Star Trek: Lower Decks | |
---|---|
Season 5 | |
Showrunner | Mike McMahan |
Starring | |
No. of episodes | 10 |
Release | |
Original network | Paramount+ |
Original release | October 24 – December 19, 2024 |
Season chronology | |
The fifth and final season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season is produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director.
Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero voice the lower decks crew members of the Cerritos, with Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman providing voices for the ship's senior officers. A fifth season of Lower Decks was ordered in March 2023. Writing had begun by then and was nearly complete that October, when McMahan said it was possible that this could be the last season of the series. Voice recording was delayed by 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and mostly took place between November 2023 and February 2024. In April, Paramount+ confirmed that the fifth season would be the last.
The season premiered on the streaming service Paramount+ on October 24, 2024, with its first two episodes. The rest of the 10-episode run was released weekly until December 19.
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | |
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41 | 1 | "Dos Cerritos" | Megan Lloyd | Aaron Burdette | October 24, 2024 | |
The USS Cerritos is sucked into a parallel universe populated by alternate versions of the crew who have made slightly different life choices. The two crews work together to return the "Prime" Cerritos to its own universe. The captain of the alternate Cerritos is the harsh, disciplinarian counterpart of Lieutenant Beckett Mariner. Wanting to return to being a loose-cannon junior officer again, she kidnaps Prime Mariner and takes her place on the Prime Cerritos. Prime Mariner escapes and convinces the alternate Cerritos crew to get the attention of the Prime Cerritos, allowing the two Mariners to swap back. Meanwhile, former Cerritos crew member D'Vana Tendi leads a crew of Orion pirates to pay off a debt to her sister D'Erika, but longs to return to Starfleet. D'Erika offers to forgive the debt if D'Vana salvages a derelict Orion medical vessel, but D'Vana's crew comes into conflict with a rival clan of Blue Orions. They subdue the Blue Orions non-lethally and salvage the ship. The Blue Orions declare war on the Tendi clan, and D'Vana postpones returning to Starfleet to help her family win the war. | ||||||
42 | 2 | "Shades of Green" | Bob Suarez | Keith Foglesong | October 24, 2024 | |
The Pirate Queen of Orion orders the war between the Tendis and the Blue Orions to be resolved with a dangerous race through an asteroid field. D'Vana learns that D'Erika is pregnant and becomes overprotective of her sister, interfering with the race and causing them to crash. D'Erika says she hid her pregnancy so D'Vana would not feel obliged to mentor the child instead of returning to Starfleet. The sisters reconcile and finish the race in a tie; the queen decrees that both clans must forfeit their wealth. Meanwhile, the Cerritos helps the planet Targalus IX adjust to its new post-scarcity economy. Two ensigns are kidnapped by formerly wealthy Targalans who resent the loss of their status. They survive by following advice from Lieutenant Brad Boimler and are rescued by Boimler and Mariner. Lieutenant T'Lyn tries to help Lieutenant Sam Rutherford by repairing a shuttle, but he explains that he has been saving it to repair with D'Vana, so T'Lyn wrecks the shuttle again. When D'Vana returns to the Cerritos she asks for the discarded Targalan gold and jewels to be given to her family, restoring their wealth. | ||||||
43 | 3 | "The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel" | Brandon Williams | Stephanie Amante-Ritter | October 31, 2024 | |
The Cerritos is sent to a space hotel where Mariner, Rutherford, Tendi, and T'Lyn are tasked with capturing a nanite swarm that is consuming technology and energy. They are joined by Mariner's ex-girlfriend Jennifer Sh'reyan, who Mariner ghosted. Jennifer acts as if they are still dating and the others encourage Mariner to have a mature conversation about ending their relationship. Boimler joins Commander Jack Ransom in locating Admiral Milius, who has gone AWOL. Boimler suspects Ransom is using him as cannon fodder and briefly sides with Milius, who is resentful of Starfleet after being assigned uninteresting missions. Ransom says he chose Boimler for the mission because of his preparedness and bravery, and Boimler helps subdue Milius. Jennifer admits that she was pretending to still be dating as a way to force Mariner to talk. The two apologize and officialize their breakup. Rutherford finds a way to disable the nanites and discovers that they were controlled by a microscopic Starfleet ship from a parallel universe. Milius is happy when he is assigned to help the ship return home. | ||||||
