Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in 2380, and here's what that timeframe means in the Star Trek timeline. Created by Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty), Lower Decks is the first Star Trek animated series since the 1970s, and it's the first full-fledged half-hour comedy set in the Star Trek universe. Lower Decks is the next phase of the Star Trek franchise's expansion led by executive producer Alex Kurtzman, which began with Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard.
Set aboard the California-class U.S.S. Cerritos, which is "one of the least important ships in Starfleet", Star Trek: Lower Decks centers on the high jinks of junior officers Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Ensign Tendi (Noel Wells). The premise of the sci-fi comedy is that what would normally be the "A" story of a Star Trek episode will happen in the background while the show focuses on the blunders of the four Starfleet support staff as the Cerritos explores the final frontier. The starship also has a senior staff consisting of Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell), Lieutenant Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore), and Dr. T'Ana (Gillian Vigman), who also don't necessarily represent Starfleet's finest.
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Star Trek: Lower Decks' 2380 setting is significant because it continues the exploration of the late 24th century that began with Star Trek: The Next Generation and continued with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. In fact, 2380 means Lower Decks takes place after DS9's Dominion War and two years after the U.S.S. Voyager returned to Earth following being lost in the Delta Quadrant for seven years, as seen in Star Trek: Voyager's series finale, "Endgame". This means Lower Decks happens well after the future Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) introduced a neurolytic pathogen into the Borg Collective and sacrificed her life so that her younger self could lead Voyager through the Borg's transwarp hub and back to Earth. Perhaps the exploits of Voyager, still fresh in the minds of Starfleet, will be referenced on Lower Decks.
Star Trek: Lower Decks also happens only one year after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, which means it wasn't very long ago that Shinzon (Tom Hardy) and the Remans took over the Romulan government and tried to destroy the United Federation of Planets, which resulted in Commander Data (Brent Spiner) sacrificing his life to save Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the U.S.S. Enterprise-E. Lower Decks could reference the fallout of this pivotal disaster. In addition, Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) are still newlyweds who only recently left the Enterprise to take command of the U.S.S. Titan. Will and Deanna's ill-fated son, Thad Troi-Riker, was born in 2381, one year after the events Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1.
The year 2380 means that Lower Decks also happens 14 years before the events of Star Trek: Picard but in the same decade during which several monumental events that altered the fate of the Alpha Quadrant occurred, leading up to Patrick Stewart's TNG sequel series. In 2385, Picard gives up the Enterprise to lead the Federation's rescue mission to save the Romulan people while Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) sets her plan to eliminate all synthetics into motion, which resulted in the Mars attack by rogue androids that destroyed the Romulan rescue fleet and all artificial lifeforms being banned by the Federation until 2399. Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) also left Earth for Coppelius, where he eventually built Data's twin daughters Dahj and Soji (Isa Briones), all of which happens five years after Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1.
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Star Trek: Lower Decks premieres August 6, 2020 on CBS All-Access.