Canon Connections: LDS 5x09 - Fissure Quest

• The episode title may be a reference to the 1999 film, ”Galaxy Quest”, which satirizes Star Trek, and Trekkies.

• We learn that Rutherford’s cybernetic implant is called an oculus, which is a Latin word meaning ”eye.”

    • This is the second time this season Rutherford has been attempting to get his implant to reconnect to the USS Cerritos’ systems, the first being in “Shades of Green”.

    • We also learn that oculus can fire directed beams of plasma, which isn’t really a canon connection, but does renew my long held desire for a Star Trek fighting video game.

• Against all odds, Boimler’s ongoing facial hair storyline, the A-plot of the season, seems to have culminated in his growing a full beard, resembling that of Beardler, as seen in “Dos Cerritos”. Good for him.

• ”This is our last Boimler; we don’t got anymore after this.” Boimler learned his transporter duplicate, William Boimler, died in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”. Of course, at the end of that episode, we the audience learned that William’s death was faked so he could join Section 31.

    • T’Lyn was not previously aware of Boimler’s duplication, conveniently allowing Tendi to recount the events of “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”.

• ”Shaxs exploded, and he’s doing great.” Shaxs sacrificed himself to save the Cerritos and Rutherford in “No Small Parts”, and returned to active duty in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.

• In another quantum reality, we see that William is the captain of a Defiant-class Anaximander, presumably named for the Greek philosopher who speculated on the existence of multiple realities.

    • Mariner promised Boimler, ”We’re going to get your butt in a captain’s chair!” in “Second Contact”. That was before the transporter duplication, so it became true for at least one Boimler. Granted, Mariner’s direct involvement in William’s career was fairly minimal.

    • William wears a *”Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, with the conspicuous black Section 31 badge he received in “Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus”.

    • William is able to maintain a 5 o’clock shadow, though presumably that’s because he’s haunted by the actions he’s undertaken as a Section 31 operative, and not because he found an alternate reality where a very successful version of himself wears that facial hair style.

• The MSD of the Anaximander is…interesting to say the least. The Defiant-class has been shown to have four decks, and this MSD has at least double that, and the shuttlebay appears to be in the nose assembly, where the deflector dish, docking port, and phaser emitter usually are.

• The crew of the Anaximander is comprised of different individuals each from a distinct quantum reality, including:

    • T’Pol, portrayed by Jolene - This T’Pol comes from a reality where she and Trip Tucker were married for 63 years.

    • Curzon Dax, portrayed by Fred Tatasciore - Native to a reality where Curzon Dax hasn’t yet died. Also, appears to be more physically aggressive than the more libertine prime reality version described by both Captain Sisko and Jadzia Dax.

    • Doctor Garak, portrayed by Andrew Robinson - Garak apparently joined Starfleet to become a plain, simple surgeon.

      • Doctor Garak wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with a bright blue undershirt, similar to what we’ve seen previously on LDS. He is a lieutenant.

    • The Emergency Bashir Hologram, portrayed by Alexander Siddig - From a reality where an emergency medical hologram was modelled on Doctor Bashir.

      • The EBH wears the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform with dark teal undershirt matching the live action version we’ve seen previously, and has lieutenant junior grade pips. In the prime reality, the Doctor never got pips or a rank, outside of one deception and his fantasies.

      • Doctor Bashir was a candidate for the model for the long-term medical hologram in “Doctor Bashir, I Presume”, before it was revealed he was genetically augmented as a child.

    • Harrys Kim, portrayed by Garrett Wang - So many Harrys Kim.

      • The Harrys Kim wear the DS9/VOY uniform, the “Star Trek: First Contact” uniform, and one is in the racing uniform introduced in “Drive”, and is clearly the cool bad boy of the group.

• Doctor Garak and the EBH are married. Good for them.

• William records the Stardate as ”Confidential” in his captain’s log.

• The Anaximander locates a Federation escape vessel, and William speculates as to who might be aboard. ”Neelix with a crew cut? Really big Spock?” “A Comprehensive Guide to Talaxian Hairstyles” was a book mentioned in the DIS episode, “Labyrinths”, and a giant clone of Spock was introduced in “The Infinite Vulcan”.

    • The occupant is another Harry Kim, who has some sweet corn on his collar, making him appear to be a lieutenant.

• Curzon slips Klingon words into his sentences, and wields a bat’leth. Prime universe Curzon was a Federation negotiator to the Klingon Empire, and joined in a blood oath with three Klingon Dahar masters.

• ”I’m so sick of the fucking multiverse.” The only entertainment available aboard the Anaximander is an archive of early 21st century superhero films.

• ”Lovers never fall out of the rifts for Curzon!” Prime reality Curzon Dax died mid coitus on Risa, as we learned in “Let He Who Is Without Sin”.

