Josh Reviews the Final Season of Star Trek: Lower Decks

When it first launched, I wasn’t sure about Star Trek: Lower Decks.  A half-hour animated Star Trek comedy wasn’t exactly what I wanted to see, and while I enjoyed the show from the beginning, I often found myself feeling that the story ideas were so good (such as the brilliant concept of what happens for the starship assigned to handle “second contact”, following up after the many “first contact” meetings with new alien worlds and species that we’d so often seen in Star Trek shows) that I’d have preferred it had they been treated “straight” and presented as a serious Star Trek story.  But I very quickly fell in love with Lower Decks.  It didn’t take long for the show to fully find its footing and stand tall as a bright light amid the modern Star Trek shows (which, other than the third season of Star Trek: Picard, I have found to be pretty much terrible and disappointing.)

But creator and show-runner Mike McMahan created a show that turned out to have everything I wanted in a Star Trek show.  First off, while most other modern Trek shows seemed ignorant of Star Trek continuity (if not outright dismissive and disdainful of it), Lower Decks was dripping in a pure love of Star Trek right from the first episode.  The show was delightfully accurate to the look and feel of the other 24th century Star Trek shows (Next Gen, DS9, and Voyager) in whose time-period it was set.  And the dialogue and animation was chock-full of deep-cut references to all sorts of obscure Trek lore that sometimes even escaped a super-fan like myself.  The show didn’t just reference old Star Trek, it blazed new paths with new Star Trek stories, expanding the universe of Star Trek.  It made me so happy that the show took the time to, for instance, delightfully expand what we knew of Orion culture and civilization.  (Orions have been a part of Star Trek ever since the original pilot “The Cage”, with its dancing green slave-girl.  But no Trek series has ever spent much time exploring this alien race… until Lower Decks.)

More importantly, the show did a delightful job developing and exploring the characters.  I love the Lower Deck characters!  Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) are now some of my favorite Star Trek characters ever!!  This is what happens in any great TV show — we grow to know and love the characters and look forward to spending time with them each week.  Beyond just the four main Lower Decks characters (five now, with the inclusion of the Vulcan T’Lyn, played by Gabrielle Ruiz), the show also explored all of the Ceritos’ main command crew (who would have been the stars of any other Trek show), and then beyond even them developed a rich bench of supporting characters (just like great shows from DS9 to The Simpsons have done).

The show was also very, very funny!!  I laughed a lot, watching every episode of this show!  Thankfully, this wasn’t a parody.  The show wasn’t laughing AT Star Trek.  No, the writers skillfully found jokes in a natural way from within the Star Trek universe, and from these characters and the situations in which they found themselves.

And the animation was absolutely gorgeous!  I was bowled over how many characters we got this season; how many new alien races and planets; how many awesome starships.  The animation was pleasingly smooth, and the way this show fit beautifully into the established look of 24th century Trek while also expanding the universe and giving us new locations, props, ships, etc., was amazing and impressive.

I wish the show had been allowed to run for seven seasons as Mike McMahan had envisioned, but I’m thankful for the five seasons we got, and there’s no question that the show went out at the absolute top of its creative game.  Each of the ten new episodes here in season five were magnificent — fun and funny and filled with character and heart and a love for the Star Trek universe.  I loved every one of these episodes.

Shall we explore them?

Beware SPOILERS ahead!  If you’re a Star Trek fan who didn’t watch this show because it was animated, or because it was a comedy, I implore you to give it a chance.  You have a wonderful show waiting for you!!  For everyone else who knows what a special gift Lower Decks was, let’s dig into this final season!  Again… SPOILERS from here on out…!

I loved the way the scene in the opening credits of the Ceritos turning tail and warping away from a battle has expanded each season — I was overjoyed to see that continue this year, with the addition of the Tholian Web and V’Ger!!  Amazing!!

I’m glad the show didn’t waste too long in bringing Tendi back to the Ceritos.  I did enjoy the Orion-focused season premiere, most especially because they brought the Blue Orions from the original 1970’s Star Trek: The Animated Series into continuity!!  And they had those characters (mis)pronouncing the word “Orion” in the weird way they did on TAS!!!  That was amazing!!  Such a deep-cut joke!!

