"I'm the transporter clone? Boo."
Bradward "William" Boimler was a result of a transporter accident in 2381 that created two Brad Boimlers, genetically indistinguishable from each other, with personality and memories identical up to the point of the duplication. One of the duplicates continued to be known as Bradward Boimler and was transferred back to the USS Cerritos. The other chose to use the name "William" and be known as William Boimler and continued to serve aboard the USS Titan. William was later recruited by Section 31, who faked his death in order to remove him from the Titan and eventually gave him a promotion to captain and command of the Defiant-class starship Anaximander. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", "Fissure Quest")
He was referred to casually as "clone Boimler". (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")
Quick Answers
What event led to the creation of William Boimler in Star Trek?
How does William Boimler differ from Bradward Boimler in Star Trek?
Why did one of the Boimler duplicates choose to use the name 'William'?
What happened to the original Bradward Boimler after the transporter accident?
Are the two Boimlers in Star Trek genetically identical?
Early life[]
Boimler was born in Modesto, California on Earth, where he grew up around the raisin vineyards run 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 propositioned him was of no interest. (LD: "Second Contact", "wej Duj", "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus", "Grounded")
Prior to Stardate 57436.2, Boimler had only visited four planets, including Vulcan. (LD: "Second Contact")
Starfleet career[]
Starfleet Academy[]
At some point during his life, Boimler joined Starfleet and attended Starfleet Academy, where he received no demerits and failed the Kobayashi Maru scenario 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. (LD: "Second Contact", "Temporal Edict", "Reflections")
Boimler and Fletcher were close friends at the academy. (LD: "Terminal Provocations") While there, he took Ethics of Collecting, and chose to take some studies on the Tamarian language. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", "wej Duj") He also took matter synthesis as an elective. (SNW: "Those Old Scientists")
USS Cerritos[]
Boimler giving a Captain's log
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. (LD: "Second Contact")
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. (LD: "Envoys")
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. (LD: "Temporal Edict", "No Small Parts")
During a mission in which the Cerritos offered support to the USS Merced, 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. (LD: "Moist Vessel")
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 USS Vancouver. 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 sex 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. (LD: "Cupid's Errant Arrow")
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 USS Titan, 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. (LD: "Terminal Provocations")
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. (LD: "Much Ado About Boimler")
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. (LD: "Veritas")
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. (LD: "Crisis Point", "No Small Parts")
Mariner and Boimler butted heads in the time following this revelation, and while Boimler was attempting to transfer aboard the USS Sacramento, 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. (LD: "No Small Parts")
USS Titan and duplication incident[]
Boimler aboard the Titan
In 2380, Boimler took a position as a flight control officer aboard the USS Titan, as well as a promotion to lieutenant junior grade. (LD: "No Small Parts") 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. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open")
Boimler's choice to use the name "William" was presumably an effort to ingratiate himself to Riker, as Boimler immediately immersed himself in Riker's interests, such as Romulan ale and jazz. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open")
Later that year, Brad took advantage of his knowledge that the Titan was occupied fighting Pakleds, and posed as William to gain access to the Command Conference afterparty aboard Starbase 25. When Beckett Mariner first suggested the plan, which would have allowed her to be the "plus one", Brad thought to ask William if it was okay to do beforehand, but Mariner dissuaded him. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")
Official record of Boimler's death
In 2381, Section 31 recruited William into their services, faking his death by a freak neurocine gas leak in his quarters. After Brad was notified by Ransom, he was placed on bereavement leave, but never took the proper time to process it. Although he was jealous of William, for having "his own quarters on a cooler ship", news of such a meaningless death shook Brad terribly, forcing him to question the meaning of life, and sending him into a depression spiral until he was temporarily rendered clinically dead by dehydration before being revived.
Following his apparent death, William was jettisoned into space inside a torpedo casing and eventually rescued and resuscitated by his new employers. After being informed that he was officially considered "a dead man" by Starfleet, he briefly questioned the indiscreet nature Section 31 took in advertising themselves with a "special combadge" and being threatened to be put back to death, William accepted the position and to that end laughed maniacally. (LD: "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus")
Section 31 career[]
Anaximander and the Quantum Fissures[]
By 2382, William had been promoted to captain of the Anaximander, a Section 31 Defiant-class starship investigating the quantum fissures that kept popping up, crewed by "interdimensional castaways" in the form of alternate reality versions of T'Pol, Curzon Dax, Elim Garak, several versions of Harry Kim, and a holographic Julian Bashir. During this time, William had grown tired of the multiverse due to its repetitive nature and wistfully remembered his time exploring the galaxy on the Cerritos and the friends that he had there, especially after meeting an alternate version of his old friend Beckett Mariner. With the entire multiverse in danger of destruction, William directed the destructive energy wave to his own reality, trusting Brad and his old friends to save the universe and sending his transporter duplicate a message warning him of the threat while revealing his own survival at the same time. (LD: "Fissure Quest")
After the Cerritos was able to stabilize the rift at the cost of it being permanently left open, William returned to the prime universe with his interdimensional crew, now including the Beagle crew. (LD: "The New Next Generation")
Continuing Multiversal Exploration[]
The Anaximander was assigned to Starbase 80 as a part of Starfleet's exploration of the multiverse overseen by Captain Carol Freeman. William and his crew were attending a party on the station when the Cerritos -- now captained by Jack Ransom with Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner as provisional first officers -- departed to continue its adventures. (LD: "The New Next Generation")
Personality[]
Although William possessed all of Brad Boimler's traits up until the duplication, he quickly became an embodiment of Boimler's more action-oriented side, excitedly tricking Brad so that he could stay on the USS Titan rather than returning to the USS Cerritos despite Boimler having expressed more of an interest in exploration than action shortly before the duplication. Presumably for this reason, William later accepted an offer to join the shadowy Section 31, even letting out a maniacal laugh after faking his own death. (LD: "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", "Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus")
However, while his career quickly advanced to the point of promotion to captain of his own ship within a year, William was shown to miss his old friends and exploring the galaxy rather than jumping through the multiverse chasing the USS Beagle. Meeting an alternate reality version of his old friend Beckett Mariner only increased these feelings for William, although talking to Lily Sloane about her own exploration mission helped William to understand that his friendships with the people that mattered most to him transcended realities. To this end, William chose to send a destructive energy wave to his own universe, placing his trust in Brad and his friends to find a solution to the problem. (LD: "Fissure Quest")
William's differing experiences gave him a generally calmer disposition than Brad, as seen by Brad's immediate panic at the news of impending disaster as opposed to William's calm handling of the situation. (LD: "Fissure Quest")
Key dates[]
- Mid-24th century: Born in Modesto, California on Earth.
- 2379:
- Graduates from Starfleet Academy
- 2379–2380: Assigned to the USS Cerritos as a junior officer
- 2380:
- Transferred to the USS Titan
- Stays on the Titan and assumes the name William after a transporter accident creates duplicates of Boimler, while the other duplicate retains the name Bradward and returns to the Cerritos.
- 2381: Fakes his death and joins Section 31.
- 2382: Leads a crew of "interdimensional castaways" to investigate the quantum fissures on the Anaximander.
Appendices[]
Appearances[]
Background information[]
William Boimler was voiced by actor Jack Quaid, who also portrayed Brad Boimler.