Lower Decks Might Have Just Set Up an All-Timer Star Trek Finale

Lower Decks is a batch of shows astatine once. It’s a typical Star Trek show, 1 that has to equilibrium precocious sci-fi stakes adventures with thoughtful mediations astir its satellite and characters. It’s besides a Star Trek amusement that loves Star Trek, some successful the gleeful consciousness of pulling characters and references from crossed the series’ history, and successful the sincere consciousness of it loving its ideals and what they represent. It’s besides a amusement that is, existent to its name, often about powerfulness dynamics and the relationships betwixt the assorted layers of its bid cadre of heroes. That’s a batch of things to cram into a 25-odd-minute occurrence of animated TV, and it’s uncommon that Lower Decks manages to get it each successful determination astatine once.

But erstwhile it does, similar it did this week, it’s thing genuinely special–and if the amusement tin instrumentality the landing this penultimate occurrence acceptable up, we’re successful for the champion sendoff a Star Trek amusement has had successful generations.

Almost from the get-go “Fissure Quest” starts blowing your caput wide open. Like last week’s episode spotlighting the Cerritos span crew, erstwhile again our Lieutenants Junior Grade aren’t the stars, arsenic we propulsion distant from them to the shocking uncover that not lone has idiosyncratic other been exploring those space-time multiversal fissures that person kept cropping up each season, it’s nary different than different Boimler. And not conscionable any Boimler, but his ain Riker-ian transporter clone William, who was believed to person been killed successful enactment portion serving aboard the U.S.S. Titan a fewer seasons ago, but was really near mysteriously recruited by Section 31. It’s taken years for Lower Decks to travel up connected this storyline and it instantly makes it having been worthy the wait.

In galore ways, William has go the benignant of antheral our Bradward has been striving to beryllium each play long. He’s the skipper of a Defiant-Class escort, the Anaximander, connected a ngo of not conscionable utmost value to the galaxy, but each realities everywhere, investigating the fissures’ existent creators, and their imaginable threatening of each parallel beingness successful the multiverse. He’s besides doing it alongside an all-timer roster of multiversal Star Trek legends: his archetypal serviceman is simply a mentation of Enterprise‘s T’Pol (the returning Jolene Blalock), his conn serviceman is nary different than a Curzon Dax from a world wherever Jadzia has yet to instrumentality connected the duties of hosting the Dax Symbiont–both with a fantastic Spock/McCoy friendship. His aesculapian officers? Pan-reality romantics Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) and his husband, a holographic Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig). His crew? Mostly Harrys Kim (Garret Wang, arsenic delightful arsenic ever), it turns out, arsenic we spot them prime up another–this 1 a afloat Lieutenant, which, beyond the large gag, becomes precise important later–in their latest multiverse-hopping pursuit of the vessel creating these fissures.

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But he’s besides inactive benignant of our Boimler, truthful arsenic delightful arsenic each this is, astatine this point, he’s besides conscionable a feline doing a occupation and is very, precise tired. The Anaximander has been chasing this mysterious fissure-creating vessel, arsenic it leaks vigor betwixt realities successful damaging ways, for a agelong clip astatine this point, and Captain Boimler is alternatively sick of it all. In immoderate ways, we are too, culturally speaking, erstwhile the daze of his all-star unit wears off. Star Trek has been dealing with the conception of parallel realities since the archetypal series, but it’s not truly dove into the multiverse conception that has go du jour successful popular civilization arsenic of late–doing truthful could consciousness cheap, adjacent if Trek could support itself by holding up a goateed mirror. But successful having a Boimler who should beryllium everlastingly perpetually freaking retired astatine rubbing shoulders with variants of celebrated Trek icons alternatively fundamentally go the multiverse’s biggest hater (because it’s not new to explore, conscionable ceaseless remixes of the familiar), instantly “Fissure Quest” has its barroom and eats it. It gets to some rejoice successful the fannish glee of being capable to propulsion unneurotic this ragtag unit of returning favorites via this concept, portion besides admonishing the concept’s tropes successful absorbing ways.

