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STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Season Premiere Review — “Dos Cerritos”

Alex Perry
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STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Season Premiere Review — “Dos Cerritos”

Star Trek: Lower Decks returns for its fifth and final season with “Dos Cerritos,” a season premiere that explores the road not taken for our Lower Deckers.
 
For Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford, that’s meeting their doppelgangers from an alternate dimension when the Cerritos is accidentally caught in a quantum fissure — and for Tendi, it’s taking up the mantle of the Mistress of the Winter Constellations and trying to stay true to herself and her commitment to her sister to rejoin the Orion family business.
 

The two Mariners face off. (Paramount+)

It’s so nice to have the Cerritos gang back, even if it is a little bittersweet knowing that this is one of the last episodes we’ll get from Star Trek: Lower Decks in this form. “Dos Cerritos” is a classic “our heroes meet themselves, but they’re not quite the same” of the genre that was first pioneered with “Mirror, Mirror” and continued through episodes like “Parallels,” and “Crossover.” And it’s successfully Lower Deck-y, giving the show’s unique twist on a familiar Star Trek trope.

The episode serves as a successful epilogue to last season’s two-part finale — “The Inner Fight” and “Old Friends, New Planets” — in showing how much Mariner (Tawny Newsome) has grown over the course of the show. Becky Freeman is the mirror image of Beckett Mariner, the logical conclusion of a darker path for Freeman’s growth that sees her lean into her ambition and darker tendencies. To watch our Mariner so visibly recoil from that vision of what her future could look like is a rewarding one, given how much inner fighting the character has had to do over the course of the series to date.

Tendi and her crew fight off some Blue Orions. (Paramount+)

Meanwhile, Tendi (Noel Wells) is on a parallel path. She doesn’t meet her actual alternate-dimension counterpart the way the Cerritos does, but throughout the episode she’s constantly confronted with the role that she is supposed to be playing… rather than the one she wants to play.

Lower Decks has another loving homage to The Animated Series with the “Blue Oreeons” — a loving gag poking fun at the strange look and pronunciation of “Orions” in 1974’s “The Pirates of Orion” — and the show continues its efforts to deepen the previously one-note race. Discovering that her pirate colleagues are also seeking lives outside of piracy was a nice touch, and shows that Tendi is not a uniquely different Orion, but one who has just been given the opportunity to thrive.

Rutherford’s (Eugene Cordero) need for his relationship with Tendi gets reinforced in this episode, and Boimler’s (Jack Quaid) story is all comedy. The confident, bearded Lt. Boimler of the alternate Cerritos is a hilarious counterpoint to Bradward’s anxious mess.

The lower deckers find their counterparts to be both fascinating and remarkable. (Paramount+)

From the synopsis and trailers for the season, we can surmise that these quantum fissures are the latest meta-narrative overlaid on top of Lower Decks’ largely episodic format. It’s a little frustrating that this particular story construction — small plot points that impact episodes throughout the season crescendo to the big finale — is being repeated for Season 5 after it was used to similar effect in Seasons 3 and 4, but given last season this same type of storytelling resulted in the phenomenal last two episodes, I’m willing to go along for the ride for Lower Decks’ final season.

TREK TROPE TRIBUTES

  • This episode has all the trappings of any time previous crews have met themselves from alternate timelines — see episodes like “Parallels,” “Deadlock,” and “Endgame” — including the weirdness and sometimes the frostiness that comes along with that.

