Early Review: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Season 4 Levels Up But Keeps The Laughs

The fourth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will debut on Paramount+ on Thursday, September 7 with the first 2 episodes. Paramount has provided the media with the first 8 episodes in advance. TrekMovie will post our detailed recap/reviews each Thursday, but today we have an early review of the season as a whole. 

[NOTE: Review contains light spoilers]

Noël Wells as Tendi, Gabrielle Ruiz as T’Lyn, Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, and Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler (Paramount+)

Star Trek shows have a history of shaking things up in the fourth season. The Next Generation lost Wesley, Deep Space Nine added Worf and Klingons, Voyager switched out Kes for 7 of 9 and the Borg, whereas Enterprise finally found its mojo, courtesy of the late Manny Coto fully embracing the show’s Original Series prequel potential. Lower Decks continues this storied tradition with both the addition of a new character in newly transferred Vulcan officer T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) as a recurring fifth member of the gang and promotions for our favorite ensigns.

Changes to a winning formula on any TV show are both inherently risky and necessary. Keep things the same as always and you risk the show becoming stale as well as losing credibility by refusing to allow characters and situations to develop organically. Change them too much, though, and you risk letting the lightning out of the bottle.

Fortunately, the changes for season 4 are largely successful. The logical, deadpan T’Lyn—transferred to Starfleet and assigned to the Cerritos following her un-Vulcan behavior in season 2’s “wej Duj”—is largely partnered with Tendi and makes an excellent straight person for the exuberant Orion. As with Spock and Tuvok, the show derives a lot of humor from her Vulcan-ness, with a brief comment or look providing amusing contrast to her more emotional crewmates.

Jack Quaid as Boimler and Jerry O’Connell as Commander Jack Ransom (Paramount+)

Promotions-wise, as Boimler points out, they’re still the least-important mid-level officers on the ship and still get beyond their fair share of undesirable jobs. Gone, however, is sleeping in a corridor, with the gang receiving actual quarters (which, yes has plenty of comic potential), and actually getting to command missions. While promoting them could potentially upset the show—which lest we forget is called Lower Decks—it’s a change that feels organic. They’re simply too competent to remain ensigns forever (although that never helped Harry Kim), and promotions open new storytelling possibilities as well as allow the writers to examine other facets of the characters’ personalities. For example, it will come as no surprise to anyone that Boimler has issues delegating, whereas the reluctantly promoted Mariner’s unorthodox style creates issues when people have to follow her.

Another slight change is the introduction of a more overt story arc. While previous seasons have had arcs that become apparent throughout the season such as the Pakled attacks or Admiral Buenamigo’s automated Texas-class fleet, here there’s a lot more up front, with a mysterious ship attacking non-Federation ships. Who’s behind the attacks and why is a mystery that the Cerritos crew gets gradually entwined with as the season progresses.

Elsewhere, it’s business as usual, with Lower Decks’ now traditional affectionate sideways look at Trek. Kicking things off in episode 1 (“Twovix”) is a Voyager tribute, taking place on the legendary starship and featuring the return of some of that show’s more outrageous creations (macroviruses, transwarp salamanders, and yes, even Neelix’s cheese are all present and correct). The following episodes include a “Menagerie”- style menagerie; a visit to Ferenginar with the return of Rom and Leeta (with both Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson reprising their roles); a Trek-first trip to Orion featuring Tendi’s family; a foul-mouthed Betazoid gift box, and the return of our three favorite malevolent A.I.s: Badgey, Agimus, and Peanut Hamper. Oh, and of course, chula—Deep Space Nine’s infamous “allamaraine” game. (Sorry, we kind of buried the lede there.) And yes, the fleet of ships fighting the Borg in the opening credits gets yet another addition—the most unlikely one yet.

Jerry O’Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman and Paul F. Tompkins as Doctor Gabers Migleemo (Paramount+)

As always, the cast is uniformly excellent. Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero are all so in sync with their characters now that their performances are effortless. Jerry O’Connell and Fred Tatasciore—as Ransom and Shaxs respectively—get the most to do out of the supporting cast. (If we had one criticism to level at the show, it’s that Gillian Vigman’s Dr. T’Ana isn’t in every single scene… or the star of the show.) Mariner’s (ex?) girlfriend Jennifer is largely absent, and in the eight episodes made available to review, there are fewer cameos from Trek alumni than we’ve come to expect. This could be a sign that creator/showrunner Mike McMahan wants to see Lower Decks thrive through its own characters as the series matures, although the immature laughs are still there to be sure.

Humor-wise, season 4 more than equals its predecessors, running the gamut from winking to gross-out (one episode features both a clever riff on Trek’s tendency to repeatedly use the Planet Hell set for the bulk of alien worlds as well as a fairly yucky broken bone gag) to slapstick (look out for fun with both knives and grapplers) to the plain silly (there’s a great, brief scene involving a Romulan Warbird). As the show has progressed, the humor has evolved slightly, moving away from some of the more absurd situations (think the pilot episode’s Boimler-suckling spider or season 2’s infamous mating Mugatos,) and finding more laughs from the characters themselves, such as Tendi’s awkwardness regarding her Orion heritage or Shax and T’Ana’s romantic escapades. (We get further examples of both.) With the high gag count, not every joke will land for every fan, but there’s more than enough to keep all but the most humorless viewer amused.

One area that Lower Decks has never been short on is Easter eggs, and, as usual, there’s a wealth on show here. Voyager fans are likely to be very satisfied with episode 1, and elsewhere there are knowing references to everything from Slug-o-cola to Malcom Reed, not to mention assorted callbacks to earlier episodes of Lower Decks (check out the boxes of belongings the group members carry when moving quarters, which contain numerous items relating to their earlier adventures). Elsewhere, there are references to everything from Twin Peaks to the cult British comedy Garth Merengi’s Dark Place. This volume of Easter eggs should surely come with some kind of health warning.

Jerry O’Connell as Commander Jack Ransom and Carl Tart as Lieutenant Kayshon (Paramount+)

Over the course of its first three seasons, Lower Decks made a name for itself by finding the perfect balance between being a great Star Trek show in its own right and affectionally poking fun at some of the franchise’s sillier aspects. And that’s something it continues to achieve with ease in season 4. This is a Trek show firing on all cylinders. If you’re one of the fans for whom Trek is no laughing matter, there’s little here that is likely to change your mind (and honestly, Trek’s always been funny, you may be watching the wrong show). For the rest of us, season 4 is classic Lower Decks, combining laughs with great Trek storytelling. But is a little (or a lot) more Dr. T’Ana really too much to ask for?         

Lower Decks returns next Thursday

Season 4 will arrive on Paramount+ on Thursday, September 7, the day before Star Trek Day. Here is the official synopsis for the new season:

In season four of Star Trek: Lower Decks. an unknown force is destroying starships and threatening galactic peace. Luckily, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos isn’t important enough for stuff like that! Instead, Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and Provisional Ensign T’Lyn are keeping up with their Starfleet duties, avoiding malevolent computers and getting stuck in a couple caves – all while encountering new and classic aliens along the way.

And here is the trailer released in July at Comic-Con:

Here’s an alternate link to trailer on StarTrek.com for international readers

Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.