star trek lower decks deanna troi

‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ EP Mike McMahan On That TNG Cameo and LGBTQ Characters in Season 2

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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After 10 irreverent, often wildly weird episodes, “ Star Trek : Lower Decks” concluded its inaugural season as the first animated “Trek” series in 47 years with two striking salutes to “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

( Warning: The rest of this story contains spoilers. )

The first “TNG” callback: The crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos run afoul of the Pakleds, a dimwitted alien species that have grown alarmingly lethal since we last saw them on the Season 2 “TNG” episode “Samaritan Snare.” Ne’er-do-well ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsom) and by-the-book ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) have to team up with Mariner’s hard-charging mother, Capt. Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), to defeat the Pakleds.

The second “TNG” callback: Just when it seems like the Cerritos has escaped, three more Pakled ships arrive and threaten to destroy the ship — until the U.S.S. Titan, led by Capt. Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) swoops in to save them.

The arrival of Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirits) marks the strongest connection yet for “Lower Decks” to the fabric of the larger “Trek” universe.  Variety spoke with “Lower Decks” creator, showrunner, and executive producer Mike McMahan about the major effect Riker’s appearance will have on the series, the show’s relationship to “Trek” history, and why McMahan says the show will be better about LGBTQ representation in Season 2, due to premiere in 2021.

Popular on Variety

Let’s start with the very end of the season: will the titan be a main location next season now that boimler has transferred to that ship.

Yep. We’ll see the Titan next season because Boimler is off the Cerritos, and we’ll be seeing Capt. Riker again as well. Boimler has been talking about moving on to bigger and better all first season, and now we’re going to see what happens when he gets what he wants.

Would that suggest that Marina Sirtis will also be on the show?

The stories that are on Titan are really more revolving around Riker and Boimler. However, I loved Marina and we loved working with her first season. The stories didn’t go that way, but I definitely need to get her back, because she was a blast to work with.

Will we see more “Next Generation” cameos as well?

That, my friend, I will not tell you, I would say, feels like a pretty good chance of it.

With Boimler getting promotion and transferring to the Titan, you really do seem to be tackling a question I’ve wondered about this season: How can this be a show about the lower decks if the main cast starts to get promoted?

Yeah, it’s tough. The theme of the show is where do bridge crews come from? What happens when you start ranking up? What did you learn as a lower deck officer that you start taking there? That’s all stuff that we tackle second season, and hopefully beyond.

Other than Troi and her mother Lwaxana on “TNG,” I can’t think of another time we’ve really seen a mother-daughter relationship explored as much on “Trek” as we see with Mariner and her mom, Capt. Freeman. What made you want to put that at the core of your show?

Well, I knew that I wanted the character of Mariner to be this vibrant, questioning of authority-type character. And I wanted the captain of the Cerritos to really seem like a “Star Trek” captain. So there had to be a reason that Mariner wouldn’t be drummed out of Starfleet every episode. The intrinsic mother-daughter relationship – kind of basing it on when my sister was younger and would throw down with my mom occasionally — like, nobody can get under somebody’s skin like their child or their mom.

Another thing about that relationship is that Boimler is often really flummoxed by how well connected and knowledgeable Mariner is, but he doesn’t know that it comes from the fact that Mariner has been essentially born into Starfleet, which is something that Mariner doesn’t always seem quite aware of or grateful for. Were you meaning to explore privilege with that dynamic?

You know, not really. I don’t think it’s a wrong interpretation of it. But the thing about privilege is that some people have it, some people don’t. But everybody has their own story as well. There’s an episode in the first season where you meet Mariner’s close friend, confidant, and probably lover from the Academy days, who literally says, “You used to be the best of us, you were going to be a captain, what happened to you?” There’s a whole other show that has happened to Mariner before we meet her on the Cerritos that she references every once in a while that hasn’t caused her to lose faith in the idealism of the Federation, but in the system itself. Seeing how she grows from that event and then slowly over time finding out things that expand our understanding of why she is how she is, that’s kind of more important to me than the other aspects of it. But yes, there is a part of it that, you know, her dad is an admiral. Her mom is a captain. Not only does that mean that she is kind of Starfleet royalty, but also what does that mean of their expectations of her and her abilities, and that always comes with its own kind of package of trouble.

It sounds like you weren’t necessarily trying to explicitly subvert the idea of privilege, especially as we’ve been in our world talking about it quite significantly in just over the last six months or so.

From my point of view, it was more about experience. Mariner at one point was like Boimler. She was the wide-eyed person who hadn’t gotten enough experience, and at some point, when you have a dream of what you want to do for a living and then you actually go work at it and see how the sausage is made, you either decide one of two things: Do you fit into the system, or do you make a new system? Boimler doesn’t know that yet, and Mariner does.

You also just mentioned something about Mariner that I didn’t really pick up on during the show: Her friend, Capt. Amina Ramsey, was her lover when they were at the Academy?

Yeah. We weren’t explicit about it, because most of the relationships in this show are familial or friendship love. It’s not physical love. That character showing up, the story we’re telling about them has nothing to do with any previous relationships they’ve had. For me and for the writers as we were making this, we didn’t intentionally mean for anybody to be strictly heteronormative or straight or cis. Every Starfleet officer is probably at the baseline bisexual, in a way. That being said, I am not the most amazing person at writing those kind of stories. I think we get a little bit better about it in the second season.

You’re right that no one on the show is exactly explicitly straight, but no one is explicitly LGBTQ either. It sounds like that’s something you’re digging into more for Season 2?

It is. It’s something I think we need to be better about. If there’s anything I can say about inclusiveness — whether it’s about sex or gender or race or anything — is that I know that I can always learn more and be better about it, and I’m always trying to do that. This is one of those cases where we could have done a better job of explicitly stating the things that the writers always knew about Mariner. It seeps in there in little ways, which even irritates me even more, like you start off the season with Mariner saying, “Whoa, she’s like the hottest girl on the ship, are you nervous?” —  that’s one of her first lines. That doesn’t put a stake in the ground, which I wish we had done a little bit more explicitly. It’s always a learning experience. We’re going to be trying to be better about it. And we are more explicit about it in the second season.

You obviously are bringing a level of comedy and irreverence to “Star Trek” that hasn’t been there before, but it also feels like you’re using this show to answer some questions you have about “Star Trek” as a fan. Like, what did ever happen to the Pakleds, the dim-witted aliens from “The Next Generation”?

Yes, absolutely. We didn’t want to set up early in the show that every episode was going to be like, “Hey, here’s a legacy character, and hey, here’s a planet we’ve been to before.” But we do want that to be involved in the show, and part of that was that every episode, it was like, what are the most “Star Trek” episodes we can make? And for the finale one of the themes that we hadn’t hit on for the season yet that explicitly was metaphorically saying something about problems and the world right now. We needed a villain that kind of matched the re-rise of fascism, this thing that we thought we’d nipped in the bud is back! That’s why he wanted to take a character that was kind of a joke from the TNG episodes and say, what if, because they were a joke, people didn’t take them seriously enough, and they got too powerful, and now they are actually dangerous and people are paying with their lives for not taking them seriously?

When the season started especially, some fans took issue with how irreverent the show was about “Star Trek.” Was that surprising to you?

No, not at all. I mean, fans are taking issue with every season of “Star Trek” that has come out since the original series, and they didn’t watch TOS until it was in syndication. If fans hadn’t taken issue with everything, I would have been blown away. And also, I’m a “Star Trek” fan. The thing that was scary to me was that you have stuff that works like “Galaxy Quest” and “The Orville” —  they’re just not “Star Trek,” which is fine. They’re almost “Star Trek.” My challenge — this was my chance to get to make a “Star Trek” that I was proud of. And I really honestly felt like, listen, I’m going to do the best show that I can possibly do on a day-to-day basis, that really fulfills the joy and the sanctity that “Star Trek” has to me. That’s never going to please everybody. They might not be fans of animation. They might not be fans of adult animation. They might not be fans of my type of adult animation. I can’t really control that.

You can’t really be irreverent if you don’t have true reverence for your subject, and “Lower Decks” clearly comes from a place of deep awareness of “Star Trek” — it’s packed with so many “Trek” references.

