‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ brings back fan-favorite characters for ‘Multiverse of Madness’-style hijinks in latest episode

Ever wondered what happened to Bradward Boimler’s transporter duplicate? We already knew his death was faked by Section 31 and now we know the reason why: he’s leaping between multiverses as if he’s Doctor Strange, trying to stop whatever — or whoever — is tearing rifts between dimensions.

And who else to accompany him on this mission but a crack team of operatives plucked from previous “Star Trek”s, alternative universe duplicates who bring their own unique set of skills to the job in hand. “Fissure Quest” is the latest super-smart example of how “Trek” is handling its shared universe better than “Star Wars”, Marvel or pretty much anyone else. It also has an impressive collection of Harry Kims.

So if, like Boimler 2.0, you’re getting “sick of the ****ing multiverse”, this may be the adventure to change your mind. Here’s why…

Spoiler warning! Caution is advised if you’re yet to watch this week’s episode.

Why are there two Boimlers?

The duplicate Boimler was created by a transporter incident in season 2 episode “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”. At the time, Bradward Boimler was a lieutenant on the USS Titan, serving under Captain William T Riker of Enterprise-D fame.

The other Boimler is an exact clone of the original (or vice versa), sharing all the same memories and life experiences up to the point they were split in two. Starfleet believed that having two identical officers on one ship could become problematic, so it was decided that one should return to the Cerritos and be demoted back to ensign. The Boimler who remained on the Titan chose to go by the name William.

Coincidentally, Riker could relate to the doppelgangers under his command, seeing as he’d also been cloned by a transporter malfunction (seriously, why does anyone risk using those things?). During “The Next Generation” episode “Second Chances” he learned that a duplicate Riker had been living alone on Nervala IV for eight years. “Thomas” Riker eventually joined the Maquis resistance movement, ending up in prison after attempting to steal the newly commissioned Defiant by masquerading as Will in “Deep Space Nine” season 3 episode “Defiant”.

How did William Boimler end up commanding a ship hopping between dimensions?

Everyone in the prime timeline believes that William Boimler is dead, killed by a neurocine gas leak in his quarters on the Titan. However, at the end of “Lower Decks” season 3 episode “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus” we learned that his demise had been faked. He was actually recruited by Section 31, the shadowy Federation spy outfit who’ve appeared in numerous iterations of “Star Trek” – including the upcoming “Section 31” TV movie starring Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou.

When we meet William in “Fissure Quest” he’s captaining the Anaximander, with orders to track down and apprehend whoever’s trying to destroy the multiverse by opening interdimensional fissures. Although he’s “not authorized to name the organization that faked my death and sent me diving into rifts”, the black, not-incognito-at-all Starfleet insignia on his uniform makes it clear that Section 31 are still his employers. In other words, this is a plotline the writers have been sitting on since season 3.

Why do the rest of the Anaximander crew look so familiar?

The Boimler twins are a rare example of doppelgangers who hail from a single universe, but William’s crew of “interdimensional castaways” have been recruited from numerous realities — and multiple “Star Trek” shows. As a result, “Fissure Quest” is the “Lower Decks” episode with all the guest stars, and it plays out like “Trek”‘s riff on the Illuminati team-up in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness“.

William’s first officer is T’Pol (voiced by Jolene), Captain Archer’s Vulcan number one in “Star Trek: Enterprise”. She now understands human behavior – even sarcasm – after spending 60-plus years married to engineer Trip Tucker.

The ship’s all-action tactical officer, meanwhile, is the Trill Curzon Dax, who — in his own timeline — is yet to pass the Dax symbiont onto “Deep Space Nine”‘s Jadzia. The “original” Curzon was a friend and mentor to Benjamin Sisko before the latter took command of DS9.

The DS9 connection continues in Sickbay, which is run by former Cardassian spy Elim Garak (now a doctor rather than a tailor) and his husband, an Emergency Medical Hologram based on Dr Julian Bashir. According to Curzon, “they love to brag about how statistically unlikely their marriage is”. Andrew Robinson and Alexander Siddig reprise their “Deep Space Nine” roles.

What’s with all the Harry Kims?

There’s an air of disappointment when the Anaximander picks up an escape pod and its occupant turns out to be neither “Neelix with a crew cut” nor a “really big Spock”. Instead, it’s an incarnation of long-serving USS Voyager ops officer Harry Kim, which would be fine if the ship wasn’t already home to a sizeable population of Harry Kims.

This new Kim (voiced by “Voyager”‘s Garrrett Wang) did make it home from the Delta Quadrant — he may even be the one from the TV show — but there’s one thing that sets him apart from his duplicates. Unlike every other Ensign Kim on board, he’s finally been granted the promotion to lieutenant he was infamously denied in “Voyager”.

Why does Beckett Mariner show up in gold uniform?

The Mariner that the Anaximander rescues from an out-of-control shuttlecraft is not the Mariner we know from the Cerritos. Instead, she’s a duplicate from another quantum reality who specializes in engineering (hence the gold uniform) rather than embracing danger and breaking the rules.

“That’s all the multiverse is,” points out an embittered William Boimler. “Just lazy, derivative remixes.” Though he could also look on the bright side and celebrate the fact that his friendship with Mariner is strong enough to “transcend realities”.

Who or what is creating all the rifts?

They’re the work of another familiar “Star Trek” face — though this person has no intention of destroying the fabric of space and time.

In “Star Trek: First Contact”, Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) helped Zefram Cochrane build the human race’s first-ever warp drive. This Lily comes from a reality where technological evolution took a slightly different path, and Sloane and Cochrane built a “quantum reality drive” instead.

Rather than exploring strange new worlds like their Starfleet counterparts, Sloane and her crew on the Beagle are on a mission to explore parallel realities — like Ace Rimmer in “Red Dwarf” or the lead quartet in “Sliders”. Sloane decided not to open hailing frequencies with the Anaximander because her universe’s equivalent of the Prime Directive forbids them from communicating with species who haven’t learned how to cross realities for themselves.

Unfortunately, despite Sloane’s belief that her crew always close rifts behind them, physics says otherwise. The principle of the conservation of energy means that every fissure they create inadvertently opens another rift elsewhere in the universe — which is bad news for everyone.

Why is the entire multiverse in danger?

You can ask big questions about radial tachyons, doppelgangers, and the ethics of multidimensional travel, but ultimately the survival of the universe boils down to one thing: Harry Kim’s ego.

The two-pip outlier is so desperate to live in a universe where Harry Kims can dream of attaining a rank higher than ensign that he steals the Beagle, dragging all the other Harry Kims along for the ride.

Unfortunately, the explosion Lieutenant Kim initiates when the Beagle enters the rift generates soliton waves that will spread across every quantum universe, destroying the fabric of reality. The only way to save existence is to use the Anaximander’s deflector to drive the soliton waves into a single reality, sacrificing one universe to save all the others.

William Boimler nominates his own reality for potential destruction, reasoning that his “back-up” self, Mariner, Tendi, and Rutherford will figure out a solution when they receive the warning.

“He’ll know what to do,” says William, “…as long as he doesn’t freak out.”

Unfortunately, his Cerritos counterpart’s screams of, “We’re all gonna die!” suggest that reality isn’t out of the woods just yet…

The last ever episode of “Star Trek: Lower Decks” debuts on Paramount Plus on Thursday, December 19.