Once Voyager comes home and we endure Stuart Baird’s tone-deaf Nemesis, we arrive chronologically at Lower Decks. Let’s be honest. Lower Decks is a feast of Trek in-jokes from one of the brains behind Rick & Morty (itself the stoner’s Doctor Who.) This is an odd change in the chronology. We go from 45-minute legacy Trek episodes (and 2-hour films) to half-hour animated episodes. Yet Lower Decks and its companion show, Prodigy, are two completely different stories. Prodigy is an on-going, somewhat dark take on six youth bungling into Starfleet which also functions as a sort-of continuation of Voyager. Lower Decks fleshes out existing canon and, to date, is the only animated show to crossover with a different live-action series. (TOS and TAS are basically the same show, the latter letting Roddenberry and company thumb their noses at the network censors of the 1960s.)
Lower Decks concerns the USS Cerritos, commanded by Carole Freeman. The Cerritos is a California-class starship, a class devoted to “second contact.” Pike, Kirk, Picard, and Janeway all excel at first contact, meeting new species, shaking hands, and expanded the Federation’s influence. Second contact is the drudge work, and the Cerritos is not a glory ship like the Enterprise, Excelsior, etc. But Freeman is also not the central character. The lower deckers are.
Beckett Mariner, a troublemaker who sabotages every promotion she gets (for twenty years, we eventually find out), is the ringleader. Her pet sidekick is Bradward Boimler, a nervous, earnest captaincy hopeful who records his own logs and slavishly follows the rules Mariner insists on breaking. They are joined by Sam Rutherford, an uber-nerd with a cyber-implant mounted to his head (which makes Seven of Nine look like a slacker) and Tendi, an extremely friendly Orion woman who shares Rutherford’s love of science. Season 4 (the latest until September) adds a Vulcan woman, T’Lyn, sent to the Cerritos for her emotional outbursts. (ie – She takes intuition and educated guesses into account.) Mariner, at one point, informs T’Lyn she is “Vulcan as a motherf***er,” to which she responds, “You’re right. I am Vulcan as a motherf***er.”
Season 1 is mostly stringing references to previous Treks and in-jokes together. But the lower deckers do what the TNG episode “Lower Decks” does (and there’s a tie-in in Season 4 to that.) It shows the senior staff as bewildering enigmas. Freeman comes off as a bit pompous and insecure. First officer Ranson is a preening, weight-lifting jerk. Shaxs, the security chief, is a Bajoran with rage issues and prone to referring to his favorites (including, eventually, Boimler) as “Baby Bear.” He’s eventually assisted by Kayshon, a Tamarian who has to overcome his species tendency to talk in memes (Shaka, his arms wide. Those guys.) Instead of the irascible Scotty, the cool-headed LaForge, curmudgeonly O’Brien, edgy B’Elanna, or the Mistress of Sarcasm that is Jet Reno, we get Billups, a meek man afraid to lose his virginity because he’d have to leave Starfleet and take his homeworld’s throne. And this crew is tended to by a foul-mouthed Catian doctor named T”Ana. Lt. M’Ress she ain’t.
Lower Decks in Seasons 2 and 3 begins to fill in the blanks from the legacy Treks. They visit Deep Space Nine to assist Colonel Kira with a diplomatic mission (and manage to save Quark.) The episode features cameos by Nana Visitor and Armin Shimmerman. Another DS9 crossover includes Max Grodenchik and Chase Masterson as Rom and Leeta. Rom is now Grand Nagus with Leeta as his wife as they negotiate admission to the Federation. An insecure admiral jumps through expensive hoop after expensive hoop (Is there any other kind possible with a Ferengi? Especially with a former dabo girl feeding him ideas?) This is where Freeman shines as she cuts the bullshit and says, “OK, we’ll agree to your terms, but you have to bring another planet into the Federation with you before we pay up.” The fine print specifies the planet as Qo’noS, but as we all know, the Klingons are happy being everyone’s favorite space Vikings, leaving the talkie bits to their Federation buddies. Rom is impressed and asks for the original boilerplate treaty because Freeman understands the Ferengi mind.
Season 4 sees our favorite ensigns promoted to lieutenants junior grade. Mariner is angry about this and unhappy Ransom insists on pushing her to full lieutenant. Boimler has to step up and be a leader. Rutherford learns what happened to him to necessitate his Borg-like implant, and it reveals the dark side of Starfleet, not to mention foreshadowing why fleet formation from Picard, Season 3 is a really bad idea. Most poignant is the underlying reason for Mariner’s reckless behavior. At the Academy, she was Sito Jaxa’s best friend, with flashbacks to scenes leading up to “The First Duty” in TNG. The episode brings back Shannon Fill as Sito, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, and Robert Duncan McNeill as Nick Locarno (after RDM’s cameo as Tom Paris the previous season. BTW, Paris beats up a delirious Boimler after Boimler attacks him.) So Mariner witnessed Sito’s downfall. Her subsequent death in the original “Lower Decks” sends Mariner into a spiral she cannot resolve until her season-ending confrontation with Nick Locarno (and Boimler and Rutherford’s argument over whether Locarno looks like Tom Paris.)
But if those aren’t enough cameos for you, there’s a dream-sequence with George Takei as Sulu in a Nexus event that goes somewhat sideways and frequent appearances by Captain Riker of the Titan along with Counselor Troi. All that’s missing is Reg Barclay.
Lower Decks did something no other Trek animated series has done. While Prodigy features Janeway, Chakotay, the Doctor, and (now Admiral) Jellico, It crossed over with another live-action series, Strange New Worlds. Jack Quaid and Tawney Newsome play their characters in live action. Boimler, out of time and very confused, annoys Pike, impresses Una, and amuses Spock. Mariner manages to get workaholic Uhura to relax and prompts Ortegas to declare, “You’re a really good bad influence.” It also underscores that Una and Ransom, first officers of the Enterprise and Cerritos respectively, are played by real-life married couple Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell. Naturally, Ransom has a massive crush on “Numero Una.”