It almost feels like we were a group of kids that were out at night, and somebody left the door in the candy store open, and we all went running in and filled bags of candy and ran off like thieves in the night. When we knew that we had the “Star Trek” name on the show, that changed the kind of storytelling you can do. In any sci-fi show, sci-fi is happening all the time. I worked on “Rick and Morty” so for so long; you need the show to be populated with sci-fi stuff, and eventually you’re looking at a list of made-up words. “Oh, it’s the Glasnars! What did we say the Glasnars were about?”

For “Lower Decks,”   there’s 700 episodes and 13 or something movies! When we needed these characters to be referring to stuff in their sci-fi world, we just pulled our favorite moments, and because there were so many “Star Trek” geeks working on the show, there was never a moment where somebody was like, “Alright, I better start digging through guidebooks or Memory Alpha.”

Were there any references you were most excited to get onto the show?

For me, my favorite thing is probably the Exocomp [i.e. the sentient robot introduced on “TNG”] in the finale. I love the Exocomps. I think the actual model of the Exocomp, the physical model, is somehow both ludicrous and insanely adorable at the same time. Because you can tell in the original episode they’re being held up with fishing line, I had the artists design the way the Exocomp moves, to sway a little bit when she’s on fishing line. The idea of painting a Starfleet uniform onto a little Exocomp just really tickled me. I know that’s a really nerdy answer and it doesn’t have a lot of weight to it but, that’s the kind of silly like thing that brought me a lot of joy that made it worth having to explain to some producers what an Exocomp was! It’s a deep cut, but it’s not to me.

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Lower Decks (episode)

• View history

Junior officers speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production history
• 3.2 Story and script
• 3.3 Continuity
• 3.4 Cast and characters
• 3.5 Reception
• 3.6 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.5 Stunt double
• 4.6 Stand-ins
• 4.7.1 Other references
• 4.8 External links

Summary [ ]

Playing in Ten Forward

Counselor Troi and Commander Riker are sitting together at a table discussing crew evaluations in Ten Forward , trying to decide who would be the best to fill a supervisory position. Riker laments that this is a recurring theme as they did crew evaluations three months ago. He decides that everyone on the ship will get promoted and calls it a night, addressing Troi as " commander ", which Troi acknowledges, addressing him as " captain " and ordering two coffees .

Across the table, Ensign Sam Lavelle , who is watching them with his friends Ensigns Sito Jaxa , Taurik , and Nurse Alyssa Ogawa , complains that their careers are literally being decided across the room. Ogawa tells him not to worry, and Sito tells him to just enjoy themselves. Lavelle decides to think about promotion out loud, much to the annoyance of Taurik. Ogawa and Sito explain to the Vulcan ensign that it's a time-honored strategy that the Bajorans use. He then finally jokes that by being promoted to Lieutenant , he would have his own crew quarters , whereupon Taurik says that he can request a new room assignment if he is not happy with sharing quarters with him, on the off chance he isn't promoted. This draws laughter from the table.

Lavelle wants that promotion badly

The conversation between Troi and Riker changes to the Ops night duty officer. While Lavelle is an obvious choice, he's considering Sito as well. Ben , a waiter , serves the coffees to Riker and Troi, at the same time teasing Troi about dessert , whereupon Troi assures him that she doesn't want dessert and that he should not tempt her. Ben walks over to the junior officers and after much badgering, he tells them that apparently, Lavelle and Sito are up for the same position.

Act One [ ]

" Lavelle. " " Sir? " " Resume previous course and speed. " " Aye, aye, sir. " " One "aye" is sufficient acknowledgment, ensign. "

The crew performs a battle drill , with Lavelle and Sito on the bridge at conn and tactical , respectively, and with Taurik assisting Lieutenant Commander La Forge in engineering . Lieutenant Worf is supervising the drill. After Lavelle successfully performs a maneuver, something goes wrong at tactical, which catches Worf's attention. While the target was destroyed, Riker expresses disappointment with the Alpha Shift's response time, and wants drill evaluation reports from each department, with La Forge assigning Taurik to that task. Sito explains to the commander that when they changed course, she had to re-lock phasers before firing. Riker offers sage advice by revealing that one should allow the locking relay to float before the actual order to fire is given. It's not a trick that's taught at the Academy , but it works. When he orders Lavelle to resume course and speed, he snaps at him for acknowledging with twice the "aye." Captain Picard enters the bridge from his ready room and orders a change of course to the Argaya system , near Cardassian space at maximum warp , as he's received new orders from Starfleet , and their rendezvous with the USS Clement will not take place as scheduled.

When the senior officers leave the bridge for the observation lounge to discuss the new orders, Sito is asked by Riker to fill in at ops. This indicates to Lavelle that his chances for promotion to the position are slim, but Sito tries to reassure him by suggesting Riker might feel she needs more practice than he. In engineering, Taurik enthusiastically shares some new ideas in warp field configuration with a somewhat annoyed La Forge, who is intrigued but still slightly irritated by the Vulcan's forthright nature. In sickbay , Doctor Crusher tells Nurse Ogawa that she is promoting her to lieutenant. Ogawa shares her fears about her relationship with Lieutenant Andrew Powell , but Crusher thinks she's overreacting.

Lavelle trying to get on Riker's good side

Later in Ten Forward, Sito is surprised and encouraged to find out from Lieutenant Worf that he recommended her for the ops position . She tells him she will try her best not to let him down. Meanwhile, Lavelle laments the fact that, apparently, Riker does not like him. Ben, who is friends with Riker, tells him that Riker likes poker and jazz and that he is Canadian . Lavelle walks up to the bar where Riker is sitting and tries to strike up a conversation with the first officer about this. Unfortunately, Riker is actually from Alaska and an embarrassed Lavelle jokingly states that they both get a lot of snow before making a hasty departure.

Close to the Cardassian border, the USS Enterprise -D is searching for an escape pod . Finally, it is located in Cardassian space, outside of normal transporter range. Picard asks how they are going to get the pod out of there, which Lavelle hears.

Act Two [ ]

With some adjustments from La Forge and Taurik, the pod's occupant is beamed to sickbay. Due to the sensitive nature of this person's identity, Crusher orders Ogawa to leave. Ogawa finds Sito standing outside with orders not to allow anyone other than senior officers to enter. Captain Picard then arrives, and after doing a double-take when he sees who is standing guard, enters.

After seeing the mysterious visitor, Picard has Sito join him in his ready room and tells her that he doesn't believe she is ready for the Ops position, reminding her of her record with the disgraced Nova Squadron while at Starfleet Academy and how she participated in an attempt at a forbidden stunt which resulted in the death of a fellow cadet as well as the cover-up which impeded the ensuing investigation. He asks what that says about the kind of person she is. Sito tells him that she now understands how she was wrong to try and cover up the truth, and since then her record has been spotless. She also details how difficult her time at the Academy had been afterwards, as she didn't have any friends and none of the other cadets were willing to fly with her again, noting that she had to take her flight test with her instructor. Picard isn't the least bit interested that she didn't enjoy the Academy, and sternly tells Sito that she should have been expelled as far as he's concerned and he doesn't know how she ended up on his ship, before curtly dismissing her. Severely chastened, Sito leaves without another word.

Act Three [ ]

In the shuttlebay , Taurik and La Forge are intentionally damaging the Type 6 shuttlecraft Curie 's hull with a phaser rifle . Taurik is puzzled, but La Forge offers no credible explanation as to why they are doing this. Taurik, remarking on his pattern of phaser fire, says that it would be consistent if the shuttle were under attack and had engaged in evasive maneuvers . La Forge tells him it is an "amazing coincidence." Ogawa is asked by Crusher to assist her with emergency surgery on the visitor and is ordered not to reveal the patient's identity to anyone else. Ogawa is shocked to find the patient is in fact a Cardassian , while Crusher tells her they need to synthesize at least a liter of Cardassian blood .

Playing poker

Later, the junior officers are playing poker and speculating on who was in the escape pod. Ogawa is quiet about what she knows. They encourage Sito, after hearing of her encounter with the captain. Ben tells the group that he has heard rumors that the individual in the pod was Ambassador Spock himself, which Taurik finds highly unlikely. Lavelle still laments Riker's seeming dislike for him, but Sito tells him that it doesn't matter if Riker likes him as long as he respects him, which he must do. Lavelle feels better and decides to stop trying so hard and thinks he's just telling himself that Riker hates him so that if Lavelle doesn't get promoted, he'll have an excuse. Taurik is also concerned that his suggestions have put off La Forge. Meanwhile, Ben, who is also at the poker table, cleans out his preoccupied Starfleet friends until one by one they decide to turn in for the night.

