In its fifth and final season, Star Trek: Lower Decks continues the adventures of the USS Cerritos and its zany crew. Following Lts. Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), Lower Decks gives Starfleet’s less experienced officers a chance to shine. Throughout its first four seasons, Lower Decks has told mostly episodic stories, but each season has had an ongoing mystery or conflict. Not only does Lower Decks tell quintessentially Star Trek stories, but it also acts as a love letter to the franchise as a whole.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 dove even deeper into the show’s connections with previous Trek shows, particularly Star Trek: The Next Generation. While the season opener was filled with references to Star Trek: Voyager, the main mystery of the season revolved around characters and storylines first introduced on TNG, including the return of former Starfleet cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill). Continuing the trend set by previous seasons, Lower Decks season 5 is not only chock-full of shout-outs to past Trek, but is also hilarious and full of genuine heart.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 May Be The Show’s Best Season Yet
Lower Decks Builds On Everything That Came Before In Really Fun Ways
With four seasons under their belt, the Star Trek: Lower Decks team knows what works and what doesn’t, and that confidence shows in this final season. The season opener, “Dos Cerritos,” offers a look at Tendi (aka the Mistress of the Winter Constellations) embracing her life as an Orion pirate captain in a way only Tendi could, while the USS Cerritos encounters their double in a take on a classic Trek story. With perfect deep-cut references and compelling character development, Lower Decks season 5 starts off incredibly strong.
The subsequent episodes continue exploring the personalities of these characters viewers have come to love, setting up Lower Decks season 5 to be the show’s strongest season in terms of character development. The series continues to cram so many references into each episode, but they almost always service the plot or the characters. The creative team behind Lower Decks clearly has extensive knowledge of every Trek show, but their love for the franchise also shines through.
In its first five episodes, Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 delivers hit after hit, and I love the way the show has zeroed in on its characters as the focus. The gags and references and zany antics are all still there, but they all reveal something about the characters. Now that we have had four seasons to get to know them, Lower Decks season 5 really hammers home how much the characters have grown and changed over the course of the show. The voice actors, as always, are also phenomenal, bringing so much personality and heart to their characters.
Lower Decks Season 5 Beautifully Sets Up The Characters’ Futures
Hopefully, The Lower Deckers Will Pop Up In Future Star Trek Projects
With its clear confidence and focus, season 5 feels like a stepping stone for the characters rather than the end. Lts. Boimler and Mariner often steal the show, and their characters have really come into their own since the show’s first season. Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome never fail to deliver solid performances, but they are truly at the top of their game here (especially when they get to voice alternate-universe versions of their characters).
As I watched these first five episodes, however, I couldn’t help but feel sad that I was already halfway through Lower Decks’s final season. For me, season 5 is a high point for the show, making it feel like the end is coming far too quickly. With only ten 25-minute episodes per season, some characters do not get as much screentime as others and the USS Cerritos has so many more stories to tell. Still, if Lower Decks season 5 is truly the end, the final season does a good job of setting up the characters’ futures.
I can finally see Brad Boimler becoming a great Starfleet captain one day.
After four and a half seasons, I can finally see Brad Boimler becoming a great Starfleet captain one day, perhaps with Mariner as his frustrating but highly skilled first officer. I never thought I’d fall in love with animated characters the same way I did with characters like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Data (Brent Spiner), but here we are. Hopefully, the characters of Star Trek: Lower Decks will continue to live on elsewhere in the franchise — maybe in another crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? Either way, the show will long be remembered as a franchise best.
The first two episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks are now available to stream now on Paramount+. New episodes will be available every Thursday until the series finale on December 19.