Brad Boimler

Bradward "Brad" Boimler was a male Human who served in Starfleet as a command division junior officer during the mid-24th century. He was assigned to the under Captain Carol Freeman, then to the under Captain William T. Riker. He was later transferred back to the Cerritos following a transporter accident. Although Boimler's high-strung emotionalism and immature need to gain the positive attention of his superiors is derided, his genuinely considerable talent and command potential as an officer is also being noticed.
== Early life ==
Boimler was born in Modesto, California on Earth, where he grew up around the raisin vineyards ran by his family. He became a well versed and skilled raisin farmer but found the work unbearably dull, and would have preferred for the family to be doing something different, like making wine instead. He also disliked the flies attracted to the grapes, and how it would take a month to get rid of the smell of raisins from his hair. His dislike for this life was so intense that the fact that numerous comely female co-workers on the farm openly propositioning him was of no interest. ()
Prior to Stardate 57436.2, Boimler had only visited four planets, including Vulcan. ()
== Starfleet career ==
=== Starfleet Academy === 
At some point during his life, Boimler enlisted in Starfleet and attended Starfleet Academy, where he received no demerits and failed the seventeen times. He graduated and was commissioned as an officer in 2379. Upon graduating, he was assigned to the Cerritos, where he bunked in Bunk A12003. ()
Boimler and were close friends at the academy. () While there, he took Ethics of Collecting, and chose to take some studies on the Tamarian language. () He also took matter synthesis as an elective. ()
=== USS Cerritos ===
In 2380, during a stop at Douglas Station, Boimler was wounded by fellow ensign Beckett Mariner. Mariner, who was drunk on Romulan whiskey, gave him a hard time for writing his own mock captain's log, then accidentally sliced his leg open with a bat'leth. He was treated and assigned as an orientation liaison to Ensign D'Vana Tendi. Later, while assisting in second contact efforts with the Galardonians, Captain Freeman asked Ensign Boimler to monitor Ensign Mariner's activities. Boimler eventually believed that he had caught her selling Federation weapons, but she had in fact been giving farm implements to local Galardonian farmers. The confrontation intimidated the farmers that Mariner had been assisting, and roused a spider cow from its sleep, which attacked Boimler, though it posed no immediate danger to Boimler's life, due to it being an herbivore. The spider cow ended up coating Boimler with an oral slime, which held a key to neutralizing a rage virus that Commander Jack Ransom had unknowingly brought aboard the ship. Dr. T'Ana synthesized a cure from this slime, which cured the entire ship, but Boimler received no credit in discovering the cure. Boimler also did not inform Freeman of any breaches in protocol from Mariner with the Galardonians. ()
Boimler was later selected for a special escort mission, assigned to take Klingon General K'orin to Tulgana IV. It was a mission he took very seriously and prepared immensely for. Boimler was disheartened when Mariner was also assigned the mission and didn't seem to be taking it quite as seriously as he was. The mission was made harder for Boimler when it turned out that K'orin and Mariner shared a history, as they got intoxicated together and were very disruptive for Boimler as he piloted the shuttlecraft. Making an unscheduled stop in Little Qo'noS, K'orin stole the shuttlecraft, and stranded Boimler and Mariner in the Klingon district, forcing them to track down the shuttle. This task was daunting for Boimler, who often found himself in trouble, and bailed out by Mariner. It made him question his place in Starfleet, but his confidence was restored when he successfully thwarted a Ferengi from mugging them. While his confidence was restored, the Ferengi was actually a friend of Mariner, and was acting by Mariner's wishes in a small act of subterfuge. ()
On Stardate 57501.4, Boimler accidentally revealed the secret of buffer time to Freeman while the Cerritos was en route to Gelrak V. This slip of the tongue resulted in Freeman assigning strict deadlines to each crewmember in their daily tasks. This quickly resulted in disorder and chaos aboard the ship, which eventually hindered the ship's functionality. Boimler was the only crew member who was unaffected by the deadlines, still being able to complete his assignments ahead of schedule and request more work. When the Gelrakians attacked the Cerritos, due to a gesture that was mistaken as an insult on Gelrak V, Boimler was able to convince Freeman that buffer time allowed the crew to finish their tasks comfortably and properly. Freeman brought back buffer time, and the crew successfully fought off the Gelrakians. Freeman thanked Boimler for helping her understand how important buffer time was by instigating a new ship-wide mandate known as the Boimler Effect. Boimler was never fully comfortable with being 'responsible' for this mandate, although he would later openly display the plaque he was given in his quarters. ()