The senior officers are also playing poker. Crusher notes that she saw Lieutenant Powell with another woman in Ten Forward. Troi tells her Powell should inform Ogawa, saying that it may hurt her initially but will be better for her in the long run. Also, Worf and Riker debate who to promote to the Ops position, Sito or Lavelle. Riker thinks Sito is too inexperienced, but Worf gives her his full confidence. Riker agrees to keep her in consideration, especially as he thinks Lavelle is too eager to please and always trying to ingratiate himself to him. Troi points out that Riker and Lavelle are very much alike and reminds him how during his time on the USS Potemkin , he took up poker so he could join in the officers' game. Riker decides not to be so hard on the young officer in the future. As the games break up (with Lavelle and Riker caught bluffing ), La Forge invites Taurik to engineering to try out his engine improvements. Moments later, Ben comes by, hoping to press his luck by engaging the remaining senior officers in a few more hands.

Act Four [ ]

After his next Mok'bara class, Worf singles out Sito and tells her she must pass a gik'tal challenge to move into his advanced class. He has her put on a blindfold and spar with him. But after being knocked down several times, she removes the blindfold and refuses to continue with the test. He praises her for standing up to the unfair treatment and hopes she will do so when it happens again. The gik'tal was, of course, invented by Worf, in order to test (and encourage) Sito's ability to stand up for herself when she is being unfairly attacked.

Sito takes Worf's advice and confronts Picard about his comments on her academy days. She asks him to judge her on her performance on the Enterprise , not her past mistakes. Picard is pleased. In actuality, he had only been testing her mettle for a very important and dangerous assignment. He tells her to join the senior officers in the observation lounge tomorrow at 0900 hours to discuss it. As Sito is dismissed, Picard tells her that he does know how she ended up on the Enterprise ; he was the one who requested she be assigned as he wanted her to have a proper chance to redeem herself.

In sickbay, Doctor Crusher tells Ogawa that she has recommended her promotion because of her exemplary performance, and how much she has come to depend upon her. Crusher then asks her about Lieutenant Powell, and Ogawa announces that he asked her to marry him, much to a relieved Crusher.

Sito joins Picard, Riker, and Worf in the observation lounge. With them is Joret Dal , a Cardassian military officer and a Federation operative. He was the occupant of the escape pod. He has risked his life to bring invaluable information about Cardassian strategic intentions that could enhance the security of Bajor, as well as other planets in the sector. Now Starfleet must get him safely back to Cardassian space. His return would be easier if he had a prisoner, allowing him to pose as a bounty hunter . As a Bajoran, Sito is a perfect candidate but Picard, knowing the extreme danger of the assignment, cannot bring himself to order her to do it. Sito volunteers, fully aware of how the Cardassians treat their prisoners . After she leaves, Dal expresses his regret that she is so young. The Enterprise officers share this regret.

The shuttle Curie , that La Forge and Taurik damaged with phasers earlier, will carry the two to Cardassian space, where, after passing through the border patrols, Dal will return Sito to Federation space in an escape pod. Sito says goodbye to Worf as she boards, with fake bruises provided by Crusher to make it appear that Dal had mistreated her. Before she leaves, Sito thanks Worf for having confidence in her and says that she will see him soon.

Act Five [ ]

Sito gets ready for her final mission

During the shuttle trip, Sito asks Dal why he is helping out Starfleet and he tells her that he is sick of the pointless fighting his people engage in, brought about by ambitious guls trying to make a name for themselves in combat. He believes what he does is worth it if it will bring peace to Cardassia, even if it means Starfleet is only able to prevent a minor skirmish. Sito is surprised to hear such a sentiment from a Cardassian, and Dal is equally surprised that a Bajoran would risk her life to help a Cardassian return home. Suddenly, their sensors alert them that Cardassian border patrol ships have spotted them. Dal quickly takes Sito to the back and gets her ready by handcuffing her.

On the Enterprise , Lavelle is worried about his friend Sito's absence. He realizes Taurik and Ogawa know something and is upset when they won't speak of it. When Lavelle protests, telling them all that they are friends, Taurik reminds him that they are also Starfleet officers, and Ogawa says that she isn't allowed to talk about it. Lavelle then drops it and leaves to get ready for duty.

Later, on duty on the bridge, Lavelle has just finished a long-range scan, and does not find any escape pod. Riker tells them to narrow the scan field. Lavelle says that it would help if he knew what kind of life signs to look for. He is told to scan for Bajoran life signs. Lavelle wanted to know if he was looking for his friend. Riker senses his distress. Picard enters the bridge as Riker tells him that the pod is thirty-two hours overdue. Worf recommends launching a probe to increase the range of their sensor sweeps, but Riker says that launching a probe into Cardassian space would be a treaty violation. Picard decides to risk it and once the probe is launched, it detects signs of debris that are consistent with that of a Starfleet escape pod.

In his ready room, Picard makes a ship wide announcement where he confirms Sito has been lost in the line of duty, describing her as an outstanding Starfleet officer who showed great courage, as well as strength of character and noting that he knows that her death will be deeply felt by everyone who knew her (with Picard himself saddened by her loss). Sito's friends are seen reacting to the news with shock and upset.

Afterward, Ogawa and Taurik are sitting with Lavelle in Ten Forward, where Lavelle is regarding the rank pip for the promotion he has just received to lieutenant junior grade . He feels guilty about the promotion, wondering if he received it because Sito was killed. Ogawa and Taurik tell him that the best way to honor her memory is to excel in his new position. Ogawa attaches the pip to Lavelle's collar and tells him they're proud of him.

At the same time, Worf is also in Ten Forward remembering Sito. Ben sees him sitting alone and encourages him to join the other group. Worf appreciates the offer, but he doesn't think it is appropriate as he was her commanding officer while the others were her friends. Ben tells Worf that Sito considered him a friend, and Worf decides to join the junior officers as they remember her together.

Memorable quotes [ ]

" It's a time-honored strategy, Taurik. " " The vedeks of the Janalan order maintain a round-the-clock chant for the benefit of the Bajoran people. " " Considering the history of your planet , that doesn't exactly validate what he's doing. "

" You sure about dessert? " " Yes, don't tempt me. "

" Lavelle. " " Sir? " " Resume previous course and speed. " " Aye-aye, sir. " " One "aye" is sufficient acknowledgment, Ensign. "

" How would you like to be a spider under that table? " " What? " " A spider under the table. " " Is that like a fly on the wall? " " I guess so. "

" What could they be talking about? " " Have you ever considered learning to lipread? "

" Defend yourself! "

" I'm Bajoran. No one knows better than I do what Cardassians do to their prisoners. "

" Why? Did you crash the ship into something? "

" He likes poker, jazz… he's Canadian. " " Yeah? My grandfather was from Canada. "

" Sir… I'm a little puzzled. Why are we intentionally damaging the shuttlecraft? "

" My grandfather was Canadian, you know. " " Really? " " Aren't you one, too? " " A grandfather? " " No. Canadian, sir. Canadian. " " No, I grew up in Alaska. " " Oh. Well… they both… get a lot of snow. " " Yeah. " " It was good talking to you, sir. " " Yeah. "

" I only filled in at ops for a half hour, but I had to degauss the main deflector dish, recalibrate the navigation grid and use internal sensors to find a lost puppy . "

" Do you think Worf is chewing her out? " " No, he always looks like that. "

" Sir, is there really such a thing as a gik'tal challenge? " " No, there is not. But perhaps next time you are judged unfairly, it will not take so many bruises for you to protest. "

" It's not your place to punish me for what I did at the Academy. I've worked hard here. My record is exemplary. If you're going to judge me, judge me for what I am now . "

" Can I ask you something? Why are you doing this, risking your life to help Starfleet? " " I don't consider myself a traitor, if that's what you're asking. All my life I've served in the military. Once, it was an institution dedicated to the security of Cardassia. Now, it's little more than a platform for ambitious guls hoping to make their reputations in battle. If the information I provided helps Starfleet deter even one pointless skirmish, I've served my purpose. I'm sick of war. My people need peace. " " I never thought I'd hear a Cardassian say something like that. " " And I never thought a Bajoran would risk her life to help a Cardassian get home. "

" To all Starfleet personnel: this is the captain. It is my sad duty to inform you that a member of the crew, Ensign Sito Jaxa has been lost in the line of duty. She was the finest example of a Starfleet officer and a young woman of remarkable courage and strength of character. Her loss will be deeply felt by all who knew her. Picard out. "

" Excuse me, sir, but I need to move this table. " " What? " " There's an empty seat over there. " " I appreciate what you are trying to do, but it is not appropriate. You were her friends. I was only her commanding officer. " " Sir, I happen to know that she considered you a friend. "

Background information [ ]

Production history [ ].

