Lower Decks actors Tawney Newsom and Jack Quaid came up with some of the funniest moments of the Strange New Worlds crossover episode — Newsom’s Ensign Mariner spouting that Spock is hot and Quaid’s Ensign Boimler pulling the “Riker maneuver” — on the spot, per interviews cited by Gizmodo.

Trek alum and episode director Jonathan Frakes seemed envious in his Variety interview:

“[Improvisation] doesn’t happen a lot on ‘Star Trek,’ as you probably have heard,” Frakes says. “I mean, especially in our fucking show” — i.e. “Next Gen” — “they were so strict. It was like we were doing Shakespeare or Chekhov.”

And just because it’s very good, here’s the closer from Gizmodo’s James Whitbrook’s article:

We’re living in a golden age of exploring the fact that Spock Is Hot.