Lower Decks finale points to a new, modern direction for Star Trek

Alternative histories

“Now that the Rift is a permanently open portal to other quantum realities, Starfleet views it as a gateway to a whole new frontier,” explains Brad Boimler’s (Jack Quaid) diary in the final act of the finale “The New Next Generation,” directed by Megan Lloyd and written by showrunner Mike McMahan. But like most things Boimler does, there is a bit of exaggeration in his observation. Quantum realities are not a whole new frontier, because Star Trekhas been going to alternate worlds since the 1960s.

The most famous, season two Original series The episode “Mirror, Mirror” sent Kirk to the Mirror Universe, where everyone was evil, as denoted by goatees and exposed midriffs. The mirror universe is a constant concern in Hikingignored by The next generationbut a major milestone New deep space and the framework of two of the best Business episodes.

The 2009 Star Trek The JJ Abrams-directed film also takes place in an alternate reality, dubbed the Kelvin Timeline, which branched off from the main universe when the Romulan Nero destroyed the USS. Kelvin in his own vengeful search for Spock. So, everything that is done by Chris PinKirk takes place independently of the adventures of the Kirk played by William Shatner and Paul Wesley.

These are just explicit examples, built into canon. Like the Marvel Cinematic Universewhich draws a lot of inspiration from Star Trek, the franchise sometimes confuses reality and time. The temporal Cold War which gave rise to numerous episodes of Business and was included in Discovery warned of major changes in reality, which could be understood as the creation of alternative worlds. In fact, a recent Strange new worlds The episode confirmed this fact, when Kirk and La’an meet Khan Noonien Singh as a small child in the mid-2000s, his traditional story changing due to the fallout from the Temporal Cold War.

This is all a long way of saying that multiverses are nothing new to us. Star Trekalthough the franchise hasn’t focused on them as much as “The New Next Generation” suggests. But is this a good thing?

Once again, with emotion

It’s hard not to think that Captain William Boimler, Brad Boimler’s clone/twin/duplicate, speaks for most pop culture obsessives when he complains about the multiverse. “I’m so sick of the fucking multiverse,” he shouts in the penultimate episode, “Fissure Quest.” According to him, the multiverse is simply filled with things we know, but with surface-level differences.