• Final draft script: 17 November 1993 [1]
• Premiere airdate: 7 February 1994
• First UK airdate: 17 April 1996

Story and script [ ]

Filming the episode

• The story was partially inspired by the classic television series, Upstairs, Downstairs . Freelancers Ron Wilkerson and Jean Louise Matthias took the unusual step of presenting the premise in the form of detailed character notes. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 282))
• Jeri Taylor commented, " The episode was a wonderful premise from Ron Wilkerson and Jean Matthias, who have given us other wonderful premises and a beautiful script with " Lessons ". Unfortunately, we were in a time bind. I had to have a staff member do it, so René took it over and wrote a wildly off-concept show, but that's what made it work. It was: How does the Enterprise look to those little junior officers who don't get to go into the observation lounge and who don't know what's going on? It was just a really fresh, original idea. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 298)
• Ron Wilkerson remarked, " Again, like our " Lessons ", what was important was not the mission but the relationships of the people. What it is like to work for Riker, to work for Worf, to wonder what goes on in secret briefings in the observation lounge? " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 282))
• Ronald D. Moore noted that there was some initial discussion on how far to take the premise. " There was a debate early on about how much it was going to be their show and how much it was going to be our show. Ultimately, Michael said this is their show, which I thought was a good decision – especially since he usually says it has to be about our characters – which is what made the show so good. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 298)
• According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 282), Barclay was briefly considered as one of the characters featured but was dropped for being "too well-known". Echevarria then added the civilian waiter Ben so as to have a character " who hitches aboard the ship for fun, who's unconcerned about rank, and who passes along stupid rumors! "
• Sam Lavelle was named after Wilkerson's Canadian Labrador Samwell and a close friend of Echevarria. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 283))
• Taurik was originally named "Sorik" but was changed to reflect the new practice of giving Vulcan males names starting with "T", as with Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 282))
• Nils Diaz was named for the American nuclear engineer of the same name, who is Echevarria's godfather and a propulsion-system researcher. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., pp. 282-283))
• In early drafts of the script, Sito Jaxa 's death was somewhat more ambiguous. Taylor explained, " When I mentioned that to Michael, he said, 'Absolutely not, she's dead. She stays dead. That would undermine the whole episode.' So I said 'Fine.' The morning after Michael saw the episode, he came in and said, 'We can't let her stay dead. We've got to bring her back. She was wonderful.' He was really bowled over by the episode. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 298)
• An early draft of the script also had Dr. Crusher speak with Nurse Ogawa over an experiment Ogawa had made mistakes on. Given the character's reputation for efficiency and effectiveness, this was changed to a "big sister"-like talk about her relationship with Andrew Powell . ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 17 , p. 56)
• A script written for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would have centered around the discovery that Sito Jaxa had not died after the events of the episode but had ended up as an inmate in a Cardassian prison. The story itself was never produced but did come to form the basic premise for the episode " Hard Time ". ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. 326))
• Piller commented, " We were very impressed and very happy with the reaction we had to Ensign Sito who was lost along the Cardassian border and presumed dead. We have a plan to find her in captivity and to deal with what happens when somebody comes back from a long time in captivity, and the psychological impact of that sort of experience ". ( The Deep Space Log Book: A Second Season Companion , p. 51)
• Echevarria added, " There was a lot of talk about bringing her back but we never got around to it. This was always meant to be a story of loss, a coming-of-age story for those young people, and the death landed it for them. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 337)

Continuity [ ]

• When Riker comments that he should just promote every crewman on the ship, Riker and Troi jokingly refer to each other as "commander" and "captain" respectively. Troi is promoted to commander in the very next episode, " Thine Own Self ".

Cast and characters [ ]

The prominent guest cast

• Shannon Fill reprised her role as Sito Jaxa from the fifth season episode " The First Duty ". Events from that episode are referenced here by her and Picard when Picard gauges her suitability for the mission.
• René Echevarria recalled that casting a Vulcan was difficult. " There were big shoes to fill. We didn't use many Vulcans on TNG because Leonard Nimoy 's Vulcan was so specific and indelible. It's hard to play a Vulcan without looking like you're doing an imitation. But Alex really pulled it off. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 337)
• Had the series continued, the production staff would have considered making Taurik a recurring character. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (2nd ed., p. 282))
• Alexander Enberg later played another Vulcan named Vorik on Star Trek: Voyager . Producer Jeri Taylor , who is also Enberg's mother, suggested that Taurik and Vorik were twin brothers. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 337)

Reception [ ]

• Jeri Taylor described the episode as " one of the best episodes of the season. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 298)
• After the show aired, rumors emerged that the characters of the episode were being introduced to become characters on Star Trek: Voyager . Taylor remarked, " It was just a rampant rumor that would not die. I am just mystified was to why people thought that three middle-aged people – Rick, Michael and myself – would ever create a series that had nothing but a bunch of young 90210 people on it. It was just absolutely out of the question. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 298)
• Ronald D. Moore remarked, " I thought it was a great episode. " ( AOL chat , 1997 )
• This episode is the inspiration for Star Trek: Lower Decks . Series creator Mike McMahan describes it as his favorite episode of Star Trek and screened the episode for the writers' room of that series. [2]

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 84, 25 July 1994
• As part of the TNG Season 7 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William T. Riker

Also starring [ ]

• LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
• Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
• Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data

Guest stars [ ]

• Dan Gauthier as Sam Lavelle
• Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa
• Alexander Enberg as Taurik
• Bruce Beatty as Ben
• Patti Yasutake as Alyssa Ogawa
• Don Reilly as Joret Dal

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• David Keith Anderson as Armstrong
• Lena Banks as operations division ensign
• Michael Braveheart as Martinez
• Debbie David as Russell
• Cameron as Kellogg
• Tracee Lee Cocco as Jae
• John Copage as science division officer
• Elliot Durant III as operations division ensign
• Gunnel Eriksson as science division officer
• Holiday Freeman as command division officer
• Keith Gearhart as operations division ensign
• Linda Harcharic as command division ensign
• Gary Hunter as science division officer
• Rad Milo as operations division ensign
• Michael Moorehead as science division ensign
• Ted Parker as Ten Forward waiter
• Joycelyn Robinson as Gates
• John Tampoya as operations division ensign
• Oliver Theess as command division officer
• Margie Thomas as command officer
• Female command division ensign
• Operations division officer
• Ten Forward waiter (voice)
• Transporter officer (voice)

Stunt double [ ]

• Unknown stunt performer as stunt double for Shannon Fill

Stand-ins [ ]

• David Keith Anderson – stand-in for LeVar Burton
• Debbie David – stand-in for Brent Spiner
• Michael Echols – stand-in for Michael Dorn
• Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Lorine Mendell – stand-in for Gates McFadden
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Dennis Tracy – stand-in for Patrick Stewart

References [ ]