During a mission in which the Cerritos offered support to the , Boimler was incredibly flustered, and upset that Mariner was promoted to lieutenant, despite her disruptive behavior, and constant breaches of protocol. Convinced that this behavior was what convinced the senior staff to promote her, he did his best to break more rules and protocol. When the Cerritos found itself in a crisis, he deliberately spilled hot coffee on Ransom's lap, which just angered Ransom. ()
About a month prior to Stardate 57601.3, Boimler picked up an alien parasite and began a romantic relationship with Lieutenant Barbara Brinson of the . When the Cerritos offered support in the controlled implosion of a moon around Mixtus III, Boimler found himself intimidated by the fact that Ensign Jet Manhaver used to be in a relationship with Brinson and was working closely with her for the mission. Boimler attempted to one-up Manhaver in his personality and tried to stay close to Brinson while they worked, but also had to convince Mariner that Brinson was a normal Human, and not an alien in disguise. Boimler eventually believed that Brinson was cheating on him with Manhaver, and thought he caught them in the act of but was flustered when this wasn't the case. After he and Brinson reconciled, he went with Brinson to an orbital platform where he intended to have sex with her. Mariner caught him fully naked, and he brushed aside any accusations she made that Brinson was a parasite, despite her having discovered the husk of one. Boimler was knocked unconscious when the moon's implosion began, and when he had come to, Brinson and Mariner discovered the parasite latched on his head. The parasite went on to say that it was the one who had made Boimler get romantic with Brinson, but despite the fact that Brinson said that she fell in love with Boimler, and not the parasite, she broke off their relationship, expressing an interest in further studying the parasite. ()
On Stardate 57663.9, Mariner and Boimler attended the Chu Chu dance held by the Zebulon Sisters. Afterwards, they found that their crewmate, Ensign Fletcher, had accidentally corrupted an isolinear core by plugging it into a device to affect his brainwaves. The core itself went on a brief rampage inside the Cerritos, before Mariner and Boimler were able to eject it into space via an airlock. The core would go on to destroy a Drookmani ship, and Mariner's exaggeration of the events would land Fletcher a promotion, and a brief transfer to the , much to Boimler's disappointment, as the Titan was a ship he wanted to serve on. The transfer would not last, as Fletcher was demoted and fired less than a week later for dumping garbage into the ship's warp core. ()
On stardate 57752.6, Boimler assisted Sam Rutherford with a transporter experiment which would have made the transporter slightly faster in the beaming process. However, the experiment resulted in failure, as Boimler was materialized out of phase, making him glow brightly, and give off the loud tone of the transporter. While the accident was cosmetic in nature, and offered no threat to his life, it baffled Dr. T'Ana, who contacted Division 14, and gave Boimler a brief leave of absence to Endicronimas V to recover from the accident at the medical spa there, known as "The Farm". On his way there, he befriended many other officers who had been the victims of bizarre medical accidents, and they revealed to him that they had reason to believe that the Division 14 ship they were on, the Osler, was in fact the Farm itself, and that they were there not to recover, but so that Starfleet didn't have to worry about curing them. They planned a mutiny, which Boimler revealed to the specialist in charge of the ship. Angry at his betrayal, the other officers attempted to kill Boimler, but stopped when the Osler ended its long journey and arrived at the Farm. Boimler did not end up staying very long at the Farm, due to the fact that, shortly before their arrival, the phasing effect had worn off by itself. ()
