In addition to showing off an extended scene from the show, creator Mike McMahan and the cast of Star Trek: Lower Decks spoke about their characters and what it’s like serving on the fictional USS Cerritos. It was a fun watch for Trek fans and a nice window into the people behind the voices of the show.
The Lower Decks panel starts at around the 45-minute mark of the Star Trek Universe panel. Watch below:
In attendance at the panel were: “Ensign Beckett Mariner” voiced by Tawny Newsome, “Ensign Brad Boimler” voiced by Jack Quaid, “Ensign Tendi” voiced by Noël Wells, and “Ensign Rutherford” voiced by Eugene Cordero, plus the ship’s bridge crew: “Captain Carol Freeman” voiced by Dawnn Lewis, “Commander Jack Ransom” voiced by Jerry O’Connell, “Lieutenant Shaxs” voiced by Fred Tatasciore, and “Doctor T’Ana: voiced by Gillian Vigman. Creator and Executive Producer Mike McMahan hosted.
Ensign Beckett Mariner
Tawny Newsome plays the (perhaps overly) confident Mariner: “She doesn’t always play by the rules even though she could because she’s good at things,” says Newsome. “It’s like when you’re the class clown because you’re ahead of the lesson in school.”
Ensign Brad Boimler
Jack Quaid says Boimler is “the ultimate Starfleet nerd.” Boimler follows every rule to the T. He probably records too many personal logs, but boy does he mean well.
Ensign Tendi
Noël Wells describes Tendi as “the fresh eyes on the Cerritos.” She says that Tendi is “unflappable” and always optimistic—a bright-eyed new ensign joining the crew.
Ensign Rutherford
Eugene Cordero says that Rutherford is a (recent) cyborg who loves the fact that he is a cyborg. He’s a huge engineering nerd. Cordero says that Rutherford is “the guy you want on your trivia team talking about every single ship that’s ever been in the galaxy.”
Doctor T’Ana
Caitian Doctor T’Ana is the chief medical officer aboard the Cerritos. Gillian Vigman describes her as having an “extreme responsibility” to take care of everyone on board the ship, but notes that she is also basically a gruff alley cat with a bit of a harsh bedside manner.
Lt. Shaxs
Fred Tatasciore lends the perfect gruff voice to security chief Shaxs, who Tatasciore describes as “a Bajoran with a chip on his shoulder.” In some ways, says Tatasciore, Shaxs is terrible for security for his propensity to “shoot first, ask questions later,” but in the end, he kicks ass and gets the job done.
Commander Jack Ransom
Jerry O’Connell is the USS Cerritos’ “number one.” He describes Ransom as a man with a “pretty short fuse.”
“I don’t think he is the easiest person to work for,” says O’Connell, “but he does deeply care about Starfleet. He just does and says things I’m not sure we could get away with on other Star Trek shows!”
Captain Carol Freeman
Dawnn Lewis plays the captain of the Cerritos. Lewis says that Freeman is a woman who takes herself very seriously. “Captain Freeman is in charge,” says Lewis, “and she is going to let everyone know that she’s in charge.”
Comic-Con@Home event Star Trek: Lower Decks panel
ICYMI: More new images
Last night CBS released 16 images from the first four episodes of Lower Decks, along with confirming the titles for the first four episodes.
More from Comic-Con@Home
There is a lot of news coming out of the virtual Comic-Con, so don’t forget to keep up with all of TrekMovie’s CC@Home coverage.
Lower Decks coming on August 6th
The new half-hour animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere on Thursday, August 6 on CBS All Access. Following the premiere, new episodes of the series’ 10-episode first season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the U.S.
Lower Decks will also air on August 6th in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and be available to stream in Canada on Crave. It has not yet been announced where and when Lower Decks will be available outside of the USA and Canada.
Keep up on all the Star Trek: Lower Decks news here at TrekMovie.com.
This looks like fun, I’m looking forward to it!
I’m looking forward to it. Seems fun.
Wow, does Dawn Lewis ever age??? She barely looks that different from her A Different World days lol.
Cast seems great so far. It’s really hard to judge until you seen an episode, especially animated shows, but I like what I see at least so far.
Also loved the fact they brought up that both Jerry O’Connel and his wife Romijin are both first officers on separate shows. And then he mentioned they are both good friends of Johnathan Frakes so that must be tons of fun when they get together lol.
Ok, I’m going to say it. I’ve been holding back, but really… Doesn’t anyone think that ensign Tendi looks like Kayla? Sorry Kayla, you can have me banned. I understand…
All the spoiler bleeps were amusing. I’m wondering if that was planned…
This show is growing on me. I didn’t like TNG but treating it as a comedy and focusing on the lower deck characters seems to work.
Liking the animation style, makes me wish this was TOS movie era with those awesome sets.
I always thought the TNG era was more rife for a comedy than the TOS era.
Honestly I think either is fine. TOS has been parodied so many times in popular culture through the decades the writers wouldn’t have to come up with much on their own at this point. But I’m happy they picked the TNG era since that’s my favorite era AND we can have a lot of guest stars from the original actors (since sadly most actors from the TOS era has passed on or retired…and Shatner wants too much money ;D).
That’s another point. TOS has been parodied to death. Some of them have been darn funny, too. Only The Orville seems to have parodied TNG. And that was only in the first season. And even then the humor was less parody and more homage than anything else.
Let’s play Spot the Incorrect Vulcan Salute:
It’s Jack Quaid, Eugene Cordero and Fred Tatasciore!