Mikr McMahon has often in interviews referred to the idea of “growing the beard”, referencing how the character of Riker — and TNG as a whole — came into its own in the second season of TNG when Jonathan Frakes grew a beard.  It was a delight to meet a blue-bearded alternate-universe Boimler in the season premiere (who does the same specific weird leg-lift way Riker gets into/out of a chair!! Amazing!!), and I loved the way they changed the animation model of Boimler’s face each episode this season, showing him gradually growing a beard himself!  (I loved his awkward lip-fuzz in episode 2… and how that eventually grew into his actually-cool-looking full beard by the finale!!)

I referred above to this show having great concepts that would have worked in fully serious Trek shows, and episode two’s look at a planet taking its first step into “post-scarcity technology” was a great example!!  What a cool idea… and they were able to mine that for so much comedy!!  Amazing!!

I loved the Klingon spotlight in episode four, “A Farewell to Farms”.  I loved getting to see Ma’ah again, and it was nice to meet his jovial brother Malor.  (It was a fun touch to cast Mary Chieffo, who played the Klingon L’Rell on Discovery, as a new character here, K’Elarra.  I never liked L’Rell on Discovery, but in interviews Ms. Chieffo seemed great, so it was fun to see her given a chance to play another Klingon, and one who I liked a lot more!)

I also loved that episode’s spotlight on the bird-like Dr. Migleemo’s food-obsessed culture, in the form of two snooty food critics who visit the Ceritos!  That was great!

I was happy to see the weird Starbase 80 brought back into the story in episode five, and Nicole Byer (Trudy Judy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Good Place employee Gwendolyn on The Good Place) was perfect as the cheerful Starbase 80 officer Kassia Nox.  It was nice to see her wearing an Enterprise-era universe.  Speaking of Enterprise, I loved the incredible decon gel joke — a wonderful reference to one of the dumber things from that show.  (Though I wish the gel had played more into the story!  I’d thought that’d be connected to whatever was turning the crew into zombies…)  I was also so happy to hear Stephen Root (Newsradio, Barry) as the voice of Starbase 80’s engineer Gene Jakobowski!  (It was awesome to see this show getting such high profile guest stars!!)  That episode was also particularly full of deep-cut Star Trek references, from seeing all the Acamareans living on the starbase (a reference to TNG’s “The Vengeance Factor”) to seeing that the starbase’s doctor had a Tarchannen parasite half (a callback to TNG’s “Identity Crisis”)!!

Episode six, “Gods and Angles”, has a great title, and I loved the concept behind Ensign Olly, who we learn is a granddaughter of the demigod Zeus (a reference to the appearance of Apollo in the TOS episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”).  What a great idea for a character!  Saba Omayoon did a nice job in the role.  It was fun to see newly responsible Mariner paired up with the headstrong, reckless Olly.  And I loved the the ridiculous cubes and spheres (the two alien races in conflict this episode) — so funny.  (And I smiled a lot at the reference to Ronald B. Moore, who of course was the character — named after TNG Visual effects supervisor — played by Joe Piscopo on the second season TNG episode “The Outrageous Okona”).

The guest stars started ramping up in episode seven, “Fully Dilated”, with Brent Spiner’s appearance playing the head of a purple Data from an alternate universe.  I was really tickled by this Lower Decks take on a classic Star Trek “undercover in a pre-warp society” story.  Seeing Mariner trying to live her best life ”probe life” (a reference to TNG’s “The Inner Light”) was great.

Episode eight, “Upper Decks”, was brilliant.  I loved this spin on the TNG “Lower Decks” episode that was the original inspiration for this show.  Here in this episode, we focused on the “upper decks” characters, the Ceritos’ command crew.  It was a pleasure getting to see the spotlight shined on Captain Freeman, Ramson, Shax, T’Ana, and Billups.  (My favorite joke was seeing Captain Freeman’s busy schedule attending all the crew’s weird music & drama performances, a reference to the many performances we’d constantly see on TNG.  I also loved the continuation of the bizarre running side-gag of Billups’ trying to expand his breakfast menu.)  Here at the end of the show, it was great to see the Beta and Delta shift characters again, as well as other supporting characters such as Meredith (who gets some nice screen time, solving engineering catastrophes with Billups), Stevens (maintaining the captain’s schedule), and nurse Westlake.  I loved the idea of a Bynar A.I. Golem — I wanted more of that!!  (It was yet another one of the show’s great concepts.)  In the category of obscure Trek references, I loved seeing a cow-like Grazerite (that’s the alien race of the Federation President seen in the DS9 two-parter “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost”) studying “space cows”.

