During Comic-Con 2024, Paramount+ released a teaser trailer for the upcoming fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, which arrives on October 24, with a 2-episode premiere. There was also a panel discussion featuring showrunner Mike McMahan along with Jack Quaid (Boimler), Tawny Newsome (Mariner), Noël Wells (Tendi), and Jerry O’Connell (Ransom). We have taken a deep dive look at the trailer for an analysis of what to expect in season 5, using what was revealed at Comic-Con to add key context.
One last adventure… but don’t look for closure
Earlier this year Parmount+ announced season 5 would be the last for Lower Decks on the streaming service. The teaser trailer leaned into this by starting with an homage to the teaser trailer for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Just as that trailer looked back at the adventures of the TOS crew, this new trailer highlights moments from the first four seasons of Lower Decks with the message “now you are invited to join them for one last adventure.”
All this nice reflection stops with a freeze frame of the USS Cerritos and things get a bit meta with Mariner’s voice interjecting, “Woah, was he talking about us?” adding “Yeah right, we aren’t done voyaging.”
During the SDCC panel, showrunner Mike McMahan revealed that he and his team made the season with the end in mind:
We have something really special coming for you. We got a heads up that this was probably going to be our final season on Paramount Plus with enough time to make sure that it really was worth doing. Not only are the episodes hilarious and real Star Trek, the whole time, but there’s some amazing legacy guest stars that come in… I promise you’re going to love it when you see it on air.
However, when a fan asked if season 5 would end like the recent fifth and final season of Discovery by providing “closure,” he emphatically said “no,” adding:
You’re going to get a closure that feels like the end of a chapter but you’re not getting a closure on the Cerritos or these characters.
Jack Quaid, Tawny Newsome, Mike McMahan, Noël Wells, and Jerry O’Connell at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+)
Space potholes and an alt-universe Cerritos
According to the official season 5 synopsis The U.S.S. Cerritos has been tasked with “closing space potholes,” as these subspace rifts are “causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant.” After the opening homage, we see the Cerritos approaching one of these subspace rifts.
Mariner isn’t impressed, saying, “Man, another quantum fissure? This is like the third one this month. Boo, interdimensional portal.”
However, her attitude begins to change when another USS Cerritos emerges and they are hailed by a familiar, but different crew.
Changes that can be seen on the alternate crew are the Shaxs has a ponytail, Boimler has a Riker beard, Rutherford has a lot more cybernetic components… and Mariner is in command, saying: “What up Cerritos? This is Captain Becky Freeman.”
It does appear that the two crews end up working together as there is a brief shot later of the two Rutherfords hugging, with the alt Rutherford using an extra robotic arm.
Orions at war
The official synopsis said one of the many things the Cerritos crew will deal with in season 5 is an “Orion war.” Season 4 ended with Tendi being recalled back to her home planet and during the SDCC panel Noël Wells teased what we can expect for Tendi this season:
She’s on Orion with her sister. We get to see her on her home planet and what that means for her. There’s going to be blue Orions, from [Star Trek: The Animated Series] meeting with green Orions. Also, Tendi will be back at Starfleet at some point.
The trailer gives us a glimpse of some of this Orion-focused story with Tendi and her sister flying a ship and getting into some action.
Later in the trailer, there is more Tendi Orion action.
Klingon as hell
The synopsis also teases “furious Klingons” and the trailer ends with Mariner and Boimler in a Klingon bar with Mariner definitely getting some Klingons angry. It appears she is reuniting with Ma’ah who she befriended in the season 4 finale. However, this incited a female Klingon, deriding Ma’ah for “fraternizing with Starfleet humans.”
Mariner’s response, “What crawled up her boob window” only incited more anger from Ma’ah.
There were more Klingon moments in the trailer including Mariner and Boimler participating in “the Rite of Unending Pain,” and only Boimler seemed to be excited, saying “This is going to be Klingon as hell!”
This rite appears to be similar to the Klingon “Right of Ascension” Worf endured on TNG.
This includes Boimler and Mariner being zapped with Klingon painstiks.
