“Fissure Quest”

Looking at this stacked guest cast I'm fairly certain the producers knew for a long time that this would be their final season. And I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more cameos next week.

My guess is that we'll see Jadzia because Dax's katra was transferred right when they moved through the quantum rift. (or whatever it was called) And the internet would probably go bonkers if they actually manged to bring back Avery Brooks for one final cameo. I mean, they got Jolene Blalock, so anything is possible.

Keeping with LDS tradition, the eighth episode of the final season is quite an event. It's also, similar to some big episodes of the past (Wej Duj, A Mathematically Perfect Redemption, etc.) outside of the primary perspectives of the core Cerritos crew. It's an episode of Lower Decks, but at the same time, not quite one.

The multiverse conceit of this season arc allowed them to go whole hog here with the cameos, and oh boy, do they ever. Lily Sloane, T'Pol, Garak, Bashir, and many variants of Harry Kim, all voiced by the original actors. And a Curzon Dax variant, voiced by some dude. Plus of course William Boimler and an alternative version of Mariner. LDS has never hit the special guest star thing this hard - it's massive fanwank, and mostly successful.

I'm happy as hell that Garak/Bashir was confirmed as a couple, though given these are alternate reality versions, there's still some plausible deniability. Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson still have amazing chemistry, and give renditions much closer to their old characters than what they did in the audio dramas. Making Garak a plain, simple doctor and Bashir a hologram was a bit random, but I guess it was meant to represent alternative universe weirdness.

The same cannot be said for T'Pol and Curzon Dax though. Most of the issue with this pairing is the use of Curzon here seems a misfire. Obviously people will care less given it's not a classic Trek actor reprising the role, but the depiction of him in this episode leans very heavily on the episode Blood Oath and little else. I always considered Curzon more of a drunken old letch than a fierce, fun-loving warrior. T'Pol mostly just deadpanned his barbs, and spat some exposition. I think they pulled a few punches where they could have gently ribbed Enterprise (like the Archer comment). Considering what they did with Harry Kim here, I'm not sure why they didn't.

Harry Kim (the many Harry Kims) was great up until the end, where the joke lost coherence. The motivations of Lt. Kim made zero sense here. He decides to mutiny at beginning of the third act, so he can take the ensigns back with him. Then the ensigns mutiny, and he's doing this because?!? I can kind of excuse this because in an already comedic series, this one takes itself even less seriously, but it would have been better (if less funny) if only one Kim was still an ensign, and they mutinied instead.

I don't quite get the Lily Sloane reveal either. I guess her ship was not traveling through space, but just visiting alternative Earths (with Vulcan crew members, somehow) and was just pulled to where Boimler & co could find it due to their actions. But...how is she still alive? I guess it's somewhat sensible as only 60-some years have passed for T'Pol, so the portals could come from points in the past as well. That doesn't explain why so many have been happening during the 5th season of LDS though.

Turning to the "core cast," it was interesting to see the evolution of WIlliam Boimler into a jaded, aged-past-his years captain. I'm glad they didn't play up the Section 31 stuff and just moved on. I think the little touches of how much he missed the Cerritos crew were touching. And it was nice to see a more anxious take on Mariner as well.

Overall, I thought the episode was the funniest and best put together of the season. It's a little bit of a downer that everything in this episode happens in an alternate reality and doesn't impact our actual main characters, but that's forgivable with only an episode left. However, I do need to ding it a bit because of how completely nonsensical the resolution of the final act was. I can suspend disbelief, but only so far, and this ran at least a half mile past that.

Some of Lower Deck's strongest stuff has been from their willingness to follow a story that takes us away from main cast, season 2's "wej Duj" being the first most impactful of these, but season 3's "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption" and this season's "A Farewell To Farms" also hit some of those same notes. "Upper Decks" was angling for a similar vibe but perhaps having 3 format breakers in season 5 ended up tempering how much they wanted to push these stories. It fells like “Fissure Quest” quest really went for it and used its position as the penultimate episode of the series to jam in a LOT of returning cast members. I think all the cameo characters worked pretty well and each had a surprisingly full sub plot really taking advantage of the longer 27 minute run time. Would I personally have loved an episode fully focused on the Garrak / Bashir pairing, of course, but it seems everyone here got used well. If this was any farther from the last episode I would have said the show jumped the shark but here so close to the end I can appreciate the indulgent fan service of this episode without worrying for what it will mean for Lower Decks long term. I won't be mad if we get even more returns in the finale but I will be happier if the finale is more centered on the Lower Decks main and extended cast

Some thoughts:

1. Lily Sloane's beliefs that they shouldn't explore their own reality but just the multiverse is actually something I find very disappointing as it is a pretty isolationist view of the galaxy.
2. Garak becoming a doctor is fine to me because it's an alternative to being a tailor. Bashir being a hologram makes perfect sense because he was almost the basis for the EMD 2.0.
3. Curzon Dax gets portrayed here as a very Klingon-esque warrior and I feel that's an appropriate because too many episodes lean on the fact that he was a womanizer when he was someone that could impress the Klingons with his battle prowess as well as had been involved in the diplomacy for multiple wars.
4. T'Pol marrying Trip is alternate universe but we could still assume that she's from something similar to the prime universe.
5. I was surprised Lt. Kim wasn't mirror Harry Kim and wish they'd had Captain Kim show up in the Prime Universe but there's always the next book.
6. Ensign Mariner being risk adverse and a talented Engineer is weird that she hasn't been promoted.