On Stardate 57818.4, the Cerritos was involved in a diplomatic crisis when Captain Freeman accidentally insulted the Clicket ship Tweerk when she was negotiating for a map of the Romulan Neutral Zone. Missing a call for a red alert, Boimler and Mariner were unaware of the details surrounding the crisis, and unsure how to act with the Clickets. Boimler suggested executing evasive maneuvers, dumbfounding the entire bridge crew. Unbeknownst to Boimler and Mariner, the Cerritos was in the middle of a top-secret covert rescue mission of Imperium Magistrate Clar. While the rescue was a success, and Clar had initially intended to honor the crew of the Cerritos for his rescue at a party on K'Tuevon Prime, the secret nature of the mission left Boimler, Mariner, Tendi, and Rutherford in the dark about details surrounding the rescue, and when Clar asked them to testify about the rescue, they got the idea that they were actually in a trial rather than a party. Boimler sternly defended the senior staff of the Cerritos and accused Clar of holding a drumhead trial. This miscommunication ruined Clar's party. ()
Expressing an interest in advanced diplomacy, Boimler programmed a holodeck scenario, Boimler Seven, and by making use of the entire crew's personal logs, created a near-perfect simulation of the crew of the Cerritos, which he hoped to use as a tool to prepare for an interview with Captain Freeman. However, Mariner altered the program to let out some frustration and anger, making the program much more action-oriented, and giving it a narrative similar to a movie. While she acted as a supervillain named Vindicta in the program, Boimler still attempted to use the program to help prepare for his interview with Freeman. Ironically enough, it was through Mariner's changes to the program that he found out that Mariner was, in fact, Captain Freeman's daughter. This discovery flustered him so much that he was unable to face Freeman in the interview and ran out of the interview in fear. The secret regarding Mariner and Freeman would not remain secret for long as Boimler accidentally let the entire crew of the Cerritos know about the nature of their relationship when he confronted Mariner about it and was unknowingly hailed through his combadge. ()
Mariner and Boimler butted heads in the time following this revelation, and while Boimler was attempting to transfer aboard the , Mariner competed for the transfer, hoping that a new ship would result in her having a fresh start without the crew giving her special attention. While the two competed, the Cerritos was attacked by a heavily-modified Pakled ship. During the attack, Mariner and Boimler reconciled, and fought off multiple Pakled intruders. The ship was very nearly destroyed but was saved with the arrival of the USS Titan, who had picked up their distress signal. 
Afterwards, Commander Ransom informed Captain William T. Riker that Boimler was one of the best officers aboard the Cerritos, and Riker offered Boimler a promotion and transfer to the Titan, which Boimler accepted, much to Mariner's anger. ()
=== USS Titan and Duplication Incident===
In 2380, Boimler took a position as a flight control officer aboard the USS Titan, as well as a promotion to lieutenant junior grade. () This promotion lasted for at least three months, at which point Boimler accidentally created a transporter duplicate while saving his away team from Pakleds and escaping a distortion field. Riker praised the now-two Boimlers for their "bravery and ingenuity," but informed them that Starfleet believed having two identical crew members was an undesirable complication for the Titan's "complex" mission; one would have to go back to the Cerritos as an ensign. By this time, the two Boimlers had become sufficiently differentiated that only one of them volunteered and expressed surprise that the other did not. The volunteer continued to be known as Brad Boimler, while the other took up the name William Boimler. ()
=== Back to the Cerritos ===
Mariner, Tendi and Rutherford welcomed Boimler's return to the Cerritos. Upon his return, the ship's computer did not initially respond correctly to him as a crew member, interfering with Boimler's efforts to meet Lieutenant Tom Paris, who visited the ship on a handshake tour. ()
In 2381, Boimler fell through a time portal on Krulmuth-B and ended up in 2259. Boimler and later Mariner were found by the where Boimler was excited to meet his heroes Spock and Una Chin-Riley, the latter of whom he kept a recruitment poster of on the Cerritos. After the portal was taken by an Orion science vessel, Boimler used his future knowledge to help the Enterprise track it down, but the grain trade that was made to get it back caused issues for the colonists on Setlik III and the efforts to power the portal through synthetic horonium damaged the Enterprise. After a conversation with Commander Pelia, Boimler helped to make things right by revealing to the Orions that they will be remembered in the future as the ones to find the portal and that one of the crew, Astrea Tendi, was the great-grandmother of his and Mariner's friend D'Vana Tendi. By using a piece of deck plating from the that contained horonium, the Enterprise crew was able to power the portal and return Boimler and Mariner to their own time. ()