2368 ; Alaska ; alpha shift ; ambassador ; " ante up "; Argaya system ; Bajor ; Bajor sector ; Bajoran ; beta shift ; bioreading blackjack ; blindfold ; boatswain's whistle ; bounty hunter ; cadet ; captor ; Canada ; Cardassia ; Cardassian ; Cardassian border ; Cardassian escape pod ; Cardassian military ; Cardassian patrol ship ; Cardassian space ( Cardassian territory ); career ; Carstairs ; chant ; civilian ; Clement , USS ; computer simulation ; confinement beam ; crew evaluation ; crew evaluation report ; coffee ; cover-up ; Curie ; debris ; deflector dish ; department ; Diaz, Nils ; drill evaluation report ; duty officer ; escape pod ; evacuation pod ; evasive maneuvers ; expulsion ; Federation ; Federation space ; finger crossing ; Fletcher ; flight instructor ; flight test ; flush ; fly ; frequency spread ; gamma shift ; gik'tal ; gul ; helm ; hull resiliency ; ingratiate ; inorganic matter ; internal sensors ; Janalan order ; jazz ; junior officer ; Klingon ; Klingonese ; Lavelle's grandfather ; lifeform ; lifeform identification ; life support system ; line of duty ; lip reading ; long range scan ; low-intensity burst ; lost puppy ; marriage ; meter ; mok'bara ; nacelle ; name ; navigation grid ; night shift ; nightmare ; observation lounge ; operative ; ops position ; phaser ; phaser rifle ; plasma ; poker ; poker player ; Potemkin , USS ; Potemkin senior staff ; Powell, Andrew ; Powell's "friend" ; probe ; propulsion systems ; puppy ; queen ; Reilly ; research proposal ; room assignment ; scan field ; second-in-command ; security officer ; senior officer ; sensor sweep ; shackles ; shuttlecraft ; simulation ; simulation sequence ; Sito's Academy instructor ; snow ; soccer ball ; space ; spider ; Spock ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Academy ; subdural hematoma ; Tanaline Propulsion Laboratory ; Ten Forward ; Terrace ; three-dimensional chess ; traitor ; Trakian ale ; turbolift ; vedek ; Vulcan ; warp field ; warp field integrity

Other references [ ]

Spacecraft Systems Status : Bussard collector ; captain's yacht ; class M ; gross vehicle mass ; impulse engine ; main shuttlebay Mars ; navigational deflector ; observation lounge ; phaser bank ; service docking port ; shuttlebay 2 ; shuttlebay 3 ; torpedo launcher ; umbilical connect port ; Utopia Planitia ; warp nacelle

External links [ ]

• " Lower Decks " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Lower Decks " at Wikipedia
• "Lower Decks" at StarTrek.com
• " "Lower Decks" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• "Lower Decks" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

• The Inventory

Star Trek: Lower Decks ' Mike McMahan on Making Sure Cameos Matter

Lower Decks is a show that rejoices in the nerdy little details of Star Trek . From Pakleds to Exocomps, from Kirk punches to movie riffs , its first season delivered a show that earnestly loved Trek ’s ideals and the callbacks that mad e it such a rich franchise in the first place. But when the show wanted to pull out the big guns, it knew it had to make those appearances matter for the animated series.

Over the course of the show’s first season—set in 2380, just a year after Star Trek: Nemesis —there were several levels of cameos from the TNG era that all displayed   Lower Decks ’ love of a good Trekkie gag and how much the series knew when to let its new characters take center stage. Early on we go t a delightfully silly visual gag with TNG and DS9 icon Miles O’ Brien , and then John de Lancie reprised his role as the omniscient asshole Q for a brief moment in the back half of the season.

But perhaps the biggest of all came in season one’s finale , when, after the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos came together to save their ship from the scavenging hands of the not-so-unthreatening Pakleds, Captain Will Riker and Deanna Troi with the crew of the Titan —a ship never before seen in a Trek TV show until now—warped in to help scare the Pakleds away. All these cameos are, much like Lower Decks , on the surface about having a bit of fun with the Star Trek universe. But for showrunner Mike McMahan, part of his challenge in bringing the show to life with the crew behind it was making them all feel earned and not like they were undermining the new characters on the show.

“It was three things concurrently working together,” McMahan told io9 over the phone, speaking about Chief O’Brien’s brief cameo at the end of “ Temporal Edict ,” the third episode of the season. “The first one being, you know, Miles O’ Brien is the epitome of a lower decker—going from the bottom and going all the way to kind of the top. We saw him as a background character on TNG , and then he eventually gets more storylines as they’re building him out, and Colm Meaney is such a great actor that he becomes this part of TNG . And then obviously moving on to Deep Space Nine is when he really blossoms, the stories with him were so fascinating, and he has his friendship with Bashir. Of course our show would make a gold statue of that character because he’s doing what our show thematically is doing.”

But O’Brien, in his relationship with Deep Space Nine ’s stiff upper-lipped d octor, also represented the kind of Starfleet camaraderie McMahan wanted Lower Decks to celebrate as well. “I love friendships in Star Trek ,” McMahan continued. “Kirk and Spock, Data and Geordi, and honestly, O’Brien and Bashir is awesome. Those guys are playing racquetball all the time , I love those guys.”

O’Brien was also the kind of hero Lower Decks wanted Boimler, Mariner, Rutherford, and Tendi to be : important characters who keep Star Trek ’s universe going but would never get their own splashy CBS All Access show (until they did, that is). “We were writing that episode while we knew there was a whole show called Star Trek: Picard out there,” McMahan laughed. And it didn’t ever feel like there would be a show called, you know, Star Trek: Any Other Character. Like, Picard is such a huge character, he would get his own show.”

The expectation Picard brought helped seal the deal on the O’Brien gag for McMahan. “[We] jump ahead to the future, there’s all these futuristic, you know, like this beautiful group of different kinds of species from TNG . They’re all sitting there learning and like a beautiful outside environment. And they’re about to learn about the most important person in Starfleet,” the showrunner added. “The audience’s brains should have been like, ‘Oh, I’m about to see a statue of Kirk, of Picard, or one of these usually celebrated people.’ And it just really tickled us to be like, ‘No, let’s subvert that, it will be comedic that it won’t be one of those other guys, and instead it’s this guy that we like.’”

McMahan had another reason to give Miles a call out that reaches back into his own Trek fandom before he was helping to build a show in the franchise—pulling on fan works he was both involved in and admired that set the stage for Lower Decks ’ loving satire of Star Trek . “Back when I was writing the TNG season eight comedy Twitter feed , and I was also a little bit after that reading the Chief O’ Brien At Work comic by Jon Adams. It’s so funny, and I’ve become friends with him and had dinner with a couple times because of our love of Star Trek . I just wanted to put a little shoutout to Chief O’Brien At Work , that’s why specifically it’s O’Brien at his console in the transporter room instead of O’Brien on Deep Space Nine fighting Cardassians.”

If Miles represented Lower Decks ’ unsung heroes and the bonds they forge, then its biggest cameos had to stand shoulder to shoulder with those heroes after their own arcs had climaxed in the season finale. After Boimler, Mariner, and the rest of the Cerritos crew came together to make sure the Pakleds couldn’t tear the ship apart for, well, parts , they find themselves facing even more Pakled ships...until the timely arrival of the U.S.S. Titan and its crew, captained by none other than William Riker. It’s the second time this year Jonathan Frakes has shown up to save a Star Trek show’s season finale.

“I knew that Riker and Troi were going to show up in Picard ,” McMahan said of the surprising similarity between it and Lower Decks ’ tactical Imzadi deployment . “I did not know that at the very end of Picard , Riker swoops in to save the day with a fleet. I do have to admit, when I did find that out, we were so deep into production, because animation has such a different cycle than live-action, that it was far too late to do anything to make to soften the kind of similarities. To be totally honest, while it feels for a fan like it has an echoing similarity to it, it’s a different era, a different ship.”

What makes Riker’s second instance of showing up as the Starfleet cavalry different for McMahan is that the moment is not just about Riker. “It’s also the Titan . It’s this idea that, like, this other non- Enterprise ship, of a person who’s moved up in rank like that, the Titan itself is such a big character in that moment,” McMahan explained. “And then, of course, the style of the uniform and Troi being there, and that moment of everybody being rewound back in time to 2380, it does feel significantly different [to Picard ].”

“The Riker you meet in Picard has been through so much more in life than our Riker,” McMahan continued. “Our Riker is kind of like, a dad, who loves being a dad of a ship. He’s making dad jokes, he loves jazz, he loves saying ‘Give me warp in the factor five, six, seven, eight !’ I think he goes to warp eight all the time, just so he can say that.”