I can't believe they got Jolene Blalock back. This is her first acting credit in a decade. I'd have wagered that if they asked her, she'd have told them to kick rocks.

Was a little disappointed that Lt. Harry Kim wasn't Prime Universe Harry Kim and that he turned out to be a villain. It makes sense for where the plot is going though.

I feel like they were abruptly told the series was ending and they realized they needed to close off the Ward (William?) Boimler plot and so they shoehorned it into the multiverse plot they were building all season. But, it's an elegant enough weld.

There's an Arthur C. Clarke (or maybe Asimov, it's been a minute) story where America starts exploring the multiverse and they realize that hey, if our universe is exploring the multiverse, then other universes will be exploring the multiverse too, and we're going to run into each other, and oh look, in this universe the Nazis won WWII and as they've been exploring the multiverse they've been doing what Nazis do so it looks like we've got another war on our hands. And then probably another after that, and another after that, and another after that . . . anyway, point is, multiverse travel is like time travel. It makes no sense because once you can do it, there is no multiverse anymore, just like there is no linear time with cause and effect.

I did appreciate all the exasperation with multiverse stories and how they're all lazy and shit. We're swamped with them in pop culture lately, and indeed, they're all lazy and shit.

Anyway, next week is the finale, and it seems impossible they will wrap things up in a satisfactory way in 20-something minutes. But I guess the beauty of an animated series is, they don't have to. I've said this before, but I highly doubt this is the last time we will see these characters. Animated revivals happen all the time. In a few years there will be a continuation series or limited series, or a special, or a "movie." There will be something. For some anniversary, something will be commissioned down the line. And that's nothing but a good thing.

All I want from the finale is the Enterprise-E under the command of Worf to respond to the threat alonside the Cerritos, then something to happen that blows up all the E-E's computer systems and for Worf to say "That was not my fault!" Please, Lower Decks. You can do this. You're the only Star Trek project that can.

Two and a half stars. Lots of pleasant cameos and Trek universe callbacks, but the unexpected early divergence from the main universe feels like a bad flashback (pun intended) to the rushed finale of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the Harry Kim mutiny is profoundly stupid. What more can they do to degrade this character and make him look like a tool in Garret Wang’s lifetime? Hard to imagine, but anything is possible with this franchise.

Ultimately this feels like a final farewell to the original run of Star Trek series from 1966 to 2005. Too many random characters in the soup here, though, and it doesn’t feel terribly coherent. I hope the next episode drops some of the dumber elements and focuses on the main Cerritos crew again.

Personally, I really liked the reveal that the fissures weren't being created by some mustache-twirling supervillain but were instead an unintended side-effect of the work of well-meaning but tunnel-visioned scientists. (They were just exacerbated by one. "Can't Get A Lock"? More like "Can't Get A Promotion", heyoooo!)

I haven't watched this episode but I suspect the Bashir-hologram thing is based on the idea of the Long-Term Medical Hologram of Bashir proposed in "Doctor Bashir I Presume" (dropped in that episode when Bashir's skeleton in the closet was discovered).

I think what stands out about this one is that it ties in various threads from Lower Decks’ own lore along with the mess of guest stars and references that other pretty-good episodes have. It also pays off that the episode borrows heavily from a single source (in this case DS9), what with Section 31, a Defiant-class ship, Garak and Bashir all coalescing in a single segment.

The audience is allowed to ponder both the positive and negative aspects of the multiverse. There’s Boimler, who is simply sick of minor variations on a theme that lack the challenge of space. But then we also see that one of those variations includes a good friend and perhaps the source of inspiration for Boimler in gold-uniformed Engineer Mariner. This Beckett Mariner is exceptional not only because she represents a Mariner who made other choices, but she also helps center Boimler, who has been a lone commander without a reliable partner. The way the friendships of Mariner-Boimler and all the characters endure throughout the parallel universes becomes a nice thematic touch to the multiverse concept in general.

Curzon being Curzon is a fun way to remember the character, who never really got any screen time except when sharing a body (and a personality) with another being.

3.5 stars. A great part I which sets up a Part II and finale for the series next week.

I can't believe they got Alfre Woodard. I'm grateful she was a good sport about it. This episode gets the point of the Multiverse - just a lot of silly fun.

Easily the best episode of the season.

T'Pol!

I loved that the original actors voiced their characters.

Sad Rene is gone and couldn't.

Garak really sounded the most different from the show.

Loved this one.

4 stars.

Next week will be bittersweet.

#1. I can't wait.
#2. It's all over after this one.

Some comments:

1. I'm almost certain that Lily's ship, The (USS)? Beagle is exactly the same class as the USS Enterprise XCV 330. If so, what an amazing deep cut.

2. I love the fact that Lily's crew is essentially doing Sliders.

3. I'm hoping that the entire series will pull a Futurama and come back at some point. It's precedented!

Jeffrey's Tube: That's "Living Space" by Asimov

@ Andrew

Nice! I read reams of Clarke and Asimov all together back in the day, and honestly neither one has a distinct enough voice to stand out from the other. They run together. Great stories from both, though. So many ideas.

Also never caught the "lebensraum" allusion in the title all those years ago. If I had, I bet I'd have remembered the title!