The following article looks at the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks and older Treks.
There is no such thing as “dead” in Star Trek, the ever-expanding work that has thrived in spite of itself for nearly sixty years. What started as a show about spaceships and fistfights for atomic age kids and their parents has turned into (points around) all of this. So I won't write too much obituary for Star Trek: Lower Decks despite the fact that its fifth season is the last. Given Paramount's fluid leadership right now, I can easily imagine that decision being reversed in the future. So for now this is not so much a goodbye as much as a farewell.
Lower covers Season five picks up shortly after season four ended, with Tendi still paying off his debt to the Orions. I don't think it's a spoiler to suggest that the status quo is reaffirmed soon after, given, you know, all the other times this has happened. The Cerritos crew then gets involved in the usual kind of high-minded, vulgar but heart-filled antics we've come to expect. Naturally, I'm sworn to secrecy, but the fifth episode, where the title alone is a major spoiler, is the highlight.
I've seen the first five episodes of the season and, as with any sitcom, there are some misses among the hits. One episode in particular tries to reach for an old school. frasier plot, but fails given the thinness of the characters in question. Thankfully, Lower covers is able to carry a weak show thanks to the charm of its central cast. Unfortunately, while it attempts to give everyone a grace note, some characters one would expect would receive more attention are relegated to the periphery.
you can feel Lower covers It also goes against its own premise. A show about people on the lowest rung of the ladder can't reach too high. As a corrective, both Mariner and Boimler take this year as an opportunity to mature and grow. I won't spoil the most glorious joke of the season, but his growth comes in very different ways. If there's a downside, it's that the show still relies too heavily on energy-sapping action sequences to resolve its episodes.
But that's a minor complaint for a show that went from the wannabe class clown of the Trek world to the more light-hearted interpretation of its spirit. I've always loved how, when things go wrong, Lower covers it delights in the parts that many newer Treks would prefer to ignore. The show is, and has been, a joy to watch and something the rest of the franchise aspires to.
I've been looking for a way to describe Lower covers target audience for years, but only now did I realize it. It's a show written by and for people who grew up watching Star Trek in the VHS era. Creator Mike McMahan is only four years older than me, barely a teenager when The next generation came out of the air. So, although it would have been found Deep space nine and Traveler as a first run, everything else would have been discovered through replays and tapes.
You can almost follow that timeline of discovery like Lower covers expanded its range of hat tips each year of operation. Of course we got a parody of the first two Trek movies in the first season (both were ever-present on Saturday afternoon TV when I was a kid), but it's not until the third that we get a nod. First contact. As Company Running out of gas, you can feel McMahan and company delving into the behind-the-scenes history and convention gossip about those later series.
If you've watched, you'll see the joke about Harry Kim's rise, something the character never understood. Traveler. If you've mastered Trek's behind-the-scenes drama, you'll know some of the reasons why and why it's fun to nod your head at it now. But that's not the only subtle joke that aims a sharp elbow at the ribs of important figures on the series' creative team. I'm sure if you don't watch them all, Reddit will have put together a master list half an hour after each episode hits Paramount+.
I won't allow myself to theorize about why a popular and successful program like Lower covers is running out (it's money, it's always money). But, as we've seen countless times before, it's not difficult to revive a hit animated show when wiser minds prevail. Hell, even McMahan said it is up for it and even has some spin-off ideas in the works. But for now, let's toast lower covers, the animated comedy that became the cornerstone of modern Star Trek.
The first two episodes of the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will arrive on Paramount+ on Thursday, October 24, with an additional episode each week for the next eight weeks. The series and the season finale will air on December 19.