Star Trek: Lower Decks: Fissure Quest
December 12, 2024 7:20 PM - Season 5, Episode 9 - Subscribe
AKA The Trouble With Harrys
Memory Alpha knows that there's one 'ship that's renowned above the rest:
- Some of the dialogue and character backgrounds are very meta with nods to constant critiques and feelings among fans.
-- T'Pol is repeatedly mentioned to have been married to Trip Tucker for 63 years, a reference to the well-loved pairing from Star Trek: Enterprise and the abrupt off-screen end to their relationship and then Trip's death in ENT: "These Are the Voyages...", something that many fans were greatly displeased with.
-- Harry Kim's constant rank of ensign and his never getting a promotion throughout the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager is constantly mentioned with this episode only featuring a single Kim who is not an ensign.
-- The Anaximander crew suspects that a major villain is behind the rifts, with William suggesting that it's a "hacky, evil version of someone we all know", referring to the trope that when a major event occurs in Star Trek, there's typically some kind of villain behind it and occasionally, someone or a version of someone already encountered in the Star Trek universe. Instead, it turns out that the crew of the Beagle are simply peaceful explorers from another universe who were unaware of the side effects of their quantum reality drive.
-- William's exasperation regarding the derivative nature of the people the crew encounters while exploring quantum realities is likely a nod to the criticism that Lower Decks itself often relies on references to other entries in the franchise.
- Jolene Blalock, Andrew J. Robinson, Alexander Siddig, Garrett Wang, and Alfre Woodard reprise their roles as T'Pol, Elim Garak, Julian Bashir, Harry Kim, and Lily Sloane from Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: First Contact.
- Anaximander was an ancient Greek philosopher who, among other achievements, speculated on the existence of multiple realities. This ship may have been the same Defiant-class starship that picked up William Boimler in "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", as both ships have similar markings and a lack of external signage.
"Why would someone want to destroy reality?"
"Because they're probably a hacky evil version of someone we all know. A reverse Picard or Borgified Kirk or *bleep* it, I don't know, human Worf. That's all the multiverse is! Just lazy derivative remixes!"
- Lt. Harry Kim and William Boimler discuss the possible reasons for everything
Poster's Log:
Let's just get this out of the way.
GARASHIR
FUCKING
CONFIRMED!
Yeah, even with reasonably high expectations for the penultimate episode, they had me at the cold opening.
Alternate Lily Sloane got it right. I don't care if other people are tired of the multiverse, this was very cool.
Poster's Log, supplemental:
Beardquest: fully realized, although I find it interesting that Billy Boims' beard has a more even, Ransom/Rutherford-esque stubbliness, not the weird patchy stuff that Boimler-Prime had.
Memory Alpha knows that there's one 'ship that's renowned above the rest:
- Some of the dialogue and character backgrounds are very meta with nods to constant critiques and feelings among fans.
-- T'Pol is repeatedly mentioned to have been married to Trip Tucker for 63 years, a reference to the well-loved pairing from Star Trek: Enterprise and the abrupt off-screen end to their relationship and then Trip's death in ENT: "These Are the Voyages...", something that many fans were greatly displeased with.
-- Harry Kim's constant rank of ensign and his never getting a promotion throughout the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager is constantly mentioned with this episode only featuring a single Kim who is not an ensign.
-- The Anaximander crew suspects that a major villain is behind the rifts, with William suggesting that it's a "hacky, evil version of someone we all know", referring to the trope that when a major event occurs in Star Trek, there's typically some kind of villain behind it and occasionally, someone or a version of someone already encountered in the Star Trek universe. Instead, it turns out that the crew of the Beagle are simply peaceful explorers from another universe who were unaware of the side effects of their quantum reality drive.
-- William's exasperation regarding the derivative nature of the people the crew encounters while exploring quantum realities is likely a nod to the criticism that Lower Decks itself often relies on references to other entries in the franchise.
- Jolene Blalock, Andrew J. Robinson, Alexander Siddig, Garrett Wang, and Alfre Woodard reprise their roles as T'Pol, Elim Garak, Julian Bashir, Harry Kim, and Lily Sloane from Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: First Contact.
- Anaximander was an ancient Greek philosopher who, among other achievements, speculated on the existence of multiple realities. This ship may have been the same Defiant-class starship that picked up William Boimler in "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", as both ships have similar markings and a lack of external signage.
"Why would someone want to destroy reality?"
