Star Trek reveals a better first contact sequence than Enterprise

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9 – “Fissure Quest”Star Trek: Lower Decks it just provided a better sequence for Star Trek: First Contact than that shown in Star Trek: Enterprise. In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-E traveled back in time to stop the Borg from preventing humanity's First Contact with the Vulcans. In the past, Picard and his crew encountered Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell) and Lily Sloane (Alfre Woodard) while preparing the Phoenix for Earth's first manned warp flight. In the end, Picard and his crew thwart the Borg and ensure that First Contact happens as it should.

In its final season on Paramount+ Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 sends the USS Cerritos on a mission to investigate the cause of a series of quantum fissures that have opened across the galaxyyou. Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9, 'Fissure Quest,' Reveals that Section 31 Captain William Boimler (Jack Quaid) and His Alternate Universe Crew Star Trek Legacy characters have also sought the cause of these divergences. After being captured by “Wild Khwopians”, Captain Boimler and his crew discover that alternate reality Captain Lily Sloane is inadvertently causing wormholes in the multiverse.

Lower Decks reveals that Lily Sloane became a multidimensional explorer

Although Captain Boimler initially assumes that Captain Sloane must be “a depraved villain”, Lily assures him that she and her crew are on a peace mission. In her universe, Lily Sloane helped Zefram Cochrane develop a Quantum Reality Drive that can travel throughout the multiverse. Sloane was completely unaware that her ship was leaving extra rifts open with each jump into reality.and she quickly apologizes for the trouble she caused. Sloane then helps Boimler and his crew return to their ship, the Anaximander, before her own ship is destroyed by rogue lieutenant Harry Kim (Garrett Wang).

After building the Quantum Reality Drive with Zefram Cochrane, this version of Lily Sloane became a Starfleet captain tasked with exploring the multiverse. In the version of events seen in Star Trek: Enterprise “In a Mirror, Darkly” from Season 4 Zefram Cochrane kills the Vulcans who initiate First Contact. Enterprise the brief scene of humans attacking Vulcan's ship doesn't even reference Lily Sloane. Lower decks presents a better (and much more) Star Trek) alternative to what happened after the events of Star Trek: First Contact and gives Lily Sloane the chance to be an explorer and a hero.

Zefram Cochrane started the Federation in one universe and the Terran Empire in the other

Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4, episode 18, “In a Mirror, Darkly” revealed that First Contact in the Mirror Universe was a little different than in the Prime Universe. Zefram Cochrane was still the first human to achieve warp flight, but instead of warmly greeting the Vulcans when they made first contact, Mirror Cochrane shot them with a shotgun. Humanity then used stolen Vulcan technology to spread across the galaxyexpanding the Terran Empire. Cochrane's actions effectively created the Mirror Universe, which has appeared in several Star Trek series.

Star Trek Mirror Universe presents a much darker version of Starfleet, where the Terran Empire conquers other planets rather than forming alliances with them. Lower decks also presents a different type of Federation, but one whose main objective is still exploration. In the Prime Universe and the one presented in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Zefram Cochrane and Lily Sloane's actions help bring people together and expand humanity's knowledge. This is a much more satisfying experience Star Trek story than one that leads to a universe plagued by murder and subjugation.