WHY WE LIKE IT: A fun new cast of characters.
WHY WE DON'T: Second episode in a row not to feature our normal guys (ish). In their last season.
REVIEW: Ok, like, yes, we're nearing the end and the main cast is only used as a bookend, BUT! Getting back to the USS Titan Boimler, who had died off-screen (so not dead at all), and including an alternate-universe Mariner with engineering chops, means our two main leads are still in the mix. I didn't feel the disconnect I did with Upper Decks. And while Captain Boimler is right that Multiverse stories are much too much about different (often evil) versions of people we already know (SOMEhow - Destiny is a force in the Trek universe), as fans we still like them. Boimler's sentiment comes at a time when superhero movies are jumping the shark and into quantum rifts of their own, so we get it, Boims. We get it.
In this case, he's captaining a Defiant-class ship (always happy to see it) staffed with castaways from various dimensions, on a mission to find whoever is responsible for creating all those dang fissures before they lead to Multiverse death. The crew is essentially made up of fan wishes, and I love the "what ifs" here. We have a T'Pol whose marriage to Trip lasted over 60 years (his death is one of the big criticisms of the last Enterprise episode). Surgeon Garak in a relationship with EMH Bashir plays into the fan theory (and Andrew Robinson's too) that they were coded as a gay couple. The lower decks of the ship being manned by Harry Kims shocked at the new Lt. Kim that's come aboard has Garrett Wang exorcising his Voyager demons and must have been a lot of fun to record. Even a still-living Curzon Dax is probably something fans at one point wanted, if only to see all of Sisko's stories about the "Old Man" made manifest. Their subplots are a mixed bag, with the T'Pol/Curzon stuff an assembly of cliches, with more fun to be had with Garak and Bashir fighting about which universe they'll move to when it's all over. I just can't believe they got everyone to come in and reprise their voices.
Despite Boimler's prediction the villain would be an "evil" version of a name character, I think we're delighted to find Lily Sloane at the end of the trail, co-inventor of a quantum drive that's founded a Federation on the basis of exploring realities - and therefore versions of humanity (Trek's ACTUAL remit) - rather than alien planets. She didn't know the drive was doing harm. When Lt. Kim steals her ship, it creates a chain reaction that will destroy the universe, but Boimler and crew find a way to send all the destructive energy into a single universe... his own. It's not a sacrifice, because he trusts his transporter clone (OG Boimler) and his friends to face the threat and overcome it. That's a lot to put on a support craft, but his speech about that trust transcending reality got to me. An exciting penultimate episode, with heart thrown in as a bonus.
LESSON: The Multiverse is just lazy derivative hackery. Wait. I think I knew that already.
REWATCHABILITY - High: A pretty brilliant set-up to the big threat awaiting the Cerritos in the series finale.
Comments
I can understand the mirror universe. I can understand alternate reality or even universes as with (Star Trek 2009)...but to referce a multiverse.. I hope they just keep that with Lower Decks.