"Because they're probably a hacky evil version of someone we all know. A reverse Picard or Borgified Kirk or *bleep* it, I don't know, human Worf. That's all the multiverse is! Just lazy derivative remixes!"
- Lt. Harry Kim and William Boimler discuss the possible reasons for everything
Poster's Log:
Let's just get this out of the way.
GARASHIR
FUCKING
CONFIRMED!
Yeah, even with reasonably high expectations for the penultimate episode, they had me at the cold opening.
Alternate Lily Sloane got it right. I don't care if other people are tired of the multiverse, this was very cool.
Poster's Log, supplemental:
Beardquest: fully realized, although I find it interesting that Billy Boims' beard has a more even, Ransom/Rutherford-esque stubbliness, not the weird patchy stuff that Boimler-Prime had.
Kim! Kim! Kim! Kim!
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:55 PM on December 12 [3 favorites]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:55 PM on December 12 [3 favorites]
Terrific episode!
posted by billsaysthis at 10:19 PM on December 12
posted by billsaysthis at 10:19 PM on December 12
So, you think this show is fan service? I’ll show you fan service!
Particularly liked last moment when Boimler received the “message”.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:23 PM on December 12 [2 favorites]
Particularly liked last moment when Boimler received the “message”.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:23 PM on December 12 [2 favorites]
I guess I don't quite understand why the mulitiverse hoppers include a contemporary of Zephriam who should be like 300 years old.
posted by pwnguin at 12:58 AM on December 13
posted by pwnguin at 12:58 AM on December 13
Holy shit, that is like NUCLEAR levels of fanservice. They explicitly reference a specific AO3 fic!
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:19 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 2:19 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
This episode was such a gift. Holy shit.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 5:30 AM on December 13
posted by mrjohnmuller at 5:30 AM on December 13
This episode was so good, it actually made me regret not watching ENT!
OK, not really. But damn it was good!
posted by Frayed Knot at 5:52 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]
OK, not really. But damn it was good!
posted by Frayed Knot at 5:52 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]
Instant Classic. This may be one of the greatest episodes in all of Trek. It nailed everything.
posted by briank at 6:25 AM on December 13
posted by briank at 6:25 AM on December 13
Fellow nerds, the white shouldered uniform that one of the Kims was wearing, I kind of sort of remember it, but can't quite entirely place it. Or was it one of those single episode "and here's the space racing league uniform" Delta Flyer episode uniforms?
posted by Kyol at 6:25 AM on December 13
posted by Kyol at 6:25 AM on December 13
Yes, it's the Delta Flyer uniform.
posted by briank at 6:28 AM on December 13 [5 favorites]
posted by briank at 6:28 AM on December 13 [5 favorites]
Of course, in LD section 31 is both competent and not evil.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:48 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]
posted by Spike Glee at 6:48 AM on December 13 [2 favorites]
I guess I don't quite understand why the mulitiverse hoppers include a contemporary of Zephriam who should be like 300 years old.
Definitely to brain work this a wee bit, but presumably the universe that the Beagle is from must be time dilated in some fashion so that it exists at the space in time as Enterprise. If I remember correctly, Cochrane had only passed away a decade or two before the NX-01 launched? So it would make sense for his co-developer, Lily is there, and everyone is wearing the NX-01 era uniforms. I'm guessing the name of the ship is not just a reference to the HMS Beagle, Darwin's ship of exploration, but also, well, a certain dog that lived on the NX-01. Don't give him cheese, a'ight?
I really enjoyed this show, but kind of felt that the reactions I was seeing from folks blew up the expectations a bit high. It did, however, give us a great setup for the finale of the show next week. Will Boimler's exultation that his universe could handle it and the note that he could trust on his friends on Cerritos to do so reminded me so much of Kirk's trust in Spock, McCoy, and his command crew.
Kirk, reflecting on the moment earlier when he fell off the side of a mountain: "Oh, no. It isn't that. I knew I wouldn't die because the two of you were with me."
When Engineering Mariner showed up, it was sweet seeing Boimler so excited and happy to have a friend aboard the Anx.
