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While the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks is known for its overt comedy – which includes its fair share of dirty jokes and swear words – this show is still set in the actual Star Trek canon and as such is essentially a serious Star Trek show. Now, with the penultimate episode, ‘Fissure Quest’, Lower decks has done something no other Trek series has ever accomplished: casually drop a crossover episode consisting of several older characters, albeit all of them alternate universes. But this episode isn’t just a one-off joke. In “Fissure Quest,” we learn that a crew of what can only be called Star Trek “variants” are trying to prevent the multiverse from collapsing in on itself.
Somehow, this episode is the best parallel universe Trek episode ever, features copious amounts of fanservice, and also, by poking fun at its own fundamental conceit, other contemporary multiverse shenanigans like the MCU to shame.
Spoilers ahead.
Although ‘Fissure Quest’ begins with a brief prologue set in the Prime Universe, it largely follows a top-secret mission aboard the spaceship AnaximanderA Provocative-class ship commanded by “William” Boimler, Brad Boimler’s transport duplicate from the Season 2 episode “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”. In Season 3, a post-credit moment of sorts in the episode “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus” was revealed that this Boimler duplicate, though presumed dead, had been recruited by Section 31. Essentially, “Fissure Quest” picks up from that point. Boimler is now in command of the Anaximandertraveling through various Quantum Realties, trying to figure out why a rogue ship is creating rifts between universes.
Boimler’s crew is essentially a giant Easter egg basket full of Trek legends: an alternate, older version of T’Pol from Company; a version of Curzon Dax Deep space ninewho has not been transferred is a symbiote to Jadzia; and a holographic version of Dr. Bashir, also out DS9who is married to a Starfleet version of Garak. (This final bit fulfills a decades-long fan desire to see these two characters as a couple.) And, as previously teased in a trailer, much of the from Anaximander support crew consists of several duplicates of Harry Kim (from Star Trek Voyager), all of slightly different dimensions.
Like Marvel’s What if? all of these characters are voiced by the people who played the character in live-action, which means Star Trek just casually brought back Alexander Siddig (Bashir), Andrew Robinson (Garak), Jolene Blalock (T’Pol), and Garrett Wang (Harry ) all in one episode. In the case of Robison and Siddig, it’s been 25 years since they played these characters in a new Star Trek series. For Wang, it has been 23 years since Harry last appeared Travelerand for Blalock, it’s been 19 years since the end of Enterprise. Each of these cameos, on their own, are all a big deal for Star Trek fans. And halfway through the episode we even get an appearance from Alfre Woodard as Lily Sloane, who first appeared in the 1996 hit Star Trek: First Contact.
But cleverly, this fanservice isn’t just fanservice for the sake of it. Throughout the episode we are reminded that even though this is Boimler’s transporter duplicate, it is still very much us Boimler. And when he recruits an alternate Mariner from a dimension where she is an engineer, it is made clear that the character is essentially the same person, even though she wears a gold uniform and has slightly different skills.
Early in the episode, Boimler becomes frustrated with the endless remix of familiar tropes saying, “I’m so tired of the damn multiverse.” And yet, when the Anaximander learns that the cracks in the multiverse have been caused on accident through an alternate version of Starfleet that explores different realities, Boimler realizes that the multiverse can be more than just a cheap plot device that creates endless cameos.
By not paying major attention to his epic crossover crew, Lower decks does what other modern multiverse crossovers sometimes forget to do: the novelty of alternate timelines in a story about something recognizable. Alternate dimensions and paths not taken can make for poignant and exciting juxtapositions. But what Lower decks dares to ask is simple: what if the existence of the multiverse isn’t just for fancy crossovers? What if instead we could learn more about ourselves by seeing things from a perspective? slightly different point of view?
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