Star Trek: Lower Decks was the breakout star of 2020’s packed Star Trek agenda, surprising many fans by balancing the humor inherent in an animated comedy, a deep love and respect for Star Trek, and introducing some great characters and stories.

Now, fans who enjoy collecting physical media — and those without an active Paramount+ subscription — can laugh through the show’s first season as Star Trek: Lower Decks lands on Blu-ray in North America.

There’s still no announcement for international regions, at this time, likely due to Amazon’s first-run distribution deal overseas. Picard Season 1 was held for one year before hitting Blu-ray in Amazon’s distribution regions, so it may be several months until this becomes available in international markets outside of the US and Canada.

All ten episodes of Lower Decks‘ first season are split across two discs, along with a number of behind the scenes bonus features that delve into the creation and making of the animated series.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The longest feature on the set is Faces of The Fleet, clocking in at nearly 25 minutes, which is an extended look at the eight primary cast members of Lower Decks.

Including interviews with Tawny Newsome (Mariner), Jack Quaid (Boimler), Eugene Cordero (Rutherford), Noel Wells (Tendi), Dawnn Lewis (Freeman), Jerry O’Connell (Ransom), Gillian Vigman (T’Ana) and Fred Tatasciore (Shaxs) — along with series creator Mike McMahan — the feature dives into what each actor thinks of their character and stories about each of their casting experiences.

In addition, the feature also includes some fun audition tape recordings from several of the cast, with some funny outtakes that show off their spontaneity and vocal talents.

The remainder of the behind-the-scenes content falls into an hour of short featurettes grouped under the moniker Lower Decktionaries, the first five of which cover a wide swath of the production process — from the design of the Lower Decks main title sequence the show’s music, and how the series was originally pitched by creator Mike McMahan.

Joining Starfleet (6:19) – A nice introduction to the origins of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks,’ and to how Mike McMahan pitched the series to Alex Kurtzman and Secret Hideout. The short gives you quick glimpses of some of the content in McMahan’s original pitch, as well as some concept art of the look and feel of the series… including the USS Cerritos’ original name: the USS San Diego.

The Main Titles (7:15) – Mike McMahan and composer Chris Westlake break down the development of the visuals and the music for the ‘Lower Decks’ main theme, and explain what the titles are trying to tell us about the show as a whole. McMahan and Westlake also talk about how the music of the show influences the storytelling.

The Music of Lower Decks (6:19) – A more in-depth look at the use of music across the whole series by composer Chris Westlake, focusing on the episode “Crisis Point” and the movie music homages contained within. Mike McMahan also expands on his comments about the role of music on the show as a whole and how important it is to the humor.

Also included are pretty insightful looks into the show’s character and setting art design — from the look of the Cerritos to the varied alien landscapes visited by the crew — and even a detailed breakdown of how an animated episode is produced over the course of an entire calendar year.

The Animation Process (8:07) – My personal favorite of the special features, this short explains how an episode of ‘Lower Decks’ gets made, from the script all the way through the finished episode.

You learn a lot about animatics and the different stages of the animation process — there are different people who animate the backgrounds than the people, which I didn’t know! — that will give you a new appreciation for the amount of work that goes into each episode.

Art Design (4:58) – A look at the art design for the characters and locales of ‘Lower Decks.’ The most interesting thing I learned, which you won’t be able to un-see once you realize it, is that the aesthetics of the furniture aboard the Cerritos is shaped to emulate the look of Starfleet’s LCARS design, with all rounded corners and angular designs.

The other five Lower Decktionaries features dive into the character and story elements that make up the first season of Lower Decks, from the family relationship between Mariner and Freeman, character returns from past Star Trek shows, and the inclusion of legacy Trek alien species in the show’s first ten episodes.

All in the Family (6:30) – This feature charts the evolution of the relationship between the main characters over the course of Season 1, and goes into detail about the inclusion of legacy characters like Riker, Troi, and Q.

My favorite moment in all the special features is included in this short, where you can hear some alternate takes on Riker’s “I was just on the holodeck watching the original Enterprise – you know, Archer and those guys?” line from the end of the season finale. They are hilarious!

