Spoilers Where does Boimler go from here?

We can tell from the trailer that at some point, Ltjg. Boimler will be reduced back to ensign, and returned to the Cerritos. Whether this is his decision or Riker's has not been revealed, but evidence in the trailers can go either way.

My question is what happens with his character now? After all, he spent the whole first season making a career of trying to suck up to the captain so he could get that promotion. Then he got it, and it's presumably not going to work out for him. So... is he like Mariner now, perfectly happy to be an ensign forever*? Will he repeat the same mistakes**? Or will he just be uptight and neurotic about something completely different***?

Any thoughts on what's next for ol' B.B.?


*Doubtful, IMO
**More likely, IMO
***My money's on this one

 

Purely speculation on my part, but I'll spoiler code it just to be safe. I'

Spoiler

m wondering if maybe the part in the trailer where we see a transporter malfunction while Boimler is beaming back to the Titan creates a transporter clone of Boimler, like Thomas Riker. Therefore, one Boimler will remain a Lt. JG on the Titan, while the other goes back to the Cerritos and is for some reason an Ensign. This way, the show can have its cake and eat it too in regards to Boimler.

 

Riker, a prior victim of transporter duplication, would probably get a kick out of that.

 

The trailer could be wrong.
We do know S2 will feature the Titan a lot more, so its possible we'll see the two ships doing joint missions... or intersecting frequently at least.

It would be kinda lousy for Boimler to be reduced back to ensign and returned to the Cerritos... some sense of 'progression' would be good as opposed to keeping things the same (in which case, they could have just NOT have Boimler promoted).

Then again, Boimler is a bit of a screamer in tight situations... maybe Riker didn't like that and prefers a more... poised crew.

 

Or Boimler launched Riker in an escape pod by accident.

 

Or Boimler made the mistake of saying he doesn't like jazz...

 

And likes pineapple on his pizza.

 

How DARE he?

True. But we see Boimler in Cerritos uniform at least some of the time, and his collar is minus the hollow pip that he was happily polishing at the end of S1.

 

Could be anything.
A holodeck (because Mariner may be missing Boimler), transporter duplicate... temporary transfer... undercover mission... take your pick.

 

Maybe. He did seem way too happy for a guy who just had his Starfleet career trashed.

 

That would be such a lame cop-out. But it would satisfy McMahan's obsession with call-backs so I could easily see it happening.

Could just be an animation mistake, there's been tons so far, including in the opening credits!

 

Believe me, I would enjoy being wrong. Boimler still on the Titan means more Riker and maybe more Troi as well. And those two are welcome to keep turning up on LD.

 

It did the rounds on Twitter around when the show was starting, there's a rendering error as the ship prepares to jump away from the Borg battle. Some funky lens flares not behaving as they should on the ships' left nacelle. I do 3D animation and it's impossible for me to miss every time sadly

 

It's definitely down to one of light sources being obscured but there's a couple of messy frames, one with a rogue lens flare where it shouldn't be, on top of the grey part of the nacelle, and then the following frame with the bottom of the viewport illuminated. It kind of makes it look like the flare travels downwards (that's what my eyes see every time I watch an episode). It's a shame because apart from that it's a lovely sequence. Anyway, no big deal, but attention to detail could be improved with the animation on this show I think.

 

Or the old Thor: Ragnarok trick: they purposefully edited the trailer to give Boimler his one-pip to make us speculate, but he'll actually be a LtJG during the course of the show.

My presumption is that the first episode or two will be fifty/fifty between the Cerritos and the Titan, but Boimler will get demoted and transferred during the course of that episode(s), probably for "doing the right thing" or following Mariner's advice or something, and will hold it over her during the rest of the season on the Cerritos. He won't backtrack necessarily, but he will be upset at her for taking her advice and will go back to trying to get re-promoted (maybe through other means). I don't think she'll sabotage him, but something she says or does will cause things to escalate.

Boimler will have a tense relationship with Riker and the Titan going forward because of this (I expect further appearances beyond the premiere). I also presume, depending on what STPicard has planned, that we will have an Enterprise-E appearance this season, and maybe a Captain reveal. Probably in the finale.

 

There's a grill on the bottom of the nacelle. It gets flashed.

 

Chalk this up as another "99.9% of folk will neither notice, or care".

I had the same reaction to the continuity nerd argument over at GallifreyBase about actors sipping from "obviously" empty coffee cups in Dr. Who... who GIVES a shit?

 

Surprisingly, way more people than you might think...