Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 9 – “Fissure Quest”
In its fifth and final season on Paramount+ Star Trek: Lower Decks took over the multiverse, highlighting a problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the shared canons of other franchises. Star Trek: Lower decks Season 5 finds the USS Cerritos investigating a series of quantum rifts across the galaxy that open into alternate universes. As Starfleet cannot close these rifts fast enough, ships from alternate realities continue to find their way into the Prime Universe. This plot allowed Lower decks incorporate characters from around the world Star Trek timeline in fun and fascinating ways.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9, “Fissure Quest,” reveals that Section 31 has tasked Captain William Boimler (Jack Quaid) with leading a crew of “interdimensional castaways” in search of the cause of quantum cracks. As they close yet another rift aboard the Defiant-class Anaximander ship, Captain Boimler expresses his frustration with the multiverse, saying it is “just lazy derivative remixes.” Boimler wants to explore again “strange new worlds”, instead of encountering the same characters over and over again. Boimler's hatred of the multiverse points out the biggest problem with this type of story.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Points Out Marvel's Multiverse Problem
Can there be too much of a good thing?
One of the best-known examples of the multiverse in pop culture today is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While programs like Loki and films like Deadpool and Wolverine illustrated how fun the multiverse can be, stories involving countless alternate realities can also have their drawbacks. Nostalgia for classic characters can sustain stories for a while, but at some point, viewers will probably want new stories to delve into. But instead of embracing new stories, like Eternal, For example, Marvel has been trying to replicate the success of Avengers saga.
As Star Trek: Lower Decks points out, there are so many stories to be told about the same characters. Boimler's complaint about “lazy derivative remixes” It feels like a criticism leveled not just at the MCU, but at many big-budget sequels and remakes. While it can be incredibly fun to see beloved characters return, This doesn't lessen the desire for new and unique stories. Star Trek: Lower Decks saved its multiverse story for the final season, after spending the previous four seasons developing its own unique characters.
Star Trek has a better reason for the existence of the multiverse
Lily Sloane finds wonder as she explores the multiverse
After being captured by “Wild Khwopians”, Captain Boimler and his crew discover that an alternate universe Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) has inadvertently been causing rifts in space-time. In this variant of Sloane's universe, she and Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) have built a Quantum Reality Drive that allows them to explore the multiverse. Although Boimler grew tired of the multiverse and its repetitiveness, Sloane highlights that visiting different realities allowed her to learn more about humanity and their “unlimited” potential.
As Captain Sloane explains that she “saw humans who built rings around the sun” and “others whose ships are the size of continents”, even Boimler begins to understand his admiration. From Sloane's perspective, the multiverse offers a broader view of what humans are capable of and inspires her and her crew to reach their full potential. As Star Trek: Lower Decks illustrates, the multiverse doesn't have to be a tool used just for nostalgic cameos or winks at the audience, it can also be used to explore what it means to be human (or alien, as the case may be).
- Release date
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August 6, 2020