“The New Next Generation”
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5, Episode 10 – Debuted Thursday, December 19, 2024
Written by Mike McMahan
Directed by Megan Lloyd
An action-packed, heartfelt, and laugh-filled episode brings a very satisfying end to the series.
SPOILERS BELOW
No, Vulcans do not make up technobabble.
RECAP
“Are you sure the Enterprise can’t handle this?”
After a Klingon cold open introducing us to vengeful Relga encountering the reality-warping fissure from 509’s cliffhanger, we are back at the Cerritos bar to catch up with our lower deckers reminding us of their season arcs. Mariner finds joys in being a JG, Boims obsesses over his alt PADD self, T’Lyn and Tendi are technobabble twins, but Rutherford complains old Cerritos tech isn’t up to his advanced cybernetic standards. Brad’s brief freakout over the terrifying warning from his transporter twin sends him and Mariner to the captain, and it turns out to be surprisingly easy to convince her, alt-T’Pol and all. Starfleet Command is also in agreement, all of reality is about to be destroyed. No big whoop. Oh, and the rift is surrounded by a field that can transform you into random multiverse things like giving you a cactus for a head… okay, that’s a big whoop. They have a fix for the rift (shoot with sci-fi beam, naturally) and a sort of shield workaround for the whole multiverse transforming thing… because it turns out all the important ships like the Enterprise are too far away to get there in time, so it’s up to the Cerritos. “Call it fate or entanglement, this is your mission.” You’d think after over a century of always only having one ship to save the universe, Starfleet would maybe get more ships, but what can you do?
I will kill you where you stand for saying my targ is ugly.
“All hands, brace for weird.”
Meanwhile, Ma’ah’s fierce delivery van is attacked by Relga, who uses the ship she lost in the cold open as a pretense for revenge. Malor warps them to the Cerritos for asylum, ignoring his protesting brother. Freeman and her crew are busy reconfiguring the ship for quantum stuff (for which the hull may not be protected) so she doesn’t have time for this Klingon mishegoss, but she grants them safe harbor (and snacks for Malor). Relga (with her hideous micro-targ) shows up. Carol doesn’t want to hand over the brothers, but an oddly curt message from her husband (and admiral) orders her to do it anyway. While the Cerritos crew search for a missing Malor, Relga ignores Freeman’s good faith gesture sharing the quantum shield fix and attacks, with the Cerritos just warping away after taking out one of the BoPs. Things get “freaky” when they arrive at the rift where the Schrödinger Possibility Field transforms the Cerritos into a Freedom Class, and before Tendi can nerdsplain single-nacelle ships, Relga’s fleet shows up. Again with the Klingons, who chase them into into the fissure zone, where one Klingon ship turns into an old barge. Argh. Things are chaotic on the Cerritos as Tendi and T’Lyn argue over energy allocation, Rutherford grows more frustrated with the outdated tech, and Ma’ah argues with Mariner after Boimler’s cheat PADD reveals Becky Freeman hid Malor in the alt universe. Shaxs barely has time to fanboy over the ship transforming into a powerful ISS Cerritos when the engines cut out, leaving them dead in space… at the mercy of the Klingons. Could the finale be a good day to die?
One f—ing nacelle, no thank you.
“Cali-class rules!”
Relga threatens to board the ship, and Ma’ah demands Boimler hand over his precious PADD but Brad refuses, snapping his alt universe cheat sheet in half to show his solidarity with Mariner, who he believes didn’t hide Malor… and he was right. Turns out it was Ransom who did it. Jack knew the captain had to follow orders but felt something was wrong with Admiral Freeman’s message—and he was right, proven when Kayshon works out the order was faked. “Jinza, when the truth was uncovered.” Um, yeah, what he said. Things calm a bit on the bridge, but they are still at the mercy of the Klingons… but now Billups has his big idea moment. Relga calls over for some taunting but Freeman is cocky. Cut to Olly on the hull using her demigod powers to zap away the Klingon’s quantum shield, which leaves them exposed to be devolved. Relga’s flagship is quickly destroyed in proto-Klingon infighting. Back to the main mission, the ship gets transformed again, rotating through a variety of famous classes until returning to original design. Now it’s Rutherford’s moment as he has an epiphany: This old ship is just what they need as he literally dives into the warp core, rips off his incompatible eyepiece, and wows the engineers by reconfiguring the ship to use the energy of the fissure to power them back up. They head in to the center of the universe-destroying storm but the weirdness splits the ship into two quantum possibilities, with each ship controlling the other. Wow, they are having a day, right? Now it’s time for Tendi and T’Lyn to harness their “science besties!” powers, trusting each other to reunite the ship. The Cerritos finally makes it to the rift, ready to close it for good by firing the beam… and it doesn’t work. Wait, what?
Nerd Twin Powers, activate.
“Wait, did we just save the f–ing universe?”