Division 14 (4:04) – A look at the character designs for the Division 14 ship from “Much Ado About Boimler,” including the appearance of the Triexian doctor that harkens back to Lt. Arex from The Animated Series.

The Holodeck (6:31) – Mike McMahan talks about the use of the holodeck on ‘Lower Decks,’ including the origins of the infamous Badgey, a 90s era joke (based on Clippy, the infamous Microsoft Office virtual assistant) that McMahan argued would work well on ‘Lower Decks,’ since the show itself is an homage to 90’s-era Star Trek.

Deck Dynamics (5:05) – The cast and producers of the show explain in more detail the dynamics between the series main characters and the supporting bridge crew, including the role that the relationship between the main characters and the bridge crew plays as the series progresses.

Aliens Among Us (7:31) – Many of the production personnel involved in the show’s animation go into detail about how they include previous ‘Star Trek’ aliens, focused on the series’ second episode “Envoys” and the multitude of canon aliens that appeared there.

In addition to the major featurettes, the Lower Decks Season 1 Blu-ray set also features three fully-animatic features — rough animations representing the earliest form of a final episode’s art design.

The first is a full-length version of “Second Contact.” the series premiere, which is interesting for those of you who want a look at the work that goes into sketching out an animated episode, but not entirely engaging for a full 22 minutes. (It could have certainly benefited from an audio commentary track to delve into the intricacies of planning each scene.)

The second and third animatic features are a pair of deleted scenes from “Second Contact” and from “Moist Vessel,” with complete voice work but only this rough-draft artwork.

The first features an extended conversation between Boimler and Mariner from the pilot, while the second is an early attempt at “Bad Boy Boimler” who wants to break the rules and dress in a crazy manner to earn a promotion — reworked in a better way for “Cupid’s Errant Arrow” later in the season.

Hiding in Plain Sight brings a great discussion of the show’s many Star Trek references and deep cut Easter Eggs — many of which we covered during our weekly episode reviews, but definitely a few we missed!

There’s also a great bit from Mike McMahan, sharing why the USS Cerritos carries its registry information on the rear of the saucer, with both a reasonable, in-universe explanation… and a hilarious, because-its-funny reason, too.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any audio commentaries for the first season’s episodes — a highlight of previous Star Trek season sets — and while the interviews themselves are quite good, the vast majority of them are clearly recorded from video chat discussions conducted during the last year’s pandemic.

It’s understandable that most of the interviews for this collection had to be conducted remotely, but the video quality on almost all of them are very poor. Going forward into future seasons, hopefully even remote interviews such as these can be handled in a much more presentable fashion…

…but if all goes well, Season 2 won’t need video calls for interview footage. (Get your vaccines, everyone!)

Finally, we have to call out one major criticism on the accessibility front: both the audio and subtitle options are limited to English, with no other languages represented for the non-English-speaking audience.

Even if there wasn’t a consideration to get alternate dialogue tracks recorded for alternate audio presentations, the least that CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment could have done would be to include alternate language subtitles — it’s a glaring omission that will hopefully be rectified for future releases of this show.

Overall, while you can always watch the show on Paramount+ (or wherever it’s streaming in your region of the world), there’s no better way to experience Star Trek: Lower Decks than on Blu-ray — with the best picture quality you can ask for, and a great collection of interesting and insightful behind-the-scenes features that you’re not going to find anywhere else.

While it’s disappointing that there aren’t any non-English-speaking fans getting consideration, for those of you where the language isn’t an issue, it’s a no-brainer buy in our opinion — and you’ll finally be able to find all the blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em connections to the entire Star Trek franchise buried among the show’s animated antics.

We’re glad that CBS & Paramount Home Entertainment are still committed to these Star Trek television Blu-ray sets in this era of dwindling home media releases, and while Discovery Season 3 is coming up next in July, we hope they keep these collections rolling out in the years ahead.

Now ViacomCBS just needs to get their act together — and give the same amount of attention to the legacy shows that are languishing in standard definition, and finally get new versions of the first ten Star Trek films remastered to their true potential.

Will you be adding Star Trek: Lower Decks to your Blu-ray collection? Let us know your thoughts if you’ve received your copy — or what you’re most looking forward to seeing once you get your hands on the set — in the comments below!

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Blu-ray

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Blu-ray