As Star Trek fandom waits for the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the production team is starting the final editing and preparation of the last ten episodes of the animated comedy debuting on Paramount+ on October 24. In new post-SDCC panel interviews, the showrunner and cast offered some insights into what we can expect.
Finale to be something very special
After four strong seasons of Lower Decks, the creative team is determined finish the show with the same wit, including a memorable series finale episode. Without revealing the actual plotline, Mike McMahan is eager to talk about the creation of the finale itself. McMahan describes the last show as carrying through the same humorous tone as the rest of the series, though he admits to re-writing portions of the script when it became clear that Lower Decks would not be renewed. The changes made were bittersweet, as he explains in an interview with Collider:
“We kept adding and adding and adding to the finale because nothing was ever satisfying enough, and there weren’t enough goodbyes to tell in a funny way. Ultimately, what we ended up with was a gigantic episode that’s really fun.”
In order to accommodate the extra story pages needed to resolve all those plotlines (and possibly open a few new ones for the future) the crew recorded an extra-long, story-dense finale that Tawny Newsome described as “a double-stuffed Oreo of an episode.” Still in the editing stage, the runtime is currently eight minutes longer than a regular Lower Decks episode. While it is unlikely the final cut will stay that long, the last episode is being given extra care. It was suggested that other longer-than-typical episodes may occur in season 5.
Over the last few weeks, McMahan has expressed how proud he is of how Lower Decks turned out, and says season 5 will be a big part of that, right up until the end. While fans have embraced the quirky series, it’s still difficult to explain how showrunner Mike McMahan managed to fuse a science fiction universe with cartoon humor. McMahan explained how the humor works from an in-universe perspective, as he told Variety:
“The world of Star Trek is real for the characters that inhabit the show. And so they’re telling jokes in a way that they’re as familiar with these locations from other series as much as Tawny and I are. Because we’ve watched them, they’ve lived them.”
While at SDCC, Jerry O’Connell found it difficult to parse some fairly heavy feelings that came about as a result of the story from the final episode. Although he didn’t explicitly talk about anything that happens to his character, Jack Ransom, the finale did seem to affect him personally. During an interview with Comicbook.com, he struggled for words:
“You know what really surprised me? How emotional I got when we were doing our finale. I was amazed I was capable of those emotions.”
Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Mike McMahan, Tawny Newsome and Jerry O’Connell at Star Trek Menagerie Booth at SDCC 2024 (Paramount+)
The post-SDCC panel interviews also offered a couple of insights into what we can expect during season 5…
Mariner and Jennifer storyline to be resolved
Season 5 will bring other resolutions along the way, including adding some closure to the conflict between Beckett Mariner and Jennifer Sh’reyan. Although a popular character with fans, Jennifer has been used only sparingly since the close of season 3. The reason for this, according to McMahan, is that he had felt satisfied with Jennifer’s story as it has been told. Fans, however, enjoy the chemistry between Mariner and Jennifer, and feedback convinced McMahan to revisit the pairing. He clarified in his chat with Comicbook.com:
“There’s this one episode this season with Mariner and Jennifer the Andorian. I felt like I had told a story with these characters that I really liked. And then I was seeing fan feedback being like, ‘We love these characters, it didn’t feel resolved.’ If they hadn’t said that, then I wouldn’t have been inspired to be like ‘Well, we need to do one more episode with these guys.’”
Tawny Newsome, also on hand for this revelation, chose to add “I really love the Jennifer episode.”
McMahan was tempted to leave this thread hanging, but listened to fans.
More depth added for Orions
Arguably, the most unexpected legacy of Lower Decks is how much detail the animated show has given the Orions, helped along by adding more character depth to Tendi. Though Orions date back to the earliest days of Star Trek, they’ve always been portrayed as dancing green women or weirdly-armored men. With an Orion character in the primary cast, Lower Decks took every opportunity to expand upon the culture, aesthetics, history, and philosophy of Orions. This will continue into season 5. What comes next, however, was teased by Mike McMahan during an SDCC interview with Variety:
“We pull in some Orion lore that’s been discarded over the decades.”
