Star Trek: Lower Decks returns the franchise to Star Trek: The Next Generation's era and delightfully reminds fans that TNG is the best version of Star Trek. Created by Mike McMahan (Rick & Morty), Star Trek: Lower Decks is the first animated half-hour comedy set in the Star Trek universe. Centering on the junior officers of the California-class U.S.S. Cerritos, Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and warps into its own ribald voyages in the final frontier.
Star Trek: The Next Generation launched in 1987 and its monumental success ushered in the heyday of Star Trek in the 1990s. By mid-decade, there were two hit TV spinoffs, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, while the TNG crew graduated to feature films from 1994-2002. However, franchise fatigue gradually set in thanks to the sheer amount of Star Trek available, which fractured the loyal fandom. After seven seasons each, DS9 ended in 1999 and Voyager wrapped up in 2001. Unfortunately, the theatrical failure of Star Trek: Nemesis photon torpedoed the 24th-century era of Star Trek for the next 18 years.
Instead, Star Trek went prequel-crazy: Star Trek: Enterprise's 4-season run was set a hundred years before the 23rd-century era of Star Trek: The Original Series. J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek movies for a trilogy of films set in Captain Kirk's era but in an alternate timeline. When the franchise returned to TV in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery, it was yet another prequel set 10 years before Captain Kirk took over the Starship Enterprise. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Discovery's upcoming spinoff, will also take place in the pre-Kirk years, even as Star Trek: Discovery itself rocketed to the 32nd century for season 3. Trekkers hungry to return to TNG's 24th century celebrated when Star Trek: Picard was announced, but Patrick Stewart's sequel series took place at the very end of the century and wasn't set on a Starfleet ship so this only partly satisfied what fans ultimately wanted.
Star Trek: Lower Decks may be an animated comedy series but it's also the long-awaited return to the TNG era, which is Star Trek's most popular and prolific time period - and the one missed the most by Trekkers. In fact, Lower Decks' secret weapon is that it essentially is TNG and the show is clearly inspired by the TNG season 7 episode, "Lower Decks", about four of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D's junior officers. Star Trek: Lower Decks may seem irreverent but the show actually does a great many things right; it's both a loving homage to and a welcome continuation of the voyages began by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his legendary crew that gives Trekkers what they've been longing for.
Lower Decks Brings Back The TNG Era Fans Love
As visually stunning as the Abrams films and Star Trek: Discovery are, those projects reinvented what Star Trek looks like, to some Trekkers' chagrin. But Star Trek: Lower Decks completely embraces the TNG aesthetic. The Cerritos may not be the Enterprise-D but it's recognizably a 24th-century Starfleet vessel from stem-to-stern, from the look of the hallways, the cargo bays, the bridge, the warp core, and even the holodecks. In fact, the Cerritos even has its own bar, just like the Enterprise's Ten-Forward, and Cetacean Ops has been mentioned many times, meaning dolphins and whales help navigate the Cerritos just like the Enterprise-D.
The Starfleet officers' uniforms are also brightly color-coded red, gold, and blue, which means Starfleet returned to TNG-style uniforms after switching to the grey and black jumpsuits seen in DS9 and in the TNG movies. Star Trek: Lower Decks' opening titles and theme beautifully and humorously evoke the 90's Star Trek series. Lower Decks even uses TNG's familiar blue font for its credits.
The crew of the Cerritos is also well aware of the Enterprise's historic voyages to save the galaxy numerous times and they labor in the shadow of Picard's legendary crew. The Cerritos is described as one of Starfleet's "least important ships" but they specialize in Second Contact, a novel idea where Lower Decks' staff follows up on the tedious diplomatic work the more vaunted starships like the Enterprise can't be bothered with. The Cerritos' Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) is even privately frustrated that she leads what's essentially a B-Team starship, which only venerates the Picard and his crew's accomplishments further. The fact that TNG, DS9, and Voyager's characters are simultaneously out there in the galaxy also means that crossovers and cameos are (hopefully) forthcoming.