CANON CONNECTIONS

  • Tendi is masquerading as a Haliian in the cold open, the same race as Lt. Aquiel Uhnari from The Next Generation episode “Aquiel.”
  • While the character is not named in dialogue, the collector that Tendi robs from is almost certainly Palor Toff, who previously appeared in “The Most Toys.” The character’s appearance, attire, and unique metal headpiece are all the same, as well as Toff’s pride over his Veltan lust idol (referred to as a Veltan sex idol in the TNG episode.)
  • Included in Toff’s trophy room is the remains of the Bajoran tablet that almost brought about the Reckoning in the Deep Space Nine episode of the same name.
  • Toff also has a number of Hupyrian bodyguards, the same race as Grand Nagus Zek’s loyal servant, Maihar’du.
  • Toff brandishes a Starfleet phaser from the same era as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
A classic 2280s-style hand phaser. (Paramount+)
  • Mariner and T’Lyn are playing Kal-toh, the competitive Vulcan logic puzzle that Tuvok and Harry Kim often played on Voyager.
  • Boimler bemoans Naomi Wildman’s inclusion in Fleet Magazine, saying she’s “like 10 years old,” which is accurate given this episode takes place in late 2381 or early 2382 and Wildman was born on the USS Voyager in 2372.
  • The anomaly encountered by the Cerritos is a quantum fissure, the same anomaly that Worf got caught up in that caused him to skip through parallel dimensions in “Parallels.”
  • While this appears to be the first mention in canon of a Great Plague on Orion, in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Doctor Roger Korby supposedly translated medical records from ancient Orion ruins that significantly advanced Federation immunization techniques.
  • Alternate Boimler performs Will Riker’s signature “swing the leg over the chair” move in reverse when his Ransom leaves him in command of the alternate Cerritos.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

  • The opening credits battle scene has become even bigger, if that were possible! Added to the chaos this season are Breen ships, Tholian ships, the big green hand of Apollo, and V’Ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
  • The series title logo also has the blue “warp trails” which also accompanied the Next Generation series title in that show’s fifth season credits.
A Season 5 homage to THE NEXT GENERATION. (Paramount+)
  • The cover of Starfleet’s Fleet Magazinebears a striking resemblance to the now ending Star Trek Magazine that has been running since 1995 in the UK and 2006 in the United States.
  • Ransom’s metaphors for what’s happening to the ship (his previous all time “carving us up like a First Contact Day salmon”) continue to be hilarious: “We’re dunking into the rift like a big old cookie!”
  • It looks like Tendi kept the USS Cerritos model that she built with Rutherford in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers.”
  • The alternate Cerritos’s crew uniform colors are slightly darker than in the prime universe; they seem to match more closely to the live-action version of the uniform seen in “Those Old Scientists” on Strange New Worlds.
  • Alternate Ransom’s mullet is awful.
  • This episodes does make appropriate fun of the decision in Discovery to canonize referring to the main narrative continuity of Star Trek as the “Prime Universe” — because every universe is “prime” to the point of view of the people who live there.
  • It was cool to see the two Cerritos-es flipped upside down against each other, in a clear homage to the Enterprise and Columbia flipped against each other in “Divergence.”
  • We finally learn Beckett Mariner’s full name – Beckett Mariner Freeman.
Oh, no, your uniforms don’t look ridiculous at all. Really. (Paramount+)
  • I love the inclusion of the “Blue Oreeons” from The Animated Series, complete with their “ridiculous uniforms”!
  • “There’s no interpersonal conflict on my ship!” Captain Becky Freeman shouts at her crew, who clearly weren’t as aware of the Roddenberry Rule as Freeman is.
  • You know Becky Freeman is an asshole captain because she has a riding crop, the accessory of choice for asshole captains.
  • “Don’t you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute! Beckett! Ha. So that’s what that feels like.” is a nice homage to Mariner having done that to her mother in “Moist Vessel.”

It’s so nice to have the Cerritos crew back in a season opener that lets us enjoy a Lower Decks take on a classic Star Trek trope. Alternate universes are all the rage in genre media right now — see the Marvel Cinematic Universe, among others — but it arguably started in a big way with Star Trek.

It’s great to see Lower Decks take it on, and in the process get a chance for the character and us as the audience to see how things might have turned out if things had gone just a little differently.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 continues today with a second episode, “Shades of Green.”

NYCC Interview — The STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Cast on T-Shirts, Character Lessons, and Legacy

TrekCore Staff
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NYCC Interview — The STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Cast on T-Shirts, Character Lessons, and Legacy

This week marks the return of Star Trek: Lower Decks for its fifth and final year of adventures — and for the very first time since the show began, all four members of the primary cast gathered in New York City for New York Comic Con this past weekend.
 
Actors Tawny Newsome (Mariner), Jack Quaid (Boimler), Eugene Cordero (Rutherford), and Noel Wells (Tendi) joined TrekCore and a group of assembled outlets to discuss the last outing of the USS Cerritos.
 