As they stare into universe-ending defeat, Malor shows up and says something wise about rivers and farms and dams which sends Mariner leaping into action to reconfigure the beam. The rift stops weirding out and stabilizes into a permanently open gateway. Holy Sisko! With time running out in the series finale, things speed up. Ma’ah is given Relga’s fleet and peaces out. Starfleet moves Starbase 80 to the oversee the new gateway, with Captain Freeman (ironically) transferring over, now in charge of exploring strange new realities. Cue tearful hugs and goodbyes, but no time to dwell as we return to the bar for Rutherford to show up sans implant, looking “very handsome” to a flustered Tendi, flustering Sam even more. The lower deckers are impressed but confused when Mariner arrives, seemingly chill with her mom leaving. Beckett is inspired to voice-over a lovely montage celebrating the Cerritos “mishmash of people and various creatures that don’t fit in anywhere else,” a family that gets the mission done and a testament to the captain that brought them together. She also lit her bed on fire… but baby steps, right? On the bridge, it’s time to meet the new CO, Captain Jack Ransom. Bro! He takes a moment to compliment Rutherford’s engineering and excites the two science besties with a mission to check out some talking goo. As for Mariner and Boimler, he shocks the pair by making them co-provisional first officers, which he assures them is a thing. They protest this command competition, worrying it could ruin their friendship and espousing they are still lower decks. But he believes they can make it work, pointing out the new reality: They are now “in charge of lower decks.” With groaning acceptance they take their seats besides the new captain and immediately fail to talk him out of a workout-themed catchphrase… Engage the core!
I can’t believe it’s over, so let’s hold on to Mariner’s words: “This isn’t the end of the story, it’s the beginning.”
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
REVIEW
If you have to end a show before its time, that is the way you do it. This supersized episode is the finale that fans deserved, and more. There was a bit of everything packed in with tons of exciting action, finely tuned plot arcs tied up, heartfelt character beats, fun canon connections, loving callbacks to the series itself… and of course, it was very funny. This wasn’t just a love letter, but a love opus to Star Trek… and Lower Decks. From the amazing art and production design, to the emotional music, to the crisp writing and well-balanced pacing, everyone working on the show poured their hearts into it. Of course, this is also true of the series stars, who delivered memorable performances that gave their characters what was needed to say goodbye.
No, this is not the last you will see of us.
What was initially a surprise, but made sense, is how the show kept the focus on our core characters, upper and lower decks both. The previous episode ended up being more of a handoff than a true cliffhanger, with all those legacy characters only seen but not heard for the finale. This allowed Lower Decks to celebrate its own crew and give everyone—not just the lower deckers—their own hero moments. The show works because it has built up the rest of the crew, well demonstrated in the “Upper Decks” episode, so it’s satisfying when the is crisis averted by everyone pulling together to save the day, or at least getting a funny line. And the way things wrapped up with Ransom and Captain Freeman was perfect for them as well as the series. Of course we are left wanting more in many cases, but with the limited time given, this and the last few episodes show how they went out of their way to service as many characters as possible before the show wrapped up.
The core five lower deckers also had very satisfying moments, all of which were tied into their overall season (and series) arcs with some nice callbacks, although Rutherford’s early anti-Cerritos turn seemed a bit out of the blue, as was the rushed-feeling romantic storyline hint at the end, showing how got the short end of the character development stick this season. His resolution was satisfying but just not as well set up as Tendi and T’Lyn’s leveling up and bonding, Boimler giving up his precious alt-universe PADD, and Mariner embracing being a (mostly) responsible officer. We know the team behind the show wants to see it (or at least these characters) continue in some way, so they nicely threaded the needle here, giving us something with closure but also opening the door to more possibilities. This is particularly reminiscent of the TNG finale “All Good Things…” (which got a little nod), which makes sense as that show inspired this series, making the finale title “The New Next Generation” particularly apt.
Okay, who took my space stapler?
Another welcome surprise is how well the finale tied into the season as a whole. Instead of big plot arc teasing, we now can see that what appeared to be fun standalone episodes were always part of a bigger plan. This opened the door for things like Ma’ah and Malor returning to become episode MacGuffins to let the show dip back into the well of aggrieved Klingon siblings for some classic Trek over-the-top villainy, introducing us to Relga and her creepy little targ. But even little things like the episode with Olly the demi-god played a key role, showing producers have been playing a stealthy long game. This is perhaps best demonstrated by Captain Freeman being assigned to Starbase 80, giving her a poetic arc for the season, calling back to the season premiere and her obsession with her alternate self seen in “Starbase 80” episode. The execution of how these plot and character stories were put together could be seen as a model for how Star Trek shows could handle the balance between episodic and serialized storytelling.
Starfleet snacks are certified wiggle-free.
Maybe the biggest star was the USS Cerritos itself, which always gets to shine in the finales. This time they outdid themselves as the ship became a sort of metaphor, as it transformed into various classic ships before returning to its original design, which was revealed to be perfect, even if engineering isn’t attached to the main part of the ship. Rutherford and Mariner drove the point home about how the show has made us grow to love this California class and its sort of misfit crew that may not have the spit and polish one might expect on a Sovereign or Galaxy class but has the heart and soul of Star Trek and get the job done. The montage at the end was a beautiful tribute to the show and its fun collection of characters, and it was nice they were given the time and resources to extend the episode to include more of these moments offering at least a bit of closure.
If you disagree with this review, let me invite you to Twain.
Final thoughts
This was hands down one of the best television finales ever, not just for the franchise. It feels complete emotionally while keeping hope alive for more. It had the heart of what could have made for a great Star Trek movie while also being another hilarious episode of Lower Decks, the series that dared to show us that we can have a laugh within this Trek universe that has become part of all of our lives. I will miss Lower Decks, but I am thankful we have five seasons to revisit and grateful that the universe of Star Trek is that much bigger because of it.
After all this, we could all use a drink.
RANDOM BITS
- For the first time this season, the episode begins with a “previously on Lower Decks” recap, which covered not just the previous cliffhanger episode but many other elements from the season that factored into the finale.
- The episode runtime is 34:03, by far the longest of the series (second longest is the season 4 finale at 30:10).
