Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 9 “Fissure Quest”
If you’re a die-hard Star Trek fan, you’ll want to sit down as you read this review.
In the ninth episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ final season “Fissure Quest” largely takes place not in the Prime Universe, but out among the many realities in the multiverse – a science-fiction concept popularized in recent years by Marvel and DC. Star Trek recently got in on multiverse madness in the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy, and now it appears this animated series is getting in on the action… and it’s bonkers.
Remember William Boimler, the transporter clone of Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), whose death was seemingly faked by Section 31 in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”? We have been anxious for years to find out what happened to him. William was assigned to an all-important mission: discovering who or what is creating dimensional tears across numerous realities.
Familiar Faces Abound
“Fissure Quest” sees William commanding the Anaximander and a crack crew gathered during his travels to various realities. Stationed on the Anaximander are alternate reality versions of familiar faces we’ve seen across the Star Trek universe:
- First Officer T’Pol (Jolene Blalock, who played the character in Star Trek: Enterprise). This T’Pol is an expert in human emotions because she was married to her reality’s Trip Tucker for decades. Nice to see Tucker had a happy ending in at least one reality, instead of his infamous death in Enterprise’s finale.
- Doctor Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson, who played the character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).
- Tactical Officer Curzon Dax (Fred Tatasciore). Curzon was a character in Deep Space Nine played briefly by Frank Owen Smith in that show’s premiere.
- Emergency Medical Hologram Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig, who played Bashir in Deep Space Nine).
- Multiple versions of Ensign Harry Kim (Garrett Wang, who played Kim in Star Trek: Voyager). Early in this episode, the Anaximander beams aboard yet another Harry Kim, although this one is a lieutenant.
Yeah, it’s like Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan and the Lower Decks writers are kids pulling their favorite characters out of a toy box and having wacky, imaginative adventures. And while that’s cause enough for a fun if not hollow Lower Decks episode, what’s neat is that these characters have their dynamics at play; we’ll get to that soon.
“Why would someone want to destroy reality?”
“Because they’re probably a hacky evil version of someone we all know. A reverse Picard, a Borgified Kirk, or f*** it, I don’t know, human Worf. That’s all the multiverse is… lazy, derivative remixes!”
– Harry Kim and William Boimler.
William is frustrated at his never-ending mission of traveling to other realities in a futile attempt to find whatever is creating the tears. Sometimes he comes across interesting additions to his crew, sure, but overall William is sick of the multiverse and his wack-a-mole mission. The captain’s quest becomes much more interesting, though, when his ship rescues an alternate reality Beckett Mariner, someone who William is thrilled to see.
In her reality, Mariner – who, unlike her Prime Universe counterpart, is risk-averse and skilled at engineering – discovered a way to track the tear creators, but her shuttle was disabled before she could execute her plan. With Mariner’s techno-babbly knowledge, William and his crew do indeed catch up to the tear creators and give chase. Curzon Dax, who is incredibly eager for a fight, conducts a bit of insubordination and fires on the fleeing ship, causing it to crash on a nearby planet. With repairs of their own needed, William orders his crew to land on the planet to finally capture the long-sought-after antagonists.
“Man, my Boimler is way chiller than this one.”
“I do not have a Boimler in my quantum reality in order to make a comparison.”
“Oh, he’s a big Starfleet nerd, like Archer. You had one of those, right?”
“Yes. And ‘big Starfleet nerd’ is an accurate description.”
– Mariner and T’Pol.
The boggy planet is home to Khwopians, but not the peaceful kind known in the Prime Universe. These Khwopians are hostile and immediately imprison William, Mariner, several Harry Kims, and Curzon Dax. Also in the jail cell are a group of humans and Vulcans, captured from the crashed alien ship. William is initially confrontational with these strangers, as he considers them enemies who have been tearing realities for some evil purpose, but as the group’s leader explains, her ship and crew are on a mission of exploration and non-interventionism. Their exploratory mission is remarkably like Starfleet’s, only on a much larger scale.
