OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)While investigating a seemingly deactivated portal, Ensign Boimler (and later Mariner) gets transported over a century into the past and meets the crew of the USS Enterprise, captained by Christopher Pike. Boimler keeps tripping over himself to gawk at the crew, who in his time are historical icons, as well as accidentally dropping key bits of their future that they don’t want to know, but the ship soon comes across an Orion science vessel that ends up taking the portal with them. Remember Tendi’s annoyance for assuming all Orion’s are pirates, Boimler convinces the Enterprise crew to negotiate with the science crew and eventually make it back to their time, though not before also convincing Captain Pike, who has a grim fate awaiting him in a few years, to spend more time with his crew while he can.OUR TAKEFrom one Jack Quaid show to another! My interest in Star Trek was kinda wishy washy until I was assigned to cover the first season of Lower Decks nearly three years ago. Since then, I’ve been going at my own pace through the older shows as well as eating up whatever new series pop up on Paramount+, my clear favorite of which being Strange New Worlds, a spin-off of Discovery and prequel to the original series that came out in 1966. So I, like many fans of current Trek, were baffled but curious at the announcement that these two shows would be crossing over during SNW’s second season, especially the decision to have the LD cast start as animated and then become live action. Keep in mind that both of these shows are meant to be in the same timeline, despite what some naysayers may claim about one or either being non-canon to each other or to the broader line of Trek shows. But since this episode DOES have some animated bits, I get to write about it make a few bucks, so it’s all gravy to me!This is probably the most direct crossover episode that any two Trek shows have ever had, at least in terms of having the main casts interact for the majority of the story and that being the point of the episode (as opposed to a single cameo or scene, which was often the case). What I’ve learned about how to make a good crossover is to make sure that neither the home or visiting cast gets overshadowed, but also make sufficient use of the respective strengths and differences of both shows in a way that highlights them and mixes well. SNW and LD are two very different shows, with SNW playing it pretty straight while LD is both an affectionate parody and tribute to the shows that have come before (ironically SNW came after it in production). And while one of my consistent peeves with LD has been its reliance on references as humor even when one may not understand it, they make use of the show’s more manic energy and unabashed love of the franchise to make the visiting characters distinct and even poke fun at themselves, with the Enterprise crew acting patient yet visibly annoyed by some of their behavior.However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more dramatic elements or making sure most of the characters have something to do. SNW is a far more dramatic and serious show than LD, and while Boimler and Mariner come from a comedy series, there is a successful effort to have their appearances touch on character development for the SNW characters. As someone from their future, Boimler’s reactions to certain characters reminds them the way things are now won’t always be as good in some ways, but they may get better in others. And as mentioned, they also touch on Pike’s future (long story) which he’s already aware of (also long story), but gives him reason to appreciate the present as it is. And for extra points, it even gives Boimler a mini-arc about knowing not to pigeonhole one group into one job! Basically, this was an all around excellent crossover between the shows, a great way to tide LD fans over until the next season in September, and hopefully not the last big crossover in this era of Trek. Until then, live long and prosper.