- The Schrödinger Possibility Field is named for Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger who was a pioneer in quantum theory, known for his famous “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment.
- The rift was to be closed using a “gluonic beam,” with gluonic distortion first seen on the USS Titan in the episode “Strange Energies.” The name of the beam may be on the nose, but gluons are real world subatomic particles.
- Kimolu and Matt think Ma’ah is hot. The also love getting sprayed down by Boimler. TMI?
- When the bridge crew gets their briefing from Starfleet Command, T’Ana is still wearing a pirate hat and eyepatch from her “Sexy Treasure Island” holodeck time with Shaxs.
T’Ana wishes she was back in the holodeck and not dealing with this bulls—.
Easter eggs and more to come
We will take a deeper dive into the Disco Klingons and all the canon and in-series Easter eggs this weekend and will discuss this episode on Friday’s All Access Podcast.
New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks premiere on Thursdays, streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Lower Decks also airs on Thursdays in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.
Keep up with all the news and reviews from the new Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
It would been great for a season finale without the episode trying to give every character their 5 minutes. Really sorry to see the series end. It was the only series in the new era that got what I liked about trek.
They only had an extra six minutes compared to a normal episode.
I think they did very well.
Yeah but six extra glorious minutes!
and we finally got a real K’vort! none of that upscaled STIII Bird of Prey junk
I loved the new big bird of prey design!
Same here! Finally makes sense. Can we redo all those old TNG episodes?
Looked a bit retro too, like the Enterprise Raptor design.
It’s apparent they tried to pack a lot into this episode once word came down it would be the last; it’s almost too busy in my opinion. I need to do a rewatch.
Still, there’s a lot that’s great here – the quantum-shifting Cerritos, “science besties powers activate!”-scene, Mariner’s closing speech…
Lower Decks is at least leaving me wanting more…a sign it had plenty of juice left in the tank.
But Paramount seems determined to cut Trek to the bone…just found out The Ready Room is ending too.
The “science besties” scene also made me laugh out loud, as did the scene with “Ensign Zeus” throwing a manga-ball at the Klingon ship.
Didn’t The Ready Room end ages ago?
After Trek ended, but Ready Room’s been going ever since then, albeit not for every episode. Lately it’s been more to kick off and cap off the various seasons.
The co-science officer thing was silly enough, but the co-first officer thing is flat-out ridiculous.
I’ve worked with companies and organizations that experiment with “co-CEOs” in this way. It almost invariably fails miserably, as soon as there’s a difference of opinion on major strategy questions.
If this structure worked, you’d see it everywhere.
I think the thing is to see which one of them wants to be first officer more.
I mean, mariner is OLDER and has more experience being an officer, but I’m sure the way she is would not make her the best suited. I mean, even though she’s graciously accepted a promotion finally, she still has growth in her character to go.
The “Science Besties” was typically cringe and was just like Star Trek Discovery yelling “The power of Math!”. Ugh…
Not really the same to me. The point of that scene was largely to cement how far T’Lynn has come to seeing things the way Tendi does.
The bit where the Klingon turned into a Discovery era one made me laugh out loud.
SAME HERE!
That was Simpsons level humour for me.
******* amazing!
I love that kinda s**t.
This was another “experience Bij” moment for me.
So this confirms that Disco is in an alt universe! Thank god. 🤣
It was at least nice to see Discovery acknowledged by one of the other new shows outside of SNW.
But yeah I don’t miss those Klingons at all.
Well Discovery got acknowledged in Picard’s first episode with the hologram of the Discovery Enterprise. Also Prodigy referenced Discovery when Wesley Crusher mention the Mycelial network in S2. So most of the modern shows have referenced Discovery. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some mention or reference of Discovery in the Section 31 film too.
Yeah you’re right I actually forgot Prodigy. Good point.
The Enterprise thing on Picard was fine but that’s still mostly about the Enterprise and not about Discovery as a show. But OK that’s fine.
For the record, I want them to reference the show more. It’s just weird how we have all these new shows and it’s barely mentioned outside of vague references. It’s really odd. But I also guess since they oddly made the ship and her crew practically non existence in the 23rd century by classifying its existence and pretending it was just destroyed makes it harder.
Amd on top of that it was only around about a year before it jumped to the 32nd century. But it did end the Klingon war and all, so…
It would be weird not to acknowledge Discovery in the Section 31, if nothing else but to remind people who Georgiou is and how she got there.
But then with the crossover episode of SNW and the SNW episode Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow changing Khan’s backstory. Does this mean that both SNW and Decks share their own universe that exists outside the prime universe?
But then again SNW’s first episode re-confirmed it’s connection to Discovery with flashbacks to the finale episode of S2. Also the first episode of Picard also had a hologram of the Discovery Enterprise.
So going by all this means that Lower Decks, SNW, Discovery and Picard are all set in an alternate universe to TOS-ENT? I can see this episode bringing a lot of back and forth discussions in regard to weather Lower Decks and the rest of the modern shows can still be considered prime or not.
Of course for myself even if Mike McMahan/his team are seemingly suggesting to fans that Lower Decks and by extension the rest of the modern shows are not in the prime timeline as TOS-ENT. I personally still consider it and all Trek shows to be set in the prime timeline continuity.
Really, once “Parallels” happened, all bets were off. As much as Trek likes to favor the whole, “We have to go back in time and fix things or else!” narrative, the introduction of an infinite number of quantum realities means that everything is on the table. That’s comforting, really, because thinking about things the old school “City on the Edge of Forever/First Contact” way would have meant the Kelvin Incident obliterated our TOS and everything after it.