44 | 4 | "A Farewell To Farms" | Megan Lloyd | Diana Tay | November 7, 2024 | |
The Klingon officer Ma'ah is forced to return to his family farm after being stripped of his captaincy for allowing his crew to mutiny. He is visited by Boimler and Mariner, who offer to help him regain his command. However, Ma'ah is less enthusiastic, as he would be forced to serve under Bargh, the leader of the Klingon Oversight Council, who abuses his position to deny Ma'ah's appeals because Ma'ah killed his brother. With encouragement from Boimler, Ma'ah fights and kills Bargh and resolves to start his career anew with his brother Malor as his first officer. Ma'ah then helps the pair to study a new parallel-universe rift in Klingon space; they discover the rifts are not a natural occurrence. Meanwhile, the Cerritos is escorting two food critics back to the homeworld of Dr. Migleemo, the ship's psychologist. Migleemo's attempts to impress them with his cooking only receive negative criticism. Tendi, Rutherford, and Captain Carol Freeman expose the critics as frauds who have lost their sense of taste; Migleemo offers to provide therapy, earning their respect. | ||||||
45 | 5 | "Starbase 80?!" | Bob Suarez | May Darmon | November 14, 2024 | |
The Cerritos is forced to dock at Starbase 80, which has a legendary negative reputation among Starfleet. The starbase is understaffed and supplied with obsolete equipment. Mariner, who was previously assigned to Starbase 80, believes the place to be cursed, especially when members of the Cerritos crew start acting like zombies. Ultimately, it is revealed the phenomenon was caused by an "anaphasic lifeform" named Clem, whom the Cerritos unknowingly picked up on a previous mission, unintentionally possessing them in a failed attempt to communicate. Having proven to be harmless, Clem is invited to remain at Starbase 80. Having gained a new appreciation for the legendary starbase, the Cerritos crew helps to repair many of its issues. Meanwhile, having learned that her alternate-universe counterpart was assigned to Starbase 80, Freeman becomes obsessed with avoiding her counterpart's mistake. The station's chief engineer sends her and Ransom on a wild-goose chase through the starbase in order to help him with repairs, and they end up trying to capture a giant bat even after the situation with Clem is resolved. | ||||||
46 | 6 | "Of Gods and Angles" | Brandon Williams | Aaron Burdette | November 21, 2024 | |
The Cerritos hosts peace talks between two photonic species, the Cubes and the Orbs. Meanwhile, Mariner sees a kindred spirit in Ensign Olly, a descendant of the alien entity the ancient Greeks worshipped as Zeus, and takes her under her wing as they investigate the disappearance of the son and daughter of the leading delegates. However, Olly ends up hampering the investigation due to her anxiety about being dismissed from Starfleet due to her weak but uncontrolled divine lightning powers, inflaming tensions between the Cubes and the Orbs, who start a war with the Cerritos caught in the middle. Olly uses the tractor beam to incapacitate them, proving her value as a Starfleet officer. It is revealed that the delegates' children are in love and have produced their own hybrid child, inspiring renewed peace talks. Meanwhile, Boimler, trying to emulate his more successful alternate-universe counterpart, attempts to befriend the cantankerous physician Dr. T'Ana. | ||||||
47 | 7 | "Fully Dilated" | Megan Lloyd | Andrew Mueth | November 28, 2024 | |
Mariner, Tendi and T'Lyn go undercover to a pre-industrial planet, Dilmer III, which is subject to time dilation such that a week passes on the planet for every second on the Cerritos. Their mission is to prevent the locals from discovering Starfleet technology from yet another parallel universe, which turns out to be the head of the android Starfleet officer Data. However, Boimler and Rutherford's latest attempt to emulate Boimler's alternate-universe counterpart accidentally disables the transporter, forcing the three women to spend a year on the planet during the minute it takes to repair the transporter. Believing she is competing with T'Lyn for the position of senior science officer, Tendi desperately tries to outdo T'Lyn in scientific achievement; she reactivates Data's head while T'Lyn develops innovations in local agriculture. They draw the attention of a suspicious Dilmerian named Snell, who tries to expose them as witches, but they are able to discredit him in front of his community. After they are returned to the Cerritos, before returning to his home universe, Data recommends to Captain Freeman to promote both Tendi and T'Lyn. | ||||||
