The Best and Worst of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5

I can’t believe it’s over. Star Trek: Lower Decks comes to an end with its fifth season. The show I was wary of beginning and then continuing has become the show I wish would never end. The series changed a lot since it began airing, and I’ve changed a lot too as a Star Trek fan. While I’m sad we won’t get any more of the show, with it being cancelled and the season finale being repurposed into a makeshift series finale (damn you, Paramount), the saddest thing about the fifth season being the end is that it’s the weakest season since the first. Yet by being so it does feel as if Lower Decks has reached its fitting final form: it’s now truly like the 90s Star Trek shows it so reveres.

This season, like the bulk of those earlier shows, is unremarkable but solid, comfortable viewing. The show that began as a loud, brash ball of energy has calmed down and become more of a ho-hum day-in-the-life Starfleet series featuring regular people. Watching the lower deckers talk in the bar is comfort viewing in the same way it is seeing Riker and Troi in Ten Forward in TNG or Bashir and O’Brien in Quark’s on DS9. Despite some amped up moments, like the hectic two-part finale, it’s a fairly soothing, predictable season of television that’s not hitting high highs nor low lows.

The storytelling all feels very familiar, which does become an issue. Character growth continues at a steady pace, the storylines coming to slightly different ends than they once did now that characters are more assured of themselves, but the actual plotting, story arcs, and basic narrative legwork is a bit too samey. At one point Tendi asks Boimler “Didn’t you learn from the whole Hawaii thing?” and it feels like a very meta moment on the show’s part, recognising that the episodes are somewhat repetitive this season and characters have begun to learn the same lessons as they did in years previous. It’s as if Lower Decks’ final, ultimate, unintentional ode to the franchise is that the even numbered seasons are the best.

Best Character: Bradward Boimler

This ‘best character’ section has worked out quite nicely thus far. Each of the first four seasons developed one member of the core cast of four significantly. The fifth season is much more about the ensemble, no one character focused on more significantly than the others. T’Lyn is a great addition to the show but still very much a supporting character; it would have been great for her to develop into a lead if the show was renewed. It also doesn’t help in picking a best character that two back-to-back episodes this season barely feature the main cast, focusing instead on the senior crew and alt-reality characters.

The premiere sets the groundwork for this season’s character arcs. The crew meet future alternate reality versions of themselves and this pushes them into wanting to either be more or less like their counterparts. Mariner sees her’s as a cautionary tale of not to totally lose her rebellious nature, and her best episode of the season has her act as a mentor to a troubled ensign. Rutherford gets two okay storylines this season rather than one good one: he has to learn how to live without Tendi for the opening two episodes and then rather abruptly casts aside his implant in the finale. Meanwhile Tendi dominates the first two episodes, closing out her arc from last season, and then is fairly absent for the rest, apart from the excellent Fully Dilated.

And so it’s Boimler who takes the prize. He’s the best character of the season but his storyline isn’t new. It’s the same story Mike McMahan and the other writers have been trying to tell with him for the last couple of seasons. Season 5’s ‘Bearded Boimler’ story is a better version of the ‘Bold Boimler’ story from season 3. He desperately wants to be more like his more confident, bearded alternate reality self and so reshapes his personality and tries to copy his counterpart by obsessing over his adventures from a PADD accidentally left in the prime timeline. What makes it work is the ending: he recognises it’s wrong. That he’s living a lie, acting dishonestly, and could lose his friends because of it. He symbolically breaks the PADD. That’s what annoyed me about the ‘Bold Boimler’ storyline: the show never acknowledged that Boimler shouldn’t be pretending, playing it purely as a joke. And the growth of his beard this season, from embarrassing patchy beginnings (can relate) to full and attractive by the end (can’t relate) is a cool detail.

Best (Unintentional?) Joke: The Tendi reveal in Dos Cerritos (S5E1)

This may sound strange but honestly the moment I found funniest this season might not have even been an intentional joke. It’s a moment that cleverly subverts our expectations after five seasons of this series, and it happens in the season’s opening scene. A haughty alien collector, one of many featured in Lower Decks, shows a young very-much-not-green woman around his collection who is clearly voiced by Tendi’s voice actor Noël Wells. This happens so often in this series; regular cast members brought in to voice a handful of other minor characters across a season. It saves money but it’s not a practice I like because they are so clearly the same actor, with every character voiced by Jack Quaid, who I like a lot, sounding exactly like Boimler. I wrote about the show’s overreliance on Fred Tatasciore as the voice of every alien back in my season 3 article. So it was a joyous moment when Dos Cerritos, whether intentionally or unintentionally, used this fact to trick the audience: it turns out the character voiced by Wells is in fact Tendi in disguise, and the joke was on me for presuming they’d just brought her in voice a separate character. An extra clever little meta twist for attentive fans of the show.