I think what made this episode special was the combination of it's penultimate status in the final season and really, its effort either through reference or character inclusion, to draw upon so much of the Trek world. I appreciated the meta commentary about multi-verses, though, ironically, while there always seems to be a regular dipping into the Mirror Universe, isn't that common a thing in the franchise in general. In a way, it feels like the show is literally preparing to say goodbye and in a way that is meant to share that this isn't a sad thing, but just a thing.
posted by Atreides at 7:10 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
Definitely to brain work this a wee bit, but presumably the universe that the Beagle is from must be time dilated in some fashion so that it exists at the space in time as Enterprise. If I remember correctly, Cochrane had only passed away a decade or two before the NX-01 launched? So it would make sense for his co-developer, Lily is there, and everyone is wearing the NX-01 era uniforms. I'm guessing the name of the ship is not just a reference to the HMS Beagle, Darwin's ship of exploration, but also, well, a certain dog that lived on the NX-01. Don't give him cheese, a'ight?
I really enjoyed this show, but kind of felt that the reactions I was seeing from folks blew up the expectations a bit high. It did, however, give us a great setup for the finale of the show next week. Will Boimler's exultation that his universe could handle it and the note that he could trust on his friends on Cerritos to do so reminded me so much of Kirk's trust in Spock, McCoy, and his command crew.
Kirk, reflecting on the moment earlier when he fell off the side of a mountain: "Oh, no. It isn't that. I knew I wouldn't die because the two of you were with me."
When Engineering Mariner showed up, it was sweet seeing Boimler so excited and happy to have a friend aboard the Anx.
I think what made this episode special was the combination of it's penultimate status in the final season and really, its effort either through reference or character inclusion, to draw upon so much of the Trek world. I appreciated the meta commentary about multi-verses, though, ironically, while there always seems to be a regular dipping into the Mirror Universe, isn't that common a thing in the franchise in general. In a way, it feels like the show is literally preparing to say goodbye and in a way that is meant to share that this isn't a sad thing, but just a thing.
posted by Atreides at 7:10 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
I love Engineer Mariner - the same but also different. The GARASHIR content led to cries of "yeah, fuck you Rick Berman! In your FACE, man!" in my house.
Cochrane had only passed away a decade or two before the NX-01 launched
I haven't seen all of Enterprise, but I thought main-universe canon was that Cochrane ended up disappearing and getting life-extended and eventually discovered by TOS Enterprise?
posted by rmd1023 at 8:39 AM on December 13 [3 favorites]
Cochrane had only passed away a decade or two before the NX-01 launched
I haven't seen all of Enterprise, but I thought main-universe canon was that Cochrane ended up disappearing and getting life-extended and eventually discovered by TOS Enterprise?
posted by rmd1023 at 8:39 AM on December 13 [3 favorites]
AH, you're right! I must have mixed up him disappearing with dying. Whenever I think of Cochrane and Enterprise I think of his appearance in the Mirror Universe episode (WHICH IS AMAZINGLY FUN).
Thank you for the correction, rmd1023!
posted by Atreides at 11:49 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
Thank you for the correction, rmd1023!
posted by Atreides at 11:49 AM on December 13 [1 favorite]
As fanservice, this was so much better than season three of Picard. Mostly in terms of quality of storyline, but also in terms of the...agility?...of how it was executed.
posted by dry white toast at 7:18 PM on December 13 [2 favorites]
posted by dry white toast at 7:18 PM on December 13 [2 favorites]
Wow. Best of the season (assuming the final episode doesn't pull it down a notch retroactively.)
Gotta love the meta critique of multiverse stories while at the same time demonstrating how to do them properly. All the "remix" characters were some kind of commentary on bits of Trek lore (excepting, perhaps, the doubles of the current cast, who are more in the tradition of in-universe doubles commenting on the characters themselves. )
Also managed to further their ongoing canonization of TAS by explicitly mentioning Giant Spock (which was implied by a skeleton much earlier.)
Presumably it took Billy Boims just as long to grow his beard. He just then carefully trimmed it back to a casual stubble.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:04 PM on December 13
Gotta love the meta critique of multiverse stories while at the same time demonstrating how to do them properly. All the "remix" characters were some kind of commentary on bits of Trek lore (excepting, perhaps, the doubles of the current cast, who are more in the tradition of in-universe doubles commenting on the characters themselves. )
Also managed to further their ongoing canonization of TAS by explicitly mentioning Giant Spock (which was implied by a skeleton much earlier.)
Presumably it took Billy Boims just as long to grow his beard. He just then carefully trimmed it back to a casual stubble.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:04 PM on December 13
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posted by SansPoint at 8:01 PM on December 12 [3 favorites]