Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, the teaser for Season 2, and for Star Trek: The Next Generation.
We recently took a look at the Season 2 teaser for Star Trek: Lower Decks, and made a few guesses about what some of the scenes might entail. Season 2 is due to be broadcast beginning in mid-August, exactly one year after Season 1 made its debut, and though it’s a little way off yet it’s never too early to indulge in some theory-crafting and speculation!
Because of its largely episodic nature, Lower Decks Season 1 didn’t lend itself to the creation of too many theories. For the most part, events took place in a single episode, and the crew warped away to a new adventure the week later. But No Small Parts, the Season 1 finale, brought about some big changes for the series, and creator Mike McMahan promised that these wouldn’t simply be undone, resetting the show off-screen in time for Season 2.
Aside from the death of poor Lieutenant Shaxs, the two biggest changes came with Ensign Rutherford losing his memory – or at least his memories of what took place in Season 1 – and perhaps most significantly, Ensign Boimler’s promotion and reassignment to the USS Titan. It’s this latter point that we’re going to look at today.
Somehow Boimler has to get back to his friends aboard the USS Cerritos – but how? And when? At least part of the teaser showed us Lieutenant Boimler in his new role as a bridge officer on the USS Titan, so we know whatever it is won’t happen off-screen, as Mike McMahan promised. Were there any clues at all in the teaser that we could point to when it comes to Boimler? After all, he wasn’t shown interacting with the other three main characters at all. Let’s find out, shall we?
As always, it’s worth saying that I have no “insider information.” I’m not claiming that anything listed below will definitely happen, it’s guesswork and speculation from a fan. Nothing more. With that out of the way, let’s consider eight ways Lieutenant Boimler could find himself back aboard the USS Cerritos.
Number 1: Boimler asks for a demotion voluntarily.
The Season 2 teaser seemed to show us two significant things about Boimler: he doesn’t understand Captain Riker, and he seems to be out of his depth on the USS Titan. Boimler is neurotic and prone to panic, as we saw in Season 1, and neither of those traits make for an officer who’s good in a crisis. The Titan, unlike the Cerritos, is a much more adventurous starship, seeking out new life and getting into all kinds of scrapes. Perhaps, after spending some time there, Boimler realises he’s simply out of his depth.
There’s no shame in admitting a task is too difficult, and rather than struggling on with something he simply can’t do, Boimler may approach Captain Riker and ask to be transferred back to the Cerritos, taking a voluntary demotion.
Though we didn’t hear Marina Sirtis’ voice in the teaser, it’s possible she will reprise her role as Counsellor Troi, and if she’s back perhaps Boimler will turn to her for advice about what to do. Troi was always gentle and polite in the way she approached even the most neurotic of officers – like Lieutenant Barclay – but perhaps this could be a moment for Lower Decks to subvert that by having her tell Boimler to jump ship!
Either way, sometime in the first episode (or first couple of episodes, at least) Boimler may approach Captain Riker and ask for a demotion, telling his new commanding officer he doesn’t feel up to serving on the Titan.
Number 2: Rutherford or Tendi accidentally get Boimler demoted.
This could play well with the “Rutherford’s lost his memory” storyline, but a subversion of the audience’s expectations that either Boimler does something to get demoted or Mariner deliberately gets him kicked back to the Cerritos would be to make it the inadvertent fault of Tendi or Rutherford.
At this stage it has to be said that most keen fans of Lower Decks are expecting one of those two scenarios to play out. Mariner was the character who seemed most hurt by Boimler’s decision to leave the Cerritos – and to not tell her beforehand – so it stands to reason she might want to interfere and get him back. We’ll consider that in a moment. Boimler’s tendency to mess up and panic could also see him bumped back to the Cerritos, and that’s another fan expectation.
But Lower Decks has done well with challenging those kinds of expectations in Season 1, and I hope Season 2 won’t go down any obvious paths. Rutherford is known for his love of technology, but that has landed him in trouble more than once in Season 1. Perhaps one of his inventions gets out of control and harms the Titan, making it seem as though Boimler is responsible?
Tendi, as I’ve mentioned more than once, felt somewhat rudderless last season, and hasn’t really settled into her role as well as the other three main characters. But we saw her ability to screw up in the episode Moist Vessel, where she accidentally ruins an “ascension.” Perhaps she could have some kind of similar accident here, one that causes Boimler to get demoted.
Number 3: Mariner gets Boimler demoted on purpose.
