Marinler

Marinler is the het ship between Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner from the Star Trek: Lower Decks fandom.

Season 1
Episode 1 established the characters pre-series status with Mariner while inebriated and thus not inhibited being very friendly if teasing to Boimler about his recording of captain's log, for his part Boimler seemed to have kept quiet about Mariner wounding him with a contraband blade while drunk, even if during the episode Boimler does accept captain Freeman's mission to spy on Mariner for any offenses his ultimate choice to not report anything to the captain, based on Mariner taking his side even when furious with him, laid the foundations for their much more intimate and close relationship they will enjoy during the series.

Episode 5 "Cupid's Errant Arrow" saw Mariner being extremely paranoid about Boimler's new girlfriend, while the text of the episode motivates her erratic behavior as being related to past trauma with a friend of hers, this particular episode is rife with themes of jealousy and romance, Barb Brinson the new girlfriend in question was deliberately paralleled with Mariner at the climax of the episode with Barb's paranoia being explicitly romantic, the episode ends with Boimler and Mariner walking off-screen together with Mariner commenting positively on Boimler's worth as a romantic partner.

Episode 9 "Crisis Point" saw Boimler discover Mariner's secret, that she is captain Freeman's daughter information they both decided not to share with the rest of the crew, nearly immediately afterwards Boimler had a personal interview with the captain, sensing his distress the captain encouraged him to say the first thing on his Mind which Brad revealed was Mariner, fearing her secret was out Freeman interrogated him further with an erratic and stressed Boimler blurting out he found Mariner both "hot" and "nasty" before running away in terror.

Episode 10 "No Small Parts" ended with Boimler on a new ship, receiving an angry call from Mariner which could be best described as a "rant from the ex-girlfriend".

Quotes
"You really think I'd buy you guys are best friends?"

- Barbara Brinson to Beckett Mariner, Cupid's Errant Arrow

"Yeah, I mean he is a dork, for sure. But he's my dork."

- Beckett Mariner, Cupid's Errant Arrow

Fanon
Marinler is by far the most popular ship in the Lower Decks fandom, with nearly 100 works on AO3 as of February 2022. Their dynamic is often compared to Spirk, even in-universe with Mariner seeing herself as a "Kirk-style free spirit".

Fandom
FAN FICTION