Not really, because there’s nothing requiring me to accept the Kelvin films as Trek canon. If they are canon then that invalidates the entire core concept of “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which is frankly more worthwhile than all three of those films put together.
There’s been nothing to indicate that Lower Decks, or ANY of the other shows sit outside of the prime universe that TOS-ENT did.
The fact that the Klingons at the beginning changed into Discovery Klingons was for the same overall reason Relga’s crew changed & also why the Cerritos kept changing throughout the entire time: These were all possibilities that have been seen. It’s an acknowledgement that the Discovery Klingons are still very much Klingon as the Proto-Klingons are.
No more so than the Cerritos turning into a Sovereign class proves that the TNG movies are in another universe.
And that LDX very well could be an alt.
I’m glad they didn’t follow the dumbass route and make Boimler or Mariner captain.
This isn’t the Kelvin universe. ;)
Of course, William Boimler is one already.
They practically did with that first officer stuff.
Loved the finale, incredibly sad Paramount ended the series at only five seasons–it could’ve gone on for much longer. Production costs per episode probably didn’t come even near any of the other series, on a per-minute basis (well, maybe except for TAS).
It was pretty evident that the animators at Titmouse were inspired by anime especially when storyboarding this episode–Olly charging up her powers in a stance reminiscent of Dragon Ball, and the Tendi/T’Lyn science besties re-merge sequence.
One would think that some of the individual actions of the lower deckers would merit a promotion, let alone a commendation–Mariner’s last-second conversion of the field into a gateway, and Rutherford’s reconfiguration of the warp core to feed off of the energy field. However, I know that it wouldn’t have served the story from an ending perspective–the core five need to be on an even platform.
Here’s to hoping that this won’t be the last outing of Lower Decks. It’s been a great ride.
Overall I think this was a great way for the series to end (hopefully just for now). They wrapped up stories in a logical way and left things wide open for the future. There were a few bits and pieces I wish they were able to include though:
These are small things though. I think the easter eggs were amazing and I loved the finale overall. I hope we get to see more of this crew in the future. This was definitely one of my favorite Trek series of all time and I’m sorry to see it go.
I’m glad this show happened. Thank you Mike McMahan.
Wow, this was so much fun. Still wondering if we will get Star Trek: Starbase 80 next …
An homage to Star Trek to the very end: the second part of a two-parter being a letdown.
I was at Disneyland yesterday with some family and friends and actually had an amazing time. But all I thought about when I was there when I got home I would have this episode waiting for me to watch and it didn’t disappoint.
This show went out on a really high note and I was happy to see the original crew get its bow. I didn’t love it as much as last weeks but still loved it. When you get so many great legacy characters reveals (and done really well) of course there is wanting to see more of that in the finale. But McMahan, once again, subverted expectations in a big way. Many people, me included, were theorizing, everyone from Archer to Dax may show up in the finale. Instead, he rightly made it about the original characters and their personal arcs as the show itself. I don’t think they even referenced another legacy character name. And I saw theories the show would try to reference other finales like All Good Things, but stayed away from all of that. End of the day, it was strictly a fun and zany LDS episode with all the heartwarming craziness we got for the last five seasons.
And love the idea of having a portal that now leads into other multiverses with a DS9 type set up with Starbase 80. Like Picard season 3, they set up a great ending where to take things next.
If I had one issue with it, it was with the villain Relga. I liked her (and it’s just a reminder per usual, allies or not, Klingons are still mostly dicks) but she should’ve been developed in the season more. She shows up for the first time in the last episode of both season and show and felt pretty disconnected to the bigger plot. If she showed up in the previous Ma’ah episode that would’ve been better at least. But not a huge issue and unlike Discovery and Picard, one of the positives is that it doesn’t focus on a season long villain that we cut back to every other episode.
But I will miss this show a lot. Until Lower Decks came, I have been very up and down with the modern era of Trek since 2009. There have been lot of things I like about it, but lots I feel miss the boat when compared to the previous era which I still love the most (and I don’t think that era is close to perfect either obviously, but still better). But Lower Decks was the first show in the modern era that always made me smile and a reminder of why I loved Trek in the first place. It brought back the style of Trek that fans from the 60-90s grew up on (and many who missed it) but with a very comedic twist. It wasn’t always perfect either but got more right than wrong. And I just love its crazy devotion to canon and how it fits so much into the universe while still doing its own thing. It really should’ve failed given its premise but it worked and it worked great IMO.
But I believe we will get more. Of course I still believe we will get something Legacy related so take that for what you will lol. But there is an outpouring of love for both the show and the characters by fans out there and clearly McMahan still has lots of ideas where to go next. And considering we are getting not only many legacy characters back literally 20+ years later but with lots of fanfare over it each time, I think these characters will find ways to come back as well. Just hopefully it won’t be another 20 years.
Well time to say goodbye to our lower deckers (for now), but not the 24th century. We’re going back a few decades next to catch up with the exploits of MU Georgiou, Rachel Garret and their merry band of Section 31 operatives. So the next adventure awaits!
I’m not sure if they showed this before, but apparently Klingons do have a little horn on their feet, where their boots have them. Maybe Worf trims his.
If only Emily/Harry could have seen this. We could have done a lot of good with the life savings they would have to fork over because no legacy characters had lines and the poker homage to “All Good Things…” is definitely not what they were preemptively b*tching about.