The triumphant arrival of Riker, Troi, and the Titan is Lower Decks celebrating the larger part of itself in the most nostalgic way—old friends, phasers firing away as a beloved fan-favorite ship, never officially seen on TV before, saves the day and the TNG theme blares in the background. And because of that, McMahan wanted to ensure that Lower Decks wasn’t flippant about leveraging these characters. “That’s a huge episode with a huge moment in it, right? We just wanted it to be both...we wanted to geek out hard, because we got to do it , but we also wanted to be really careful with it,” McMahan said.

“Part of the carefulness is with working with John Van Citters [Vice President for Star Trek Brand Management] and CBS to make sure we have all of their internal designs for the Titan , which had never appeared on screen before but had been on the cover of books, and had been in games. We just wanted to make sure we got it right because there are fans out there for who the Titan is a favorite ship. We weren’t gonna step on that. And then working with our CG team so that when it comes in, it really feels like the Titan , because we were the first people who were going to define what the Titan looks like and how it moves on screen.”

That level of detail applied to how Lower Decks visualized Riker and Troi, too. “On top of that, making sure that the designs for [Jonathan] Frakes and Marina [Sirtis] fit into the show and fit in the era for them. But another element for it was my kind of fandom for those two, being the kind of things that I am in love with them for—that those were expressed in it,” McMahan added. “Not just things like the Riker design being tall, but making sure things like, Marina’s pupils were bigger on the Troi design, in the actual drawings. I just wanted to make you feel like you could go ‘Oh, I wish   I could see a whole show about what those guys are up to on the Titan ,’ like, what’s their show like? Making it feel like this was one day in a bigger story about those guys.”

It was a big moment for McMahan as both showrunner and Trek fan because he got to collaborate in nailing those performances with Frakes and Sirtis themselves. “Frakes is so funny,” McMahan gushed in awe. “W e had a blast recording him. In fact, we expanded the role in the booth with him, because he was making us laugh so hard. We kept adding lines—because of course the whole writing staff was there because they’re not gonna miss a Frakes recording. And just the dynamic between him and Troi, you feel like that’s gonna be there, but getting to actually see them express it...I was completely geeking out.”

McMahan added, “It’s a little embarrassing to say, but I did have Frakes sign my horga’hn [the Risan fertility statue   Riker gifts to Picard in “Captain’s Holiday”]. It was an absolute joy to work with them.”

It was a delightful moment for the show and the people behind it, but for McMahan, that moment could only work with everything Lower Decks season finale had already built up with its own characters. Riker and Troi don’t save the day, truly: the crew of the Cerritos does, and the Titan ’s there to help finish it off. “In the actual script, it was a really delicate moment, because we wanted Riker to show up with Troi and the Titan to quote-unquote ‘save the day,’ but we didn’t want to undo the victory the Cerritos just had by working together,” McMahan said of crafting the finale’s climax. “The whole episode is about truths coming out, villains coming in, things going crazy, but at the end of the day, the Cerritos fucking brings it, right?”

“The crew can come together and they managed to save the day. The episode could end there. Like, everybody’s cheering—they’ve lost Shaxs [Fred Tatasciore’s Bajoran security chief, who dies saving Rutherford in the finale], but Shaxs sacrificed himself to save the whole crew. They’ve won . The episode could’ve ended there, if you watch it again, that moment—we could’ve just faded out to the spacedock. It needed to feel like a finale. We needed to have those guys show up.”

For Lower Decks then, the nostalgic arrival of familiar faces was more of a reward than it was the answer to its character’s problems. “Instead of them being deus ex machina , I guess we kind of villain ex machina ’d more Pakleds showing up,” McMahan joked. “Let’s have that finale moment, that pit in your stomach—‘Oh no!’—where they’ve overcome insurmountable odds against this one giant ship. We’ve already seen it destroy a ship in the opening of the episode and then, when they’ve won, when they’ve finally done it, three more Pakled ships show up! [They] don’t have another Shaxs, [t hey] don’t have Rutherford on the ship anymore [to upload his virus]. There’s no way we can end on these ships, and they’re gonna tear the Cerritos apart.”

“That’s almost beginning a new story, a darker story. The Cerritos was scrappy this episode, even though they’re not the best or biggest ship in the fleet, they managed to pull it out. Then they’re gonna get destroyed! That’s when Riker and Troi show up, in that new beat at the end. It was important to me that it was a celebration of Starfleet in general, that this was the ‘forgotten ship’ and that they’re all working together one more time.”

“Even more important to me than the Titan showing up was that bar scene [at the end]. Again, I love Star Trek friends, and getting to see Riker call the c aptain his cha’DIch [the Klingon term for someone who would fight on your behalf in an honor duel challenging the High Council], and being with Mariner...that friendship is almost more important to me [than the nostalgia],” McMahan concluded. “The finale is a joy. I think it’s the episode that took me the least amount of time to write, I felt like I was watching it when I was writing it—and just an absolute love letter to everything, but especially....I just, I love Riker and I love Troi . And it was important to me that we use them carefully, but also just in a great way.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks is now streaming on CBS All Access. Stay tuned to io9 for more from McMahan breaking down the first season soon!

For more, make sure you’re following us on our Instagram @ io9dotcom .

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Lower Decks Shows A New Side Of One Of Star Trek's Most Over-The-Top Alien Races

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 4, episode 5, "Empathalogical Fallacies."

On the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," titled "Empathalogical Fallacies," the U.S.S. Cerritos serves as host to a trio of visiting diplomats from the planet Betazed. The Betazoids are on their way to Risa, the most famous vacation destination in the "Star Trek" universe, and are determined to keep the mood light and the party hearty. They traverse the Cerritos with yard-long margaritas and flirt with just about every member of the crew, including the captain. Although Betazoids are psychics, they do not live a life of quiet, Appollonian intellectualism. Indeed, we see that middle-aged Betazoid women are Dionysian creatures dedicated to sensual pleasures.

These characters are modeled after one of the "Star Trek" franchise's most famous supporting characters, Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett), the mother of Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Lwaxana, too, was a Betazoid diplomat who lived for sex and romance. She also wouldn't be content until both she and her daughter could find respective mates. Lwaxana is deeply beloved by Trekkies as she offers a flirty counterpoint to the stuffy formality of most Starfleet officers. On the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, a notoriously well-behaved ship, Lwaxana was a chaos agent. On the U.S.S. Cerritos, a notoriously ill-behaved ship, a trio of Lwaxanas will only invite "Animal House"-style shenanigans. Naturally, said shenanigans ensue.

But, as it so happens, the Betazoid diplomats are up to more than mere diplomacy. Over the course of the episode, they will reveal that they are on a secret mission and will whip off their dresses, extract retractable beatin' batons, and prove to Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) that they are capable of more than partying. Betazoids are not merely horny alcoholics. They are also badasses.

It's a secret mission in uncharted space

Over the course of this season of "Lower Decks," a mysterious UFO has been systematically attacking and destroying random ships throughout the Alpha Quadrant. An Orion ship, a Klingon ship, and a Romulan ship have already been decimated and the attacking UFO has not been identified. It seems that the Betazoid diplomats have been investigating that mysterious ship, hoping to ascertain whatever psychic energies it might have.

Sadly, no one on board the Cerritos — including the Betazoids — is thinking clearly due to a mysterious psychic phenomenon that enhances everyone's emotions to the point of irrationality. The Betaoids are scanned for Zanthi fever, the emotional affliction suffered by Lwaxana Troi on the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Fascination" (November 28, 1994).

When Captain Freeman confronts the Betazoids about any possible effect their presence may be having on the emotions of her crew, that's when the batons come out. Despite fighting highly-trained Starfleet officers, the Betazoid women make quick work of them. They even manage to use their psychic abilities to their advantage, sensing that two crewmates are very attracted to one another, and using their moment of subsequent flirtation to knock them unconscious. One might think that psychic party-lovers wouldn't necessarily be able to commit such violence. It seems that Betazoids are just as steely and action-oriented as any other species on "Star Trek." We just had never seen it until this episode.

Betazoid culture

Deanna Troi was the first Betazoid character on "Star Trek." Because she had a human father, however, she wasn't a full-bore psychic, only able to sense the emotions of others without reading their thoughts outright. Her full-blood Betazoid mother, meanwhile, often communicated psychically with her daughter. One might note that Betazoids all have black eyes, an effect achieved on "Lower Decks" — a show where all the characters have cartoonish, ink-dot eyes — by making their pupils slightly larger.