Things got even better with episode nine, “Fissure Quest”.  It was a bold choice to set the series penultimate episode in an alternate universe, without any of the show’s the main characters, but it pays off in spades.  The episode WAS about our characters, especially the Boimler-Mariner friendship, and it was so overloaded with callbacks and connections that I was filled with joy.  With the show’s cancellation, I was afraid they wouldn’t have time to revisit Boimler’s transporter duplicate, so I was thrilled he factored so heavily into this episode.  And the big-name guest appearances were amazing.  Let’s start with Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson, reprising their roles as Bashir and Garak.  Seeing my favorite DS9 duo again made me so happy, and I loved that they embraced the fan-notion and presented Bashir and Garak as being in a romantic relationship.  Amazing.  I’m not a huge Enterprise fan, but I was stunned and so happy that they brought back T’Pol.  Bravo to Mike McMahon for presenting us with such a wonderful salute to this character, who I feel was so often misused and misunderstood on Enterprise (where she was often presented as a sex object), and giving her and Trip the happy ending they deserved (married for 60 years)!  (And I’m impressed they lured back Jolene Blalock, who has reportedly been retired from acting for a while now.)  Speaking of misused characters, what a joy it was to see Garrett Wang back, playing this gaggle of alternate universe Harry Kims!!  It was great to see Ensign Kim finally given his due.  It was a glorious joke that the Kims are all still ensigns across the multiverse, and that the one who finally made it to Lieutenant was evil.  And we ALSO go Alfre Woodard, reprising her Star Trek: First Contact role as Lily Sloane!!  Amazing!!  (I loved seeing Lily in an Enterprise uniform.)

The finale, “The New Next Generation” was a wonderful conclusion to the series.  I’m glad they gave episode nine to the guest stars, allowing this finale to focus on the main characters.  (Though I will admit, once we got a mention of the Enterprise, I was hoping for a short Patrick Stewart cameo before the end!!  Oh well.)  It was great to see our Lower Decks heroes pull together and save the day.  A few things felt a little rushed… Rutherford’s sudden frustration with the Ceritos’ tech came out of nowhere, and after a whole season of Boimler’s relying on his alternate universe double’s PADD for guidance, he was able to get rid of that very quickly and easily.  I’m also bummed that Tendi and Rutherford didn’t get a romantic moment together.  (The show has teased their being in love with one another for years; I’d really wanted that subtext to become text, even for just a moment, before the end.)

But the finale was packed with incredible moments.  I loved the incredible sequence of the Ceritos morphing into all sorts of different style ships from across Trek history when traveling through the Possibility Field.  I loved getting to see a bunch of Klingons again, from Ma’ah and Malor to the villainous Relgah and her awesomely weird-looking Targ.  (That Klingon dog, by the way, is based on the real dog, sadly deceased, of one of my favorite writers and podcasters, Devin Faraci.  The story behind this is amazing; click here to read the tale.  I think you have to back that Patreon to read that article, but it’s definitely worth the $1 a month minimum fee.)  It was nice to see Tendi and T’Lyn save the day as “science besties”.  It was very cool, and emotionally satisfying, to see both Mariner and Boimler be brave and heroic, real Starfleet officers.

The final montage was wonderful, giving us glimpses of the show’s deep bench of characters.  I’m so sad we’re leaving these characters.  This show still had so much creative juice in its tank.  Mike McMahon had assembled an incredible team of actors, writers, and animators.  I wish they’d been allowed to keep working together on this show for many more years!!!  What a shame.  But I’m thankful for the five seasons we got (plus one incredible crossover episode of Strange New Worlds!)  I can’t wait to find time to rewatch this whole show again from the beginning.  And I desperately hope this isn’t the end for these characters.  As Spock said, “there are always possibilities…”

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