Just who is the group’s leader? Mariner recognizes the face after a few moments as that of Lily Sloane, played here by Alfre Woodard, who played the character in Star Trek: First Contact. In her reality, this Lily was working with Zefram Cochrane not to develop a warp drive, but a quantum reality drive – and ever since, she has been exploring the multiverse, always keen on observation, not intervention. She follows a Prime Directive, much like Starfleet in the Prime Universe. She and her crew had no idea the rifts they were opening for exploration were having adverse effects in other realities.
William’s group, along with Lily’s crew, escaped jail thanks to Elim Garak, who managed to infiltrate the jail and eliminate the Khwopian guards. The group runs to Lily’s ship, the Beagle, which is a great deep cut of its own. The Beagle shares commonalities with the USS Enterprise (XCV 330), an essentially unknown spacecraft that was in service before Jonathan Archer’s NX-01. Having the Beagle look largely like this Enterprise makes sense, as an older Lily could have embarked on her cross-dimensional exploration mission around the same time this ship was in service in the Prime Universe.
The Beagle needs some repairs before it is worthy of reality hopping again, which gives William and Lily a moment to talk. William, who until now has been frustrated by his multiverse travels, can’t believe Lily wants to explore such realities. He rather stay in one galaxy and explore strange new worlds, instead of witnessing remixes of things he already knows. However, Lily convinces William how purposeful exploring other realities can be. She and her crew are learning more about themselves in the process – learning about what humans can be, not just what they are. As she describes to William, humanity’s capabilities can be limitless. We found this brief monologue touching, as it creatively employs the multiverse concept with a unique Star Trek twist, thereby elevating the idea to something remarkable.
To their great surprise, William and Lily’s respective crews witness the Beagle take off suddenly. Who’s pirating the ship? It’s Harry Kims – all of them – as the most recent addition to the Kim crew laments how his comrades have always been looked over in their respective universes. So, Lieutenant Kim tricked his comrades into leaving with him to make a better life for themselves. Lieutenant Kim has a deep-seated angst on behalf of his alternate universe counterparts, and this angst is such a great, organic evolution of a long-running joke fans have expressed for years about Voyager’s Kim: Poor Harry just never is promoted, no matter what he did on Voyager.
Seeing the Beagle escape the planet, William and Lily’s respective crews head for the Anaximander, which is currently guarded by Khwopians. This isn’t a problem for Dax, though, who is eager for a fight and opts to melee with the aliens until the Anaximander is ready for takeoff. The Trill arrives back on the bridge a little worse for wear as William orders the pursuit of the fleeing Kim.
Kim aims to open a dimensional rift, but unlike the fanatical pirate, the crew on the Anaximander knows opening such a rift in the Beagle’s damaged state is not only suicide but destructive to all other realities. The Anaximander isn’t fast enough to catch up – that is until Mariner is inspired by her Prime Universe’s counterpart and risks her own life by engineering a dangerous way to make the Defiant-class ship catch up with the Beagle.
This maneuver is successful, but Kim opens a rift anyway and slowly creeps the Beagle into it. Luckily for the multitude of Kims, they beam away after mutinying against their captor, leaving their lieutenant counterpart to face the traversal alone. As the Beagle crosses the rift’s event horizon, the ship explodes, destroying Lieutenant Kim and leaving a devastating fissure behind that threatens far more than just the current reality. Lily knows how to close this new rift using the Anaximander’s deflector array, but of course, there’s a catch.
If the Anaximander closes the fissure opened by the Beagle’s destruction, that devastating energy will be shunted to one universe. Which universe should receive such an immense problem? William volunteers the one he came from, the Prime Universe because he knows his friends – those he trusts most – will figure out a solution. It’s so much to ask one group to handle, and of course, we’ll have to wait until next week to see this play out.
