An alternate reality version of Star Trek: Lower Decks'Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) is a brilliant return to a version of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks"Fissure Quest," sees Lieutenant Brad Boimler's (Jack Quaid) transporter clone, Captain William Boimler, leading a crew of doppelgängers from around the world. Star Trek timeline. When the crew of Boimler's starship Anaximander rescues Ensign Beckett Mariner, dressed in a gold Starfleet operations uniformWilliam discovers that this sailor's temperament is milder than he expected.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 15, "Tapestry," Q (John de Lancie) offers the dying Captain Picard the chance to return to 2327 to retrace the beginning of Picard's Starfleet career. After avoiding a fight with a Nausicaan who demanded Picard's artificial heart, Q returns Picard to the present-day USS Enterprise-D in 2369. Instead of being the captain of the Enterprise, however, Lieutenant JG Picard is a mild-mannered astrophysicist. who Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) believes is too timid and risk-averse to command.
Star Trek: Lower Decks' Alternate Reality Mariner Calls Back TNG's Lt. Picard
Engineer Mariner and astrophysicist Picard are risk-averse junior officers
The alternate reality Ensign Beckett Mariner in Star Trek: Lower Decks'"Fissure Quest" calls back to Star Trek: The Next GenerationIt's Lieutenant Picard from "Tapestry," and not just because they're wearing the wrong colors. Just like Lieutenant Picard, in the blue shirt, engineer Mariner does solid work and knows what she's doing, but she has no motivation to push limits or take risks. This lack of initiative keeps both alternate versions of Picard and Mariner in lower ranks for a long period of time.and away from the Red Shirts' command track where they were supposed to be in the Prime Universe.
Picard's journey into the past in "Tapestry" posits that characters' choices at key points in their lives shape their realities, so the alternate Mariner must have made a different choice in the past, like Lieutenant Picard avoiding the Nausicaan. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, "The Inner Fight", Mariner realizes that he recklessly self-sabotages so that he doesn't have to take responsibility for the deaths of others as a commanding officer.. If Beckett were to change career path and keep her head down instead of taking action, it would also keep Mariner from advancing through the ranks - and away from difficult choices.
Picard's renewed reality in “Tapestry” may still exist in the Star Trek multiverse
Small changes can have big effects on Star Trek timelines
Image via Paramount+
Jean-Luc Picard's reformulated reality of Star Trek: The Next GenerationThe "Tapestry" of may still exist in Star TrekIt's the multiverse. Apparently, the "Tapestry" universe with Lieutenant Picard only existed to teach Jean-Luc an important lesson, as the episode ends with Q returning everything to TNGcurrent situation. Recent Star Trek programs Star Trek: Discovery to Star Trek: Prodigy I spent more time on the multiverse concepthowever, suggesting that even one episode's alternate realities may be timelines Star Trek I can't delete it. Instead, everyone Star Trek realities still exist in Star Trek: Lower Decks'"bubble bath"of the universes.
So what Star TrekWhat would the 24th century be like without Captain Jean-Luc Picard acting so boldly? The resulting timeline confirms Q's claim that Picard did not "cause the Federation to collapse or galaxies to explode", but a single change can still have far-reaching cascading effects, as in Star TrekKelvin Timeline. The 'Tapestry' Timeline Is Coy Lieutenant Picard certainly doesn't have the same inspiring effect on the crew of the USS Enterprise-D. A version of Beckett Mariner that isn't as reckless could also do Star Trek: Lower Decks'USS Cerritos a very different - and much more boring - ship.