McMahan’s writing team has a talent for reviving details from previous Trek series in ways that enrich both the original episodes and Lower Decks. Whatever “lore” that will be uncovered, it’s likely to follow that pattern. McMahan credits a lot of the show’s success with Orion world-building to Noël Wells and her portrayal of Tendi. Wells opted against over-studying historical appearances of Orions and instead chose her own interpretation of Tendi, allowing the audience to compare and contrast the character with other Orions. McMahan expressed his gratitude to Wells:
“If you were focused on the old Orion episodes, then you wouldn’t be able to embody this character the way I love you doing. Because you would be full of all this arithmetic of Star Trek. Instead, you get to just play her as you would play her in the show as she exists.”
We can do better than this.
“Lower Decks” is a state of mind
Notably absent from any of McMahan’s commentary on the upcoming season is the need for more seasons to “finish” the story. Instead, he speaks only of the gratitude for having achieved five seasons in today’s television environment. When Variety did suggest that the crew of the Cerritos might outgrow the “newbie” storylines, Mike made it clear that Lower Decks was a mindset, not a lack of pips on your collar:
“It’s funny that, to me, there isn’t a natural end to being Lower Decks. Because, I feel like I’m still learning stuff all the time. Like, I still feel like every time you think you’ve left this place that you were, you’re finding out you didn’t know anything, again. And every time you go through one of those big changes, it starts all over again. The whole ship on Lower Decks is lower decks, and that’s kind of the fun of it.”
From the season 5 teaser trailer
ICYMI: SDCC Trailer
Check out the teaser trailer released at Comic-Con (and our full analysis of it and the panel discussion)…
The final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is scheduled to premiere on October 24, 2024, on Paramount+. The first two episodes will be available on that day, with the remaining eight episodes following each Thursday.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
Will they give Boimler something to do? He barely did anything for the latter half of the previous season. It was the Mariner show. Mariner solves every problem, as usual.
As for the “gigantic” series finale. Not exactly the hallmark of a top quality creator when his mantra is “just keep adding things, more is more”.
I expect a finale overflowing with fan service, and little else, like most of Lower Decks sadly.
I’m sure you’re clamoring for a Legacy series too? Something that only arose out of Picard S3’s abundant fan servicing.
Lower Decks does a lot of in-universe referencing – it’s a comedy after all – but it never just “overflows with fan service” unless it’s building more on the story. The previous 4 seasons have been tightly executed so if they feel the need to make an episode longer, it’s likely because there’s more for the characters to do. There’s a larger cast than just the main 4 we’ll be saying goodbye to.
The comments on this site make us all look like Star Wars fans.
I’m not clamouring for a legacy series in the slightest. That’s all modern day Trek is, fanservice, legacy characters and references to past Trek, so no, I don’t want just more excuse for legacy cameos.
I want them to push the franchise forward.
Not sure what your second paragraph is saying. It sounds like McMahon’s mantra for the finale was “throw everything in, more, more more”. Yes that might mean there’ll be lots for the characters to do, but I suspect it’ll be more a case of more references to past Trek (and then a few seconds at the end of Mariner saving the day once again)
I love that some fans were clamouring for the return of the TNG cast in Picard… only to complain about “fan service” when they were brought back. Some fans are just not happy unless they are complaining.
He got to command the ship…
For a 20 second scene
So? He commanded the Cerritos in a critical moment. It doesn’t matter how quick the scene was- it was a MAJOR milestone in his character development.
I think you are just looking for things to complain about.
If the show has had a single bad season finale maybe I’d take issue but First First Contact is still the best season finale in modern Trek so I’m not gonna make myself worried with no real evidence that I should be.
Hope you’ll get your fav series, too!! Lower Decks was a bubble of happiness for me. I guess taste just differs.
Cool. Five seasons is a good run. It’s the same number of seasons and episodes as Stranger Things, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
Really bummed this is ending, but glad we’ll at least get this next season.
Hope we can see these characters show up more in future Trek (either animated or live-action).
Lower Decks helped me love Star Trek again.