As mentioned, this has to be one of the firm favourites in the fan community for how Boimler will end up back on the Cerritos in Season 2. Despite that, however, I think it would be an awful choice for the show, undermining Mariner’s character progression across Season 1. I really hope Lower Decks doesn’t go down this route.
Where Lower Decks didn’t do so well in Season 1 – at least in my opinion – was in trying to make Ensign Mariner out to be some kind of “ultimate badass;” Starfleet’s answer to Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty. That kind of character can succeed in comedy – as Rick himself proves – but in a Starfleet setting, and particularly coming from a junior officer, it fell completely flat every time the show tried it.
Mariner had a truly satisfying arc across Season 1. She came to understand more about herself and what she does and doesn’t like about serving in Starfleet, and even put aside her differences with Captain Freeman – her own mother. Reverting back to how she was at the beginning of Season 1 by selfishly putting her own wants ahead of her friends would be worse than just a regression, it would be a betrayal of her character.
Regardless of what I think, the possibility exists that Mariner may try to sabotage Boimler’s promotion, intervening in just the right way to get him demoted and reassigned back to the Cerritos.
Number 4: Boimler gets promoted.
So far we’ve considered possible ways Boimler could get demoted – but what if his return to the Cerritos is prompted by a promotion instead? Boimler was a junior lieutenant at the end of Season 1, and in that role was able to serve on the Titan. But perhaps the Titan doesn’t have space for a full lieutenant and he bounces back to the Cerritos after an especially successful assignment!
A lieutenant is still a relatively junior officer, and Boimler attaining such a rank wouldn’t necessarily undermine the premise of Lower Decks. He could continue to work with the other three principal characters even if he technically outranks them, and that could become a source of humour.
I’m not sure how likely this one is given the show’s original intent was to focus only on ensigns doing menial tasks aboard a starship, and while having a lieutenant in their midst would open up different storytelling options – and options for jokes and humour – it does, in some respects, go against what the show intended to be about.
Having Boimler be promoted would be a subversion, though, completely challenging audience expectations for how he returns to the Cerritos! That in itself could make it worth doing – after all, he can always get demoted again later if a storyline requires it!
Number 5: Something connected to an away mission.
The image above is taken from the Season 2 teaser, and seems to show Boimler on an away mission. While three colleagues defend the position, Boimler appears to be working on some kind of computer terminal. It isn’t possible to tell who the three are, but they clearly aren’t familiar characters from the Cerritos; certainly not the three ensigns. So perhaps this away mission takes place while Boimler is assigned to the Titan.
If the away mission goes wrong, or if Boimler’s role in it does, perhaps it’s what leads to his demotion and/or reassignment. Alternatively, this could be the moment Boimler decides for himself to step away from the Titan; perhaps the away mission was too stressful for him. It certainly looks like he’s under pressure!
I can’t tell what it is that Boimler is working on. It could be a power generator, a weapon, some kind of factory, or something else entirely. It’s underground, which suggests it could be something that’s supposed to be a secret. And Boimler and the others aren’t wearing Starfleet uniforms, which could mean they’re undercover. They might even have been captured and this moment is depicting their escape.
Though this could be a holodeck programme or something else, it appears on the surface to show Boimler in a difficult situation. Given how prone he can be to panicking and overreacting, that could mean it’s the moment where he decides – or someone else decides on his behalf – that he needs to take a step back and return to a more junior role.
Number 6: Boimler is demoted by Riker.
This could be connected to the away mission above, or it could be something different, but perhaps the best explanation is that Riker, after evaluating Boimler’s performance for himself, simply decides that he isn’t cut out to be a lieutenant or to serve on the Titan. There may not be one single event to point to as the cause; instead we may see a number of smaller mistakes across the course of the first episode or two.
In the Season 2 teaser, Boimler appeared to be serving on the bridge and failed to understand one of Riker’s commands. At the same moment, the USS Titan was drifting toward some kind of anomaly and was under attack by at least one alien ship. Boimler’s failure at a key moment like that – even if it were prompted by Riker’s confusing turn of phrase – could be the cause of his demotion.
If Boimler is to be demoted back to ensign, having that be caused not by Mariner or the others would probably be the best way to go. It may not paint Riker in the best light, but this “version” of the character is different, and in the context of Lower Decks it would probably be fine even if Riker came across as too harsh. Keeping Mariner out of things would probably be the best way to go, allowing her friendship with Boimler – one of the high points of Season 1 – to remain in place.
