The multiverse is all the rage these days. Well, at least it’s supposed to be. So for the penultimate episode of Lower Decks, why shouldn’t they dive into one of the most over done tropes lately whilst pointing out how overdone it is?
Side stepping the Lower Deckers for the episode, Fissure Quest instead focuses on Boimlers not-so-dead-transporter duplicate William. Following faking his death in season three, Billy Boims is now captain of Section 31 ship the Anaximander. While Cerritos has been sent to close the subspace fissures expoising them to alternate realities, the Anaximander has been sent into that multiverse to find out who’s causing them.
There’s two sides of the story with an appeal that leads to everyone in a way. For the fans who like to see their references and character reprisals, this episode has more than enough and leans into it hard with some extra fan driven backgrounds to these new versions. T’Pol is manning the science station, having lost none of her Vulcan charm after being married to Trip Tucker for sixty years. Dax is back! Well, kind of. This is Curzon and in his reality, he just got older and more mental.
And after years of speculation – from fans and actors alike – we have a Garak who joined Starfleet to become a doctor and his husband, an LMH version of Bashir. A relationship that, while formed of different dimensions, just locks in that their romance is now canon.
Though star alternate is Harry Kim. Well, a few Harry Kim’s. Most of the Kim’s make up the rest of the Anaximander crew who find a new Kim boarding who’s the only one who’s not ‘forever ensign’. Which, yeah. I think the jokes gotten a bit stale over the years but at least they played with it a little seeing as it’s promotion mad Lieutenant Kim that turns into the back guy, ego tripping on his extra pip.
On the flip side, Boimler 2 kind of highlights the absurdity of the multiple drop ins for Lower Decks as well as becoming the embodiment of viewers across sci fi and fantasy getting bored of multiverse nonsense; taking Deadpool’s jokes into one frustrated captain who longs for normality and finds comfort in a less non-confrontational version of Mariner.
In a way it feels like the shows getting the last of it’s cameo’s before the finale. Especially as the person responsible for the fissures is an alternate reality Lilly Sloane who’s work was for multiverse travel, not faster than light. In true Trek fashion, Lilly doesn’t know she’s the bad guy or that these fissures are causing damage to the fabric of the universe. After spending so long chasing down a villain, it all came down to unintended consequence much like warp drive turned out to be damaging subspace in Next Gen.
Turning it all onto Kim, who almost kills every universe due to his ego, was a nice switch as well. Though everything was just set up for the finale in the end which landed nicel towards the end. Stopping Kim came at the cost of choosing one universe to due to save the multiverse. Boimler choosing his own – or our Prime universe – made an oddly compelling bridge towards what’s coming next.
It’s not the best story so far but as a lead in to the end, Fissure Quest does the job well and it’s last few minutes hint at something much more exciting to come…
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