I’m going to miss it so much.
Same. I think for me LDS was really the first Trek anything I fell in love with from the beginning since Voyager premiered. I didn’t really like Enterprise or Discovery out of the gate. Started off loving Picard only to be highly let down in the end. Thought the reboot movies were OK for what they were but never loved them or took them very seriously. Fun action movies but not Trek on the level I wanted personally. And never really wanted a TOS reboot movie either.
But yet this little animated comedy I was pretty certain would probably be canceled after season two ended up being one of my favorite Trek shows ever. It brought back a bit of old Trek I was really missing while doing something new and daring for the franchise.
I think it was Nick Meyer who said you shouldn’t worry about giving the audience what it wants and most probably would agree that would include LDS lol. But it ended up being a show that grabbed a lot of fans hearts and will surely be missed by me.
Just goes to show how a show fans are cringing at when it was first announced can be morphed into a favourite.
Well done to everyone on the show for changing their minds and turning people’s heads. Bravo.
It’s very, very easy to get fan appreciation when you absolutely flood a show with tons of nostalgia, cameos and fan service.
Picard S3 did it and Lower Decks too.So I’m not sure ‘bravo’ is in order.
Lower Decks was my first Star Trek show and it made me love Star Trek, it’s good because it has good characters.
It’s kind of funny to see Lower Decks get the “cameos” take when it’s the show that relies on past characters the least. Every other modern show has a legacy character in a main role and Lower Decks sprinkles in a couple a season and never makes them take over the episode.
A. So happy to hear how much you love Lower Decks and it was your first entry into Star Trek!
B. I have been saying this since the first season and repated it a few days ago on another thread here that LDS relies on legacy characters the least out of all the modern shows. Not only does it not have any legacy characters it its cast it also doesn’t have any recurring characters either like the way DIS, PRO and definitely SNW does and certain characters keep popping up like T’Pring or Kirk does. I also mentioned none of the legacy characters drive the story either and most are usually part of the B story and not the A story like how Paris showed up in season 2. And a lot of fans were upset he didn’t have a bigger role.
I love the way the show handles them like how Kira and Quark were done where they had a huge part in the story but was simply part of it like any other character. The focus was still on the LDS characters first as it should be.
But yeah it really gets frustrating to have these arguments from people who think we only love the show because we want to see Picard show up and not because we love the characters and stories the show tells itself. If I just watched for the Easter eggs I would’ve got bored long ago. I truly love these characters and the world they inhabit. It puts a smile on my face every episode in a way most of the classic shows did.
Not to be a snob but I feel like a lot of people had an idea of what Lower Decks would be from a first impression and 5 years have passed and they never really got past that first impression to look at the substance. And I think that the biggest example of this is seeing Picard S3, a show that lost all of it’s original cast and ended on a shot of the TNG cast playing poker, and Lower Decks, a show that is so focused on it’s own cast that it has 3 different chants celebrating its own characters in 3 separate season finales, as the same because they both reference the past.
Ya know, I did not like it for the nostalgia, cameos and fan service. Though I grew up with Trek I’m not too good with the lore and references. I just happen to really like all the characters, as well as how they develop over the course of the show. And, as I’ve often said in the comments, I liked the fact that it has its moments where it can sometimes be surprisingly deep or moving beneath the colourful exterior, the everyday themes and psychological themes and so on of the show. Mariner going against herself on the holodeck or the final episode where they dismantled the hull were great. Haha, sometimes I liked the episodes others did not like (as a former employee of a consultancy ;) I’m still loving the buffer time episode, and found it hilarious how the Mugato scene sort of modeled peaceful resolution of conflicts in the episode :-)). In may sound strange, but to me this show despite being fast and outwardly loud, has often been more layered and interesting than say Strange New Worlds, because it often has more inward or introspective topics, and that’s something I connect to. Also, I liked the carefree nature of the show during a difficult time both personally and regarding the general state of the world. That’s just my own fan opinion here, but I hope it helps explain why some others really like the show.
There’s also some really creative fanfiction by now: one person literally went and rewrote a whole Lower Decks episode in the style of a famous 1798 seefaring poem.
