Star Trek: Lower Decks Remains A Galaxy Brained Spoof In Its Fifth and Final Season

After a long, painful post-Enterprise drought, the streaming era has brought a whole bunch of Star Trek to the small screen, so much so that even many diehard Trekkies may have fallen behind. Sure, much of this output has been divisive, especially in an internet era where fandoms have become nearly impossible to please, but quite a bit of this output has been great, like the throwback Strange New Worlds.

But of these, the biggest surprise for me has been Lower Decks, a hilarious animated series that focuses on the kinds of red shirts who would normally bite it within 15 seconds on an away mission. The centerpiece of this show’s success is how it balances parody with the type of earnestness that Trek is known for, poking fun at the franchise’s storytelling conventions while still embracing its core utopian beliefs. And thankfully, at least through the first five episodes of this final season, showrunner Mike McMahan and the rest of the team continue to deliver jokes so funny they could (almost) make a Vulcan grin.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, this story follows a crew of junior officers, “lower deckers,” on Starfleet’s USS Cerritos as they “seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” Or that’s the overall goal, at least, because a lot of the time, they’re too busy having existential breakdowns, dealing with imposter syndrome, or going AWOL. Of these lower deckers, the main group we follow consists of Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), a former loose cannon learning to live with responsibility, Boimler (Jack Quaid), a chronic over-preparer attempting to go with the flow more, D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), a medic who’s a bundle of positivity, Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), a ship-obsessed engineer, and T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), a banished Vulcan.

Over the last four seasons, we’ve watched these lovable doofuses grow into their careers, and as with most great workplace comedies, this one is excellent at focusing on character relationships and job-related minutiae. In particular, this latest run manages the tricky task of continuing to focus on their foibles while also highlighting how much they’ve grown, such as how Mariner has come a long way in accepting responsibility but still gets anxious about being in command, or how Boimler still beefs it sometimes even though he’s become much more confident. Star Trek may traditionally focus on grandiose philosophical inquiries involving funky-looking aliens, but this show is often more interested in how these strange happenings influence its characters and their bonds with each other, which these episodes continue to do well.

Specifically, while I was worried that it seemed like Tendi was getting written out of the story after events in Season 4, these first few episodes focus on her more than ever, which is a big plus considering that she’s a delightful character whose optimism and dorkiness is a perfect stand-in for the franchise writ large. We get to see plenty of her pirate adventures, including scenes that focus on her surprisingly wholesome bond with her marauding sister, and the rest of the episodes after this have similarly fun hooks that involve Klingon farming, a planet transitioning away from capitalism, and an extended Apocalypse Now reference.

Across these escapades, the series remains as humorous as ever, laughing with instead of at Star Trek’s endearing goofiness. There’s no denying that this longtime-running sci-fi story is defined by many cheesy details (like the space whales), and Lower Decks is excellent at needling these cartoonish extremes without undermining the setting. Perhaps this success largely stems from the fanboy/girl glee applied in every detail, and this latest run draws from classic staples like the Riker chair maneuver and plenty of one-off episode callbacks, like that time Geordi almost got mutated into a blue alien. Basically, the endless easter eggs work because they’re used to deliver ultra-specific, ultra-funny jokes, and the constant gags land because it’s clear this teasing comes from a place of love.

Tying into this focus on levity, when our crew isn’t flying through space to help people, there’s a lot of hanging out. Did I mention this is basically a hangout show? Thankfully, five seasons in, it’s just as fun as ever to spend time with this crew as they work through whatever convoluted nonsense they’ve probably brought on themselves, like Mariner getting into drama with her ex-girlfriend or Boimler and his many paranoias. This character-focused approach is helped by the great voice acting, from Wells capturing Tendi’s infectious joy to Newsome conveying Mariner’s confidence. All in all, this batch of episodes punctuated just how well this group’s chemistry has come together over the years and made me fully appreciate that this is one of my favorite crews that Starfleet has ever produced.

While I love Strange New Worlds, one of the drawbacks of its more expensive, modern TV approach is that it leaves little room for its characters to kick back and relax in the Holodeck like they did when Trek shows each came in at 26 episodes a season (where’s my gratuitously long Sherlock Homles arc?). However, Lower Decks has helped pick up the slack here, working as an excellent complement to these other stories by focusing more on these low-key elements, as shows like Strange New Worlds fixated on the more traditional beats. However, this balance won’t be around much longer.

And that takes us to the most unfortunate circumstance hanging over this season: it’s the last one. For reasons I can’t quite divine, Lower Decks got canceled. Unfortunately, my biggest issue with Season 5 is that, at least so far, it doesn’t quite feel like the narrative is driving toward a conclusion that will cleanly tie up every loose end. While Mariner, Boimler, and the rest of the gang have made tremendous progress, and there are hints at a larger overarching plot, these first five episodes don’t come across like they’re some of the show’s last, which is a bit of a problem. Hopefully, the second half of the season will satisfyingly end things, but I’m a little worried at the moment. It would be one thing if series creator Mike McMahan and the folks at animation studio Titmouse had said everything they wanted to say with the series, but it seems the suits were the ones who pulled the plug, which makes me doubly nervous. Frankly, this turn makes it feel more than ever that the people running these streaming services hate animated shows for some indiscernible reason.

But while Lower Decks still has a lot of work to deliver a satisfying climax in its final five episodes, the first half of this season successfully continues to spoof and celebrate Star Trek in equal measure. Its episodic hijinks showcase just how far this scrappy band of officers has come, delighting in moments of camaraderie and humor that will make me miss their weekly adventures. While Lower Decks may not get to live long and prosper, at least it made the most of its time in Starfleet.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 premieres October 24 on Paramount+. 

Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.

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