Canceled Star Trek Series Going Out With A Big Bang
Paramount broke hearts throughout the galaxy by canceling Lower Decks, the popular Star Trek animated series that lampooned the long-running sci-fi franchise. The upcoming fifth season of the show will be its last, and that’s been hard to process for those of us who have been doing the Chu Chu dance with these lovable characters from the beginning. Now, though, there’s a bit of good news for fans to cling to: the Lower Decks finale is going to be a “gigantic episode” that helps the series go out with a bang while wrapping up long-simmering plot lines.
Saving The Best For Last
This information about the Lower Decks finale comes to us straight from series creator and showrunner Mike McMahan. While he was understandably cagey about the actual plot of the final episode, he discussed how the last episode kept getting longer and longer because “We kept adding and adding and adding to the finale because nothing was ever satisfying enough, and there weren’t enough goodbyes to tell in a funny way.”
However, exactly how long this “gigantic” episode will be is something of an open question.
As of the interview, the Lower Decks finale is eight minutes longer than a typical episode. It is still being edited, though, so while the finished version might not be quite this long, it will still have a longer runtime than usual. And in a very exciting development for fans, McMahan suggested that other episodes might have longer runtimes as well, helping the final season of the best NuTrek show feel like an expanded love letter to the fandom.
Tying Up All The Loose Ends
Outside of the Lower Decks finale, what can fans expect to see in this final season? It sounds like we are going to get one episode to help resolve the relationship between Beckett Mariner and Jennifer Sh’reyan.
We haven’t seen this fan-favorite Andorian since season 3, but many fans have told McMahan that it felt like their story was unresolved; accordingly, this last episode is meant to provide such resolution, and nobody is more hyped than Mariner actor Tawny Newsome, who was quick to add “I really love the Jennifer episode.”
Pulling In Some Orion Lore
Additionally, before Lower Decks airs its oversized finale (one that Newsome has playfully described as “a double-stuffed Oreo of an episode”), we’re going to get more stories that feature the Orions.
McMahan didn’t delve into many details, but he enticingly promised that in this last season, “We pull in some Orion lore that’s been discarded over the decades.” In this way, the show will continue its wonderful trend of expanding on this legendary Star Trek race and proving once and for all that these green guys and gals can be more than just pirates and dancers.
Hopefully Ending On A High Note
Still, all this great news about the Lower Decks last season and the series finale may be a cold comfort to fans and creators alike. This wasn’t originally intended to be the final season, and McMahan doesn’t sound very excited to leave this great show behind. As for us, we’re just hoping that it manages to end on a truly high note the same way that Discovery (another prematurely canceled Trek show) did.
Plenty More Where That Came From
Fortunately, it sounds like the spirit of Lower Decks will live far beyond this finale. Tawny Newsome will be returning to live-action Star Trek with an upcoming workplace comedy show she is writing along with Justin Simien. That means that even if we don’t see characters like Boimler and Mariner again beyond Lower Decks, their pioneering style of offbeat humor will continue carrying this franchise forward.
Source: Collider