Later, Boimler, Mariner, T'Lyn, and D'Vana Tendi were all promoted to the rank of Lieutenant junior grade. ()
During the confrontation with Nova Fleet, Boimler was briefly promoted to acting captain of the Cerritos while Captain Freeman was off of the ship rescuing Mariner. In the aftermath, Boimler appeared to have let the experience go to his head, but stated that Commander Jack Ransom was very happy with his captaining. Mariner suggested that he should consider getting captain's lessons from Captain Freeman. However, Tendi was forced to return to due to the deal that she had made with her sister in order to get help from the Orions. ()
== Legacy ==
In the far future, Boimler was remembered as "the laziest, most corner-cutting officer in Starfleet history" and namesake of the Boimler Effect, a ship-wide mandate aboard the Cerritos that encouraged breaking the rules to get results. ()
== Physical condition ==
Boimler suffered from hay fever and acid reflux, got rashes from sand, and allegedly had sensitive corneas. It had also been observed that his skin was unhealthy from chronic dehydration. ()
In addition to the aforementioned ailments, Boimler suffered from various injuries or conditions during his Starfleet career: an alien parasite attached itself to the back of his head for about a month; a drunken Beckett Mariner cut into his thigh with a bat'leth; he sustained injuries from various aliens in a bar on Tulgana IV; and his body temporarily became glowing and transparent following a transporter accident. ()
Boimler was also very shy about communal nudity, and usually kept a booth open in the sonic showers as showering next to someone made him uncomfortable. His friends were supportive of this need and even continued to do so out of habit for the three months he was assigned to the Titan. ()
== Personal interests ==
Boimler's dream was to rise in the ranks of Starfleet and earn his own command and embraced a lifestyle of rule-following and sucking up to the senior officers to get there. () 
He often idolized and referenced the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the . () He also idolized Captain Christopher Pike of the , and even once dressed as him for Halloween. ()
He frequently stressed over decisions that would make him more "promotable," such as his hairstyle or preparing the captain's favorite cookies. ()
In pursuit of being a model Starfleet officer, Boimler spent a lot of time studying in the ship's library. In preparation for a mission to escort General K'orin, Boimler spent a day studying K'orin's career in preparation. He appeared to have had a good head for facts and figures but had trouble when attempting to speak alien languages. He had read about five books on Taxors, though when it came time to apply his studies, he botched the Taxor language. He had also taken some studies on the Tamarian language at the Academy, but during his attempt to converse with Kayshon, he accidentally insulted him. ()
Boimler was known amongst his friends to savor the dishes that were limited replicator privileges to senior officers aboard the Cerritos, such as pasta dishes like variations on macaroni and cheese with a breaded top, and would take opportunities to order such food during his shift when available. He was greatly pleased along with the other junior officers when the senior staff had an unlocked replicator added to the ship's mess hall. ()
Over time, Boimler became much more willing to join or go along with Mariner's harmless rule-breaking, such as sneaking off the ship to Starbase 25 while the bridge crew was preoccupied with a duplicating Doopler emissary and causing mischief with a submanifold casting stone stolen from Shaxs' items to be collected for anomaly consolidation duty. ()
Boimler played the electric violin, having composed several original songs about his mother, including "Essence" and "Requiem for a Hug". ()
He had some knowledge of wielding a rapier and had an interest in swordplay. ()
Upon being assigned his own quarters, he proudly displayed his Boimler Effect plaque. ()
Boimler collected commemorative plates, displaying one of Jack Ransom in his quarters on the Titan. He also owned a complete set of s, autographed by their respective officers. He finished getting the entire set signed when he finally received Tom Paris's signature in 2381. ()
He preferred to drink cocktails while off duty, including, among others, a prune juice spritz. ()
It was revealed in his personal logs that he dyed his hair purple, and kept his true hair color a secret from everyone. ()
== Relationships ==
=== Friendships ===
Boimler considered his fellow "lower decks" crew members aboard the Cerritos to be some of his closest friends.