We’ve got the highlights from our discussion here for you today, and you can look forward to hearing more of the interview in an upcoming episode of our WeeklyTrek podcast.
 

 
We asked the cast about their participation in Titmouse Animation’s annual Star Trek: Lower Decks T-shirt club, coming back for its fifth round of releases for the new season.

For the past four years, each Lower Decks episode has received its own shirt design — but this year, each of the four primary cast have contributed a design to the Season 5 collection.

NOEL WELLS (Tendi): I had a lot of ideas and thought, “Oh, you’re going to let me do multiple designs, right?” And they’re like, “No.” [Laughs]

 

Essentially, my idea was that I wanted it to feel like something that could almost be a band T-shirt, but with the gang. That’s the vibe, without spoiling my shirt.

 

JACK QUAID (Boimler): I just drew like a really crude drawing of something, and was like, “Uh, maybe this?” Mike McMahan was like, “This is terrible piece of art. But the designers will make this work!”

 

EUGENE CORDERO (Rutherford): I got really sentimental about mine, in a way where it was a really cool moment for Rutherford and for me, being in the Trek family… I wanted to make sure that was shown on a shirt. I’m really excited to have all four of these.

 

TAWNY NEWSOME (Mariner): I did the same thing as Noel; I literally modeled it after my favorite band T-shirt. Mike said I could draw it, or they would mock it up — and I was like, “I’ll just sketch out exactly what my shirt looks like, and put our little character’s faces on it.”

 

My drawing was very bad. Like, it looked like something a serial killer would have on his wall in a movie. I sent it in, and Mike was like, “Do you want it to look like this… or do you want it to be this, but good?“

 

CORDERO: But that’s Mike note to us even when we’re recording — you want to use that take or one that’s good?

 

NEWSOME: The one that’s good, yeah. [Laughs]

Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid in STRANGE NEW WORLDS’ “Those Old Scientists.” (Paramount+)

Actors Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid were asked if they brought any character performance moments back to Star Trek: Lower Decks after their participation in last year’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover event, “Those Old Scientists.”

QUAID: I feel like Boimler is just like way more in my body now. Like, I got to voice him for years, but that was just my voice. So when we did the crossover, I tried to like look at what the animators did for the character of Boimler on Lower Decks and try to copy some of those mannerisms, and now that’s just kind of in me when I record. I don’t know where I end and Boimler begins.

 

NEWSOME: I feel that wig that was on me just bouncing back and forth. Now when I’m in the booth, I’m like that little ponytail, it really does a lot for the voice acting. I don’t know if you hear the ponytail in the voice…

 

QUAID: Oh, yeah. I hear the ponytail.

 

NEWSOME: You do?

 

QUAID: I do.

 

CORDERO: Noel and I would love to be able to answer that one in the future, thank you very much!

Looking ahead to the final season of Lower Decks, the cast spoke about how they approached work for Season 5 — leading Tawny Newsome to share that they didn’t know this would be the last outing when voice recording began.

NEWSOME: Well, we didn’t know that we were going to be tying anything up! I definitely didn’t approach it like, “Ah, the final season. Let me bring that into the performance.”

 

No, I was just doing Mariner,  experiencing the growth that’s written into the season. But the final episode definitely went through a lot of rewrites, and has more of a button placed on everyone’s story so that it can be a nice healthy pause.

 

I say “pause,” because who knows what could happen in the future? But if you’re asking if I did anything special to prep for this season — the answer always is no. [Laughs]

The animated crew of the USS Cerritos. (Paramount+)

With the five-year adventures of Star Trek: Lower Decks coming to a conclusion this December, the assembled cast talked about what they’ll miss most about their animated counterparts.

CORDERO: That ownership of the things that he loves, and the things that he has worked really hard to get – and still kind of being like a fanboy of his own work — is something that I would like to keep taking forward after this is done. But I don’t see this ending.

 

I think it’s open-ended for all of these characters and, hopefully, this is just a moment that we get to take a second to kind of look at what has been awesome over the last five seasons, and what we can bring moving forward.