48 | 8 | "Upper Decks" | Bob Suarez | Cullen Crawford | December 5, 2024 | |
The senior officers of the Cerritos go about a typical day. Freeman has a full schedule attending performances and rituals to support crew members. Chief engineer Billups deals with a crisis of cascading equipment failures. Ransom manages a team of squabbling ensigns wrangling a herd of Buhgoons—space creatures with cloaking capabilities—for inspection by a visiting ecologist; Ransom feigns incompetence to help the ensigns work together by redirecting their hostility towards himself instead of each other. Security chief Shaxs meditates to deal with his trauma from the Cardassian occupation of his planet Bajor, imagining himself killing a mountain of Cardassians and his own younger self. T'Ana, having been criticized for not providing enough painkillers to her patients, subjects herself to painful treatments to prove her point. When the ecologist reveals himself as the leader of a team of alien Clickets aiming to use the Buhgoons' cloaking ability to dominate the galaxy, the crew fights back; Freeman remembers that Clickets hate to be complimented and praises the attackers until they retreat. At the end of the day, Freeman's husband arrives on the Cerritos to celebrate their anniversary, having been invited by the captain's aide Stevens. | ||||||
49 | 9 | "Fissure Quest" | Brandon Williams | Lauren McGuire | December 12, 2024 | |
William Boimler, a clone of Brad created in a transporter accident, captains the starship Anaximander on a mission to find and stop the source of the recent interdimensional rifts which threaten the multiverse. His crew includes alternate-reality versions of characters from other Star Trek series, including multiple copies of Ensign Harry Kim, and picks up an alternate Mariner who is an engineer. Mariner devises a way to track the vessel creating the rifts. Its captain is an alternate Lily Sloane (the co-inventor of warp drive), who instead invented interdimensional travel; the rifts are an unintended side effect of her vessel. Sloane agrees to help return the interdimensional crew home. The only Harry Kim to have achieved the rank of Lieutenant hijacks Sloane's ship and kidnaps the other Kims to take them to a reality where they are respected, although he beams the others out when they resist. The damaged ship explodes after entering the rift, creating an energy wave that threatens to destroy the multiverse. William directs the wave to his own universe, trusting that his counterpart and friends on the Cerritos will find a solution in time. | ||||||
50 | 10 | "The New Next Generation" | Megan Lloyd | Mike McMahan | December 19, 2024 | |
After receiving William Boimler's message, the Cerritos is dispatched to close the rift, which is extending a "Schrödinger possibility field" that is having strange effects on everything in the vicinity. Meanwhile, Ma'ah and his brother Malor, on the run from Bargh's vengeful sister Relga, seek asylum on the Cerritos, which comes under attack by Belga's fleet. Ensign Olly uses her powers to drain Relga's shields, causing her ship to be destroyed by the rift. Although the Cerritos suffers from the effects of the Schrödinger field, it is able to reach the rift. Unable to close it, Mariner creates a dam that contains the destructive energy but leaves the rift permanently open. Starfleet begins a mission to explore the multiverse, overseen by Freeman and her husband from Starbase 80 – which is immune to the rift's effects due to its outdated systems – and joined by the Anaximander crew. Ma'ah is given command of Relga's fleet while Jack Ransom is promoted to captain of the Cerritos. Before setting out on new adventures, Ransom promotes both Boimler and Mariner to provisional first officer and Rutherford decides to permanently remove his cybernetic implant. |
Paramount+ ordered a 10-episode fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks in March 2023. [6] Creator and showrunner Mike McMahan said writing had begun by then, [7] and he was writing the season finale that October. [8] McMahan said further seasons beyond the fifth were not guaranteed, particularly after Paramount+ cancelled fellow animated series Star Trek: Prodigy and confirmed the final seasons of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard . [9] Despite this, he was not writing the season finale to also serve as a series finale because he did not want to give the characters a definitive ending. [10] In April 2024, Paramount+ confirmed that the fifth season would be the last. [11]
