WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 9 - "Fissure Quest"Star Trek: Lower Decks just provided a better sequel to Star Trek: First Contact than the one 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) as they prepared 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 was meant to.
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 up across the galaxy. Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 9, "Fissure Quest," reveals that Section 31's Captain William Boimler (Jack Quaid) and his crew of alternate universe Star Trek legacy characters have also been searching for the cause of these rifts. After being captured by "feral Khwopians," Captain Boimler and his crew discover that an alt reality Captain Lily Sloane has inadvertently been causing the wormholes to the multiverse.
Lower Decks Reveals One Lily Sloane Became A Multidimensional Explorer
While Captain Boimler initially assumes that Captain Sloane must be "a depraved villain," Lily assures him that she and her crew are on a mission of peace. 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 had been leaving extra rifts open with each reality jump, and she quickly apologizes for the trouble she has caused. Sloane then helps Boimler and his crew return to their ship, the Anaximander, before her own ship is destroyed by a 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 season 4's "In a Mirror, Darkly," Zefram Cochrane kills the Vulcans who initiate First Contact. Enterprise's brief scene of the humans raiding the Vulcan's ship does not even reference Lily Sloane. Lower Decks presents a better (and much more Star Trek) alternative for 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 Jumpstarted The Federation In One Universe & 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 went quite a bit differently than it did in the Prime Universe. Zefram Cochrane was still the first human to achieve warp flight, but rather than greeting the Vulcans warmly when they made first contact, Mirror Cochrane shot them with a shotgun. Humanity then used the stolen Vulcan technology to spread into the galaxy, expanding the Terran Empire. Cochrane's actions effectively created the Mirror Universe, which has popped up throughout various Star Trek series.
Captain Lily Sloane's Quantum Reality-jumping starship is called the Beagle.
Star Trek's 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 kind of Federation, but one whose main purpose 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 Star Trek story than one that leads to a universe plagued by murder and subjugation.
