Summary
- “Lower Decks” effectively pokes fun at “Star Trek” tropes, especially the multiverse storyline.
- “Fissure Quest” features a crew exploring the multiverses.
- The episode highlights the fatigue some fans experience from repetitive multiverse exploration in “Star Trek.”
Star Trek: Lower Decks does one thing better than any other show in the franchise — making fun of Star Trek. With just the right balance of snark and genuine admiration, Lower Decks calls out the tropes Star Trek has created, using its characters as the voice of the fans. In the show’s penultimate episode, “Fissure Quest,” Lower Decks fires shots at Star Trek’s multiverse.
The Trekverse introduced the concept of the multiverse all the way back in Star Trek: The Original Series. The second season episode “Mirror, Mirror” established the existence of the Mirror Universe, an alternate reality that contained evil versions of all the Enterprise crew members. Since then, the canon has established that the Trekverse contains an infinite number of alternate/parallel universes/realities/timelines, and nearly every show has at least one episode dealing with the multiverses.
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Throughout this final season of Lower Decks, the crew of the Cerritos has been dealing with quantam fissures that are opening doors into alternate universes. So, this season has included some wild multiverse shenanigans. And in “Fissure Quest,” an unexpected Lower Decks character returns and shares his harsh opinions about Star Trek’s multiverse trope.
A Crew of Multiverse Fan-Favorites
Though “Fissure Quest” starts in the Prime Universe with fans’ favorite Lower Deckers, a mention of Bradward Boimler’s transporter clone, William Boimler, soon shifts the story to a completely different crew. Aboard a Defiant class ship, Captain William Boimler and his crew of multiverse fan-favorite characters — T’Pol, Curzon Dax, Elim Garak, Dr. Julian Bashir, and several copies of Harry Kim — have been on a months-long mission to track down the ship creating the quantam fissures.
Narration by William Boimler reveals that while he loves his ragtag crew of Star Trek alternates, he’s supremely frustrated with multiverse shenanigans. Early in the episode, his crew encounters a ship in distress. As they prepare to beam over the human lifeform from the ship, Boimler ponders, “Who will it be? Neelix with a crew cut? Really big Spock?”
The annoyance in his tone says a lot more than his words, implying that he’s seen so many alternate versions of famous Trekverse characters that he’s over the phenomenon. When Harry Kim beams aboard, Boimler rolls his eyes and makes a snarky comment about adding this Kim to their collection. T’Pol reveals the majority of the crew consists of alternate versions of Ensign Harry Kim. The only novel thing about this new one is his rank — he’s finally made Lieutenant.
‘Lazy Derivative Remixes’
As the crew catches this new Kim up on their mission, they reveal that someone is trying to destroy the multiverses. When Kim asks why, Boimler does not hold back his real, raw feelings about the multiverse.
“Because they’re probably a hacky evil version of someone we all know! A reverse Picard, or Borg-ified Kirk, or, f*ck it, I don’t know, human Worf. That’s all the multiverse is — just lazy, derivative remixes!”
Boimler’s rant gives voice to a common complaint within the Star Trek fanbase. Many Trekkies believe that though the multiverse was once an interesting concept, Star Trek has explored multiverses so many times that they’ve lost all their appeal.
The intrigue of multiverses has always been seeing different versions of familiar characters, doing things the characters fans know and love would never do. On a limited basis, that concept makes for excellent storytelling. But after seeing dozens of evil versions of Starfleet crews, and different versions of Earth created by changes to the timeline, and characters who’ve died brought back to life, the stories get less creative, and the concept of the multiverse gets old.
Though Boimler’s rant rings true for many fans, there will always be some who never get tired of exploring all the little ways that their favorite characters and the worlds they know can change with just the minute alterations of a different universe. In fact, that’s the point of the episode.
The crew discovers that the quantam fissures are being created by a ship from an alternate universe where Zephram Cochrane and Lily Sloan created quantam drives instead of warp drives. When Boimler confronts Sloan, the captain of the quantam drive ship, she explains that her crew explores the multiverses to learn about all the ways sentient life can change and grow based on its environment. Because even “lazy derivative remixes” have valuable lessons to teach. And what is Star Trek about if not learning more about the depths of sentient life?
The final episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks drops on Thursday, December 19th on Paramount+.