The series stars a group of ensigns that serve in the lower decks of the Cerritos: Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as D'Vana Tendi, and Eugene Cordero as Sam Rutherford. The ship's bridge crew, who have supporting roles, include Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as first officer Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as security chief Lieutenant Shaxs, and Gillian Vigman as chief medical officer Dr. T'Ana. [2] In July 2023, shortly after voice recording for the season started, the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike began. [12] Though the animated series were not covered by the strike and the cast were allowed to continue recording, they chose not to out of solidarity for actors on live-action series. [13] Recording for the season resumed after the strike ended in November, [12] and Newsome had finished her work, except for some additional dialogue recording (ADR), by February 2024. She said the recording delays should not impact the overall production schedule for the season because they had been ahead of schedule when the strike began. [13]
In October 2022, McMahan said he had been looking for a way to bring some of the characters from the series Star Trek: Enterprise into Lower Decks. [14] He acknowledged that this was difficult due to Enterprise being set so much earlier in the Star Trek timeline than Lower Decks is, but he found a way to do it in the fifth season and was in early negotiations with some actors from that series to reprise their roles in the season by October 2023. [10] Also returning from previous Star Trek series is Garrett Wang as Harry Kim from Star Trek: Voyager . [5] Gabrielle Ruiz returns from previous seasons as T'Lyn. [3] [4]
Independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for the series, [15] with Barry J. Kelly serving as supervising director. [16] The animation style reflects the look of "prime time animated comedy" series such as The Simpsons , but with more detailed backgrounds and environments than is traditional for prime time animation. [17]
Newsome, Cordero, and Ruiz held a panel for the series on Star Trek: The Cruise, a multi-day ship cruise featuring cast and crew from various Star Trek projects in February 2024. They discussed the series in general and teased the fifth season during the panel. [4] Newsome, Cordero, and Lewis also teased the season during a similar panel at the ST-SF convention in San Francisco the next month. [18] Kurtzman, McMahan, Newsome, Quaid, Wells, and O'Connell promoted the season during a "Star Trek Universe" panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024. A trailer for the season was released during the event, [19] which Adam B. Vary at Variety said was "filled with a litany of jokes with very little context behind them" which aligned with previous trailers for the series. [20] Tasha Robinson at Polygon noted that the trailer is primarily a "sentimental celebration" of the previous seasons. [21]
A final trailer for the season was released in October, revealing Wang's guest role as multiple versions of Harry Kim. [5] Commentary on the trailer focused on the appearance of the Kims and other jokes. [22] [23] [24] Also that month, McMahan, Newsome, Quaid, Wells, and Cordero promoted the series during a "Star Trek Universe" panel at New York Comic-Con. A clip from the season was shown and a new poster, parodying one for the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), was released. [25] Vice Press was set to release several key art posters for the season featuring art by Matt Ferguson, including the parody poster. [1] The premiere episode was screened at the Newport Beach Film Festival on October 23, followed by a discussion with McMahan, Wells, Cordero, and O'Connell. [26] As with the previous seasons, animation studio Titmouse released a shirt with a unique design on it alongside each episode. The designs were available for one week each, and fans who bought all ten received a bonus eleventh shirt. For this season, Newsome, Quaid, Wells, and Cordero each contributed a shirt design. [27] [28]
The season premiered on Paramount+ in the United States and Latin America on October 24, 2024, with its first two episodes. The rest of its 10-episode run is being released weekly. [19] [5] Each episode is broadcast in Canada on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel. [29]
Rotten Tomatoes reported 90% approval with an average rating of 8.60/10 based on 10 reviews. [30] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 84 out of 100 based on reviews from 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [31]
Titmouse, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Los Angeles, California founded in 1999 that develops and produces animated television programming, feature films, music videos, title sequences, commercials, and short films. The name is derived of the titmouse, which serves as the company's mascot.