I fully admit to initially cringing. It’s easily my favorite new Trek now. I’ll miss it.
I just hope they leave it open ended enough that the show can get renewed someday. I think it will get renewed once Skydance buys Paramount. They’d be crazy to leave such a valuable IP to gather dust. The great thing about a cartoon is that it can get canceled for years and then resumed as if no time has passed. Fingers crossed.
I read comments by McMahan that the Lower Decks finale will not be as “final” as, say, the Discovery finale. So we probably won’t fast-forward the characters to their retirement. Sounds like we will get the end of a chapter but they’ll keep it open enough to return to it later if an opportunity arises.
I’m going to really miss this show. I loved every season although I think season 3 was the weakest and only disliked 3 episodes in the entire series. That’s pretty crazy for a show that has 40 episodes so far.
It’s just so much fun, has a lot of heart and was a love letter to all things Star Trek. I’m still hoping it will continue on in some form.
Well, I did not like the Picard series much.. Have just posted some love letter to the characters above. Can drop some select LD fanfiction recommendations once the season’s over (if that’s the done thing on this forum?).
I wonder if the series finale will be an hour.
You haven’t read the article, have you?
I have always been surprised how much i honestly LOVE Lower Decks. All of it just works, the characters are so likeable, and the way the stories are often SO over the top are lot of fun — and somehow, it always comes back to the four (now five) Lower Deckkers and their love of each other and the Starfleet dream. I find so much JOY in the show.
I’ve watched Disco, I’ve watched Picard, but only picked up the Disco season 2 DVDs, and the Picard Season 3 DVDs. But Lower Decks? Have every season on DVD and will watch them again — and again, because they made Star Trek joyful and FUN again.
Can’t wait for season 5.
I’m not sure why episode length matters. They aren’t on a broadcast network with a fixed schedule.
Every extra minute the episode budget gets more expensive.
I was a bit surprised how fixed the episode lengths were. But we have to keep in mind that every frame costs in animation. In live-action, once you have set up your shot, it probably doesn’t matter much if you film a 1-minute scene or a 5-minute scene (unless the scene requires VFX). But in animation, it all has to be created by the artists.
It’s just not the same when Christopher Plummer isn’t saying it lol
How did McMahan think Jennifer’s story was in any way, shape, or form, resolved?
Her betrayal of Beckett in not believing her about the interview in the s3 finale was super shitty. I can’t believe that Beckett just came back to the ship and never called her on it. I was waiting all of season 4 for something, anything, to happen there. Up until now I’d actually written it off to Jennifer requesting a transfer to another ship out of embarrassment.
Much like Gray on Discovery, I don’t think story-telling was the purpose of Jennifer’s inclusion.
Please elaborate.
What Harry is basically is saying is that Gray was only on Discovery as a box ticking exercise… which is a) extraordinarily problematic and maybe even transphobic, b) a rightwing talking point to try and discredit any LGBTQIA+ characters from being notable and c) conveniently ignores the fact that they were instrumental in the ship reaching Federation HQ, discovering the origin point of The Burn and also in identifying Su’Kal as the cause. In fact, if memory serves, without Gray beaming down to the dilithium planet, it’s likely the away team would have died from radiation poisoning. They were also a key player in Season 4 (can’t say that about Season 5 because I haven’t seen much of it yet).
And before he says anything… Gray was originally supposed to be cisgender and only became non-binary after Blu came out as such during filming. It’s why in a lot of their early episodes, characters use “she” when talking about them.
I’ll leave it up to you to determine how awkward you think it is that you wrote two paragraphs about Adira as a defense of Gray.
Characters on Discovery included as a box-ticking exercise?? WHAT!!?
Also lol @ Amok Mime’s reply.
well, all good things…
I’ll be amazed if the last scene isn’t a rip off of the poker scene from All Good Things. Again. Because god forbid these shows actually do anything original and fresh.
Good point. Lower Decks is so derivative of all those other zany fast-paced irreverent animated comedies Trek has been so famous for in the past.