that.
Streaming on CBS All Access, 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.