Was a delight to spend time with this crew one last time. Glad everyone got a moment in the montage at least. Definitely did feel a little rushed at times, to the point where the Klingon subplot did seem like it was using some precious time the main characters deserved in a final episode. Rutherford’s implant arc was not set up or delivered all that well. His attraction to Tendi I was happy to see finally get some attention before the end though, it was setup and addressed rather a lot over previous seasons. Science besties was cute but also got a bit of a short shrift.
But that they managed to squeeze all this in at all in a story that could only have been reworked so much based on when they found out it would be the last episode is a testament to how good this writing team is. It’s still clever and funny and has plenty of heart to spare. I truly hope this isn’t the end and at the very least TV movies are in its future. I never thought this would be my favorite Trek show to come from this new era, but it really just floored me, almost from day one.
They knew going in that this was the last season.
They did not know that when they were writing the full season. It was relayed to McMahan in time to rework the finale. He talks about that in an interview with Collider in August. TrekMovie covered it on Aug 16 of this year.
It is interesting how all the complaints from some people LDS is nothing but jist cameos and Easter eggs and yet if you look at the last two seasons they were already doing less and less of that
In fact in season 4, there were only three episodes that had legacy characters in it. The only episode that had a lot of Easter eggs was the first episode dealing with Voyager. But very little of season 4 had to do with those things and was mostly focused on the new characters and their stories.
Same with this season. We got some great and unexpected legacy characters but they were only in two episodes as well. Most of the season once again focused basically on LDS characters and their storylines like Tendi being back on Orion or Boimler trying to be more confident.
As for the finale it did prove that ultimately LDS was always about these characters and stories. I have seen people complain Picard or Riker should’ve made an appearance at the end since the Enterprise E appeared along with the Titan. McMahan could’ve easily done that and yeah it would’ve been great, for sure.
But he wanted the finale to just be about THESE characters as basically every Star Trek finale has done before. The only finale that brought in other legacy characters from another show was Enterprise and yeah we saw how well that fared.
The focus on stories and characters this show built for itself was exactly right. The Easter eggs and legacy guests are just loving touches that do not make or break the show. The only thing truly wrong with the finale was that it came two seasons and a movie too early.
LOL agreed.
And again while the show has highlighted legacy characters, what ALWAYS gets ignored is they are never the focus over the main characters. For one thing, unlike ALL the other shows, Discovery, Prodigy, Picard and definitely SNW LDS doesn’t have any starring or reoccurring legacy characters appearing over and over again. And Riker was the only one that appeared in more than one episode and that was only back in the first two seasons. Everyone else it was just a one and done and the majority of them were mostly just cameos.
But there is no Spock or Pike who showed up for an entire season and the story became about them. There is no Kirk who just randomly appears every few episodes. There is no Janeway who leads the other characters or no new characters related to Spock or Picard and so on.
The show is strictly about these characters only. We have them show on stuff like DS9 but Kira and Quark never took over the show and we never saw them again after that.
McMahan clearly wants these characters to pepper in the show as much as possible but the show always felt like its own thing and not a Voyager or TNG sequel like Prodigy and Picard did or a TOS prequel that SNW felt like on day one and feels more of that every time another TOS character shows up.
I enjoyed the episode. Things wrapped up nicely. However, the entire plot with the Klingon woman felt shoehorned in there, either to fill time (which they didn’t need – they had plenty of existing material they could have given a little more time to) or as an excuse to bring the bloodwine brothers back. But that’s one small gripe from one small man, so do with it as you will.
I hope it’s not 10 years before we get Lower Decks: The Motion Picture…
Was it my imagination or did the theme music get a new, grander orchestration for the finale?
My guess is that Chris Westlake probably devoted more attention to the last two episodes in the composition/orchestration. All the episodes are scored on a soundstage with a full orchestra, but there can be degrees of sound layering–which does take a bit of time to write.
ENGAGE THE CORE!
This finale was amazing. It wss a fun and exciting way to end the show and giving us one last great adventure with our lower deckers and in great Star Trek style watch them all come together as a team.
I love that everyone got a moment to shine and we got to see all the old characters again. The action scenes were incredible, you can definitely tell they put a lot more money into this episode. Always happy to see Ma’ah back. I like they kept finding ways to bring him back. I thought it would’ve been great if he ended up on the Cerritos full time especially since there isn’t a Klingon in the cast. But how they ended his story was great.
And the ending of the episode was just as great. Having Freeman take over Starbase 80 as keeper of the multiverse portal gave off serious DS9 vibes. Was also happy to see Ransom as the new captain. The speech Mariner gave at the end nearly made me tear up.
Now would I have loved to see Sisko, Archer, Worf, B’Elana, Kirk or Neelix to appear? With the exception of Neelix the answer is a resounding yes. But am I’m unhappy none did?
NOPE!
Because for people like me who loves Lower Decks we all get it and what the finale conveyed. The show is about THESE people. I gotten to love all of them and their stories. I’ll even admit something I never have before but I actually hated Freeman. Not on the level of Neelix, MU Georgiou, Tilly or Neelix but for a long time she was my least favorite character on the show.
Today I completely love her, especially after this season. She has grown a lot and has turned into a great captain. It’s great to see Riker or Paris shows up, but I’m invested in the characters on the show and didn’t let me down.
Did I love everythin in it, no. Will I say what it was, nah it doesn’t matter, I’m just happy this show was in my life for five seasons. Someone who was bitterly disappointed over JJ verse, Discovery and sadly Picard fell in love with a show I knew would be canceled by season 2 because I thought it was going to be that bad!
