Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Decrease Decks Season 4 are forward!
Previous to becoming a member of Star Trek: Voyager as Tom Paris, Robert Duncan McNeil made his Star Trek debut in The Subsequent Technology episode “The First Obligation” as Nick Locarno, a Starfleet Academy cadet who was expelled for his position in a classmate’s loss of life. Whereas Tom has clearly turn out to be McNeill’s extra well-known Star Trek character, Locarno surprisingly returned to this franchise for Decrease Decks Season 4’s ending episodes, the place he was revealed as this season’s massive dangerous. Tawny Newsome, who voices Beckett Mariner on the animated collection, in contrast Nick’s heel flip to traditional Trek baddie Khan whereas talking with CinemaBlend, and I completely agree with this connection.
With Star Trek: Decrease Decks Season 4 now accessible in its entirety to Paramount+ subscribers, I had the pleasure of talking with Newsome within the aftermath of this present’s newest rounds of adventures and shenanigans. To kick off our dialog, I requested the actress, who was a Star Trek fan lengthy earlier than Decrease Decks, how she reacted when she discovered Mariner was tied to The Subsequent Technology’s Nova Squadron, which Locarno led when he was at Starfleet, and that McNeill’s first Star Trek character was Season 4’s essential villain. She answered:
First a part of your query, I used to be like, ‘That is very cool to tie her to Sito, to tie her to the Decrease Decks episode of TNG and “The First Obligation,” I used to be like, that is big. For me, as a nerd, this was a really cool factor. The Locarno of it, I didn’t discover out about till I used to be studying Season 4 scripts that that was how Mike [McMahan] was tying all of it collectively. It’s so humorous, it’s just like the Decrease Decks model of Khan. It’s like, ‘Oh, that one man from that one episode turns into the large dangerous of this big critically acclaimed film?’ So Decrease Decks did our model of that the place we’re like, ‘Wait, that one man that you just form of bear in mind from that episode. He’s form of Tom Paris, however he’s not Tom Paris… In order that man is the large dangerous of our complete season?’ It was such a Decrease Decks transfer, and I simply thought it was so genius.
Following her look in “The First Obligation,” Shannon Fill’s Sito Jaxa returned in The Subsequent Technology episode “Decrease Decks,” which is the place this animated TV present clearly will get its identify. Decrease Decks followers discovered how a lot Mariner regarded as much as Sito after they have been at Starfleet Academy collectively, in order that was sufficient to excite Tawny Newsome. However relating to Nick Locarno, she makes an astute remark about how Decrease Decks primarily did for him what Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan did for Ricardo Montalbán’s Khan Noonien Singh.
Bear in mind, Montalbán first performed that character within the Star Trek: The Authentic Sequence episode “Area Seed,” which aired on February 16, 1967. Whereas the actor actually impressed within the position, there’s no query that The Wrath of Khan, which got here out in 1982, elevated him from one-off dangerous man to one of many Star Trek franchise’s best villains, which nonetheless holds true over 40 years later. Whereas I don’t anticipate Locarno to ever get near Khan’s degree of notoriety, I agree it was a stable transfer on Decrease Decks’ half to provide him the Khan therapy. As a bonus, like The Wrath of Khan, Locarno’s time to shine in “Outdated Mates, New Planets” (which additionally featured a cameo look from Will Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher) additionally concerned a Genesis System.
Star Trek: Decrease Decks has been renewed for Season 5, so keep tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on the subsequent batch of episodes and the opposite upcoming Star Trek TV exhibits. To your non-Trek wants, look by means of our 2023 TV schedule and 2024 TV schedule to study what small display screen leisure is arising within the close to future.
