Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 4 - "Room For Growth"Captain Picard's (Patrick Stewart) spacewalk on the USS Enterprise-E's deflector dish is one of Star Trek: First Contact's coolest scenes, and Star Trek: Lower Decks has now shown the other side of the deflector array. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, episode 4, Ensigns Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), and D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) compete with Delta Shift to get better quarters on the USS Cerritos. Their race brings them into the bowels of the ship and into the interior of the Cerritos' deflector array.
Star Trek: First Contact contains many amazing moments that make it the best Star Trek: The Next Generation film and one of the best Star Trek movies overall. First Contact introduced the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), who unforgettably appeared with just her head and mechanical spine docking into her cybernetic body. Seeking revenge against the Borg, Picard became a relentless madman while the Borg Queen seduced Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner). But First Contact's most stunning action sequence was Captain Picard, Worf (Michael Dorn), and Lt. Hawk (Neal McDonough) donning space suits and walking on the exterior of the Enterprise to battle the Borg on the deflector dish. During the melee, Worf got to utter one of First Contact's signature quips: "Assimilate this!"
In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, episode 4, "Room for Growth," Mariner, Boimler, and Tendi found themselves inside the USS Cerritos' deflector dish, which is the first time the interior of it has been seen. The zero gravity inside the deflector allowed the Lower Deckers to float, with Boimler proclaiming himself "Anti-Grav Boy." But at that moment, a meteor cluster approached the Cerritos, which the deflector handled, but it placed the Lower Deckers' lives in danger. Luckily, Mariner and Tendi were able to save Boimler by stripping to their underpants and using their uniforms to pull Bradward into the safety of the Jeffries Tube. It shows that a starship's deflector array is incredibly dangerous inside and out, but Lower Decks showed was an undeniably cool reversal of First Contact's awesome deflector battle.
The Deflector Is The Enterprise's Smartest Redesign
In Star Trek: The Original Series, and currently, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the USS Enterprise has what resembles a radar dish below its saucer section. But when the Enterprise was designed for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the golden radar dish was replaced by the blueish-hued deflector array, which became standard for all starships since. A starship's deflector, the glowing blue device usually mounted beneath the saucer section, is an ingeniously logical technology. The deflector's function is to emit a field that prevents any type of space debris or celestial bodies from hitting the starship as it flies forward. The deflector is also a crucial light source that gives starships like the Enterprise and the Cerritos illumination in the blackness of space.
In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg tried to retrofit the Enterprise-E's deflector into a beacon that could summon more Borg from the Delta Quadrant. Fortunately, Captain Picard and Worf were able to stop them, although Mr. Hawk lost his life in the battle. First Contact's space walk was also a stunning sight because it was almost unheard of for Star Trek to show their heroes walking on the exterior of starships from the 1960s to the 1990s due to budget and visual effects constraints. But with modern Trek series, those limitations are out the window, and Strange New Worlds can show Lt. La'an Noonien Singh (Christina Chong) and Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) space walk on the Enterprise's saucer as well as Boimler, Mariner, and Tendi actually inside the deflector in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.