There weren't too many episodes wherein a Federation starship visited Betazed, as such a quiet, peaceful planet — a planet where no one had to speak — wouldn't necessarily have made for good television. Also notable: Many Betazoid celebrations, including weddings, are nudist affairs, wherein all the guests strip down to their birthday suits. On a world of psychics, modesty wouldn't exist. This freewheeling sexuality would likely have excited the notoriously horny Gene Roddenberry, creator of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Unfortunately, it would have also been too naughty for network TV.

Readers of "Star Trek" novels, meanwhile, will have already visited a Betazoid wedding in Peter David's 1992 book "Imzadi."  In that book, about the first time Will Riker and Deanna Troi met, we also learn that Betazoid men don't have body hair. Note that "Star Trek" novels, however, are not canonical. The impression one might get of Betazoids from the "Next Generation" days is that they're gentle, benevolent hedonists. Thanks to "Lower Decks," they can also kick some butt.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" is streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Lower Decks adds a major TNG star for Season 2

The high-profile cameos from the Season 1 finale will continue.

Throughout Season 1 of Star Trek: Lower Decks , fans of The Next Generation- era of '90s Trek were wondering if anyone from the Enterprise would actually make an appearance. Sure, we got Q , but what about any of Picard's old gang?

Well, RED ALERT, there's a spoiler incoming for the Season 1 finale. But the news is slightly bigger than the big reveal at the end of the episode. This very special guest appearance is going to last well into season 2. Ahead of the Lower Decks finale — "No Small Parts" — I jumped on the phone with showrunner Mike McMahan, and he confirmed outright that this is only just the beginning.

Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1's finale, "No Small Parts."

Just as the USS Cerritos is about to be destroyed by the Pakleds, another starship warps in – it's the USS Titan , with Captain William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Although this ship has been mentioned a lot in Lower Decks , we've never actually seen it, until now. In Star Trek Nemesis , Riker and Troi transferred to the Titan after Data died. That was the year 2379. Lower Decks takes place in the year 2380, so right now, Riker is only a year into being a full-blown Captain. And to be clear, this is 19 years before Riker and Troi are living in retirement on the planet Nepenthe as depicted in Star Trek: Picard .

Riker and Troi coming to the rescue is a thrilling moment for TNG fans. Yet the ending of the episode proves it's more than just an Easter egg. By the end, Boimler (Jack Quaid) gets promoted and transfers-off the Cerritos and to the Titan , leaving his best friends behind. So, this will all get explained away off-screen for Season 2, right? Boimler's not going to stay on the Titan , and the show isn't going to now feature Riker and Troi in regular roles, right? That would be too much? Trekkies of TNG aren't actually getting a bunch more Riker and Troi in Lower Decks Season 2, are they?

Yes, Trekkies. You are getting more of Riker and the Titan .

"You will be seeing Riker and the Titan , because Boimler is on the Titan ." Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan tells Inverse . "That's where he serves now. I mean, it's Boimler's dream to serve there, and we play that out. We see how that works out for him."

Riker and Troi onboard the Titan in the 'Lower Decks' Season 1 finale.

McMahan also pointed out that the goal of the Lower Decks season finale: We wanted it to feel like a Star Trek finale. But also ending some stories we told this season, and leading into stories we’ll tell next season."

Now that Boimler has transferred away from his BFF Mariner, and lives and works on the Titan , it sounds like Lower Decks Season 2 will have a lot going on. Will Boimler actually stay on the Titan ? Will everybody on that ship switch to the colorful Lower Decker uniforms? We'll have to wait and see.

During the NYCC 2020 Lower Decks panel, Mike McMahan confirmed Riker will appear in at least the first episode of Lower Decks Season 2.

Lower Decks Season 1 is streaming now on CBS All Access.

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Here's how the Star Trek: Lower Decks finale fits with the TNG timeline

Credit: CBS All Access

If you're a casual fan of  Star Trek , you might not have been thinking too hard about where and when all the zany adventures of  Lower Decks   were supposed to be happening. There have been a lot of jokes about the  Enterprise  and Picard and Riker, but not enough to make you worry about exactly how this all fits into the timeline. But, in the Season 1 finale of  Lower Decks  — "No Small Parts" — something happens that will shake any filthy casual fan out of their casual canon stupor and make them ask one simple question: What is going on again with the crew from  T he Next Generation   at this point? How can certain people be where they are — and  wearing  what they are wearing — during the time period of  Lower Decks ?

Well, have no fear, here's your biggest question from the  Star Trek: Lower Decks  finale answered.

**Spoilers ahead for  Star Trek: Lower Decks , Season 1, Episode 10, "No Small Parts."**

As the crew of the  USS Cerritos  seems to be running out of options, with enemy ships closing in, two very famous Trek characters run to the rescue in a starship you may or may not have heard of. That's right, it's Captain William T. Riker and Commander Deanna Troi aboard the  USS Titan ! And, yes, they're wearing the gray-shouldered uniforms you might remember from the  TNG  films  First Contact , Insurrection ,   and  Nemesis . How does this fit in with those movies and  Star Trek: Picard ? Easy. Let's break it down.

Riker and Troi in their final moments as Enterprise crewmembers. (Credit: Paramount)

Lower Decks happens in 2280, one year after Nemesis , and five years before the earliest flashback in  Star Trek: Picard.

At the beginning of  Star Trek: Nemesis,   it's the year 2379, and Riker and Trio are in the process of getting transferred off the Enterprise  and to the  USS Titan. Riker isn't actually promoted to Captain onscreen in  Nemesis  but by the end of the movie, that's where he and Troi end up.  Nemesis  also began with Will and Deanna's wedding, so, when we see them in this episode of  Lower Decks,  they are totally married and working together on the bridge of a starship. 

Riker and Troi's wedding in 2370. (Credit: Paramount.)

But wait, don't they have a son?

In  Star Trek: Picard , we learned that before they had their daughter Kestra, Riker and Troi had a son named Thad, who died when he was very young from a rare condition. The bulk of  Picard  happens in 2399, roughly 19 years after this moment in  Lower Decks  in 2380.

So, how old was Thaddeus Troi-Riker before he passed away? We don't know exactly, but it seems like he was probably at least 10 years old or so. Michael Chabon and the other  Picard  creative staff have established that Thaddeus Troi-Riker was born in 2381, so a year after  Lower Decks . This means, that maybe, just maybe, Deanna Troi is about to be pregnant. In fact, because Will and Deanna make jokes about going to "Little Risa" on the planet Tulgana IV, you could infer that Thad is about to be conceived. Either that or Troi is already pregnant in this  Lower Decks  episode, and just isn't showing. 

Mariner rocking the "First Contact" uniform in 'Lower Decks.' (Credit: CBS)

What about the different uniforms?

There's no time travel going on here, the grey-shouldered uniforms are contemporary to 2380, as are the  Lower Decks  uniforms we've seen all through this season. Basically, there are at least two different uniform styles in service in Starfleet at the same time.

There are actually several precedents for this. In  Star Trek: The Next Generation , we saw two kinds of  TNG -era uniforms in service at the same time: the kind with the colors down lower and the colored piping on the shoulders, and the kind with the colors up higher and no piping. Basically, after Season 3 of  TNG , the senior staff started wearing the newer, high-colored uniforms, while some of the support crew (Lower Deckers!) wore the older style. In the  Deep Space Nine  era this happened, too. Crew members aboard the space station itself wore the mostly-black-with-color-on-top jumpsuit, while Starfleet people visiting the station wore the  TNG- style uniform. In the film  Star Trek: Generations , crew members on the  Enterprise  wore both kinds of uniforms side-by-side, often in the same scene.

Finally, in  Star Trek: Discovery  Season 2, Captain Pike mentioned that the crew of the  Enterprise  NCC-1701 got the "new uniforms," implying that the crew of the  Discovery  was wearing an older style. 

Boimler and Mariner, right before Boimler finds out he can transfer to work with Riker. (Credit: CBS)

What does all of this mean for Season 2 of  Lower Decks ?