• As the Anaximander is repairing a rift, a type-7 shuttlecraft comes through in critical condition. When the occupant is beamed aboard it’s Mariner in a operations division LDS uniform, with ensign pips.

    • We previously saw prime universe Mariner wearing operations gold in “Moist Vessel,” though she was briefly promoted to lieutenant at the time.

• In Mariner Gold’s universe, it was Troi who was transporter duplicated and stranded on a planet, and not Riker.

• In the Mariner Gold universe, Boimler wears a leather jacket at all times. Prime universe Boimler replicated a jacket that was half leather, half letterman, all, ”boy’s size small.”

• ”What’s it like having your own quarters?” The Harrys Kim interrogate two-pip Kim about his life. Prime universe Harry had his own quarters aboard the “USS Voyager” despite being an ensign, and was also a member of the senior staff.

• ”Y’know, between all the Borg infiltrations and aliens trying to steal our organs, it didn’t seem like that big a deal.” Borg infiltrated Voyager in “Scorpion”, and the Vidiians tried to harvest the crew in “Phage”, “Faces”, “Deadlock”, and “Resolutions”.

    • It seemed like it might have been a big deal to prime Harry, who lamented not getting promoted when Tom Paris was in “Unimatrix Zero”.

    • Garrett Wang has said that he was told the reason Harry was never promoted was ”Someone’s got to be the ensign.”

• ”I know that you carry the Dax symbiont, which must be protected for its next host, of which there is none on the Anaximander*.”* In “The Host”, Riker was able to carry the Odan symbiont for a number of days until a Trill could be found, and we learned in “Forget Me Not” that a symbiont can bond with a human permanently.

• Mariner Gold is able to devise a plan to have the next rift opened by the people opening them appear where the Anaximander wants it to, resulting in the Beagle arriving in the same system.

    • The Beagle appears to have been based on the UCC Enterprise XCV-330, paintings of which were seen in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, “First Flight” and “Home”, and a model of which was displayed in “Star Trek Into Darkness”.

• The EBH claims that in his reality Risa ”has an entire moon devoted to growing heirloom grapes,” and Doctor Garak counters claiming his Risa ”has two vineyard moons.” In the prime reality, Risa has two moons, total, though there’s little information regarding how much viticulture is performed on either one.

    • ”You will once you taste their reds.” Apparently the EBH has a sense of taste.

• ”Oh, he’s a big Starfleet nerd, like Archer. You had one of those, right?” T’Pol confirms that she knew an Archer in her reality

• The Anaximander is able to land on the surface of Khwopa. This is the first time we’ve seen a Defiant-class ship land on a planet.

    • The turbolift shaft is able to be extended from the underside of the Anaximander to allow people to disembark.

• Mariner Gold complains about bog planets being wet and cold, echoing prime Mariner’s sentiments when she visited Khwopa in “Much Ado About Boimler”.

• ”At least they aren’t trying to drink our bones.” Moopsey!

• ”I’ve never been in a prison before, it’s kinda freaking me out.” Prime universe Mariner has:

    • Spent a significant amount of time in the brig aboard the Cerritos, and apparently other ships as well

    • Been imprisoned by the Galrakians in “Temporal Edict”

    • Assumed an alien party venue was a prison she was in in “Veritas”

    • Spent months in prison on Dilmer III in “Fully Dilated”

• The captain of the Beagle is Lily Sloane! From Star Trek! More accurately, an alternate version of Lily from a reality where she and Zephram Cochrane built a quantum reality drive as opposed to warp. Lily is portrayed by Alfre Woodard.

    • Captain Lily is wearing an ENT era uniform.

• Doctor Garak is able to retrieve a mobile emitter for the EBH.

• ”I don’t know what a warp drive is…” Captain Lily’s crew has Vulcans as well as humans, which raises the question of how she could be ignorant to the existence of warp, unless the Vulcans in her universe call it something else or are keeping it secret because humans have not achieved warp capability.

• ”You’d love to rub that in my face, wouldn’t you, Vulcan?”
”I would not.”
Vulcans lie all the time.

• T’Pol absorbs the Dax symbiont’s katra so it can be returned to Curzon’s reality. We’ve previously seen that a katra can be passed on from one person to another, such as McCoy hosting Spock’s memories in “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan” and “Star Trek: The Search for Spock”, or Archer carrying Surak’s katra in “The Forge”, “Awakening”, and “Kir’Shara”. Similarly, a Trill host’s memories can be transferred to another being via the zhian’tara ritual, as depicted in “Facets”, “Choose to Live”, and “Jinaal”.

• ”Soliton waves will spread across all quantum realities!” Soliton waves were explored as a potential form of transportation in the TNG episode “New Ground”, but the experiment resulted in a wave that was going to destroy an inhabited world before the USS Enterprise D crew was able to devise a solution.