Summary
- Star Trek: Lower Decks is ending with a blast, including fan-favorite characters from other Trek shows.
- The show highlights overlooked characters with a humorous approach, resonating with fans.
- A live-action sitcom is in the works, and Harry Kim's cameo hints at exciting future possibilities.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is set to finish its hilarious run on Paramount+ with the fifth installment, and the show is going out with a bang, bringing all sorts of wacky hijinks, character changes, and one returning fan-favorite to the fore in its final season trailer.
Star Trek has always been a TV franchise at heart, and while the Paramount reboot put a lot of focus on big-budget theatrical projects and tie-ins, the franchise has continued its tradition of excelling on the small screen via streaming shows on Paramount+. Star Trek: Lower Decks has been one such remarkable addition to the franchise, with the animated show posing one of the biggest challenges for Star Trek due to its raunchy, unapologetic approach to getting a laugh. More than just the hilarity, Lower Decks highlighted characters that would often get overlooked in the more serious, grand narratives of the mainline Star Trek TV shows and films, a fact that resonated with many fans and gave the show a lot more freedom than it might have otherwise enjoyed.
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With Lower Decks coming to an end sooner than fans expected with the upcoming fifth season, the creatives behind the show don’t seem to be leaving anything on the table in their quest to send viewers off on a high note, including fan-favorite characters from other Trek shows. The official Star Trek YouTube channel uploaded a trailer for the show’s final season, complete with an ironic voiceover from Captain Freeman praising the crew as the visuals show them getting into all the raunchy silliness and wacky antics that fans have come to expect from the show. To the delight of longtime viewers, the trailer urges fans to prepare for an adventure five seasons in the making, calling to mind all the previous happenings of the show and foreshadowing a great, satisfying ending. However, the trailer saves one last surprise aimed at fans of the franchise for the closing moments, as it shows a room full of different versions of Star Trek: Voyager character Harry Kim hanging out together.
Kim, an ensign with a penchant for getting into trouble, was a deeply sympathetic character who came to find a new family in his crew mates after being cruelly separated from his birth parents early on and played a part in some of the more touching parts of the show. In the short clip from the trailer, fans can see myriad Kims hanging out together in a cabin before one of the Kims loudly points out that another Kim has two pips on his collar, indicating that he’s a rank above the rest, before the Kim in question incredulously remarks “You’re all still ensigns?” While fans get zero extra content about what leads up to this scene, it joins several other exciting threads that the upcoming 10-episode final bow will address as it closes the curtain on four years of laughs.
While Lower Decks might be coming to an end long before its fans are ready to let go, the Star Trek franchise is set to get its most unique project soon in the form of a live-action sitcom that might go a long way to scratch the itch that Lower Decks has been keeping under control for the last few years. Each entry in the franchise has its own charm and is distinct, so this won’t be a replacement, but as Harry Kim’s cameo proves, so long as the franchise keeps on trucking and exploring all sorts of ideas, there’s no telling who or what might come back down the line to please fans. All fans can do now is enjoy the final season and try to live long and prosper enough to perhaps meet these characters again.
The final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is set to premiere on Paramount+ starting October 24, 2024.
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