It’s Sad Star Trek: Lower Decks Is Ending With Season 5, But I’m Okay With It

It’s sad that Star Trek: Lower Decks will end with season 5 when it streams on Paramount+ in fall 2024, but that’s okay. Created by Mike McMahan, the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks was great from the start by being a hilarious love letter to Star Trek that celebrates the weirdest parts and deepest cuts of Star Trek lore. Rather than ignore the bizarre aspects, Star Trek: Lower Decks embraces the oddities and invents new ones, like the cosmic koala, vindictive hologram Badgey (Jack McBrayer), and the cute-but-deadly Moopsy. In a perfect world, Star Trek: Lower Decks should have matched (or surpassed) the 7-year runs of the Star Trek: The Next Generation era.

After all, the main characters of Star Trek: Lower Decks are more than their two dimensions would imply. Lieutenants Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), D’Vana Tendi (Noel Wells), Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), and the USS Cerritos crew aren’t just reservoirs for all our TNG nostalgia, but fully realized, nuanced people who grow and change. We’ve shared in their joys and sorrows, and celebrated their wins, and watched as the Lower Decks crew became as real as any live-action character — more real, in some cases. So why say goodbye after just five years?

Promotions on Star Trek: Lower Decks Change the Point of the Show

When the characters become full lieutenants, it won’t be about the lower decks.

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ planned character arcs are nearing completion. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, the main characters were collectively promoted to Lieutenant junior grade, signifying a step up in the USS Cerritos’ hierarchy, and a step further away from the conceit of Star Trek: Lower Decks being about, well, the lower decks. Boimler learned how to trust his subordinates (he has subordinates!), and take decisive action. Rutherford figured out his present, while Tendi acknowledged her past. T’Lyn found actual friends in Starfleet. And Mariner really, truly, for real this time, stopped sabotaging herself and embraced being a natural leader. These characters are growing.

Even if the lower deckers become upper deckers (and they will), the story started on Star Trek: Lower Decks could still continue after one more year of solid storytelling wraps this chapter. The end of Star Trek: Lower Decks might mean the beginning of a sequel series with a new name, like Star Trek: Cerritos. If Star Trek: Section 31 does well, more streaming movies may be in the cards, so why not a Star Trek: Lower Decks movie? On Instagram, Boimler actor Jack Quaid comments on Star Trek: Lower Decks ending, and suggests the possibility of a new home on a different streaming service, like Star Trek: Prodigy‘s move to Netflix.

The Future of Star Trek May Be More Streamlined

Fewer Star Trek shows might mean a more cohesive franchise.

The new era of Star Trek has been nothing short of a feast, with five Star Trek series in simultaneous production. As awesome as that is, it’s not sustainable, so reducing the number of Star Trek shows in production might be a way to streamline the franchise. With the back-to-basics episodic Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as the flagship show, the 32nd century Star Trek: Starfleet Academy can inherit Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ lighter tone and some of Star Trek: Discovery‘s characters. That leaves space for a Star Trek set in the early 25th century, in which live-action Lower Decks characters could feasibly appear.

Bringing Star Trek: Lower Decks to a logical, planned ending after season 5 may make it possible for Star Trek: Legacy to finally happen. Fan demand for the Star Trek: Picard spinoff hasn’t died down, and even Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman wants Star Trek: Legacy. While it wouldn’t be an even trade with the potential difference in tone, and how relatively inexpensive producing the animated Lower Decks is, Star Trek: Legacy could still be a silver lining to the dark cloud of Lower Decks‘ last year. Saying goodbye to Star Trek: Lower Decks after 5 amazing seasons won’t be easy after getting attached to the USS Cerritos’ crew, but with a little faith (of the heart) it’ll be okay.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming on Paramount+.