Lower Decks’ third season brought with it a lot of great laughs, and a sincere, loving view of the Star Trek shows that came before it. But something felt off: its characters by and large stagnated, rehashing arcs they’d already gone on to reach a conclusion that was more of a reset than an evolution. Thankfully, season four is a delightful course correct.
From the jump, Lower Decks’ latest series of adventures feels like a strong response to that feeling of its heroes being stuck in a figurative rut. There are some smart shake-ups that let the series grow into the confidence it has found creatively over the past few years, while not losing the essence of what makes the series work in the first place: Trek through the lens of the little guy.
This all hinges on crucial events in the season’s premiere, but over the course of the eight episodes Paramount provided for review, Lower Decks constantly seeks to push its primary heroes—Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero)—into new territory, and throw in new tweaks to their dynamics as a unit of friends and among the crew of the Cerritos at large. They still feel like the characters they’ve always been, but crucially not only are some of the more neglected members of the cast allowed to grow in turn—especially Rutherford and Tendi, who’ve always taken a back seat to Boimler and Mariner—they actually feel like people learning and growing from the adventures they’ve been on so far, a passage of time that finally has an impact on the series as much as it does the audience.
One of the best changes to this dynamic is the addition of a new face to the team: T’Lyn, the Vulcan officer from season two’s incredible episode “wej Duj,” played by Gabrielle Ruiz. She’s been ostracized from her own people’s navy and assigned to Starfleet duties as punishment. T’Lyn is a perfect addition to the mix of our familiar heroes, the comedic straight man that lets the series both comment on the changing attitudes of its main heroes, and provide a more self-serious foil to the antics aboard the Cerritos in the traditional Vulcan manner. But just as importantly as she fulfils that role in the show’s new dynamic, T’Lyn gets to be as narratively important to the season as the rest of Lower Decks’ main characters, with insight and time spent with her in ways that flesh her out as both an individual and the ways she interacts with different members of the cast.
That acknowledgement of the passage of time makes Lower Decks feel less like a comedy Trek show this season and a Trek show that happens to be comedic, especially in the light of its frustrating lack of advancement to the status quo last season. Everything about season four feels phaser-focused on addressing some of the biggest weaknesses of the show so far, from that lack of evolution to the lack of focus on characters outside of the perspective of Boimler and Mariner in particular. In doing so, it gains a lot of strength in being able to push and poke at our heroes, and lends a weight to everything that came before it—Lower Decks now feels less like a series that is one-off gaffes and adventures you brush yourself off from and go onto the next, but a show that’s more traditionally interconnected over weeks and seasons.
There’s an ongoing subplot throughout the season that feels impactful over the course of multiple episodes, instead of just raising its head in time for the finale like in prior seasons. And that importance of prior stories includes, quite touchingly, the show’s recent crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There’s only one direct nod to it, a gag in the season premiere included in the show’s trailer, but for fans who checked in over on the USS Enterprise and were treated to a heartfelt episode about realising that people, even your heroes, are all on their own journeys of growth? It feels especially resonant this season as the Lower Deckers all begin to reckon with their own journeys.
All this self-seriousness and dramatic growth might sound concerning to Lower Decks fans afeared it might mean a less humorous show, so it’s good news as well that Lower Decks remains consistently hilarious on top of all these improvements elsewhere. But just as its characters have grown, its sense of humor has as well—there’s fewer episodes this season where the joke is pointing at a Star Trek trope and going “Look! It’s a Star Trek trope!”, and more where those tropes and comedic set ups are played with in interesting, funny ways. A classic cave episode gives way to some heartfelt character beats, and not one, but two episodes about Trek’s penchant for evil computers tackles the idea from different perspectives in some fun ways. And there’s still plenty of great gags about past Star Trek in general, especially the premiere itself, a full-on love letter to the wackier hijinks of Star Trek: Voyager that feels unfortunately touchingly well timed given the unfortunate situation with Lower Decks’ animated sibling Prodigy.
In all, through some smart changes to its status quo and an acknowledgement of its own passage of time, Lower Decks feels more confident and exciting than ever before in its fourth season. Those prior fears of stagnation are firmly put to bed almost from the get-go with smart choices that deliver more time with these characters beyond the surface level, more time exploring the world they inhabit, and just as crucially, more time in letting them have fun in fresh and interesting ways instead of relying on the same easy humor. It’s still the Star Trek: Lower Decks that made it a surprising hit in the first place, but it’s a little older, a little wiser, and still just as funny as ever.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season four begins streaming on Paramount+ September 7.
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