Star Trek: Lower Decks' Mike McMahan on how they made that DS9 reunion pairing of Andrew Robinson's Garek and Alexander Siddig's Bashir.
As we inch closer to the finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Mike McMahan pulled off what might be the franchise's biggest crossover since 1994's Generations, which saw Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation meet with William Shatner's The Original Series, sorry Strange New Worlds season two episode "Those Old Scientists." The following contains spoilers of multiverse proportions, but the latest episode of Lower Decks features guest stars from TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.
"Fissure Quest," Lower Decks' ninth episode of the fifth season, focuses on William Boimler (Jack Quaid), the alternate reality version of Prime universe's Brad Boimler (Quaid), who finds himself as captain of the alternate version of the U.S.S. Defiant with a hodgepodge of guest stars from various universes including T'Pol with Jolene Blalock reprising her Vulcan science officer role from Enterprise; Elim Garak, the Cardassian intelligence officer-turned-tailor, with Andrew Robinson reprising his role from DS9, Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig), the former chief medical officer of DS9, and Curson Dax (Fred Tatasciore).
The twist is that Garek and the good doctor are officially a couple, fulfilling many fans' wishes...which is what they'll remain...wishes as we discover the pairing is merely a facade as Dr. Bashir is an Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), not the flesh and blood who served on Deep Space Nine. In certain parts of the Star Trek community, fans hoped Garek and Bashir would take that extra step since their last live-action adventure in 1999 in DS9's finale. Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan spoke about making the fan dream become a reality...so to speak.
McMahan told Variety how the show's writers "have enjoyed the romantic chemistry that Andrew and Sid brought to Garak and Bashir on 'DS9,' and for the 30 years since. If there's anything the multiverse is good for, it's spending time with these two newlyweds as they explore the universe and their relationship together." We should note the pair were never romantically linked, but there was an LGBTQ moment in the 90's sci-fi series in the DS9 season four episode "Rejoined," directed by series star Avery Brooks who found the station's resident Trill Starfleet officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) kissing her former partner from a literal past life given the Trill's symbiotic nature with their hosts with Susanna Thompson playing Lenara Kahn.
In Lower Decks, William Boimler's crew crosses paths with Lt. Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), who is a version of the beloved U.S.S. Voyager ensign finally promoted. Boimler reveals he's one of several "Kims" serving the ship. Later in the episode, we get the most unexpected surprise with Lily Sloane, the co-pilot of Zefram Cochran (James Cromwell), with Alfre Woodard reprising her role from the 1996 TNG film First Contact. The theme of the episode, which almost completely takes place outside the Prime universe, focuses on Alternate Boimer's journey to stop a rogue ship from destroying the universe as they know it by constantly crossing into other alternate realities. The finale of Lower Decks, "The New Next Generation," streams on December 19th on Paramount+.