Warning: This Article Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – “Old Friends, New Planets”
Star Trek: Lower Decks creator and showrunner Mike McMahan explains why he didn’t resurrect Ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lieutenant Beckett Mariner’s (Tawny Newsome) revelation in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, “The Inner Fight” that she and Sito were friends in Starfleet Academy, as well as the return of disgraced former cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) led fans to speculate that Sito would turn up alive in Lower Decks’ season 4 finale. Sito died in the line of duty in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, episode 15, “Lower Decks,” the episode that literally inspired Star Trek: Lower Decks.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, we asked Mike McMahan if he ever considered resurrecting Sito Jaxa, and he explained why bringing back the tragic Bajoran Ensign was “never on his radar.” Read his quote below:
No, no, no, no. That would be a type of fan service. To me, that would be disrespectful to a storyline that had a lot of impact on me. And it would feel good, but also a little hollow. Like did we learn nothing from Pet Sematary? Metaphorically, undoing that [death] for the sake of an animated comedy instead of using the weight of it for character development, that was never on my radar. It would have gone against how I see Trek canon.
Why Star Trek: Lower Decks Not Resurrecting Sito Jaxa Was The Right Move
Sito did return in a flashback in Lower Decks season 4’s finale.
Star Trek: Lower Decks not resurrecting Sito Jaxa was the right move for some good reasons. Instead, Lower Decks used a powerful flashback to show young Mariner with Sito and Nova Squadron at Starfleet Academy, and Shannon Fill returned to voice Sito for the first time in 29 years. Mike McMahan explains why the flashback was a more effective way to bring Sito back:
Well, I did [resurrect Sito] in a way. Bringing her back in that cold open for me, it was like finding an old photo or an old video of a friend you’ve lost and getting to smile and see them for one more second, you know? It felt like feeding that instinct but not in a way that was going to undo the importance of that character in the first place.
Sito’s death was a devastating moment towards the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s run and her loss defined Mariner’s insistence that she remain a Lower Decker rather than send her friends to die as a commanding officer. Bringing Sito back so many years later would undermine how meaningful her death was to Mariner on Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek overall.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 is available to stream on Paramount+.
Star Trek Lower Decks
- Release Date:
- 2020-08-06
- Cast:
- Jack Quaid, Gillian Vigman, dawnn lewis, Noel Wells, Eugene Cordero, Fred Tatasciore, Jerry O’Connell, Tawny Newsome
- Genres:
- Animation, Adventure, Action
- Seasons:
- 3
- Summary:
- The animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew on one of Starfleet’s least significant ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and Tendi (Noël Wells) have to keep up with their duties and their social lives often. At the same time, the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
- Story By:
- gene roddenbury
- Writers:
- Gene Roddenberry
- Network:
- Paramount
- Streaming Sevice:
- Paramount+
- Franchise(s):
- Star Trek
