Star Trek Lower Decks Season 5’s Ronald B. Moore Joke Explained

Spoiler shields up! This article discusses plot details from the latest episode of “Star Trek: Lower Decks.”

If “Star Trek: Lower Decks” must end with its fifth and final season (which /Film’s Jacob Hall reviewed here), it might as well go out swinging for the fences. That seems to have been the approach from creator/showrunner Mike McMahan and the writing team as a whole so far in this series, in all fairness, but season 5, episode 6 takes this MO to even greater heights. Titled “Of Gods and Angles,” the story sees the crew of the USS Cerritos having to don their diplomacy hats in order to mediate between two disgruntled factions of photon-based lifeforms: alien races made up of cubes and spheres, hilariously enough. Yet, as ridiculous and silly as this gets, the main plot doesn’t even take the title for the nerdiest moment of the episode. No, that honor goes to a seemingly throwaway joke that likely grabbed the attention of any diehard Trekkie.

While the rest of the starship is stuck dealing with the tricky negotiations, Ensigns Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) embark on an amusing B-plot that sets the stage for one of the funniest punchlines of the young season. As evidenced by his slow-growing facial hair throughout every episode, Boimler’s interaction with his bearded, impossibly cool alternate-universe self back in the season 5 premiere has left quite the impression. Actually, that’s selling it a bit short. Our Boimler has basically tried to remodel his entire personality based on the version of himself deemed capable enough to handle some of Starfleet’s biggest assignments, including being made acting captain on multiple occasions. So, when he’s interrupted by Rutherford while studying alt-Boimler’s data pad he absconded with, our Boimler attempts to play it cool … and fails miserably.

While sputtering out excuses to his roomie, he goes as obscure as “Lower Decks” ever has before and drops an unexpected reference to arguably the most forgotten “The Next Generation” character of them all: Ronald B. Moore.

Just when you thought “Lower Decks” had already dug up some of the most old-school Easter eggs possible, the series goes and sets the bar even higher for itself. Nobody needed further proof that this team of writers are the biggest “Trek” fans around, but they did it anyway by throwing a bone to fans with an encyclopedic knowledge of “The Next Generation.” Remember the season 2 episode titled “The Outrageous Okona”? This story is most notable for guest starring the dashing Billy Campbell (best known for his lead performance in 1991’s “The Rocketeer” and appearing in the long-running series “The 4400,” which itself was a mini-“Trek” reunion of sorts) and “Seinfeld” veteran Teri Hatcher, but one particular cameo/character helped turn this into an integral part of “Trek” lore.

So, who exactly is Ronald B. Moore, the comedian Boimler namedrops? You’d be forgiven for mistaking this as a reference to famous “Star Trek” writer Ronald D. Moore, as I did before finally realizing my error. He’s actually meant as an homage to a veteran visual effects coordinator of the same name, who first defined the look of the holodeck graphics. Good ol’ Ronald B. was a one-and-done holodeck creation who appeared in “The Next Generation” to help mentor the incorrigible android Data (Brent Spiner) in the art of comedy. Portrayed by real-life comedian, impressionist, and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Joe Piscopo, the comedian was (more or less) a mashup of Jerry Lewis and Robin Williams — though he never left the same impression as more memorable characters like James Darren as Vic Fontaine in “Deep Space Nine.”

Leave it to “Lower Decks,” then, to resurrect a truly unique and largely forgotten figure from “Star Trek” history long past. You can catch that episode of “The Next Generation” on Paramount+ right now, along with new episodes of “Lower Decks” every Thursday.