‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Previews Reveal More Antics And Iconic Connections In Season 2

Following the season two premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Paramount+ released a new preview of season 2. The following analysis is based on other official releases and commentary from the cast and crew, along with some educated speculation and contains potential spoilers.

This week… Kayshon, when he was a puppet

Episode two is titled “Kayshon, His Eyes Open,” which introduces the Tamarian security officer Kayshon. In the episode two clip, we can see Kayshon going on an away mission with Mariner, Rutherford, Tendi, and Jett.

The season two preview shows the same group, except with Kayshon transformed (for some unknown reason) into a puppet.

The same group can also be seen breaking out of a menagerie that includes bones from an Excalbian in its native form and a skeletal Abraham Lincoln, who appeared in the TOS episode “The Savage Curtain.”

We see Jett and Mariner argue over their escape, with Mariner declaring, “You don’t get to cut off my badass plan.”

Also this week… Riker sends Boimler to the mines

The new season preview also shows Captain Riker on the USS Titan telling his crew, “We will embed an away team disguised as miners,” about what looks like a mine controlled by the Pakleds. Based on previously released images for episode two, this Boimler storyline is also from “Kayshon, His Eyes Open.”

One of the local miners clearly doesn’t buy Boimler as a miner, saying, “Dude, you’re clearly Starfleet,” to which Brad responds, “No, I am a miner with a heart of gold.”

We will have more Paris

Moving on to the rest of the season, it looks like we are going to get more Tom Paris than just what we saw in the Comic-Con@Home trailer, which showed Robert Duncan McNeill reprising his Star Trek: Voyager role of Tom Paris in the form of a talking commemorative plate. The season two preview reveals that the real Tom Paris will be visiting the USS Cerritos.

Tom visits the bridge and asks, “Mind if I give it a whirl?” before sitting down at the helm, to which Captain Freeman quips, “Of course, just don’t send us to the Delta Quadrant.”

Enterprising young men

We are also going to see some iconic Star Trek locations and moments. This includes an older (and buffer) Boimler in command of the USS Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He goes full hero mode with, “I’m grateful to have a ship and a crew I trust with my life,” and “How about we go in and kick some ass!”

And Rutherford looks to be visiting the refit original USS Enterprise wearing a classic Engineering suit, facing a crisis with the warp engines like Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. A crewman warns him, “You cannot go in there, the radiation.” Unfortunately, Rutherford forgot to get gloves like Spock and burns his hands on the door: “Ow, hot!”

Starfleet battles

The Cerritos and crew are going to face off with some familiar vessels and challenges—including the Pakleds, who are the new recurring bad guys for the show.

But wait, there’s more! A Klingon Bird of Prey…

a Crystalline Entity

and a Borg cube, which blows up.

Journey to the black hole

The Cerritos arrives at a black hole.

Mariner and a Boimler can be seen getting a bit too close to it in a shuttle. In voiceover, Boimler says, “There’s no guarantee we will get out of this,” and Mariner replies, “Brace for impact!”

Creatures, great and small

The crew will also be dealing with some sci-fi creatures in season two. This includes Boimler and Rutherford facing off with a broken-horned Mugato.

And then there’s whatever this thing is.

At some point, Tendi will be trying to hold on while riding an unhappy pig-person… and failing.

Also in store for Tendi this season, getting transformed into a giant scorpion-thing and chasing Mariner and Rutherford around the ship.

More sci-fi action

There are more random moments of action in the season two trailer, which include the three of our four ensigns on the bridge when the captain calls for a red alert.

Possibly from the same episode, Boimler, Ransom, and some others try to navigate the Cerritos while the ship is at red alert and falling apart… all while dressed for a Risa vacation.

Mariner and Tendi stare into a wooden crate with a mystery object inside.

Possibly from the same episode, we see Tendi—not wearing her standard uniform—throwing over a table while facing off with a crowd of Orions and then escaping with Mariner via shuttle.

Rutherford gives Tendi a boost.

Rutherford is going to face off with some medieval knight guys.

And sometimes friends just need a good hug.

