
Lower Decks S5E10: The New Next Generation
As we’ve observed before, it’s a crime that Lower Decks was cancelled, but no one can say it didn’t go out on a high note. Decks manages to cram an astonishing amount of payoff into its final episode, including a universe-saving mission, interesting sci-fi ideas that could set up countless future adventures, a tense space battle, resolutions to storylines set up in the previous six episodes, callbacks to Trek’s past, some deliberately ridiculous Treknobabble, and most importantly, it keeps the whole story grounded in the characters.
A show about space exploration was always going to capture the imagination at the peak of the space race, but the original Star Trek became a cultural force not because of warp engines and strange new worlds, but because the id-ego-superego dynamic of Kirk, Spock, and Bones grounded the show in the universal. Likewise, Lower Decks isn’t really about the travails of junior officers on one of Starfleet’s least-important ships, it’s about friendship and personal growth, and how each depends on the other.
So the real triumphant ending isn’t that the Cerritos crew saves the day, as you knew they would. It’s that after five years, Beckett Mariner has gone from being a self-absorbed, self-destructive rebel to an enthusiastic team player who’s won the respect of her colleagues and her captain-slash-mom. Bradward Boimler has become nominally more confident, and has stopped desperately seeking approval. Captain Freeman has gone from long sighs at her thankless assignment leading the Cerritos to genuine appreciation that she gets to do the difficult work of making the galaxy a better place. Heck, even Rutherford gets a nice moment, for the first time all season. (Tendi’s still Tendi, but she’s a delight and we wouldn’t want her to change.)
As for the actual plot of “The New Next Generation,” it’s a little hard to explain. We’re going to assume you’ve seen (or read about) last week’s episode, so we’ll start where the cliffhanger picks up. The multidimensional rift opened up by Evil Harry Kim is threatening to destroy our reality, and possibly every reality, and as the closest ship to the rift, Starfleet insists that the Cerritos has to handle things until the Enterprise can get there. Closing the rift isn’t all that difficult — the crew have been closing smaller rifts all season — it’s getting there that’s the problem.
Ma’ah and Malor, the Klingon brothers we last met in “A Farewell to Farms” are back, and interrupt the multiverse-saving mission to request asylum. Relga, the sister of a Klingon they showed up (and then killed) in that episode is out for revenge, and has framed them for destroying one of her ships (which was, in fact, destroyed by the rift because she arrogantly flew too close.)
So with the fate of several universes in the balance, Captain Freeman has to deal with Klingon squabbling first, which she treats as the latest in a long line of indignities. In the end, her solution is to ignore the Klingons and get on with the mission. Which means Relga’s fleet is chasing the Cerritos as the rift warps reality around them. It’s a terrific action sequence, the lower deckers each get a turn saving the day (of course), and it sets up a coda that gives us not an ending, but a series of satisfying new beginnings for the Cerritos and her crew.
Over its too-brief run, Lower Decks has deftly managed to juggle comedy and pathos, on top of Star Trek‘s signature mix of action, philosophy, and scientific wonder. The series finale managed to do that while also pulling off television’s rarest feat: sticking the landing. Which makes it all the more bittersweet that we’re not going to see any more of Lower Decks.
Stray tachyons:
• Who are we kidding? Of course they’ll be back, it’s Star Trek, everyone comes back. But it might take Paramount being bought and sold a few more times.
• It’s not really clear what the title refers to, as there isn’t any kind of generational handoff, although the finale does open the door to a whole new venue for exploration.
• Rutherford finally gets something to do, but he and Tendi were effectively supporting characters this season, and that’s actually fine. The writers were smart to understand that Mariner’s the emotional heart of the show, and as such her closest connections — her mom and Boimler — were the ones worth shifting focus to.
• Speaking of smart writers, there’s never quite been a place to discuss this, but it’s worth mentioning — Mariner being gay ended up being a very canny storytelling choice. Her sexuality is almost never plot-relevant, but it cuts off any romantic possibilities between her and Boimler. Strong platonic male-female friendships are exceedingly rare in fiction — even Mulder and Scully ended up hooking up. It would have been too easy to give overager, insecure Boims and tough, confident Mariner the Fry-Leela friendzone dynamic that was always Futurama‘s worst element. Instead, they simply encourage each other and put brakes on each other’s worst impulses. It’s a very healthy dynamic, and their character growth has been intertwined since the first moment of the series.
• Mariner saves the day in the end by basically shouting “let me try something” and pushing a button, without any real explanation. But as we’ve established, seeing her as an enthusiastic team player is more important than the made-up science, and if you really need an explanation built around fake technical jargon, you’re probably watching the wrong show. (Although we have very good news for you about Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• And that’s a wrap on Lower Decks, which we’re sadder to see go than any previous Trek series, most of which got a chance to run their course creatively. But the finale does set up an intriguing premise for a future series. And while Picard certainly showed the limits of revisiting old favorites, a second series that follows a more seasoned Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford in charge of their own ship would be terrific. Until then, Subject will continue our ongoing Trek coverage when Strange New Worlds returns later this year.