 

QUAID: I think that I’m a very anxious person, and I feel like Boimler to me kind of reflects my inner anxiety. And what I love about the character is that he’s kind of learned to manage that over the seasons – and gain more confidence. So I’m going to miss that.

 

He holds a really, really special place in my heart. Like Eugene says, we’re trying to think of this as more of a pause and less of a goodbye, because we just love playing these characters.

 

We’ll do it until we’re dead — and that’s a promise!

 

NEWSOME: I will miss the way the show can surprise me and make me laugh out loud even when I’ve read the script, I know the joke — maybe I even recorded the joke. But then when I see the animatic or I see the episode, something will still surprise me to the point where I’m bursting out laughing.

 

I had done a lot of comedies in my life, and that does not always happen. Like you have to be surprised in order to laugh.

 

WELLS: For Tendi, I feel like she got to play a lot of levels — she starts off really sweet and chirpy, but through the course of the show, she has to take on more of her badass leadership capabilities.

 

I liked finding all of those levels and being able to turn the knob really high and then really low. Finding all those different nuances and having those different facets to something, I’m going to try to bring into anything I do. Tendi is so optimistic and so voraciously embracing her life and her passions — and everybody likes her for the most part. For me, I’ve found that that’s a deep part of my personality, but it’s been kind of repressed, or it’s oftentimes met with people who are pretty cynical.

 

So it’s allowed me to embrace those parts of myself and not hide them as much. Voicing Tendi has taught me that my enthusiasm and unbridled curiosity about how life works can actually be an asset in the world.

Season 1 publicity artwork for STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. (Paramount+)

Finally, the cast took a moment to look back at the series as a whole, and shared their thoughts on what the legacy of Star Trek: Lower Decks may be within the Star Trek franchise.

QUAID: I just love that it has brought animation to the Star Trek franchise. I’m just such a fan of animation, and I love that we get to make a very silly cartoon canon to the Star Trek universe. Even to the point where we’re like crossing over into live action, and these characters exist… I love that they made a silly cartoon that wasn’t like a throwaway gag; like it actually matters within the world. That’s one of the things I just absolutely love about it.

 

NEWSOME: I think it really cemented the weirdness that has always been present in Trek, in little drips and drabs. You know, when you have episodes like “Who Mourns for Morn,” or other tonally strange ones.

 

I always think about Iggy Pop in “The Magnificent Ferengi.” Like, that is the strangest performance that’s in all of Star Trek, and people are kind of like, “Oh, yeah, yeah. Iggy Pop was in a Star Trek.” And I’m like, “No, watch it again.” That is an acid trip. And I feel like our show is just like a series of acid trips that we’ve just made like canon.

 

It’s a very purposeful weirdness, and we’re going like, “No, no, no, this is part of the franchise.” It always has been, but this is very intentionally here to stay.

 

CORDERO: It also gives you a different perspective of where you stand in the world. Like you can be a beginner. You can be just starting out and that’s just as important — and you have a place here as much as anywhere else. You don’t have to be the captain. You can be the ensigns, have a story, and have your voice heard.

 

I think that’s something that the younger generation of Trek fans want; to feel like they’re included in that way, and I think that that’s something that this has brought that’s different.

 

WELLS: I also think the fact that it’s animation, the storylines got to go anywhere, and do. I feel like the imagination is really been opened up. I mean, it was always—you know, it’s always been that way, but you’re not constricted by –

 

CORDERO: CGI and makeup?

 

QUAID: Real practical sets?

 

WELLS: Yes, yes, totally. So it’s just gotten even bigger.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere its first two episodes October 24 on Paramount+.

Watch the STAR TREK UNIVERSE Panel from New York Comic Con!

TrekCore Staff
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Watch the STAR TREK UNIVERSE Panel from New York Comic Con!

ABOVE: Photo by Santiago FelipeGetty Images for Paramount+

This year’s New York Comic Con wrapped up on Sunday, but for those of you who couldn’t be there in person, ReedPop’s Popverse channel has made a recording of Saturday’s Star Trek Universe panel available to watch online!
 
Moderated by CBS News’ Vladimir Duthiers, the October 19 panel included a look ahead to the final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, an update from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, a preview of Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and news on the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 film coming to Paramount+ in January.