Worst Episode: Shades of Green (S5E2)

It’s certainly a bold move titling an episode after an infamously bad instalment of TNG. Shades of Green is nowhere near as bad as Shades of Gray but it is the worst episode of the season. Not terrible but weak nonetheless. I wasn’t expecting Tendi’s arc to dominate the entire season, that she’d spend ten episodes waging an Orion civil war and trying to use her Starfleet sensibilities to end the conflict, but I was expecting more than this. Instead of the juicy consequences of a war, the episode contrives to narrow the conflict into a solar ship race to grab a treasure. It’s pretty silly and a space race is something we’ve seen before in season 3 with Rutherford. It feels too familiar and simple that this is what Tendi’s storyline has been building to. Of course, she destroys the treasure to make it a draw but even that is backgrounded to deal with Tendi’s sudden conflict with her sister, which is rectified just as easily with a quick chat. This plot has been the show’s biggest attempt at multi-season serialised storytelling and it’s a shame this final episode doesn’t deliver a satisfying pay-off. Tendi is back on the Cerritos like she never left.

Meanwhile we get a B-plot with Boimler and Mariner on a planet giving up capitalism for the Federation’s post-scarcity replication. It’s fun to see this in action but I feel there’s more potential with this beyond the few slightly lame jokes we get. Boimler once again aims to be more assertive but it gets him into hot water. It’s an old plot, too similar at this stage to ‘Bold Boimler’ from season 3, and the series is running in place a little. Having Mariner and Boimler together again could be a fun throwback to some season 1 episodes but feels too much like a retread rather than a purposeful contrast to see how much they’ve grown. And then the episode ends with Captain Freeman giving all the money and jewels from the planet to the Orions, disregarding orders and meddling in alien affairs to a degree which feels unfitting for a canon show. At least the episode’s C-plot, focusing on T’Lyn bonding with Rutherford, is great. Even in the show’s worst moments, you can always rely on T’Lyn.

Biggest Missed Opportunity: Not using Risa for The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel (S5E3)

Usually I champion introducing new elements to the franchise rather than just relying on the familiar but in this case the opportunity is so perfect I can’t help but be disappointed. Risa is such a perfect location for a Lower Decks episode. Maybe Mike McMahan thought it was too perfect so shied away from the obvious choice. The more adult comedy of the show, willing to be more sexually explicit, makes pleasure planet Risa an ideal location. We got a ‘Little Risa’ district on another world in the first season but I’m shocked the planet itself never appears, only being mentioned. The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel was the perfect time to travel there instead of featuring a new locale. Admiral Milius going native on the sexually liberated world of Risa would have made more sense than just a fancy hotel. The episode deals with Mariner and Jennifer’s relationship, making Risa the ideal backdrop, like with Worf and Jadzia in Let He Who Is Without Sin… And maybe we could have had a storyline of T’Lyn going through Pon Farr, which I want to see because of, you know, reasons.

Favourite New Location: Starbase 80

Starbase 80 has been a running joke in the show since the first season, part of the mythology of Lower Decks built up over time, and in the final season we finally travel there. I was expecting to think it was a mistake, that the base was better left unseen, only talked about as a dilapidated station full of Starfleet dregs. Now I want a whole series set there. It feels custom made for me as a Star Trek fan, the perfecting melding of elements from all my favourite series. It’s like a gungier version of Deep Space Nine (my favourite Trek series) with the costumes and D-Con chamber of Enterprise (my second favourite Trek series) and the throwback technology of TOS (my third favourite). The design is perfect, including having a store selling all the best old Starfleet uniforms. It may be falling apart but I want to live there: it’s Star Trek heaven rather than the hell it’s been made out to be for five seasons. I only wish the plot of the episode Starbase 80?! was stronger. It’s an uninspired tale of preconceptions and zombies. I find it strange that Rutherford claims he doesn’t like the weird and old tech when I thought that’d be his jam. It’s one of the few times the fandom of the viewers doesn’t match the fandom of the characters.

Biggest Disappointment: Upper Decks (S5E8)

 I was wondering why we were spending so little time with the senior officers this season and then it all became clear: they get their own episode. Their stories and jokes are saved up for Upper Decks, which is a great idea for an episode with an okay execution. For five seasons the show has focused on the lowly lower deckers and now we get to spend quality time with the characters who would be the main cast if this was a regular Star Trek show, complete with a briefing room scene. The issue is that it’s not very insightful. The show’s perspective has changed but my perspective on the characters hasn’t. Instead of added depth, we just get the same jokes with the senior crew we’ve seen before but across an episode rather than for a scene. There are too many different stories going on, feeling like an inferior version of last season’s brilliant Caves, which makes them feel like skits rather than storylines. Upper Decks also gets a little too meta for my liking. Rather than referencing the franchise as usual, the episode acts a little too self-aware of the show itself and its focus, culminating in a moment where Nurse Westlake looks directly into camera.

