TL;DR – It has been a long time since an episode of Star Trek made me audibly explain, but that was this week’s outing.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

I honestly can’t believe that today’s episode of Lower Decks is potentially the second last one that we will ever get. There is just such a wealth of joy here that I am sorry to see it go. While this final season has been a bit hit-and-miss for me, I was hoping that it would end the season on a high. Well, after last week’s Fully Dilated and today’s outing, I think they just might do it.

So, to set the scene, all the way back in Season Two’s Kayshon, His Eyes Open, our Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) got duplicated by a transporter accident, and William Boimler (Jack Quaid) was created. Thought dead, we know that William was recruited into Section 31, but we were wondering what he has been up to. Today, we discover that he is the captain of the USS Anaximander and part of the mission to find out why quantum fissures between universities have been opening all over the place. His crew are full of dimensional castaways, but when there is a chance to find the people doing this, the question is, how far will William go? We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Given how close we are to the end, part of me is disappointed that this is the second week in a row where our main crew of Boimler, Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Tendi (Noël Wells), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) are sidelined away. Maybe if they had more of a heads-up about Season Six, they may have moved some things around. But, first, that might mean that we would have never had gotten full-beard Boimler. Secondly, the frustration of another trip away was immediately the sheer commitment of the writing staff this week, led by Lauren McGuire.

I have gone on record with my frustration that Section 31 is the one thing all the other Star Trek shows have lifted from Deep Space Nine. It is my least favourite part of that show, but I think this week is one of the few times that they did it well, mainly because it did feel like it would be natural that that organisation would be trying to find a solution to the issue with the quantum fissures. But also that the way that they work would be conducive for a ship for a ship full of dimensional castaways to exist.

On that front, I can’t begin to say just how much that sequence brought me joy when they entered into one reveal after the next. Curzon Dax (Fred Tatasciore), Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson), a holographic version of Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), a whole ship full of Harry Kims (Garrett Wang), and wait, is that T’Pol (Jolene)? Holy, crap, that is T’Pol. They said that there was going to be a fantastic guest cast this year, and they teased the Kims all the way back in the first trailer. But I never in my life would have expected T’Pol to appear again, and it was such a joy to hear her voice the character again.

The main thrust of the narrative is that Boimler is tired of the multiverse, even though he is currently trying to save the multiverse because he is sure it will turn out to be just a lazy riff on a character we already know. A little side eye on the Mirror Universe and some of the Star Trek novels there, but I get it. However, I do love how they rectified that story by giving us a crew on a mission of exploration led by Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard), who just did not know the damage they were causing. This felt like the right solution to the issue that has been bubbling away all season.

There were a lot of choices they made this week, and nearly all of them were the right ones. Playing on the joke that Kim is always the lone survivor and now there is a crew of them, I think was the better joke than they were all still ensigns. Or it would have if the one Lieutenant Kim hadn’t got mad with power. Watching Bashir and Garek banter as an old married couple shows one of DS9’s rare misses and what could have been. The bond between Boimler and Mariner transcends realities. I mean, they created a complete bond between T’Pol and Curzon in just twenty minutes, that I would be profoundly saddened that they didn’t both survive. I mean, they off-handily confirmed that the Defiant Class could land on planets like the Intrepid Class, confirming something that has been oft-debated in the community … oft.

In the end, do we recommend Star Trek: Lower Decks: Fissure Quest? Look, I would say yes, if only because the episode ends on a To Be Continued while the sounds of Boimler freaking out punctuate the screen. But it is clear that so much care went into the details of this episode. In the way they brought the cast back and in the story they told. Next week is our final episode, and that is sad, but I am glad at least that we get one more.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Lower Decks
Directed by – Brandon Williams
Written by – Lauren McGuire
Created by – Mike McMahan
Based Upon – Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – Secret Hideout, Titmouse, CBS Studios & Paramount+.
Starring – Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore & Gillian Vigman with Jolene, Andrew Robinson, Alexander Siddig, Garrett Wang, Alfie Woodard & Gabrielle Ruiz