Finally, we see more of the Mariner and Boimler buggy chase scene first revealed in earlier promos, which seems to start in a warehouse area and end up in a lake.

We also learn what is inside Boimler’s Data collectibles when he says, “I barfed up bubble bath.”

Watch the previews

Clip from “Kayshon, His Eyes Open”

At the end of the Ready Room aftershow for the season premiere is a clip from episode two. It starts at 23:25.

Season promo

The “this season on Star Trek: Lower Decks” preview is available at startrek.com.

New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks stream Thursdays in the USA on Paramount+ and CTV Sci-Fi in Canada, and on Fridays on Amazon Prime Video in international territories around the world. In Latin America, Lower Decks debuts (both seasons 1 and 2) in September.


Keep up with all the news and analysis for Star Trek: Lower Decks.

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Wish we could see the best Voyager Duo in Lower Decks. Tom and Harry. These two are a perfect fit with the show sense of humor.

I really really love this show! That is all!

Wow. Looks like we have a big fun season in store for us.

DISCLAIMER: I am happy for everyone who is able to enjoy that show and I wish I could do the same. I am only giving MY opinion on why I cannot fully embrace it from my personal subjective POV. I do not want to ruin anyone’s appreciation for the show or evoke any remote notion of “gatekeeping” I don’t get to decide what’s “real Star Trek” for anyone but I feel that I should get to decide what’s GOOD Star Trek IMHO. It’s an entirely subjective take, nothing more, nothing less. No bad blood intended.

That said: these images from the preview evoke many nostalgic memories from Trek’s great past and that intention is fully appreciated.
However, being an animated comedy, the show comes with an inherent weakness. It can only bring back those iconic moments on a very superficial and frantic level. It cannot and does not want to fully reproduce the same moral and philosophical depth and sophistication that was inherent to the better moments in Star Trek history.
That isn’t an issue with the more campy, corny aspects of Trek lore (although I dislike how some of those moments are exposed for hilarity) but – for me – it is an issue when the show tackles the more serious moments in Trek history dealing with real-life issues on an allegorical level.
It remains to be seen how this inherent stylistic shortcoming hurts the overall show for me or some others. But again, there is nothing wrong with not subscribing to the same notion of caution and questioning that comes with my personality.

Finally I want to apologize to anyone who may have felt offended, annoyed or intimidated in any of my last contributions about LDS. It was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings or appreciation of the show. I am planning on choosing my words more carefully. After all this is a Star Trek show I’m ranting about and while it will never be my favourite, it is not my place to give a definitive verdict on it as it is – like all Star Trek – a lot larger than my own humble life.

LLAP

It’s really sad that you now have to put a disclaimer at top of your comments…

He’s trying. Cut him some slack

Dude I been reading a lot of your post on this show and clearly it’s not your favorite lol. And that’s OK, not everyone will love everything. I think your issues with it are valid. I really do love it so far though but it’s okay to agree to disagree. And maybe I missed a post somewhere but nothing you said ever came off offensive, at least nothing I can recall. You just don’t like the show and give your reasons for it. That’s why message boards exist. We all love Star Trek but end of the day it’s just a TV show, so enjoy what you like and whatever you don’t like, then just move on. None of it really matters at the end of the day.

But maybe this season will change your mind (or maybe it will mine, but hopefully not ;)).

Packing a lot into 30 minute episodes. Hey, if the muscle suits were okay for the TNG cast, they are good for Lower Decks…

More like 25 minutes… I found s02e01 that they were speaking so much and so fast because they had to a lot to cram into a single episode that I lost interest in the show.

Looks like it’s canon that Tom Paris stayed in Starfleet. Full Lieutenant. Interested to see how he’s doing after a few years back in the federation

Yeah it’s so cool we will see Paris beyond a commemorative plate lol. I’m really happy he stayed in Starfleet too! Although I highly doubt it, I would love to hear what B’Elanna is doing but I imagine she’s still in Starfleet with him too. I’m hoping we will hear more about all of them on Prodigy obviously.

What happened to Kmart?