Jack Henry Quaid is an American actor. He made his acting debut with a minor role in the dystopian film The Hunger Games (2012). His breakout role was as vigilante Hughie Campbell in the satirical superhero series The Boys (2019–present).
Star Trek: Short Treks is an American science fiction anthology television series created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman for the streaming service CBS All Access. Originating as a companion series to Star Trek: Discovery, it consists of several 10- to 20-minute-long shorts that use settings and characters from Discovery and other Star Trek series.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is an American adult animated science fiction television series created by Mike McMahan for the streaming service CBS All Access. It is the ninth Star Trek series and debuted in 2020 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. The franchise's first animated series since Star Trek: The Animated Series concluded in 1974, and also its first comedy, Lower Decks follows the low-ranking support crew of the starship Cerritos in the 24th century.
Tawny Newsome is an American musician, comedian, and actress best known for playing Chelsea Leight-Leigh on Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, co-starring in Space Force and the third season of Brockmire, and co-hosting the podcast Yo, Is This Racist?. She is also a singer in the band Four Lost Souls. She voices one of the main characters, Beckett Mariner, on Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Star Trek: Prodigy is an American animated science fiction television series created by Kevin and Dan Hageman. It is the tenth Star Trek series and debuted in 2021 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target a younger audience, and the franchise's first solely 3D animated series. It follows a group of young aliens in the 24th century who find the abandoned starship Protostar and learn about Starfleet.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is an upcoming American television series created by Gaia Violo for the streaming service Paramount+. It is intended to be the 12th Star Trek series and part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expanded Star Trek Universe. Set in the 32nd century, it follows the first new class of Starfleet cadets in over a century as they come of age and train to be officers.
Mike McMahan is an American comedy writer and television producer. He is the creator of the animated comedies Solar Opposites and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
The first season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Juno Lee as supervising director.
The second season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director.
Bradward "Brad" Boimler is a fictional character from the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Lower Decks. He is known for being ambitious while diligently following the rules of the service, and pleading excessively for his best friend, Ensign Beckett Mariner, an openly insubordinate ensign who regularly skirts the consequences, to do the same - although in the far future, Boimler is remembered for the Boimler Effect, a ship-wide mandate aboard the USS Cerritos encouraging breaking the rules, a distinction Boimler would not approve of. However, as the series progresses, Boimler eventually distinguishes himself as a courageous and resourceful officer of considerable command potential.
The third season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director.
CBS Eye Animation Productions is an American animation studio, division of CBS Studios owned by Paramount Global. The studio is closely associated with the Star Trek franchise with its first projects, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy. CBS reinstated it as an animation division in late 2018 before its re-merger with Viacom in late 2019.
The second season of the American television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the starship Enterprise in the 23rd century as they explore new worlds and carry out missions throughout the galaxy during the decade before Star Trek: The Original Series. The season was produced by CBS Studios in association with Secret Hideout, Weed Road Pictures, H M R X Productions, and Roddenberry Entertainment, with Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers serving as showrunners.
The fourth season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director.
"Those Old Scientists" is the seventh episode of the second season of the television series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and was released on Paramount+ on July 22, 2023. In this crossover episode, characters from the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks are sent back in time to the 23rd-century setting of Strange New Worlds. Captain Christopher Pike and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) have to work with Ensigns Mariner and Boimler to return them to their proper time.
D'Vana Tendi is a fictional character from the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Lower Decks. She is the first Orion main character in a Star Trek show. Among Orions, she is known as the Mistress of the Winter Constellations.