 
Come back soon for the first of TrekCore’s interviews from New York Comic Con, where we got to speak with the full Lower Decks crew about their final year of adventures!

Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest Star Trek franchise news!

Fanhome Debuts New STAR TREK Starship Models at New York Comic Con

Ken Reilly
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Fanhome Debuts New STAR TREK Starship Models at New York Comic Con

Fanhome has been ramping up promotion for their new expansion of The Official Star Trek Starships Collection, with the launch of their subscription program set to pick up where Eaglemoss left off in 2022.
 
Last week the company announced the full lineup for the first 20 ships in their planned series, and they had several of the new models on display for fans to see up close at New York Comic Con this past weekend — starting with the initial starship in the new line, the USS Titan-A from Star Trek: Picard Season 3.
 

The Titan-A was actually available for direct purchased in limited quantities during the convention (just 250 pieces were available), and Picard actor Todd Stashwick (Captain Liam Shaw) made an appearance on Friday, October 18 to autograph some of those ships as fans came to the Fanhome booth.

The Titan is shipping soon to subscribers (and will be available for individual purchase shortly after) — and the Constitution III-class ship was joined on display by the XL-sized Enterprise-G model, scheduled to ship to collectors in May 2025.

Next was the second entry in Fanhome’s fleet, set to ship to subscribers in November: the Sagan-class USS Stargazer (NCC-82893) from Picard Season 2. This was joined by December’s USS Farragut (NCC-1647), from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1.

The first XL-sized model shipping out is the Odyssey-class USS Enterprise-F, the starship from Star Trek Online which previously had two different Eaglemoss models. This edition is larger in size, and is designed to match the Enterprise-F captained by Admiral Shelby in Star Trek: Picard Season 3.

February and March bring another pair of Picard Season 3 models: Beverly Crusher’s SS Eleos XII (NAR-59019) and Vadic’s deadly Shrike warship, each adding a pop of color to the greyish Starfleet models surrounding them.

Rounding out Fanhome’s NYCC display is one that many fans are sure to chase down: the Luna-class USS Titan (NCC-80102), captained by Will Riker following his departure from the Enterprise-E.

Eaglemoss released two editions of this ship in their time — a smaller version inspired by the ship’s appearance on the Star Trek: Titan novel cover art, and a larger purple-ish release themed to emulate the ship’s animated appearance in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Eaglemoss’ original USS TITAN starship model from 2017.
The LOWER DECKS-style USS TITAN from 2022.

This new Titan model appears to be based upon the ship’s revamped digital model used in Star Trek: Picard, upgraded by Tobias Richter of the Star Trek Online team for that live-action series.

Fans who want to know more about these starships (and how to get them) can head to the Fanhome Official Starships Collection website for subscription details.

Keep coming back to TrekCore for all the latest Star Trek collectibles news!

STAR TREK: SECTION 31 Movie Premieres January 24, Plus: See New Posters Revealing Each Character’s Name

TrekCore Staff
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STAR TREK: SECTION 31 Movie Premieres January 24, Plus: See New Posters Revealing Each Character’s Name

New York Comic Con didn’t bring fans any new footage from the upcoming Star Trek: Section 31 movie, but now we at least know when the Michelle Yeoh project will make its way to Paramount+.
 
Director Olatunde Osunsanmi announced that the Philippa Georgiou-centric Star Trek: Section 31 movie will arrive on Paramount+ on Friday, January 24, as he was joined on the NYCC stage by cast members Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl and Robert Kazinsky.
 

(Paramount+)

Here’s the first teaser trailer, released at San Diego Comic Con back in July:

Along with the release-date announcement, Paramount+ also unveiled a series of key art posters for the upcoming film — each of which also confirm the character names each actor will be portraying in the new movie, starting of course with Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou:

Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou. (Paramount+)

Omari Hardwick stars as Section 31 team leader Alok Zahar:

Omari Hardwick as Alok. (Paramount+)

Here’s Sam Richardson as the chameloid Quasi:

Sam Richardson as Quasi. (Paramount+)

Kacey Rohl appears as Rachel Garrett, future captain of the Enterprise-C:

Kacey Rohl as Rachel Garrett. (Paramount+)

Humberly González as the Deltan Melle:

Humberly González as Melle. (Paramount+)

Sven Ruygrok is the Vulcan (or Romulan?) nicknamed Fuzz:

Sven Ruygrok as Fuzz. (Paramount+)

Robert Kazinsky appears as the mechanically-enhanced Zeph:

Robert Kazinsky as Zeph. (Paramount+)

You can see all of these posters in full resolution in our Section 31 image gallery.