Ugh. Here’s an idea, how about they actually write something original? Or aren’t the “writers” paid enough to do that? That’s what I also dislike about the novels and especially fan fiction too. It’s as if they throw 100 random Star Trek references into a hat, pull out 50+, and do a story using all of them even if they don’t all fit. Lower Decks doesn’t even use them in the correct context most of the time, throwing references out willy-nilly and calling it comedy when someone “gets” it. They’re already in the Trek universe and we know that. Original, refreshing stories taking place there isn’t too much to ask.

I’ll finish by saying to each their own, and if you like this kind of writing then all the power to you. We all can’t agree on everything! For those who need to attack, go ahead and hate away.

Watching posters here go on about nothing being ‘origonal’ is kinda like looking at ISO’s on a community page looking for a ‘resonably’ priced good or service, but never defining what reasonable means. So, what, exactly, would be origonal? Someting centered on the Federation diplomatic corp? Medical drama? Federation rehab colony? Grab some random character and do a Hallmark movie around them? Starfleet NCIS? Trek musical and Section 31 gets poo poo’ed pretty regularly here…..so just how origonal is origonal?

I’ve said it too many times to count at this point, I get why the references bothers so many people or they feel the show is just latching on to all the former shows and characters to tell its story but we can’t pretend this is not what Star Trek does in general, ESPECIALLY the new shows, LDS just does it more blatantly, but that’s also what the show is. So either you like it or you don’t.

But look at Picard and Discovery? Discovery literally started out with the main character being a sibling of Spock. It’s ‘original’ story was a war with the Klingons, something that has been echoed on about but never directly shown until now. Then we jumped to the Mirror universe because fans know it very well. And then season 2 of the show bought in not only Spock but then Pike and the Enterprise. And then later came Section 31 and even Talos IV. Sure the story was ‘original’ but many of the players in it was just a way to reference other parts of the franchise, especially TOS. Season 3 obviously had a lot less of this but they still found ways to reference everything from the GOF to even Spock again.

With Picard, that’s even more obvious. The entire story surrounds Data, a character who died 20 years ago. And then we got everything from the Borg to even Seven involved. Again, an ‘original’ story but one literally based on several TNG plot lines of the past. But understandable, because the show is called Picard, so you expect some TNG era storylines and characters to be part of it. At least I did. But the very fact that show exists at all tells people this is exactly the kind of thing they wanted because they know its what many fans wanted. And next season of course Q shows up, the embodiment of fan service if there ever is one and who knows what or who else will show up out of that.

The point is like it or not, LDS is simply an embodiment of where the producers are taking these shows in general. It’s nothing but a lot of nostalgia and member berries. Prodigy will star a holographic Janeway and we now know Chakotay will be around at least in one episode. But if he’s back, then yeah expect a LOT of them back with tons of Voyager references to boot. Strange New Worlds is also going to just be chalk full of TOS references and easter eggs. We all see that coming at warp 9. But of course fans are super excited for both shows, mostly because they know they will get a lot of that in the first place.

And of course I find it funny how people so badly wanted Tarantino to do the next Star Trek movie and apparently his ‘original’ idea was just to literally redo a TOS episode from 50 years ago just updated and with his signature style I guess. Thank Kahless that is DOA.

I understand LDS is still a bit different from these other examples but we have to stop kidding ourselves most fans are looking for purely ‘original’ characters and ideas. From 2009 to the present, it’s literally been nothing but rehashing old characters and concepts. Sure you can blame that on the people who are running it today but they are not doing it out of some vacuum. They know this is what a majority of the fanbase wants. It’s on every message board and social media page. Bring the Enterprise back, revive this show again, bring back the Borg, Q, etc. Most simply want nostalgia. That’s how the Kelvin movies came into existence in the first place. That’s why there was so much fanfare over Picard coming back and then the huge chorus of fans begging to make a Pike show. A reminder, ANY reminder of what came before simply sells.

LDS is a way to please all those types fans and to bring in every corner of the franchise in the last 50 years. But even if LDS didn’t exist, my guess is all the other shows will eventually do that anyway, just a bit less blatant about it…but only a bit. And yes, it’s working.