Breaking down the remix
So, that’s quite a bit to digest, yeah? But as we mentioned earlier, there’s more to break down, especially among the Anaximander crew. To our great relief, cameos from legacy Star Trek performers aren’t just for show; two subplots among William’s crew help flesh out the dynamic among this motley cast of characters, and both plots feature remixes of what we know and love from the Prime Universe.
“But Garek, you’re just a surgeon!”
“I am a surgeon, but not just.”
– Bashir and Garek, as Garek embarks on rescuing the crew.
The always-mysterious Elim Garak, the Anaximander’s doctor, and the EMH Julian Bashir are lovers, which is hilarious. It’s no secret Andrew Robinson played Garek on DS9 as having a longing for Dr. Bashir, even if such a desire was never alluded to expressly on the show. (Check out Andrew Robinson on The Shuttlepod Show talking about this aspect of Garak.) Seeing a remix of this idea showcases Lower Decks’ penchant for knowing the pulse of the Star Trek world. Elim and Julian, who are from different realities, spend much of their time in this episode bickering about in which universe the pair will ultimately settle, but ultimately Garek admits he doesn’t care and just enjoyed the lovers’ quarrel.
Curzon and T’Pol, meanwhile, have a rivalry, with the Vulcan being distasteful of Dax’s penchant for brash, Klingon-style fighting and his boisterous personality. The two merely put up with each other until Curzon is mortally wounded fighting Khwopians, which presents a major problem for the Dax symbiont held within Curzon. There’s no Trill on the Anaximander, which means the symbiont will die unless it can somehow be saved. T’Pol, in an act of compassion, mind-melds with the symbiont just before Curzon dies, thus ensuring memories stored by the aged symbiont remain intact until T’Pol can visit Curzon’s home universe.
While William’s initial complaint about multiverses being remixes of familiar concepts aligns with Lower Decks’ self-reflexive humor, this episode demonstrates a thoughtful combination of popular characters who possess their agency and involvement. Beyond the experiences of the Anaximander crew, we were particularly struck by Lily Sloane’s mission to explore other realities; her explanation to William about her motivations for such an undertaking was a highlight of this episode. Indeed, learning about humanity, which is why Lily was visiting other realities, strikes at the heart of why Star Trek resonates with so many people. Once again, the creative minds behind Lower Decks show they have a firm grasp on what makes this franchise tick.
“Fissure Quest“ is an ambitious and exhilarating exploration of the multiverse that blends Star Trek‘s rich legacy with a fresh twist. The episode shines by leveraging familiar characters in alternate realities, giving them new dynamics while maintaining the heart and humor that make Lower Decks so enjoyable. We certainly appreciated the philosophical reflections on humanity’s potential across dimensions, which added important depth to the chaotic multiverse adventure. This episode is a prime example of Lower Decks’ ability to both honor and innovate within the Star Trek universe, and the cliffhanger leaves us eagerly awaiting the final chapter of this remarkable show.
Stray Thoughts:
- One Harry Kim is seen wearing a white Starfleet uniform. This design echoes Kim’s attire in Star Trek Online.
- Another Harry Kim is seen playing the clarinet, something we saw the Prime Universe Kim do in a couple of episodes of Voyager.
- Mariner mentions how in her reality, Deanna Troi was accidentally transporter-cloned and left on a planet for years. This happened in the Prime Universe to Riker, as chronicled in “Second Chances.”
- How did Khwopians so easily infiltrate the Anaximander? Does the ship not have intruder defenses?
- Lily and her human crew wear Star Trek: Enterprise-style uniforms, and the Vulcans who were part of the Beagle crew seem to be critical of Lily, which is reminiscent of how Vulcans in Enterprise were critical of humans.
- When exactly did William Boimler “piggyback” a message to Brad Boimler, and how did he know where to deliver that message? William would have no idea where the Cerritos is stationed, right?
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