The end of Star Trek: Lower Decks is nigh! This week features the penultimate adventure for Lower Decks Season 5, “Fissure Quest”. Where the mentions of the multiverse have all been leading, wrapping up perhaps the loosest arc in the show’s history. Something is threatening the integrity of the multiverse, but who? And why? There have been few hints compared to previous seasons, so it could be anything.
So, who’s the final villain the Lower Deckers will face in the saga of their adventures? What will the finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks look like? How many legacy cameos will the team pull out of the fissures before it’s over? Let’s find out!
WARNING – Spoilers below for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Episode 9 “Fissure Quest”. You have been warned.
Universe Hopper
Like “Upper Decks” last week, the episode uses the Lower Deckers themselves as a simple narrative frame. Except we don’t follow the senior officers this week either. This week, we cross the multiverse to follow William Boimler (Jack Quaid). The transporter clone, previously believed deceased, is now captaining a ship chasing the fissure creators across universes.
The real kicker is the crew he’s got for this voyage. It’s a mesh of characters, unlike anything on the Cerritos. Where the season’s legacy cameo list had been pretty much limited to Purple Data (Brent Spiner), this list of surprise characters genuinely shocked me. Garak (Andrew Robinson), his holographic boyfriend Dr Bashir (Alexander Siddig), T’Pol (Jolene), and of course multiple versions of Harry Kim (Garrett Wang).
Together, they travel around the multiverse, desperately chasing the opening fissures. Boimler’s attitudes towards the multiverse, and it being nothing but remixes of things we’ve seen before, are particularly poignant. Although in an episode that features just that, from a promoted Kims, a canonical Garak and Bashir relationship, and even mentions of Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) surviving for decades after the NX-01 – it’s lacking in self-awareness.
Strange New Universes
The multiverse is a little more than remixes of familiar characters, though. It’s also a remix of a familiar concept, that being the exploration that’s at the very heart of Starfleet. Looking at others in pursuit of the best of humanity, the spark that makes humanity and sentience so magical. Instead of seeking out strange new worlds, however, the real threat to the multiverse are a group seeking out strange new universes.
The sudden threat to the multiverse, which was explained by an innocent scientific error, is a strange one. The fissures didn’t feel too much like a threat, as much as they did an anomaly. Something that pulled up a cooler Cerritos, a purple Data, and a tiny ship. A mystery, but hardly a threat to the universe’s integrity. Turning it into a spatial threat, and then having the fresh mystery box be a fresh nothing burger was a little dissatisfying.
Although I will admit, I never would have guessed the captain of this ship in a thousand years. Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard), last seen in Star Trek: First Contact, is the one in charge of this group. It’s cool to see her as a Federation ambassador, even if it is only very briefly. While it didn’t have to be her, I’m glad it was. She even got saved by Garak, turning the whole episode into a totally surreal fan dream.
Two Pips
As I alluded to earlier, the episode’s not just all about the cameos. It also features in-jokes, such as a McCoy dig when Garak mentions being more than a doctor. In the grander scale of the episode’s focus on Kim’s ensign status, it’s a simple moment. But as a massive fan of The Original Series and Deep Space Nine, it made me happy. It’s the sort of lighthearted reverence that makes Lower Decks so special, and makes me so sad to see it go.
However jokes like that abound this week, in a Lower Decks Season 5 episode that seems preoccupied with pulling cameos out of holes in space and poking at every fan in-joke you can imagine. “Fissure Quest” does end up turning one of them into a whole plot point though, which was pretty cool. Harry Kim’s lack of promotion has been easy joking among fans for years, but having those jokes onscreen in actual Star Trek was a sight to behold. It becomes a brilliant return for Wang, who even gets to do a bit of an evil Harry too.
Unfortunately, in trying to take all of the Harry Kims to a universe where they can be promoted, he ends up tearing apart the multiverse. A big explosion in a void later, and suddenly everything that exists in every universe is in danger. It’s a bit of technobabble, and are stakes that should’ve been introduced earlier, but it’s a cool setup for the finale.
The End is Nigh
Instead of destroying all of reality, the crew send all of that universe-destroying energy into a single reality. Presumably, this would doom it to non-existence. Of course, they’ve chosen the prime reality, with William somehow sending a message to regular Boimler. Despite finally growing quite the beard, it’s not lessened his anxiety in the slightest. Although, I’d freak out if I found out my universe was ending, too.
His scream is a great way to close out the episode, even if it does leave the possibilities open to just about anything. What can junior officers do to save the universe from a force that even Starfleet’s greatest minds are powerless against? Although some grand universe-ending stakes are in order for the series’ final episode, I guess. Even if the show’s ability to close out all of its stories satisfyingly with one last episode is questionable at best.
Half an hour to save the multiverse, and end five whole seasons worth of adventures. While I’m sure, like this episode, it’ll be good. But this episode crammed a whole season’s worth of arc into a single episode, full of cameos and fanservice galore. It’s also one of those episodes that depends entirely on the quality of the payoff. Consider me cautiously optimistic for one last ride next week.
Conclusion
“Fissure Quest” is an interesting episode of Lower Decks Season 5. Many fans will lose their minds looking at the cast list alone. But in the broader context of the series, a bit of fanservice left me feeling a little hollow and empty. It’s an almost overwhelming half-hour of cameos and in-jokes. This is the penultimate episode of the series, and it felt so disconnected from the wider season in an attempt to explain the season’s attempt at an arc.
Still, it would be wrong of me to say it was a miserable viewing experience. The episode is a greatest hit of everything cast members and fans have been joking about for decades. It also tees up quite the epic finale, with some universe-ending stakes. How Boimler and the Lower Deckers will sort it out is anyone’s guess. But it will be quite the final adventure for the crew next week.
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