Lower Decks Is Episodic And About Exploration
Star Trek: Lower Decks bucks Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard's Peak TV serialized style and returns to the episodic voyages of TNG and Voyager, where the Cerritos encounters and solves a new problem each week. The animated show finally brings Star Trek back to its classic theme of exploring the galaxy and seeing "what's out there", although their misadventures are even more outlandish and frantic than what the crew of the Enterprise-D faced. But because they're a B-team ship, the Cerritos also has something extra to prove, which gives the show a welcome bit of an edge without the darkness, violence, and death permeating the recent Star Trek shows and films.
Lower Decks is set in 2380, one year after Star Trek: Nemesis and two years after the U.S.S. Voyager returned to Earth from the Delta Quadrant. By taking place in the 24th century, Lower Decks happily benefits from the full spectrum of the Star Trek universe to play in. Since it's not a prequel, Lower Decks isn't hampered by the canon-breaking issues that brought fans' wrath down on Star Trek: Discovery or the other limitations of being set around Kirk's era. Instead, Lower Decks gets to interact with any and all of the myriad species, friendly and hostile, 24th-century Star Trek offers.
The Cerritos' crew already features a Bajoran Security Officer in Lt. Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore), the Caitian Doctor T'Ana (Gillian Vigman), and Ensign D'Vana Tendi, who is an Orion - an eclectic mix of classic TOS and TNG-era aliens. By Star Trek: Lower Decks' second episode, "Envoys", the show already showed the Bolians, Andorians, Ferengi, the Borg, Vulcans, an "omnipotent" energy being, and, best of all, Klingons exactly as they are in the '90s Star Trek shows, as opposed to the reinvented warrior race seen in Star Trek: Discovery that fans revolted against.
Starfleet Is No Longer The Villains On Lower Decks
Thankfully, unlike recent iterations of Star Trek, Lower Decks doesn't make Starfleet the villains and reminds fans that it's both aspirational and fun to serve on a starship. Lower Decks' twist is that Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawney Newsome) has a withering opinion of being part of the command crew and she prefers the freedom and lack of responsibility being in the lower decks offers. But everyone aboard the Cerritos is enthusiastic, happily go about their duties, and share the consensus that being in Starfleet is awesome. Ensigns Tendi and Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) are especially excited to be assigned to the Cerritos and everyone believes in Starfleet's mission to seek out new life and new civilizations. Meanwhile, Mariner may be defiantly undisciplined but she's also an exceptional Starfleet Officer who revels in the excitement the galaxy offers.
The bright and colorful Lower Decks has purged the grim ambiguity about Starfleet depicted by Star Trek Into Darkness, Star Trek: Discovery's Section 31, and Star Trek: Picard's morally compromised version of Starfleet. Even though the Cerritos' voyages are set just a few years after the Dominion War, it's heartening that Starfleet has reset back to being about exploration and scientific pursuits. In the Star Trek timeline, Lower Decks is just five years from the terrible events depicted in Star Trek Picard, including the Mars Attack, the synthetics ban, and the Romulan supernova. But hopefully, Lower Decks will steer clear of the franchise's gathering darkness and continue cheerfully gallivanting around the Alpha Quadrant.
Lower Decks Remembers That The Characters Make Star Trek Great
Star Trek: Lower Decks is also like TNG in that it's about the unity and friendships Starfleet officers form when serving together on a starship. Tendi was warmly welcomed with open arms by Boimler and Mariner and soon, she was also fast friends with Ensign Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). The Cerritos' crew is also appropriately nerdy; Boimler is obsessed with protocol and advancement, Rutherford loves nothing more with crawling in the Jeffries Tubes and tinkering with the ship's systems, and Tendi's idea of a fun evening is gazing out at the cosmos and watching a pulsar. The Cerritos' crew gathers at the bar to unwind over oddly-shaped glasses of synthehol just like TNG's crew did aboard the Enterprise.
And yet, when a crisis arises, like the rage virus that infected the Cerritos in Star Trek: Lower Decks' premiere episode, the Starfleet officers rise to the occasion and heroically defend the ship while managing to subdue and restore their fellow crewmates back to normal when the antidote was discovered. Armed with plenty of wit, good cheer, and a clear love for Star Trek's beloved tropes, Star Trek: Lower Decks' joyful return to the 24th century proves that the TNG era embodies everything that makes Star Trek great - and Star Trek: Lower Decks is setting out to make the TNG era even more fun to explore.
Star Trek: Lower Decks streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access.