We know from the way he conducted himself in Season 1 that Boimler can be anxious and easily overwhelmed, especially when things start to go wrong. Though his role in the episode Temporal Edict showed he can be a competent officer, at numerous other points across the season he panicked and allowed circumstances to get away from him. Riker may simply decide, based on that evaluation, that he isn’t cut out for a role under his command – at least, not yet.
Number 7: Mariner challenges Riker to an anbo-jyutsu match.
One of the most interesting moments in the Season 2 teaser was Ensign Mariner donning anbo-jyutsu armour. Anbo-jyutsu was a 24th Century martial art seen in The Next Generation Season 2 episode The Icarus Factor, and the only major character we ever saw participate in a match was… Will Riker!
The Season 1 finale confirmed that Riker and Mariner know each other to some extent, though he clearly wasn’t keen enough to offer her a role on his ship! But given that they have some kind of history, and that Riker knows Captain Freeman as well, perhaps Mariner will try to use her connection to Riker to get Boimler back.
In short, here’s this theory: Mariner challenges Riker to an anbo-jyutsu match. The prize? Boimler. Though this would surely be conducted over Boimler’s objections, whoever wins the match – surely Mariner! – would get to keep Boimler. When she wins, he gets transferred back to the Cerritos even if he doesn’t want to or didn’t do anything wrong.
This could be played for laughs far more easily than Mariner mean-spiritedly trying to sabotage Boimler’s career. And if his time on the Titan wasn’t mentioned subsequently, we wouldn’t necessarily have any reason to feel that Boimler holds a grudge for his reassignment to the Cerritos. He may, as mentioned, even get to keep his new rank in such a scenario. This would involve Mariner, the show’s protagonist, and allow her to get her way, but wouldn’t drag her character back quite so far as if she deliberately did something to get Boimler kicked off the Titan.
Number 8: Boimler remains on the USS Titan all season.
With all of these theories for how Boimler could end up demoted and back on the Cerritos we’ve missed something obvious! Instead of any of that happening, Boimler could instead remain aboard the Titan.
There are many ways that the characters could still work together at a distance – and given that the current state of the world has a lot of people working remotely, there could be something rather timely in a series of stories that show Boimler having to video call with his friends instead of being able to spend time with them in person!
The Titan and the Cerritos, at least at the end of Season 1, were both operating in roughly the same region of space. Perhaps Season 2 will see them work in tandem, or as part of a larger fleet. I’m not sure how this would work with the “second contact” mission that the Cerritos had in Season 1, but we didn’t see that many second contacts in Season 1, with the Cerritos also undertaking other assignments.
Perhaps the solution to the “Boimler problem” has been staring us in the face the whole time – he doesn’t need to be reassigned or demoted, and can remain in the role he worked so hard to win last year.
So that’s it. Eight theories for Lieutenant Boimler’s role in Season 2.
In many ways, Boimler being promoted and reassigned felt like it could have marked the final end of Lower Decks; the series finale. And perhaps that was how it was originally written before the creative team knew that a second season was definitely going ahead. Though Lower Decks has now been renewed for a third season and will hopefully run for several more beyond that, the natural end for a show like this, focusing on characters of lower rank, is to see them promoted and moving on to bigger things. Boimler’s role on the Titan could have been that moment for the series.
We didn’t see any signs in the Season 2 teaser of Boimler back in his old uniform, nor interacting in any way with anyone from the Cerritos. So at this stage we have to say that anything could happen! He could return to his old role right at the beginning of the season, he could stay on the Titan for an episode or two, and so on. How he might end up back on the Cerritos is also entirely unclear, and all I can do at this stage is make a few guesses!
For my two cents, I hope that if Boimler is to be kicked back to the Cerritos, it doesn’t come at the expense of Mariner’s character growth. She clearly wants him back, and that’s understandable. But if she were to interfere and sabotage him, even though it’s a comedy and such a moment would be played as a joke, it wouldn’t feel right. Lower Decks worked best by making the everyday goings-on in Starfleet funny. Where it didn’t work were the moments where Mariner’s selfishness and lack of care saw her put her own wants ahead of the crew or Starfleet’s mission.
It’s now officially less than four months until Lower Decks will be back on our screens. Although we’ve already seen a short teaser, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a longer trailer as the season approaches. If we do get one, be sure to check back as I’m sure to take a look at it. And beginning in mid-August, I hope you’ll stay tuned for episode reviews as well as discussion of the series.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 is available to stream now on Paramount+ in the United States and other countries and territories where the service is available. The series is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The Star Trek franchise – including Lower Decks and all other properties mentioned above – is the copyright of ViacomCBS. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.
Trekking with Dennis 