Star Trek Debunks 4 Hilarious Conspiracy Theories (But Others Actually Happened)

Lt. Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) debunks a series of hilarious and insane conspiracy theories in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 8, “Caves.” The history of Starfleet is filled with encounters with the unexpected and the bizarre that sometimes leave behind questions that can’t be answered. As of Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ late-24th century, Starfleet Officers have met cosmic beings beyond human comprehension and fought wars for the fate of the United Federation of Planets itself. It makes sense that a subculture of conspiracy theorists, or truthers, has sprung up.

Starfleet Officers from Ensigns to starship Captains keep logs recording their activities and service. Starship and Officers logs are meant to be a document about the ever-expanding history of Starfleet, but it’s also not surprising that many Starfleet Officers sometimes leave out key details of their adventures, either because they can’t explain something or to purposely keep the truth out of their logs and from Starfleet Command’s knowledge. One prime example is Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) deleting his entire personal log in which he confessed he tricked the Romulans into entering the Dominion War on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Sisko, the Bajoran Emissary who ascended to become one with the Prophets at the end of DS9, is, not surprisingly, a figure that truthers maintain conspiracy theories about.

Related: Star Trek: Lower Decks Cast Guide – Who Voices Each Character In All 4 Seasons

Lower Decks’ Boimler Debunks 4 Hilarious & Insane Star Trek Conspiracy Theories

In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 8, “Caves,” Lt. Brad Boimler recounted the frustrating ordeal of when he was trapped in a cave with Lt. Steve Levy (Fred Tatasciore). Levy infuriated Boimler with his beliefs, and Bradward put him Steve in his place by firing back truth bombs at Steve: “Wolf 359 was a tragedy, Q exists, Picard isn’t some hologram, and Voyager’s EMH is!” Levy is an infamous conspiracy theorist, which Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) learned when she went on a date with Steve in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1. That’s when Mariner found out Levy spreads the misinformation that “Wolf 359 was an inside job” and “Changelings aren’t real, the Dominion War didn’t happen.”

Looking at those conspiracy theories Levy purports, it’s hilarious how backward they are. Thousands died at the Battle of Wolf 369 when the Borg mounted an attack on Earth in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but Levy thinks it was “an inside job” by Starfleet. Millions more died in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Dominion War, which Levy thinks didn’t happen, and that Changelings are imaginary. There is certainly proof that Q (John de Lancie) is real after multiple encounters in TNG, DS9, and Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) somehow being a hologram while Voyager’s EMH Doctor (Robert Picardo) isn’t doesn’t even make sense. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 3, Mariner and Boimler encountered truthers who wanted to hear “the truth about what happened to Sisko” and they didn’t accept that the Emissary is “working hard in the Celestial Temple,” in Mariner’s words.

Starfleet Has Survived Real Star Trek Conspiracies

Starfleet has faced several actual conspiracies throughout Star Trek history. One of the most infamous conspiracies of the 23rd century was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when bad actors in Starfleet, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire enacted a plot to assassinate Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) and frame Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) in order to prevent peace between the Klingons and the Federation. Starfleet Admirals were replaced by parasitic bug-like aliens in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode literally titled “Conspiracy,” although that storyline was immediately dropped and wasn’t referenced again.

A conspiracy that nearly destroyed the Federation was the plot of Star Trek: Picard season 3. The Borg Queen (Alice Krige) joined forces with rogue Changelings led by Vadic (Amanda Plummer) to secretly enable the assimilation of every Starfleet Officer under the age of 25 using the organic Borg DNA from Jean-Luc Picard’s stolen corpse. The Borg nearly succeeded in their plan to bring down the Federation were it not for the heroics of the USS Enterprise-D and USS Titan-A’s crews. But if Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ Steve Levy survives into the early 25th century, he would probably believe all the wrong things about Star Trek: Picard‘s conspiracy theory.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.