We’ve been waiting since March for new Star Trek content, and thanks to the just-announced arrival for Star Trek: Lower Decks, we’ll be heading back to the future before the summer is over!
The new animated series will debut on CBS All Access on Thursday, August 6, kicking off the first ten-episode season — bringing the USS Cerritos’ adventures to fans in just over five weeks. (The half-hour comedy was ordered for a two-season commitment from the start, with work on Season 2 already underway.)
The weekly episodes will then release on subsequent Thursdays.
In addition to this long-awaited scheduling announcement, we’ve also got our first official look at the California-class starship that will serve as the setting for the show, which takes place in 2380 — just after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.
The USS Cerritos is similar to the Nebula-class — a “kitbash” ship which was made up of Galaxy-class design elements — with its saucer section separated from its octagonal warp engines and secondary hull by a pair of large nacelle struts, somewhat reminiscent of the 23rd century Oberth-class design.
The Cerritos is tasked with a mission of “second contact” — Starfleet’s follow-up brigade to new worlds who have already had their first encounters with the Federation — hence the show’s new tagline, Rarely Going Where No One Has Gone Before.
We don’t know much else yet about the show’s availability outside of the United States; while it was announced last week that the series will be available on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave in Canada, as of this writing no plans for non-US/Canada distribution have yet been made public.
As soon as we’ve got more on that front, you can be sure you’ll know about it here at TrekCore.
Star Trek: Lower Decks stars Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Noel Wells as Ensign Tendi, Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Fred Tatasciore as Lt. Shaxs, Gillian Vigman as Dr. T’Ana, Jerry O’Connell as Commander Jack Ransom, and Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman.
Are you ready for the “second contact” adventures of the USS Cerritos and her crew? What do you think about the new starship design? Share your thoughts in the comments below!