No money, no problems?
One more bit from the official synopsis teased “diplomatic catastrophes” and there does appear to be a unique away mission with a visit to what Boimler describes as a “post-scarcity society throwing out all their jewels and crap.”
So it appears that season 5 is going to take on Star Trek’s utopian vision of a society without money, and perhaps the inherent contradictions that arise.
Domed mission
The official season synopsis did describe “murder mysteries,” which may be seen in a visit to space station with domed environments. Casually dressed Ransom and Billups invite Boimler to join them on what Jack mischievously calls “an undercover mission.”
Later the trio can be seen freaking out, and in a river.
Mariner (armed with a phaser rifle) and Jennifer also get into some trouble under the dome as they get launched out of a hover car…
Alien undercover
Speaking of going undercover, Dr. T’Ana does some classic cosmetic alterations on Tendi, turning her into a different kind of alien.
She, T’Lyn, and Mariner appear to be visiting an idyllic pre-warp society.
Back to Enterprise?
Lower Decks is known for making connections to Trek canon, but being in the 24th century has proven to be a limiting factor for McMahan who has said before he has struggled with how he can incorporate Star Trek: Enterprise, set in the 22nd century. Last year the executive producer teased he may have cracked the code and we got a hint of that in the new trailer with a shot of what looks like the infamous decon chamber on the NX-01 Enterprise, with Freeman, Tendi, Mariner, Jack, Ransom, and Rutherford in their undies. Rubbing on decontamination gel, Jack says, “Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.”
More random stuff
The trailer started with the Paramount logo, but in the Lower Decks style, which is actually a callback to the season four episode “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” when we first saw this logo in Boimler’s hotel room on Ferenginar.
There are a few moments from the new teaser without any context…
Boimler failing to ski
Boimler and Rutheford enjoy tropical beverages.
A dramatic shot of the lower deckers.
Mariner annoying the gang with her music.
The senior officers go hands in.
A top 5 season!
This is all just the tip of the animated iceberg. During the SDCC panel, Tawny Newsome and Mike McMahan summarized what fans can expect:
Tawny Newsome: Mike and our writers have crammed so many amazing easter eggs and loving references and then just like straight-up jokes and beautiful storylines that stand on their own. It’s a top tier season. In my top five of Lower Decks for sure.
Mike McMahan: I think every season is the best season we’ve ever done. But this season is the best we’ve ever done… This is our final season on Paramount Plus… but because we knew it, this season is a celebration of all thing Lower Decks and all things Star Trek, so love it.
Tawny also offered this insight into what’s new for Mariner:
Tawny Newsome: Mariner has grown. She’s showing growth. She’s in her growth era. She’s not self-sabotaging anymore. She is a little more mature. She’s still chaotic. She still calls out bullshit, but now she’s got like other ensigns the answer to her. So remember, like when you were a bratty teen and you were giving your parents hell and then maybe some of you grew up and now you have bratty teens giving you hell and you’re like, “How dare you?” I remember this feeling. That’s what’s going on with her.
Jack Quaid offered an intriguing hint that Boimler is getting to meet one of his heroes:
Jack Quaid: [Boimler] really took a lot of inspiration from that moment where he finally got to be in the captain’s chair [in season 4]. I got to be acting captain, which was so exciting for a little Boims, very proud of him. Not to spoil too much but earlier in [season 5] he meets someone who he very much wants to be a lot more like and he makes it his mission this season to kind of do everything that this guy does. And that leads to some straight up grade-A hijinks… no, it’s not Kirk. It’s kind of vague, because the surprise is cool.
As for Ransom, Jerry O’Connell said things get a bit serious:
Jerry O’Connell: For Ransom, I will say like a lot of the characters up here, he has a growth season. He grows and not just in his pecs. He grows emotionally. It was very emotional, it was an emotional ride for me this season. I got a little teary eyed. I think people are going to really enjoy it.
Alex Kurtzman, Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Jerry O’Connell, and Mike McMahan at San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Paramount+)
Watch it again
Check out the trailer.
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