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The trailer for season five of Star Trek: Lower Decks goes hard into celebrating the series’ final episodes. It even recreates a trailer for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the last adventure of The Original Series crew.
But even as it acknowledges that studio Paramount has chosen to cancel the show after season five, the trailer also insists that the USS Cerritos will continue to boldly go where more respected Starfleet vessels went first. As Mariner says in the trailer, “We haven’t even cracked our second quadrant!”
More than just a standard knowing joke, Mariner’s observation reveals the actual hopes of Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan. In fact, McMahan said as much during the Lower Decks panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
According to SFX Magazine, McMahan told attendees that the fifth season wouldn’t offer closure for Mariner, Boimler, and the other members of the Cerritos crew. Furthermore, McMahan urges fans to “Watch the hell out of the show when it airs.”
He hopes they’ll watch it not just because they’ll find lots to enjoy in the show’s rapid-fire humor, but also so that frequent re-watches may give the show a second life. Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman reinforced this position when he told fans, “Watch it twice because actually it does register. It will matter.” In other words, frequent watches register with Star Trek’s studio Paramount (which just so happens to be going through a bit of a change at the moment). And if Paramount sees a demand, and money, in Lower Decks, there’s a chance that they might bring it back.
“Look what you did for Prodigy,” Kurtzman reminded them; “do it again.”
Kurtzman and McMahan aren’t just indulging in some wishful thinking with an auditorium filled with fans. There’s a long history of fans getting Star Trek back after a cancellation. As Kurtzman hinted, Star Trek: Prodigy wasn’t exactly canceled, but it was in limbo after Paramount decided to remove the show from its streaming service (the so-called “home of Star Trek”) after one season. Fan demands helped hype up Netflix picking up the show and releasing a second season.
Long before that, TOS was canceled after two seasons. A fan-writing campaign forced CBS to reconsider, and the show came back for a third season (albeit with much lower scripts and generally lower quality). After the end of the third season, the fan scene, including zines and cons, kept alive love for the show. As a result, Paramount began producing a sequel series Star Trek: Phase II, and then pivoted to the movie franchise.
That franchise, of course, ended with Star Trek VI. For that reason, Lower Decks isn’t just making a deep lore reference when they spoof it in their trailer. They’re hoping to follow in the footsteps of the original series, getting a continuing mission that might involve a great final film that also functions as a compelling Cold War metaphor.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Five visits its final frontier on Paramount+ on October 24, 2024.
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