This article contains: spoiler For the latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks.
The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 (and the series itself), “Fisher Quest,” moves away from the USS Cerritos and instead takes place primarily on a ship called the USS Anaximander. The ship is captained by William Boimler (Jack Quaid), a clone of Brad Boimler created by a transport plane accident. Captain Boimler is a member of the super-secret Section 31 and is assigned extremely important and top-secret missions. His job is to travel through the galaxy and fill holes in the space-time continuum that lead to parallel universes.
Boimler’s crew is made up entirely of parallel universe versions of characters from other “Star Trek” shows, albeit with slight changes. They are what are called “variants” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Trekkies know that Anaximander’s doctor is Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and that he is Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig), also from Deep Space Nine. You will be pleased to know that you are married to a perceptual hologram. . ” Meanwhile, the Anaximando crew is largely made up of variants of Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) from “Star Trek: Voyager.”
But Captain Boimler rolls his eyes every time he encounters a new dimensional opening. He is tired of meeting parallel versions of similar people. What’s next? Evil Picard? Borg Kirk? For the human Worf Boimler, finding a twist on an all-too-familiar character is mind-numbingly boring. “That’s all there is to the Multiverse,” he exclaimed indignantly. “Just a lazy secondary remix!” Boimler’s fatigue with multi-world anomalies ultimately becomes one of the episode’s driving plot points.
The satire is obvious. The writers of Lower Decks are poking fun at the multiverse trend that has become more prominent in recent years.
Lower Decks writer admits that many worlds are uncreative and boring
The idea of a multiverse, at least as it’s been presented in Marvel and DC superhero movies, was tired before it even started. If each Marvel character had millions of variations across the multiverse, and other characters could happily jump between universes without much trouble, then the effects of death would no longer matter. For example, one Wolverine could die, but Deadpool could happily jump across one dimension, grab another Wolverine, and replace him with the original without too much trouble. The multiverse seems like a creative dead end.
Multiverse stories have a penchant for raunchy fan service, allowing filmmakers to bring back any and all actors from other superhero movies. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine both made huge profits by bringing together various iterations of familiar characters who have appeared in multiple reboot series over the past two decades. “Deadpool & Wolverine” also featured an army of Deadpool duplicates, each with notable quirks and distinguishing characteristics. One was good. One was a baby. One person was wearing a sombrero. As Boimler said, they were boring and derivative remixes.
Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire played Spider-Man in No Way Home, much to the delight of all three fans, but that Spider-Man movie focused more on capital punishment than aspects of the multiverse. I was interested. And of course, the “Into the Spider-Verse” animated movie features hundreds of Spider-Man “remixes.” Fans seemed to like the aforementioned movies, eagerly gulping down the fan service and not caring about the lack of creativity inherent in the premise.
The latest episode of “Lower Decks” takes all of that and flattens it out. As Boimler declares, the multiverse unfolds.
Lower Decks also makes fun of Star Trek
Let’s also remember that multi-world stories are often both embraced and rejected, and “Lower Decks” isn’t just a stab at some of the most successful films of the past few years. It also attacks its tendency to fail as often as it succeeds, while directly making fun of itself, much as Star Trek has often dealt with parallel dimensions.
First of all, the multiverse aspect of The Flash didn’t save it from one of the biggest bombs of all time. Few people seemed to love Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Even Kang’s storyline in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (set up in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumia) was removed (although it’s clear Marvel Studios decided to replace actor Jonathan Majors as Kang). (This is because they had separated from each other). Needless to say, no one really cared when Vulture (Michael Keaton) guest-starred on “Morbius”? The multiverse frequently falls apart, revealing just how bland this idea is.
But regarding the second point, “Star Trek” has visited parallel universes before. Some may immediately recall the episode “Mirror, Mirror” from the original series, where everyone was evil and the USS Enterprise was the ship of conquest. That universe was later revisited in both “Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”
Or maybe you think of the “Next Generation” episode “Parallels,” where Worf (Michael Dorn) keeps flying between dimensions without warning. And then, of course, there’s the matter of Kelvin Bath. It currently consists of three movies set in alternate timelines. Each of these movies features characters familiar to longtime Trekkies, but with a slight remix. Maybe they wear different uniforms, or maybe they’re captains instead of lieutenants. Perhaps Tasha Yar is still alive in this dimension.
Whichever way you look at it, Boimler is right. That idea is outdated. After watching the 50th rendition of Captain Kirk, you might be craving something new. Boimler expresses the same resentment toward the multiverse that many viewers likely have. you have Do you have new ideas, or are you just borrowing familiar ideas?
Lower Decks also champions a multiverse narrative
At the same time, “Fission Quest” is a deft defense of the well-worn multi-world story. During his antics in a parallel dimension, Captain Boimler encounters a starship captain named Lily Sloan (Alfre Woodard). The captain is a variation of the character Woodard played in Star Trek: First Contact. Captain Thrawn reveals that he, too, has been exploring the multiverse and is not tired of encountering duplicates and substitutes.
Captain Sloan admits that seeing the same 100 people over and over again with just a few remixes can be tiring, but he takes a more diplomatic view. Sloan understands that everyone she meets has their own life and personality. It doesn’t matter to Sloane that their stories are similar to others’ stories. They still have all the same wit, intelligence, personality, and friendship as anyone else. Sloan added that he is an explorer but in a human condition. She loved watching personalities change endlessly across the galaxy, and was overjoyed that things like loyalty, friendship, and tenacity remained the same.
In other words, “Fission Quest” certainly deconstructs and satirizes all the multiverse hoo-ha we’re all tired of, but it also manages to find a compassionate perspective through it all. . As viewers, we may have become cynical about the multiverse. But if we actually lived there, we might be more optimistic, like Captain Sloane.
The Star Trek: Lower Decks series finale will premiere on Paramount+ on December 19, 2024.