Keep coming back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek news!

Watch an Action-Filled Clip from the STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season 3 Premiere, Plus: Rhys Darby to Guest Star

TrekCore Staff
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Watch an Action-Filled Clip from the STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS Season 3 Premiere, Plus: Rhys Darby to Guest Star

The return of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is still far away, but Paramount+ threw a bone to fans at Saturday’s New York Comic Con panel with a new clip from the Season 3 premiere.
 
Picking up immediately where Season 2’s “Hegemony” season finale left off, the clip sees Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the Enterprise crew struggle to battle the aggressive Gorn fleet — and attempt to rescue their missing crewmates, captured in that 2023 episode.
 

 
The streamer also released a few publicity photos from the tense scene on the Enterprise bridge:

Anson Mount as Captain Pike. (Paramount+)
Ethan Peck as Spock. (Paramount+)
Rebecca Romijn as Una Chin-Riley. (Paramount+)
Rong Fu as Mitchell, Anson Mount as Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Una. (Paramount+)

During the brief panel at New York Comic Con — which featured appearances by showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers, alongside series stars Ethan Peck (Spock) and Carol Kane (Pelia) — it was also announced that actor Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords, What We Do in the Shadows) will be guest-starring in Strange New Worlds Season 3 as a previously-established Trek character.

Rhys Darby. (Paramount+)

The identity of Darby’s character was not revealed, but speculation is already in overdrive as fans have theorized he might be Strange New Worlds’ take on Matt Decker, Trelane, Sybok (established in Season 1), or other possibilities.

We’ll find out when Strange New Worlds returns next year.

Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is in post-production now, expected to return to Paramount+ in 2025.

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Debuts New Season 5 Clip and Homage Posters at NYCC

TrekCore Staff
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STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS Debuts New Season 5 Clip and Homage Posters at NYCC

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks beams down to Paramount+ with a two-episode premiere on Thursday, but ahead of the show’s October 24 return, the cast hit the New York Comic Con stage.
 
Saturday in New York City, series showrunner Mike McMahan was joined by stars Eugene Cordero (Rutherford), Noel Wells (Tendi), Jack Quaid (Boimler), and Tawny Newsome (Mariner) — all in the same place together, if you can believe it, for the very first time! — to talk about the concluding year of USS Cerritos adventures.
 

Ahead of their panel, however, the lucky fans in attendance got to watch the entire Season 5 premiere — titled “Dos Cerritos” — before Thursday’s global release. For those of you who weren’t at the convention, Paramount+ has made this preview clip available to whet your appetite… where the Cerritos crew encounters an alternate-reality version of themselves.

 
The Lower Decks also unveiled the third and final key art poster for the show’s final season — which makes three designs for Season 5 — this time the expected Star Trek V: The Final Frontier key art homage.

(Paramount+)

All three designs for Lower Decks’ Season 5 posters come from artist Matt Ferguson, who last week also unveiled his Star Trek V “Seatbelts” homage poster ahead of Lower Decks’ return.

(Paramount+)

You can find full-resolution downloads of all Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 posters in our series gallery.

The fifth and final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere its first two episodes October 24 on Paramount+.

Check back to TrekCore often for the latest in Star Trek news!

STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY Renewed for Season 2, Plus: Tatiana Maslany Joins Season 1 Guest Cast

TrekCore Staff
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STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY Renewed for Season 2, Plus: Tatiana Maslany Joins Season 1 Guest Cast

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy began production back in late August, and even before a single frame of footage has made it to the public, Paramount+ has renewed the younger-skewing Trek series for a second season.
 