==== Beckett Mariner ====
Boimler would come to see Mariner as his best friend, despite their clashing personalities. Boimler would often voice disapproval for Mariner's impulsive decisions that often went against Starfleet protocol. She uses nicknames like "Boims" for him.
Before they got close, Captain Freeman assigned Boimler a secret assignment to monitor Mariner's activities, and to notify her if she broke protocol. While he initially was intent on reporting Mariner for stealing some farming equipment and giving them to some Galardonian farmers, he came to realize that despite her unorthodox methods, Mariner was a good Starfleet officer, and did not report her. Following this, Mariner appointed herself as his mentor, and promised to help him get to the rank of captain. ()
They quickly grew as friends, despite many misadventures, and their frequent disagreements and tendency to butt heads. In 2380, Boimler accidentally stumbled onto the secret that Mariner was the daughter of Captain Freeman, as a result, crashing his interview with Freeman for the Advanced Diplomacy workshop, by blurting out Mariner's name. When he eventually told Mariner that he knew the secret, he inadvertently revealed the secret to the crew of the Cerritos when the conversation was overheard on his combadge. Mariner, frustrated that the secret was out, decided to compete with Boimler when he showed interest in transferring to the . Boimler was angered with this, but later admitted to Mariner, when the Pakleds were attacking the Cerritos, that he was only frustrated because he knew that she would get transferred instead and that he would miss her. ()
Ironically, Boimler would accept a promotion and a transfer to the USS Titan shortly afterward, much to Mariner's anger. Mariner called him a "backstabbing weasel" and held a small grudge that he didn't even say goodbye as he had left during their shift, though Boimler neglected to do so deliberately, as he was afraid that Mariner would talk him out of it, and he believed that Mariner would eventually get over it. Boimler's time on the Titan was brief, however, and when he was transferred back to the Cerritos, the two rekindled their friendship, and Boimler eventually apologized for his quietly leaving. ()
Boimler was particulary distressed by Mariner's short-lived resignation from Starfleet, their friends noting that "the longer [she's] not around the more [he] kind of loses his grasp on reality." ()
Paired together, Boimler and Mariner were an exceptional team, and while Mariner could quite often get them into trouble, Boimler's knowledge of Starfleet protocol, and diplomatic skills could help get them out of trouble as well. The two were so close, that Tendi did not dismiss the assumption of them to be dating, though this idea sat wrong with Boimler. They affectionately teased one another, and Boimler considered Mariner his "number one". ()
==== Jack Ransom ====
Boimler's relationship with Commander Ransom began fairly distantly, with Ransom initially frequently forgetting Boimler's name, treating him with some respect but mostly as an extremely junior officer he didn't know well. Throughout 2380 and 2381, Ransom and Boimler began interacting more frequently, and Ransom grew to respect the young man as a capable budding officer. It was Ransom's recommendation that caused Captain Riker to offer Boimler a promotion on the Titan. Ransom's respect for Boimler only grew after his return from the Titan, and would commend him when he did well. In mid-2381, Ransom directed one of the ship's provisional-officer cadets to Boimler for mentoring, citing Boimler as the most organized officer on the ship. ()
=== Family ===
==== William Boimler ====
Boimler appeared to have a disdain for his transporter duplicate in William. William successfully tricked Boimler into giving up his position on the Titan, and Boimler would sometimes express jealousy of William still remaining aboard the Titan in his place. () However, when Boimler was told of William's apparent death in 2381, it sent Boimler into a depression that caused him to question the meaning of life and the randomness of death. This depression nearly resulted in his own death due to dehydration. ()
=== Romances === 
==== Barbara Brinson ====
Boimler briefly dated Lieutenant Barbara Brinson of the USS Vancouver. Before Stardate 57601.3, it had been quite some time since Boimler had "taken a lover". Brinson later broke up with Boimler when it was discovered that she was attracted to, and dated, him, only because a googa parasite had attached itself to Boimler, and made him irresistible to her. ()
== Key dates == 
*Mid-24th century: Born in Modesto, California on Earth.