Best Episode: Fissure Quest (S5E9)

“I’m so sick of the fucking multiverse.” Me too, William. Me too. I’ve come to hate multiverse stories these last few years. There are no stakes, nothing to grasp on to. If everything matters, everything happens, then nothing matters. I was very worried when it became clear that this season’s serialised story was multiversal. So the fact that Fissure Quest is my favourite episode of the season, and one of the best of the series, speaks of its monumental success. It works by centring the episode on William Boimler, who hates the multiverse. If this episode, with all its cameos and ‘fan service’, had adoring fans as the lead characters it would be insufferable. But William sees nothing but “lazy derivative remixes.” The episode is a commentary on rehashing, on trying to obsessively recreate the past rather than chart a new course forward, and, like the show at large, it does the impossible and has its cake and eats it too. It’s a multiverse story for people who both love multiverses and hate multiverses.

I was worried that William faking his death and becoming part of Section 31 would make him a generic bad guy. The evil clone trope. But no, he’s great. A flawed, tired, more experienced Boimler who still has some flashes of joy. The guest cast is insane but the cameo roster feels earned. Despite its reputation, the guest cast across Lower Decks is still reserved to an extent, keeping the focus on the new characters, so after five seasons it can get away with an episode like this. I love the return of Lily Sloane, the ensigns Kim are a fun joke, and Garak and Bashir as a married couple is the realisation of fan hopes after decades. Jolene Blalock, or just ‘Jolene’, returning as T’Pol is a huge get and makes this Enterprise mega-fan very happy. And it’s not just familiar faces: the episode finally gives us a reason to get to know the much-discussed-but-rarely-seen Curzon Dax. I also love that there’s no villain, just a scientific discovery with unintended consequences. A problem to solve rather than a baddie to defeat. Every element of Fissure Quest is a love letter to Star Trek without getting too sappy, celebrating all eras.

The Final Episode: The New Next Generation (S5E10)

I can’t help but feel a little disappointed by the final episode despite the fact that it’s not bad. In fact, as a season finale it’s great, but as a series finale it’s just okay. That’s because it was never meant to be the end, the show was cancelled and Mike McMahan had to quickly adjust what he already had to try and cap off the series. There are huge stakes, big action, but the episode wisely keeps the characters centred. There’s increased tension between the crew but the multiverse theme plays well: they unite and work together, even though that’s not usually a lesson they need to learn, it’s intrinsic to every other episode. Relga is a poor villain for the finale and I’m not a fan of the rift staying open. The multiverse was fine for a season, and I get the DS9 parallels, but I don’t want the show to over rely on it. But now that won’t be a problem.

The final five minutes are an emotional goodbye, though unfortunately a little rushed. Rutherford removes his implant, a huge moment for him, and I just wish we could have had longer reckoning with that decision. It’s made quickly to give his arc some closure. I do think Ransom’s development over the five seasons has been great and him ending up as captain is a good move. Mariner and Boimler as his provisional first officers however is too much too soon. A complete rushing of their journeys to force this to be an ending, them no longer lower deckers. I would like it with a couple more seasons building up to it.

But what really works is the final montage and Mariner’s speech. It’s a celebration of the spirit of the show, and the franchise, and at least gives Mike McMahan one last definitive statement on the themes, even if the plot is cut short. And Mariner following it up with how angry she was upon hearing the news is a great meta gag at how I imagine those involved in the show reacted when they were told this was the end. I only wish the series had ended on a different gag: the captain needing a ‘go to warp’ catchphrase is overdone at this point. I hope that one day this won’t be the definitive end it now seems, with the show triumphantly returning, perhaps in another form, but it sadly seems unlikely. 

Season 5 Episode Ranking:

10. Shades of Green (S5E2)

9. A Farewell to Farms (S5E4)

8. Upper Decks (S5E8)

7. Of Gods and Angles (S5E6)

6. Starbase 80?! (S5E5)

5. The New Next Generation (S5E10)

4. Dos Cerritos (S5E1)

3. The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel (S5E3)

2. Fully Dilated (S5E7)

1. Fissure Quest (S5E9)

Star Trek: Lower Decks Seasons Ranked:

5. Season 1

4. Season 5

3. Season 3

2. Season 4

1. Season 2

My slightly muted response to the fifth season hasn’t lessened the pain of Lower Decks being cancelled. My love of the series has only grown on this rewatch and it ranks alongside Prodigy as my favourite Star Trek in a long time. It can be brash and crass and loud but there’s clear love for the franchise and its fans at its heart. It may begin by screaming references at the audience but it found its own voice, staked out its own rich corner of this universe. Lower Decks is a genuinely great Star Trek show, comedy or not, and the jokes are additive to the experience, just as the series has proved to be additive to the franchise. I miss it already.