The fourth season of Lower Decks was an excellent course correction from the aimless conclusion of the third season, which seemed to set the show up for a bright new future that truly evolved to where the series was heading. So imagine our shock, and the collective Lower Decks fandom’s surprise – when we learned that the upcoming fifth season would ultimately be the animated series’ final outing. The good news, at least, is that the show will end with a lot of renewed strength it gained in the previous season. But it also does so by reminding us of an important lesson for any Starfleet officer: growth is reinforced by remembering your fundamentals.
The first five episodes of the fifth season of Lower Decks, comprised of 10 episodes, sees Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Tendi (Noël Wells) all navigating their lives at the second lowest rank in a Starfleet career. With newfound confidence. Thanks to the growth they all experienced in the previous season, it really feels like a reflection of how far the show has come as these characters still feel familiar in the kind of funny chaos they can get into in the Star Trek galaxy, while also feeling like they have matured in ways that have paved the way for them to truly become the next generation of Starfleet’s finest stars.
It’s a delicate balance the show navigates very well – Boimler and Mariner still have their electrically charged and goofy chemistry, but they now also realize and understand when to loosen up and when to buckle down as straight-laced exemplars of the values they now find themselves in leadership of. T’Lyn’s Vulcan icy exterior slowly warms as she grows comfortable with her friends, and Rutherford finds himself a little directionless due to his best friend Tendi’s sudden choice to leave Starfleet and rejoin the Orion Syndicate family crime at the end of the previous season, leading him to strike an unhealthy balance between work and life. They’re the same characters, in essence, but they feel matured in the way they deal with themselves, and more importantly when they admit they’ve erred or have something they still need to work on.
This theme echoes throughout the first five episodes, which see the U.S.S. Cerritos crew in a series of varied and oddball adventures as they tackle mundane duties like removing multidimensional space potholes, a task that’s perfectly Star Trek in its execution even if not the most glamorous thing in the universe. It allows the show to riff on classic Star Trek ideas, from exploring the consequences of societies joining the Federation and entering a post-scarcity phase, to post-capitalism, to classics like parallel universes and the risks of strange gray goo substances. Lower Decks also expands on its own corner of the Star Trek mythos, catching up with characters and places previously touched upon and expanding them in new, inventive ways.
There isn’t a particularly strong season-long arc this time around like the fourth season and the fading ships mystery – the potholes are present to the max, and even that’s played with a light touch as an excuse for the Cerritos to jet from one end of the galaxy to the other. Instead, all the episodes are thematically linked through an important lesson for our growing heroes: that no matter how far they’ve come across the show’s four seasons, it will always be necessary for each of them to remain open and listen to each other. and convey their doubts and fears not just among themselves as friends, but also with their fellow officers.
This is a concept the series has touched on before of course, especially in examining the power dynamics present in the communication gap between senior officers and juniors aboard the starship. But revisiting it in this moment Lower Decks “Journey,” as its characters show clear signs of growth and maturity, works incredibly well. The show doesn’t seem to retread its thematic ideas. Instead, it reminds both us and its heroes that there are always lessons they will need to relearn as they progress through their professional lives, and that relearning is vital for them to become the officers they want to be by trying new things and taking on new responsibilities. It’s a reflection of the show that has gone on a similar journey of learning and relearning, leading to a matured sense of being a Star Trek show (with its kind self-mocking humor and reverence intact) and boosted confidence as it progresses.
Not everything works perfectly in this process of relearning in the early episodes of the season. Lower Decks still has a tendency to bring about major change in the status quo at the end of the season, only to largely reset it early on in the next season, so it’s not spoilery to say – especially as we’ve seen them in the trailers back in Starfleet garb again – Tendi’s time with her sister and with Orion syndicate policies is resolved relatively early in the season with little major ramifications. It’s a consistent annoyance for the show at this stage, but at least here it seems relatively harmless: Tendi still has a role to play in the thematic lessons being applied to her friends in Starfleet even before she rejoins them, so it doesn’t feel like she’s missed out on much in particular.
But again, this is a sign of the journey Star Trek: Lower Decks has been on. In many ways, it’s still a fun and lovably goofy Journey we fell in love with when it first began, but it has grown and matured since then, even in its weakest moments, it still tries to say something earnest and honest not just about this universe it so admires being a part of, but also about the characters it represents. who have evolved in their time in service. If the back half of the season can bear fruit on these lessons in the maturing stage, Lower Decks boldly goes, with a track record to be proud of to any Starfleet officer.
Star Trek: Lower Decks will debut its fifth and final season with a two-episode premiere on Paramount+ next Thursday, October 26.
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