* 2379: Graduates from Starfleet Academy
* 2379 to 2380: Assigned to the USS Cerritos under Captain Carol Freeman
* 2380 
** Promoted to Lieutenant junior grade
** Assigned to the as a flight control officer under Captain William T. Riker
* 2381
**Transporter-duplicated into two copies
**Demoted to Ensign and transferred back to USS Cerritos due to Starfleet policy of not allowing duplicates to serve on the same ship
**Travels back in time to 2259 with Beckett Mariner, meeting Christopher Pike and the crew of the 
**Promoted to Lieutenant junior grade once again
**Briefly promoted to acting captain of the 
== Memorable quotes == 
"I need you to tell me that your senior officers are infallible heroes!"
"Well they're not, and that's okay. We all joined Starfleet to dive first into the unknown. We're explorers, of course we don't always know what's going on. Did Picard know about the Borg? Did Kirk know about that giant Spock on Phylos? Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time? That whole thing. You clearly want us to say that the captain and her crew messed up, but we simply don't have the full story, and that's the truth! Whatever they did, I guarantee you it was all for good. You have shown no evidence that they're guilty of a crime, in fact, I find you guilty of trying to take them down with this sham of a trial! DRUMHEAD!"
:- Clar and Boimler, on what makes Starfleet officers who they are ()
"If this was actually happening, they'd send the Enterprise. But, you know. Artistic license."
:- Boimler, to a holographic Starfleet officer about the events of Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta ()
"Sorry, you can't come with us. That move you pulled in the mess hall proves you don't belong in the Redshirts."
"Hey, my friend was in trouble."
"You made a fool of yourself to make a bug laugh. It was shameful."
"Alright, you know what's shameful? Trying to build a persona by copying other captains. You think Riker did that? You guys are wasting your time on this Redshirt stuff. Be your own captains!"
"Cute speech. I'm sure it'll play great on the lower decks."
: - Casey and Boimler, on how one ultimately needs to become their own captain instead of copying personas of other captains ()
"I- I didn't program any of this. I was in the holodeck trying to find meaning in the randomness of death, but I just… made a fool of myself."
"Brad, I've lost many friends. Some heroically, some tragically. The randomness of death is merely a reflection of the unexpected joys we find in life."
"So, if I spend my life worrying about a meaningless death, I'll never find joy?"
"I literally just said that."
"Sorry. Thanks, Captain Sulu. I think I can live with that."
"Happy to help a fellow Starfleet officer looking for answers."
:- Boimler and a hallucination of Hikaru Sulu, on the randomness of death ()
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
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=== Background information ===
Boimler was voiced by Jack Quaid. 
In developing the characters for Lower Decks, Mike McMahan described all four leads in an TrekMovie.com interview as a combination of other Star Trek characters, parts of himself, and people in his life. Boimler was partially based on Sam Lavelle from , "a great Starfleet officer, but he's just so dedicated to trying to rank up and he's so careful about everything that he doesn't get to be Kirk." 
He was named after co-producer Brad Winters. () 
"Bradward" is not a known long form of "Brad," and appears to be a portmanteau of "Brad" and "Edward."
=== Apocrypha ===
Brad Boimler appears as a duty officer in Star Trek Online.
=== External links ===
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de:Bradward Boimler
Category:Humans
Category:Starfleet command personnel
Category:USS Cerritos personnel
Category:USS Titan (NCC-80102) personnel
Category:Bioreplicants