While Star Trek fans wait for the fifth and final season, Star Trek: Lower DecksThe production team begins final editing and preparation for the final ten episodes of the animated comedy, which will premiere on Paramount+ on October 24. In a few panel interviews after SDCC, the showrunner and cast gave some insight into what we can expect.

The finale should be something very special

After four strong seasons Lower decksthe creative team is determined to end the show with the same wit, including a memorable series finale episode. Without giving away the actual plot, Mike McMahan is happy to talk about the making of the finale itself. Despite O’Connell’s opinion, McMahan describes the final show as having the same humorous tone as the rest of the series, although he admits to rewriting parts 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 that could be told in a funny way. In the end, we came up with a gigantic episode that’s really fun.”

To accommodate the extra story pages needed to resolve all of these plot threads (and potentially open up a few new ones for the future), the crew recorded an extra-long, story-heavy finale that Tawny Newsome described as “a double-stuffed Oreo episode.” The runtime is still in the editing phase and is currently eight minutes longer than a normal Lower decks episode. While it’s unlikely the final cut will be that long, special attention is being paid to the final episode. It’s been hinted that Season 5 may feature more longer-than-usual episodes.

In recent weeks, McMahan has expressed how proud he is of how Lower decks turned out and says that season 5 will be a big part of that, right up until the end. While fans have embraced the quirky series, it’s still hard to explain how showrunner Mike McMahan managed to blend a sci-fi universe with cartoon humor. McMahan explained how the humor works from an in-universe perspective when he said diversity:

“The world of Star Trek is real to the characters who live in the show. And so they tell jokes in a way as if they are as familiar with these settings from other shows as Tawny and I are. Because we have seen them, they have experienced them.”

During his time at SDCC, Jerry O’Connell found it hard to process some pretty heavy emotions that arose from the storyline from the last episode. Although he didn’t speak explicitly about what happens to his character Jack Ransom, the finale seemed to touch him personally. During an interview with Comicbook.com, he struggled for words:

“You know what really surprised me? How emotional I was when we shot our finale. I was amazed that I was capable of such emotions.”

The post-SDCC panels also offered some insight into what to expect in Season 2…

Storyline about Mariner and Jennifer is resolved

Season 5 will bring more resolutions as time goes on, including a conclusion to the conflict between Beckett Mariner and Jennifer Sh’reyan. Although Jennifer is a fan-favorite character, she has been used sparingly since the end of Season 3. The reason for this, according to McMahan, is because he was happy with Jennifer’s story as it was told. However, fans like the chemistry between Mariner and Jennifer, and the feedback convinced McMahan to revive the pair. In his chat with Comicbook.com, he clarified:

“There’s this one episode this season with Mariner and Jennifer, the Andorian. I felt like I had told a story with those characters that I really liked. And then I got feedback from fans like, ‘We love those characters, but it didn’t feel resolved.’ If they hadn’t said that, I wouldn’t have been inspired to say, ‘Well, we need to do another episode with these guys.'”

Tawny Newsome, who was also present at the unveiling, added: “I really love the Jennifer episode.”

Added more depth for Orions

The most unexpected legacy of Lower decks is how much detail the animated series gave to the Orions, which was further enhanced by the character depth of Tendi. Although Orions date back to the earliest days of Star Trek, they were always depicted as dancing green women or strangely armored men. With an Orion character in the main cast, Lower decks took every opportunity to expand on the culture, aesthetics, history and philosophy of the Orions. This will continue in Season 5. What comes next, however, was teased by Mike McMahan during an SDCC interview with diversity:

“We draw on some Orion traditions that have been discarded over the decades.”

McMahan’s team of writers has a talent for reviving details from previous Trek series, bringing both the original episodes and Lower decks. Whatever “lore” comes to light will likely follow this pattern. McMahan attributes the show’s success with the Orion world largely to Noël Wells and her portrayal of Tendi. Wells decided against studying historical appearances of Orions too much and instead chose her own interpretation of Tendi, which allows the audience to compare and contrast the character with other Orions. McMahan expressed his gratitude to Wells:

“If you were to focus on the old Orion episodes, you wouldn’t be able to embody this character the way I love you to. Because you’d be full of all that arithmetic of Star Trek. Instead, you can just play her the way you would play her on the show, the way she exists.”

“Lower Decks” is a state of mind

It is striking that in none of his comments about the upcoming season does McMahan mention that more seasons are needed to “complete” the story. Instead, he only speaks of his gratitude for having managed to get five seasons in today’s television environment. diversity hinted that the crew of the Cerritos might outgrow the “newbie” storylines, Mike made it clear that Lower decks was an attitude, not a lack of collar patches:

“It’s funny that for me there is no natural end to existence Lower decks. Because I feel like I’m still learning something all the time. I still feel like every time you think you’ve left the place you were, you realize you didn’t know anything again. And every time you go through one of these big changes, it all starts over again. The whole ship on Lower decks are the lower decks, and that’s what makes it fun.”

In case you missed it: SDCC trailer

Check out the teaser trailer released at Comic-Con (and our full analysis of it and the panel discussion)…

The last season of Star Trek: Lower Decks The premiere of “The 40 Years of the 40 Years” is scheduled for October 24, 2024 on Paramount+. The first two episodes will be available that day, with the remaining eight episodes following every Thursday.

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