Star Trek: Lower Decks | Who is Bradward Boimler?

As we head into the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks on August 25, we’ll be looking at those serving aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos, a California-class starship.

The Lower Deck of the Cerritos is comprised of the “cool, scrappy underdogs of the ship” — Ensigns Beckett Mariner, Bradward Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, and Samanthan Rutherford. Through their adventures, we get a look at a side of Starfleet we’ve rarely seen before.

We’ve covered Ensign Beckett Mariner, and now we’re going to look at her Number One, Ensign Brad Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid)!

Reporting For Duty

The eager-to-please junior officer was assigned to the U.S.S. Cerritos in the command division upon graduating Starfleet Academy. Despite not being a distinguished starship like the Titan, Boimler took great pride in the work on the Cerritos.

Captain Will Riker of the Titan once told Boimler that he wishes he could “be on a ship that’s exploring and solving science mysteries instead of nonstop fighting,” and that he should “enjoy it while you have it” on the Cerritos.

Boimler understood the importance of the Cerritos more than most. After all, “First Contact is a delicate, high-stakes operation of diplomacy. One must be ready for anything when humanity is interacting with an alien race for the first time. But we don’t do that. Our specialty is second contact. Still pretty important. We get all the paperwork signed, make sure we’re spelling the name of the planet right, get to know all the good places to eat…”

As for the best parts of the Cerritos, Boims called out the warp core, the Bridge, the photon torpedo tubes, and then cetacean ops.

By the Books

The career-driven Boimler has aspiration to be captain of his own starship one day. In his quest to rise the ranks, he became a candidate for Captain Freeman’s Advanced Diplomacy Workshop where he poured over seven years of the Cerritos’ crew personal logs to algorithmically create a “perfect simulation of everyone” in a Holodeck program. No detail was too small for Boims to not consider, even questioning if his hair part or phasing effect made him look more or less promotable.

Unlike the other junior staff who partake in the Lower Decks tradition of “buffer time,” Boimler would take no break if it was up to him. He understood that every ship in the fleet depends on officers like them to keep it running, noting that “the real action begins on the Lower Decks.” He was unphased by strict and tight deadlines and took on more assignments with ease.

Starfleet Career

While in the Galar system, Boimler revealed he had only ventured to four planets, including Vulcan. With his love of work and protocol and no demerits to his name, he could not understand how his best friend Mariner, who thrived on chaos and throwing every rule out the window, was promoted to lieutenant, even competing with her for a transfer aboard the U.S.S. Sacramento.

Commander Jack Ransom took note of Boimler’s quick thinking as well as his position as one of the most organized officers on the ship. It was Ransom who tipped Capt. Riker that Boimler was one of the best officers aboard their ship, which led to Boimler’s promotion and transfer to the Titan. Unfortunately for Boimler, his time aboard the Titan was short-lived as a transporter incident resulted in two Boimlers. The duplicate known as William Boimler stayed aboard the Titan as a lieutenant while Brad Boimler returned to the Cerritos as an ensign.

In addition to developing respect from Commander Ransom, Boimler curried favor with Capt. Freeman who saw potential in him.

His Number One

The often-rigid Boimler softened over time due to his friendship with Ensign Beckett Mariner and the misadventures they found themselves on, realizing despite her unorthodox ways, she was a good Starfleet officer.

Despite being stranded on Rubicon III and Axelus by Mariner, Boims and Mariner considered each other their Number Ones. He came to see that Mariner’s protocol breaches often allowed her to partake in “all the good stuff.” In fact, while being completely different people who often butted heads, they noted that they made an exceptional team together where both their strengths came in handy.