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It's an emotional time for Star Trek fans. Lower Decks, one of the most beloved franchise entries in the past several years, and certainly one of the funniest, is getting ever closer to signing off from its final captain's log, with this fifth season confirmed by Paramount to be its last. And as if that wasn't enough to bring a tear to your eye, they're wrapping up the show with one of the romantic moves Star Trek as pulled in recent memory - in episode 9 of season 5, Lower Decks made the romance between Julian Bashir and Elim Garak canon.

Yes, I know. Get the tissues ready.

As reported earlier by Variety, the penultimate episode of this season (and by extension, the show) is all about other series in the Star Trek universe. Characters like First Contact's Lily Sloane, Enterprise's T'Pol, and Harry Kim from Voyager, all make appearances, voiced by their original actors Alfre Woodard, Jolene Blalock, and Garrett Wang respectively. But it's Bashir and Garak, both fan-favorite characters of fan favorite show Deep Space Nine, that steal the show this episode.

These characters (played by Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson, respectively) first shared the screen in a 1993 episode of Deep Space Nine. Over the course of the show's seven lauded seasons, the hysterical one-liners and witty jabs the characters shared made their appearances some of the most anticipated of the whole crew, and even before the show was canceled, fans were considering that there was romance between them. For Siddig and Robinson's parts, the actors have been vocal in their support of Bashrak (Gashir) for years now, even performing fan fiction live as their characters. It was a relationship three decades in the making, culminating in a shared kiss on Lower Decks that confirmed to canon what many fans already knew in their hearts.

Maybe it's just because I'm more familiar with DC Comics characters than I am Star Trek (sorry Trekkies, I genuinely love what you do), but I can't help but see a parallel here between what happened in this episode and the Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy kiss in season 2, episode 7 of the Max show bearing the former's name. Here were two long-running characters absolutely adored by fans and who had been seen as being in a queer relationship for longer than the owners of the IP were willing to explore. Now, like Harley and Ivy, Garak and Bashir get their time shine and, in doing so, to represent the multitude of LGBTQ+ fans that have come to love them.

Oh! But they probably will kill less people.

Lower Decks's series finale streams on Paramount+ December 19 (unless the fans can get it renewed!)

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order, explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list, seek out the new life of the franchise, and boldly go where no Star Trek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino?