As Lower Decks returns for it’s final season, it answered one of the unresolved questions from it promised recent history as Jennifer made a return after vanishing from the unresolved conflict with Mariner at the end of the third season. And it went exactly as we’d expect for a Lower Decks romance storyline.
Relationships are difficult in the world of Starfleet. When your job is to head out into the unknown for years at a time, it’s difficult to maintain a relationship with someone back home and if you end up mingling with another member of the crew, there’s consequences if things go awry. For everyone who’s had a happy ending like the O’Briens who left deep space behind to live a calming life on Earth, there’s a Chakotay ready to settle down only to find out that his one true love just happens to be a completely mental Cardassian spy.
Even with Lower Decks, Mariner’s potential life partner ended up being a closed book with the two ignoring each other for a year after not breaking up before finding a happy(ish) ending. So to commemorate another Starfleet fling gone wrong, we’re looking at other couples who found all good things do certainly come to an end…
Ben Sisko & Kassidy Yates, Deep Space Nine
Starting as a little bit of a subplot, Kassidy Yates was a freighter captain dropping into ds9 every now and then that was kind of chosen to be Sisko’s love interest by son Jake. Figuring it was time to move on from the loss of Jennifer Sisko, Jake pushed his old man towards Yates with good intentions that surprisingly worked out. Introduced towards the end of Season 3, Yates seemed to be a key part of Sisko’s life by the fourth season opener and by the final season they were married with Yates revealing they were expecting a child in the series finale.
The Yates-Sisko relationship was more straight forward than most romances seen in Trek and the first solid relationship for any lead star. Their playful dynamic and chemistry made for both great fun and a demonstration of a strong mixed family dynamic. But the couple’s relationship would have a few flaws.
Partly with Yates being outed as a Maquis sympathiser and having to be arrested by Ben, which caused a bit of a rift only resolved by Sisko in a prophet induced trance when she was released. Though it was Ben’s sacrifice to save Bajor and ascent to the Celestial Temple that would give them a tragic end, with Kassidy left alone to raise her child alongside Jake, waiting for The Sisko’s promised return.
Paul Stamets & Hugh Culber, Discovery
One couple that did end up with the happy ending would become a core aspect of Discovery. But their happiness wasn’t without a cost thanks to a very chaotic first season…
Introduced casually as a couple after a professional disagreement, Culber and Stamets quickly became a happy central core to Discovery’s depressed crew. But that happiness didn’t last as Culber was caught in the crossfire of Ash Tyler’s identity crisis. As memories of his true Klingon self began to surface, Tyler killed the good doctor leaving Stamets to a new level of personal distress until Stamets discovered that Culber had been replicated in the mycelial realm.
Despite the resurrection, happiness still wasn’t guaranteed. At least, not at first. Though they did reconcile, the bizarre situation resulted in them separating for a time as they both dealt with their grief and confusion.
Will Riker & Deanna Troi, Next Generation / Picard
Carried over as a recycled plot for the abandoned Phase II and The Motion Picture, Riker and Troi’s romance was designed to be the Ross and Rachel before Friends even existed. Stationed together on the Enterprise years after a fling, the only thing that broke them apart was Riker’s career goals being more important to him despite rejecting promotions for fourteen years straight.
Through their seven years on the Enterprise D, they’d briefly throw back to their previously romance teasing a reunion that would never come, the finale focusing on a resentful Riker in the future who never had the chance to reconcile thanks to Worf being too dashing for Troi to resist. In Insurrection, after what felt like an eternity, they’d finally get together thanks to some magic alien fountain of youth giving them the horn and by the final TNG outing in Nemesis, they’d finally settled down after being married in the early scenes of the film.
Happily Ever After wasn’t in the cards for the couple. While they did remain together right up to their last appearance, their marriage wasn’t filled with joy. Both would leave Starfleet and isolate themselves on a remote planet in an attempt to heal their son Thaddius. When Thaddius died, the trauma built a tension that would find them driven apart until Riker was pulled back into action in Picard’s final season.
Odo & Kira Nerys, Deep Space Nine
Years before Deep Space Nine was Deep Space Nine, Odo and Kira had a long mutual connection throughout he later years of the Bajoran occupation but in the third season it was revealed that Odo had yearned for more than their professional friendship. Keeping his feelings to himself for years, Odo’s unrequited love was finally outed when a future version of himself spilled the beans to Kira, wiping out his future to save her life.
Eventually they’d come together thanks to Vic Fontaine’s meddling, and their long history of friendship did help advance their relationship, but it wouldn’t last long. Fighting together in the final months of the Dominion War, they were both instrumental in bringing down the Dominion occupation of Cardassia to the point that Odo had the Founders lkay down their arms after Kira got them into Central Command. But the Founders only request for surrender was Odo. He had to go home.
Leaving everything behind for the greater good, Odo and Kira parted on the Founders Homeworld as he joined the Great Link, adding to her already complicated history of failing to find life long love.
Jadzia Dax & Worf, Deep Space Nine
One of the most natural odd couples in Star Trek was solidified with the chemistry between Dax’s playful nature and Worf’s harsh Klingon front. Coming together in an unconventional way, Dax got (rather rationally) annoyed at Worf fetishising his own people while not realising her interest in him before snapping and propositioning him in the Warriors way.
Through their time together the two had a very nice dynamic between Dax teasing Worf and his mellowing through their courtship. Arguing their way to marriage and Dax joining the House of Martok, they became the power couple of DS9 until Gul Dukat secretly returned to the station, chasing the Pah’Wraiths in his plan to bring an end to The Sisko.
Caught up in Dukat’s secret invasion, Jadzia is attacked by Dukat while in command of DS9. By the time Worf returns from a mission on the Defiant, she only has moments left to say her goodbyes. The story didn’t end there. At least, not for Worf. Harrowed by her sudden death, he took on extremely dangerous missions to earn Jadzia’s honour in death, reluctantly fighting alongside her close friends Quark and Bashir.
Dax itself survived, moving to a new host, which made the situation even more complex. But in the end Worf accepted Jadzia’s death and eventually moved on from DS9.
Lower Decks is streaming now exclusively to Paramount Plus, home of all things Star Trek
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