Announced yesterday at New York Comic Con — where returning Star Trek: Voyager actor Robert Picardo (The Doctor) popped in to share the news with the convention crowd — the new series will continue production right into Season 2 after work on Season 1 is completed in Toronto.
 

The young cast of Starfleet Academy also made a brief appearance via live video at yesterday’s panel, introducing themselves (not their characters) to the New York crowd.

Additionally, the show has added yet another familiar name to it’s already impressive cast list: Emmy Award-winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She-Hulk) will appear in Starfleet Academy’s first season in a recurring “special guest star” role.

(Paramount+)

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will “follow the adventures of a new class of Starfleet cadets as they come of age in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. The series will introduce viewers to this young group of cadets as they come together to pursue a common dream of hope and optimism. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself.”

Keep checking back to TrekCore for all the latest in Star Trek franchise news!

Nacelle Reveals First Eight STAR TREK Action Figures at NYCC… With Plenty of Character Surprises!

Ken Reilly
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Nacelle Reveals First Eight STAR TREK Action Figures at NYCC… With Plenty of Character Surprises!

Back in September, the Nacelle Company announced that they’d obtained a license to produce Star Trek action figures — and today at New York Comic Con, they showcased the first eight characters set to launch their new product line in 2025.
 
Nacelle founder Brian Volk-Weiss led the hour-long panel during NYCC’s biggest day, explaining the background of the company’s new venture into Star Trek action figures — which will be from all series from The Original Series through Star Trek: Enterprise, and all feature films between The Motion Picture and Star Trek: Nemesis.
 
Volk-Weiss explained that Nacelle’s goal is to avoid repeating the same characters every new Star Trek action figure venture tackles — like Captain Kirk, Seven of Nine, Data, etc. — and focus on the vast multitude of other Trek characters that have never (or rarely) been seen in the action figure format.
 
With that effort in mind, the first wave of Nacelle Trek figures are likely to be character selections that few may have guessed!

 
The 6″-7″ action figure lineup will begin with Captain Edward Jellico (from “Chain of Command”), and continuing with midshipman Peter Preston (from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Valkris (from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) and Captain Rachel Garrett (from “Yesterday’s Enterprise”).
 

(Nacelle Company)

(Nacelle Company)
(Nacelle Company)
(Nacelle Company)

The first wave will continue with Tuvix (from the Voyager episode of the same name), Mirror Jonathan Archer (from “In a Mirror, Darkly”), Vorta administrator Weyoun (from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and Captain Hikaru Sulu (as seen in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).

(Nacelle Company)
(Nacelle Company)

Three paint-master prototypes were on display at NYCC today:

Captain Garrett, Captain Jellico, and Peter Preston. (TrekCore.com)
Captain Jellico. (TrekCore.com)
Peter Preston. (TrekCore.com)
Captain Garrett. (TrekCore.com)

In addition to this first wave — and more figures already in the works to follow these initial eight releases — Nacelle is soliciting ideas from Star Trek fans on who they would like to see in future waves to complete their collections. If you’ve got ideas for who you want to see in this still-expanding product line, send their suggestions to startrekideas@nacellecompany.com.

Nacelle tells TrekCore that they anticipate opening preorders for their new Star Trek action figures in early 2025, with a goal of delivery before the end of next year. The company is also aiming for a price point in the under-$30 range, similar to the Star Wars Black Series action figure products.

We’ve got a lot more to share with you about Nacelle’s plans for Star Trek, including a lengthy interview with company founder and president Brian Volk-Weiss about their Trek philosophy (and why some of these obscure characters made it to the front of the line) — so stick around!

Review — STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS “Buffer Time” Game

Kevin Phillips
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Review — STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS “Buffer Time” Game

Star Trek fans, your next fixation has arrived! It’s no Bat’leths & BiHnuchs, but it’s the next best thing Star Trek: Lower Decks – Buffer Time, available soon from Modiphius Entertainment.
 

Buffer Time is a cooperative press-your-luck card game, where you act as junior officers accomplishing tasks around the USS Cerritos — and more importantly, slacking off to pursue some personal projects worth Leisure Points in between. Players draw from a “Shift” deck containing cards with “Effort” points, trying to accumulate enough to reach a variable target number before drawing too many officer cards who check up on you.