Instaed It has revived my faith in Star Trek!
Cerritos strong! 🖖
NOW GIVE US THE STARBASE 80 SPIN OFF SHOW PARAMOUNT!!!!
EXCLUSIVE! Lower Decks cast discuss their feelings on the final season! Mariner: I guess this is the big goodbye! So sad it’s ending but we had a great run. And we still beat out The Original Series, Enterprise, The Animated Series, Prodigy and Picard. But we’re also tied with Discovery and something called T.J. Hooker? It’s some show where Captain Kirk travels back in time to the late twentieth century but before the Eugenics war starts. He pretends to be a beat cop in L.A. for five seasons. TV was weird back then man. Anyway, I’m sure we will get movies in the future like TOS and TNG did. I really want a movie with finding whales too. I feel it would fit us. T’Lyn: If I were human, I believe my response would be go to hell muthableepers…if I were human. Dr. T’Ana: I’m so bleeping happy this bleeping show is bleeping over. They actually forced us to sign a 9 and a quarter season contract. Why the bleep would you even make a quarter of a season??? Probably some bullbleep algorithm Paramount came up with to extract more views of their dying streaming service no one watches their bleep shows on. I heave heard very good things about Lioness though. They even asked me if I wanted to do something called ‘conventions’ once it was over? No thanks, bleep that bleep! So I can stand in some bleeping hot room gabbing to fat lonely losers who never bleeped a girl before asking me should the show be considered something called ‘canon’ (Like how the bleep would I know??? And quit asking me!!) or is me and Shaxs actually bleeping on the show?? The answer is bleep yeah we are, not that these virgins would even know where a bleep even is even if they had a tricorder to locate it for them. Get a bleeping life you people. I’m a doctor, not a bleeping circus clown. Will Riker: Me and Deanna loved being on that show. Great people. I was heartbroken when I heard it was cancelled. I was hoping to appear in it at least 9 more episodes. But we both came up with a great idea for the final episode where we could show up in a holodeck and talk to the cast about their final adventure on the Cerritos…and maybe they randomly kill off Boimler for some reason. Hope the final episode hasn’t aired yet. We’re still waiting to hear back. Shaxs: WHY THE BLEEP THEY ARE ENDING THE BLEEPING SHOW SO SOON??? THEY HAD ALREADY PLANNED A BRILLIANT STORYLINE FOR ME IN SEASON SIX WHERE I GOT TO KILL MORE CARDASSIANS! IT WAS GOING TO BE AN EMOTIONAL CHARACTER JOURNEY OF ME CHOKING, BEATING, GUTTING, SHOOTING, HANGING, STABBING, DROWNING, BURNING AND TORTURING CARDASSIANS FOR TWENTY FOUR MINUTES OF CARNAGE!!! BAD MOVE PARAMOUNT, YOU JUST LOST AN EMMY! WHY DID I EVEN BOTHER COMING BACK FROM THE DEAD FOR THIS??? Captain Freeman: Second star to the right and straight on until morning is where I will be heading to take some shore leave for the next six weeks after the show is finished. It’s going to be me and Admiral Freeman sipping jippers on a beach somewhere. Rutherford: Aw man, I’m so sad this show will end but I got to meet so many great people!! The greatest day I remember was when Geordi LaForge came by when we were shooting the first episode. Everyone was so star struck. And then me and Billups had an amazing talk with him about power coupling converters for hours. He even gave us advice on how we could increase our plasma manifold output by another .04%. IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!! Boimler: I’m just happy I got a promotion before they canceled the show. But if we shot this show in the Kelvin universe, I probably would’ve made captain four seasons ago. But I truly loved I got to work with so many great living legends in this business. Let’s see, Lt. Paris, T’Pol, Will Riker, Harry Kim, Mr. Spock, Uhura and the Borg Queen who was also super chill when the cameras weren’t rolling. You wouldn’t know it, but she’s actually quite the comedian too.. I think the media has been unfairly critical towards the Borg. They are actually really nice people when they aren’t trying to assimilate anyone. Ransom: They let me keep all the weight equipment when it was over. You can’t really ask for too much more than that. Solid brand and quality. I’m also hitting the convention circuit after its over to meet some of the hot lady fans if you catch my drift! OOOOH YEAH!!! I’m even thinking of lifting weights while on stage answering questions. Give the fans what they came for, am… Read more »
God damn, that’s a wall of text!
You have to click on the ‘read more’ link at the end of the post and it will make the text readable.
After you go over a certain number of words, this board automatically collapses the post together for some reason. But it’s all very readable once you click it.
What Tiger2 said! :)
LOL this was hilarious!!!
I actually saw this already on Trekcre but reading it again was so much fun. You really do hear all the character voices in this. You could’ve worked on the show yourself.
And I’m not trying to overthink this, but the way you wrote this, are you suggesting that the characters are real and that Lower Decks is basically considered a reality show of some kind they are making within the universe itself? Or is it supposed to be a scripted show? It sounds like it’s the latter but it also sounds like they actually are Starfleet officers along with all the other characters in the universe.
Yeah, I am overthinking it lol.
Also loved all the Easter eggs and sly references to other shows and movies (ie, The Big Goodbye). Again, a very LDS thing to do.
But you left out the Boimler Borg joke that was on Trekcre. Dude I laughed so hard over that joke for some reason.
Also hilarious Peanut Hamper wrote a tell all book and she was only in three episodes lol.
Anyway, good job. This is really great fan fiction and I just love how it gets both the show and the characters so right.
Haha thank you my friend!