Those tropes lone get examined much interestingly erstwhile the Anaximander unit negociate to yet drawback up with their quarry, the Beagle acknowledgment to their latest pickup: an alternate Mariner, from a world wherever she’s an technologist and obscurity adjacent arsenic adventurous arsenic her premier counterpart. Forcing a crash-landing successful a world wherever Khowpians (the amphibian aliens from play one, different amusive throwback) are a feral, hostile force, some Boimler’s unit and the Beagle‘s find themselves successful prison, revealing that the second is pb by nary different than an alternate Lily Sloane from First Contact (Alfre Woodard, successful possibly the episode’s champion impermanent performance) from a world wherever Vulcan and Human archetypal interaction didn’t effect successful the improvement of warp travel, but alternatively reality-crossing engines.

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The remainder of this play perchance sets america up for a struggle here–where neither broadside wants to really speech to each different astir the existent contented and travel to an understanding, but respond disconnected an presumption until we yet resoluteness it aft immoderate drawn-out shenanigans. And “Fissure Quest” teases going determination with our bushed William instantly assuming that Sloane’s team has to beryllium alert of the harm they’re causing. But thankfully, Lower Decks knows amended astatine this point, and makes a constituent of it too: these are some crews of experienced explorers, of each antithetic stripes, that person already learned these lessons. Boimler lets Sloane cognize what her engines are really doing, she accepts the mistake, not having realized, and they resoluteness to enactment unneurotic to hole it. Huzzah! And we adjacent get an adjacent amended extrapolation of the multiversal trope arsenic the 2 captains statesman relating to each other: Boimler, sick of the pan-reality-remixing, tin lone spot the multiverse arsenic a dull facsimilie of Star Trek‘s thought of exploration successful seeking retired caller worlds and caller cultures. For Sloane and her people, it’s a accidental to spot the infinite imaginable of humankind done aggregate lenses, the mode each these antithetic choices and decisions tin signifier our lives into radically antithetic directions. It’s specified a tiny infinitesimal successful an occurrence that flourishes successful the spectacle of its impermanent casting, but 1 that’s vitally Star Trek, each the portion wrapping itself into the wider themes of this play of Lower Decks.

But of course, it wouldn’t beryllium a dramatic Star Trek two-parter–a dramatic series finale two-parter–if we didn’t person immoderate conflict. And that’s wherever Lieutenant Kim, and Lower Decks‘ emotion of the Starfleet powerfulness dynamic, comes backmost in. Throughout “Fissure Quest” we spot Lieutenant Harry bristle astatine his chap Ensign selves, and their willingness to enactment up with the imaginable that successful the immense bulk of parallel universes retired there, they ne'er emergence done the ranks. Driven to bitterness by his ain perceived powerfulness implicit them, Lieutenant Harry kidnaps the Ensigns and steals the Beagle earlier its afloat repaired, hoping to taking them backmost to his ain beingness wherever they tin thrive (at his discretion), the Anaximander is incapable to stop, adjacent with immoderate last-minute bravery by Alt-Mariner, the Beagle from breaking up mid-fissure, creating a cascade of soliton waves that could destruct each world successful existence. Of course the last villain of this amusement is simply a Harry Kim who yet got promoted!

And again, Lower Decks jukes wherever we expect it to jive: you deliberation you’re getting a Wrath of Khan needs of the galore infinitesimal arsenic Boimler and his unit recognize they tin shunt the vigor into a singular reality, dooming it astatine the outgo of redeeming each different existence. But William realizes conscionable wherever to nonstop it to… his ain home, the prime Trek universe, due to the fact that helium knows helium tin spot Bradward, and each the lesson’s he’s learned isolated from his transporter duplicate, to fig retired a mode to prevention the day. Once he’s stopped screaming, that is.

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It’s a fantastic infinitesimal to bring america into the finale. Beyond the joyousness of seeing each these fannish reactions here–T’Pol and Dax’s begrudging friendship, the utter delight of Garak and Bashir really getting to beryllium unneurotic and beryllium the bickering joined mates queer DS9 fans person wanted to spot for decades–”Fissure Quest” isn’t an occurrence of cameos for the involvement of it, an bare rejoinder connected the multiverse inclination conscionable due to the fact that it’s blistery close now. It’s a thoroughly Star Trek-ian effect to it, exploring it successful astute ways, portion besides utilizing it to archer a pitch-perfect Lower Decks story.

Well, pitch-perfect truthful acold astatine least. We’ve got 1 much occurrence to spot if Lower Decks tin propulsion disconnected the committedness it displayed here, to springiness america the culmination of each these lessons learned implicit (and over) crossed its 5 seasons. If it can? We’re astir to get the champion decision to a Star Trek amusement than immoderate we’ve had successful decades.