You’ll also have a very limited number of special “Alpha Shift” ability cards you can play to avoid officers, peek at the deck, or swap cards with your teammates. If too many officers bust you slacking off, you’ll lose all the progress from that round (and perhaps some slacking-off you’d previously earned points on as well).

The base action you take every turn, adding Effort to reach your target number of points, has an element of risk (potentially pulling an officer card instead of Effort), but occasionally you’re rewarded with a high-value card that makes taking the chance feel worthwhile. Adding more “Side Quests” increases the target number, but scores those precious “Leisure Points” you need to win the game.

Buffer Time is a slick-looking addition to your Star Trek gaming collection with all the quality references (and in-jokes) you’d expect from a Lower Decks-themed offering. It’s nice to see a light and quick game — you can finish within 20 minutes, if things go very well or very poorly — which is a relatively rare niche for Star Trek games.

The overall play cycle is very entertaining, with a variety of ways to manipulate the flow of the game and optimize your crewmates’ goofing off.

Frustratingly, there don’t seem to be enough ways to actually deploy those tricks. The game is punishingly difficult to actually win. Losing one round (out of five in a typical game) feels crushing, rather than merely a setback to be overcome. You not only waste any resources you’d spent that round, but also lose some of your accumulated Leisure Points from previous rounds. There are a few variables that could have likely been sorted out with a little more playtesting to ensure players get the most out of Buffer Time.

The ratio of officers to Effort points in the Shift deck makes the main strategy of chasing high-value cards to earn Leisure points very swingy. Sometimes, the shuffle means you can draw two officer cards back to back and have the last dozen cards you drew — along with any Alpha Shift cards used that round — rendered meaningless. You might even burn the round with rapid officer appearances in the first handful of cards, before you’d even consider spending Alpha Shift cards.

Each player only gets two Alpha Shift cards at the start of the game, plus maybe one more for the player who successfully ends a round to bank points. That’s a startlingly small number of chances to interject a small shot of order into the chaos of pressing your luck. My experience was that spending these cards aggressively in early rounds that start off well to build up a buffer of Leisure points was the route to go. This yielded better results than playing conservatively and running out of gas in later rounds, fully at the mercy of the randomness in the deck.

Buffer Time has a scaling win condition depending on the number of players. When I tried playing with two, four, and six players, I found that the higher player counts felt more exciting and achievable, even while ultimately losing most of the games I played at any player number. More players means a correspondingly higher number of Alpha Shift abilities being brought to bear, which is where the real juice can be found in Buffer Time.

Some of the abilities on the Alpha Shift cards suggest that players are keeping their options a secret from their fellow players (“Each player shows you the Side Projects in their hand…”), but it’s unclear why this would be. Lower Decks is all about solidarity of Starfleet’s peons, so of course they’ll cooperate to sneak in a little leisure time amongst their actual duties! Even playing with open information for optimal coordination, I found it a daunting task to build any momentum and accumulate enough Leisure Points to feel like meeting the win condition was even a possibility.

There are certainly ways to adjust the game with house rules and make the significant challenge worth facing: primarily, better access to Alpha Shift cards. Perhaps everyone draws one after a successful round, instead of a single player. Or even handing out the same number of Alpha Shift cards regardless of player count, but limiting everyone to only having two cards available to play at a time. Playing with open information also seems logical, and there’s no explicit prohibition against telling everyone what cards you have in hand.

Another change might be increasing the number of officer points that end a round from four to five, making the appearance of Captain Freeman (who is worth three officer points herself) not always be an instant round-ender. You might play for six rounds instead of five, or not remove Leisure points after being caught by officers.

Adding a few more Effort cards to the shift deck to thin out the appearance of officers could also help, but that isn’t something the average player is going to do by buying two copies of the game and tinkering with the math.

The basic engine of the play is satisfying, and you can get a lot of mileage out of this card game with your friend group – as long as you’re willing to experiment a little. Making a few adjustments to the difficulty levers in the game can open up your game table to all of the heart-pounding slacking action that Star Trek: Lower Decks — Buffer Time has to offer.

Star Trek: Lower Decks — Buffer Time is available for preorder today.

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