And please, over think away! Yeah, that’s the basic idea. I always looked at Lower Decks as a workplace comedy like The Office or Parks and Recs, but in this case it’s on a starship. It’s not that, but it’s the closest thing to those IMO.
But in this case, I looked at it (and I guess all the Trek shows in this scenario) as a ‘scripted reality show’ where everything is actually happening on the ship and with the characters, but there are ‘writers’ there to add new story lines by suggesting other missions for them to take to fill out the ‘show’. I have done a few of these before too. They are always fun to write! :)
And yeah I cut out some of the stuff from the other site because I know it’s pretty lengthy lol.
And in case he ever stumbles upon this here or Trekcre, the T.J. Hooker joke is for my boy Amirami since I know that’s when he first knew who Shatner was and one of his favorite shows growing up! ;)
Peanut Hamper is the ultimate diva haha! It’s probably why she was written out after season 4. Either that or she demanded to be written out of the show like Nimoy wanted in the movies. I have a feeling though, if we get more LDS, like Spock himself, Peanut Hamper will return!
Yeah what I thought but it’s very creative and funny. I can literally see all the characters saying these things word for word.
And Peanut Hamper will definitely be back She can’t stay away from the drama and gives her a chance to write another book. 😉
No idea Amirami was a TJ Hooker fan. I watched it here and there growing up too and will probably always be Shatner’s second biggest role he’s known for.
Anyway great read!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU for this and I love that it’s the CHARACTER talking.
Sounds like Peanut Hamper has the best gossip!
I’m reading these in my head i the character voices and it WORKS.
WELL DONE; THANK YOU!
Agreed. Very well done. They all feel like their characters.
This didn’t do much for me at all, sadly. But then, I hate the multiverse even more than captain Boimler does.
Seriously?
Up there with “Felina” or “Saul Gone”?
Up there with “Made in America” (controversial, I know)?
Up there with “Start” (from THE AMERICANS)?
Up there with “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” from MASH? The CHEERS finale?
Even “All Good Things”?
I get that there are people for whom this show is a sentimental favorite, but this is ridiculous.
I watched the episode last night. It’s not bad by LOWER DECKS standards; I particularly liked the fact that the characters actually did something, and that they banished the Easter eggs and Trek alumni cameos. But it’s not something that’s percolating into the cultural zeitgeist the way “BOBW” did.
Funny thing, I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember but the MASH finale received decidedly mixed reviews at the time it originally aired, the chief complaint being that at almost feature
length it felt padded. That wasn’t entirely wrong; still, the good parts were really, really good.
I think the concensus was that MASH’s GF&A was good, but probably a half hour too long. I think the fire subplot was hastily added because a real forest fire swept through the filming location.
I will agree I don’t think it’s the greatest series finale or anything close to it. But these are Star Trek fans and Anthony is probably one of the biggest LDS fanboys judging by all his reviews of the show. For many who loved it will probably rewatch it for years to come than any of those other shows you mentioned (and I love many of those as well).
Currently the finale has a 9.1 score on IMDB. That’s literally tied with All Good Things. And for me AGT is actually up there with some of the greatest TV finales. But I guess it shows just how much of a pull LDS has created for fans who do love it.
Great season finale, but a horrible series finale.
I know the show had some fans. But… Well… Nothing more needs to be said.
Well it’s been a few days since the finale and starting with Picard season 3 as the first show to end in the new era, I have been listing the finale ratings from IMDB. And I don’t know if it’s surprising or not to anyone here, but so far at least, this finale is tied with the previous episode Fissure Quest as the highest rated episode ever of LDS with a 9.1. Not only that is amazing in itself, it’s only the third Star Trek finale that has ever got over a 9 rating.
And here is the current ratings list of all the Trek finale ratings to compare:
Turnabout Intruder: 6.8
All Good Things: 9.1
What You Leave Behind: 8.9
Endgame: 8.6
These Are The Voyages: 5.3
The Last Generation: 9.4
Life, Itself: 6.2
The New Next Generation: 9.1
Say what you will about LDS, it has really captured the hearts of many fans, me included. To be only the third Trek show finale to be rated so high does tell you how many people have come to love this show. In so many ways, this show should’ve been a complete failure and taking the risk that it did that fans could like a broad animated comedy with goofy characters poking fun at the franchise. However, in the end many saw it as the ultimate love letter to it. Of course, I have to point out, it doesn’t mean everyone loved the show and it certainly has its critics like every show including some on this board, but it can’t be denied it is way more loved than hated overall. McMahan should feel proud of what he made.
And it’s also more proof people aren’t out to hate Kurtzman Trek. When fans really like something, you see it everywhere, with two of his shows getting pretty high marks at the end of their runs so far. And this is a show that started as the lowest rated Trek show on IMDB when it premiered; more proof fans are open minded and willing to give something a chance when something is considered good.
I’m honestly surprised that Endgame is rated so highly. It’s a great Voyager episode, but as a series finale it’s rushed and pretty poor. My opinion, of course.
And that score for These Are The Voyages is far too generous!
I was never a big fan of the Voyager finale either. Like you said, liked it in general, but it just felt too rush and a bit disjointed as a series finale. But I guess for many, it checked a lot of boxes and why it’s so high.
Also agree on TATV, I would rate it a 4 as a series finale, but a 7 if it was just another episode. That’s always been the problem, a decent and even fun episode on its own, but highly poor as a finale and they killed off Trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A few years back it was a bit lower IIRC but around and 8.2 or something.
And I agree with both of you, overall I did like the finale but I still have problems with it too.
