Star Trek: Lower Decks Finally Answers The Question You've Been Asking: How Old Is Mariner?
This post contains spoilers for the season 4 finale of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."
In the 10th and final episode of season 4 of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," called "Old Friends, New Planets," a timeline mystery has finally been solved. One of the show's main characters, Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) seems to have an intimate working knowledge of everything that happened on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a great deal of what happened on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and certain Tuvix-related events on "Star Trek: Voyager." Indeed, the only way Mariner would know about the details of these events would be if she was an adult when they happened.
To lay out the chronology, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" began in the year 2364, while "Lower Decks" — if we're tracing the stardates of "Star Trek" — began in about 2380. "Lower Decks," then, takes place after the conclusion of "Voyager" and the events of "Star Trek: Nemesis," but a few years before the events of "Prodigy," and about 20 years before the events of "Star Trek: Picard."
Given the chronology, one might ask the question: How old is Mariner? She's an ensign in 2380, but ensigns are typically younger officers. Indeed, Starfleet Academy seems to operate like a typical, modern-day four-year university, with students enrolling at about age 18, and graduating at about age 21. Ensigns, then, are traditionally people in their 20s (or their species' equivalent). But Mariner seems to be a lot older than that, given her knowledge and her self-appointed know-it-all mentor position in her circle of friends.
"Old Friends," however, finally crosses over directly with "The Next Generation," making the chronology more explicit. It seems Mariner was a first-year student just prior to the events of the fifth-season episode, "The First Duty" (March 30, 1992). An on-screen chyron says that was 13 years ago.
Mariner, then, is 31.
Mariner is 31?
Of course, the immediate follow-up question is: How is Mariner still an ensign in her early 30s? Fans of "Lower Decks" will hastily answer that Mariner is deliberately subordinate, and disobeyed orders as a matter of course. She has no interest in advancing in her career, happy to stay an ensign indefinitely. At the beginning of season 4, Mariner was promoted to lieutenant, junior grade, something she didn't want and is struggling to accept. It wouldn't be until the last episode, "The Inner Fight," that Mariner would reveal her motivations for staying an ensign ... and it has everything to do with the flashback to "The First Duty" 13 years ago.
It seems that Mariner, when she was an eager, first-year academy student, was close friends with a Bajoran student named Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill). Sito was involved in a scandal at the Academy wherein a hotshot friend of hers, Nick (Robert Duncan McNeill), convinced her and a few others — including Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) — to engage in a dangerous and unauthorized flight maneuver during an airshow. The flight was incredibly dangerous, and a classmate was killed. Sito was involved in the subsequent cover-up, but all the students were eventually exposed and held back a year.
Sito eventually served on the Enterprise while Mariner was still at the Academy, but was killed in a dangerous spy mission (see the episode called "Lower Decks" from February 7, 1994). Sito's death shook Mariner, and she started to become disillusioned with Starfleet's structure-based ethos. Her response was to defy authority, happy to be an irascible troublemaker with a dead-end career.
By age 31, Mariner is still a low-ranking officer eager to sow chaos in defiance of the system that killed a friend she looked up to.
When it's not cute anymore
Mariner's age also syncs up nicely with her current crisis of character. In the episode "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place," Mariner was confronted about her constant self-destructive behavior. She can't go out for a night on the town without deliberately getting into a bar brawl. She is eventually confronted by her friend Quimp (Tom Kenny) who wonders why she, someone who graduated from Starfleet Academy and who has had a life of ease, still feels the need to fight the world. It's clear that part of what Mariner is going through is her aging. In a very simple way, she's trying to "keep the party going," so to speak. She wants to be seen as the wild child, the one who is constantly in trouble.
When someone is 21, they're still young enough to make those kinds of mistakes, as others will accept them as growth experiences for a developing youth. When someone is 31, that kind of behavior isn't cute anymore. How long can one be seen as a scattered mess before it becomes pathetic? It seems that Mariner is finally realizing that she's reached the age when being a hot mess is no longer charming.
Previously, Mariner attempted to keep the mood light and her younger friends in trouble. As of "Old Friends, New Planets," Mariner may be ready to grow up. Well, not entirely. Her last act in the episode is to treat her friends to multiple cocktails. Perhaps she has to finally accept the fact that she's 31 and not 21. Youth, after all, must inevitably end.