And I always wished they built up to it like the way DS9 built up to finishing the Dominion war arc and maybe the last 5 episodes of them finding a real way home before the finale.
But that was always the problem with Voyager it was never allowed to be serialized in a bigger way.
TATV is still pretty low. Most of the worst Trek episodes are around a 5 on that site. But yeah it can definitely be lower. It’s just so bad lol.
Woah COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For LDS to get that high of a rating is pretty amazing! I still remembered the conversation we had about the Picard season 3 finale and (at the time anyway) it was the only NuTrek show that had reached a 9 rating. And the finale is still very high over a year later. People really loved it. I don’t know if this finale will stay as high a year from now but it’s still great to see.
And I also agree, the show in general proved in the end how much of a loved show it is. It is a little surprising how high it is because UNLIKE Picard season 3 finale people accused it of getting such a high score due to the TNG cast there other cameos like Tuvok and the Borg Queen and obviously having the Enterprise D back, the LDS finale kept it pretty conservative in that sense. It was strictly about the original crew and didn’t bring in Kirk or Picard to add to it. So that shows how much fans loved it as its own entity. It went out in such a high.
Out of all the finales, I would rate this one fourth after All Good Things, What You Leave Behind and The Last Generation. That’s still pretty good!
By any chance are you and M1701 related? 😉
Yeah it’s really high although I just checked it again and its already fallen to 9.0. Not a big deal and it will probably go up and down a few points for a little while.
And McMahan definitely made the right choice to completely focus it on the shows characters.
In terms of where I would rate it, probably fourth as well. All Good Things will always remain not just my top Trek finales but one of my all-time finales period.
But for NuTrek in terms of finales so far it’s 3-0 so not bad! I have really enjoyed them all.
I also remembered how much crap people gave you for just posting the Picard rating lol. What is wrong with people on the internet? When someone gives a show crap, people complain about it and says you’re just a hater. But when you post something good and positive about it, some people STILL give you crap lol.
Trekkies can be a weird bunch of nerds I guess.
And I also agree, not everyone is out to hate NuTrek. Some people do, but most of us don’t. I considered myself a Kurtzman hater for a long time, but I always said I am open to everything meaning I hope I would love one of his shows, which ended up being this one. But I had no problem saying how much I hated stuff like JJ verse, Discovery and Picard and I wanted to like all of those too. But even for me, I ended up liking Beyond and the last season of Discovery and loved Picard season 3 on a level I haven’t in decades. So it proves many of us are more open minded and even the stuff we ‘hate’ we can still find things we like in them too.
That’s different from people who solely just hate watching everything or hate it because it’s too “W-O-K-E”!!!!!
And if anyone wanted to truly hate NuTrek just to hate it, then Lower Decks should be one of the easiest shows to hate and yet it’s the opposite by the majority of fans who watch it at least.
Lol yeah. The internet can ne an odd place at times. But to be FAIR it was only a couple of people who seem upset about it and I think they all gone now But majority didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
And they just disagreed with the rating which is fine and I disagreed with it as well. I love the finale but I can’t rate it higher than 8.5. Even for the LDS finale I give it around and 8.
But it’s fun to discuss it, that’s literally the point. It’s just supposed to be fun and no one has to take the online ratings as gospel.
But as I always say, if you want to proclaim a show as good or bad in terms of a consensus and not just what your kids or neighbor think then what are you basing it on?
This is the data we have. And usually when it’s pretty
(Oops pressed the send button by accident)
. .consistent across polls, social media, critics, etc that’s usually a pretty good indicator.
And the indicator here is the LDS finale like Picard’s last year is a winner!
I really liked this episode and I think it works well as a series finale. I admit when Olly threw the energy thingy at the Klingons I didn’t even put it together that Olly was using her magic.
The title New Next Generation works on many levels and given the plot of this episode, ties in exactly with what Q told Picard at the end of “All Good Things” — “That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.”
Seems like that’s EXACTLY what Starfleet and humans will be doing. Cool!
It would have been SO easy just to have the ship’s sci-fi beam seal up the anomaly/fissure/thingy but they went in an unexpected way — a portal permanently open to the unknown multiverse and Starbase 80 becoming the new Deep Space 9 — how cool is that!
My only gripe was the “Schrodinger field” thing — even with Trek technobabble it doesn’t stand up that the ship keeps changing but the crew doesn’t. I remember the Simpsons episode where Homer kept changing history and we see this flash montage of the Simpson house keep changing into all kinds of variations including underwater, a McDonalds, and the Flintstones house — even for Lower Decks, it seemed a little implausible. But hey, technobabble for the win.
Rutherford’s implant issues seemed to come out of nowhere and would have benefited from a little setup but that’s OK.
LOVED the growth and character development we’ve seen over the last 5 seasons — enough to be believable but never straying away from who these characters are. Amazing to feel like T’Lynn has been there from the start; she fit in so well. Nice that Carol is the most qualified and HAPPY with the promotion to commander of Starbase 80 and all the adventures she will have!
My favorite type of series finales are those where characters do change, grow and move on but we (audience) still understand they are still out there having adventures (Cheers did this really well).
Season 5 was not the best by standalone episodes but certainly ends strong, with a well crafted finale that feels “right” for the series but nothing ends — it just keeps on going.
Even if this is truly the last of the Lower Decks, I am so happy to have 5 seasons of great stories, heart, love and FUN.
Thank you Mike! Thank you Tawny, Jack, Noel and Eugene and everyone!
LLAP!