Well, in theory, because Boimler is now serving on the  USS Titan,  we might be seeing a lot more of Riker and Troi in Season 2 of  Lower Decks . And if we do, it seems likely that something about Troi expecting a baby will at least be mentioned in passing. Furthermore, because the  Picard  flashbacks gave us yet  another  different style of Starfleet uniform for this era, it seems possible that the crews of both the Titan  and the  Cerritos  will all change their clothes, again. It hasn't happened yet, but perhaps,  Lower Decks  Season 2 will give us an entire episode that just explains, once and for all, why Starfleet changes its mind so often about what everyone is supposed to wear.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 is now streaming in its entirety on CBS All Access.

• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Reveals What Kind of Captain Riker Really Is

Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 2 premiere offers another look at Boimler serving under Riker on the Titan, but it may be too much for him.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 1 "Strange Energies," streaming now on Paramount+ .

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 ended with the timely appearance of the USS Titan, commanded by Star Trek: The Next Generation alum Captain William Riker with his wife and the ship's counselor Deanna Troi by his side on the bridge. After successfully saving the USS Cerritos from the attacking Pakleds, Ensign Brad Boimler finally gets the Starfleet job he always wanted, becoming bridge officer on the Titan after suitably impressing Riker enough for the transfer. And with the Lower Decks Season 2 premiere offering another glimpse at the Titan and Boimler under Riker's command, both Riker's approach to the captaincy and the types of adventures the Titan gets into are revealed.

Across all seven seasons and four films featuring The Next Generation cast, Riker was the first person to step up and sit in the USS Enterprise's captain's chair whenever Captain Jean-Luc Picard was otherwise indisposed. His commitment to the job as the Enterprise's first officer led Riker to turn down captaincies on smaller vessels within Starfleet.

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However, Riker repeatedly proved himself more than capable of the job, including a memorable encounter against the Borg Collective while Picard was temporarily converted into a drone. The 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis concluded with Riker and Troi leaving the Enterprise for good, with Riker accepting a promotion to captain the Titan, a position he continued to hold by the start of Lower Decks .

Lower Decks reveals the Titan is well-accustomed to engaging in combat-heavy missions, with cinematography normally reserved for Star Trek films. Riker revels in saving the day, expertly driving back the Pakleds while Troi and the rest of his bridge crew are amusedly annoyed by their captain's penchant for making jazz references in another nod to Riker's time in The Next Generation . And though Boimler always longed to serve on high-stakes missions on a ship like the Titan, he quickly learns it's not all it's cracked up to be.

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Still battling the Pakleds across Federation space, Boimler finds the whole situation incredibly stressful, with the stakes constantly elevated to life-and-death in sharp contrast to the maintenance and clerical missions undertaken by the Cerritos. What's more, Boimler is similarly concerned by Riker's cavalier attitude and jazz metaphors. If the Cerritos showed the thankless side of working in Starfleet, it's the Titan that showed the action-packed sensibilities that the recent films and Star Trek: Discovery have leaned more into.

Often presented as a more action-ready contrast to the more contemplative Picard, Riker's command on the Titan allows his natural strengths to shine. He is thrilled by the epic space battles and pursuits throughout the cosmos in defense of the Federation. And while this type of captaincy is right in Riker's wheelhouse, Boimler finds himself perhaps longing for the more low stakes level of engagement on the Cerritos in the company of his best friends  -- he just has to survive long enough to put in a transfer back to the Cerritos as the Pakleds continue to press their attack on the Titan across the stars.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 streams on Paramount+, with new episodes released on Thursdays.

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Den of Geek

Star Trek: Lower Decks — Jonathan Frakes’ Riker To Return in Season 2

Jonathan Frakes will return as Riker in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2.

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This article contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Lower Decks season finale.

The Star Trek universe is not only expanding, but reinvesting in beloved characters from Trek series past in some wonderfully integrated ways. What started with Spock’s role on Discovery and the launch of the Picard series, has now extended into the universe’s animated world. In the Lower Decks season finale, the USS Titan warps in to save the day, led by none other than Captain William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). Now, as confirmed by showrunner Mike McMahan during today’s “Star Trek Universe” panel at NYCC, we know Riker will be back in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2.

“You’ll be seeing Riker again at the beginning of next season, for sure,” McMahan said during the panel, something he expanded on to Inverse in a Q&A.

“You will be seeing Riker and the  Titan , because Boimler is on the  Titan .” Mike McMahan told the entertainment website. “That’s where he serves now. I mean, it’s Boimler’s dream to serve there, and we play that out. We see how that works out for him.”

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Frakes joined the regular cast of Season 1 during the “Star Trek Universe” panel to make/hear the announcement, discussing how he was first asked to make a Lower Decks appearance over sushi in Toronto when he was in town to direct an episode of Discovery and McMahan was on the Discovery set to work on his Short Trek episode .

Frakes raved about the opportunity to “let Riker be a wild, insane character” on the show that is much more comedic than The Next Generation was. “Riker’s a lot more serious [than I am in real life], so this has been a blast.”

“ Lower Decks is an enhancement of things that have always existed in Star Trek,” said McMahan, calling Lower Decks ‘ Riker “a comedic version of it that still remains true,” before adding: “Our Riker is the Riker who is expressing joy all the time.”

Lower Decks takes place a year following the events of Nemesis , which led to Data’s death, and 19 years before we see Riker and Troi during their retirement on Nepenthe in Picard . At this point in Riker’s career, he is only a year into being the Titan ‘s captain, which is a cool period of time for the show to explore in Riker and Troi’s life. (As of right now, there has been no official announcement on if Sirtis will return for Lower Decks Season 2, but it’s hard to imagine telling a Riker story at this point in his life without Troi.)

With his appearance on Lower Decks , Frakes has now appeared on more Star Trek TV series than any other person.

For McMahan, this is all a dream come true. The showrunner mentioned that he has a cat named Riker, before saying: “You don’t name your cat after someone you actually think you’re going to be able to work with in real life.”

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Kayti Burt | @kaytiburt

Kayti is a pop culture writer, editor, and full-time nerd who comes from a working class background. A member of the Television Critics Association, she specializes…

'Star Trek: Lower Decks' May Be Looking For a New Home After Cancellation at Paramount+

It wouldn't be the first animated 'Trek' series to move to a different streamer!

The Big Picture

• Star Trek: Lower Decks may find a new home after being cancelled at Paramount+.
• Jack Quaid expressed gratitude for the show and hopes for future seasons elsewhere, praising the cast and crew for their hard work.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 will premiere on Paramount+ later this year.

Star Trek: Lower Decks may have been cancelled at Paramount+ , but it may not be the end of the USS Cerritos ' mission. At least one cast member of the animated series has voiced hopes that, like fellow Paramount+ castaway Star Trek: Prodigy , the show could find a new home. Jack Quaid , who voices Brad Boimler on the series, expressed his hopes for a pickup at another network on his Instagram: "Hopefully we find a new home, but until then please look forward to an amazing season five (airing this fall)".

Quaid also expressed his gratitude for the cast and crew behind the series:

"I can’t begin to tell you what an honor it’s been to be a part of this show and the Star Trek universe at large. I am unbelievably grateful for 5 awesome seasons with this wonderful family. I want to thank each and every person who put so much of their hard work and talent into every episode. You are AMAZING. The good news is that everyone who makes Lower Decks LOVES making Lower Decks . I could play Boimler for 17 more seasons. No joke. I’m serious. I love that purple-haired nerd."

In addition to voicing Boimler on all five seasons of the show, Quaid also played Boimler in live-action on " Those Old Scientists ," a crossover episode with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds .

How Was 'Star Trek: Prodigy' Saved?

Star Trek: Prodigy , a CG-animated series aimed at a younger audience than most Star Trek fare (although still loaded with nods to Trek lore) debuted on Paramount+ in 2021. Starring a crew of teenage misfit aliens and a holographic artificial intelligence patterned after Admiral Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) as they attempt to escape a fanatical dictator in an experimental prototype ship, it was a hit with critics and audiences and was renewed for a second season.

In 2023, however, it was cancelled and wiped entirely from Paramount+ , even as its unaired second season was nearly completed. It came at a time when studios, facing the end of the streaming bubble, were beginning to not only cancel series but wipe them entirely from their streaming services as a tax write-off. After an extensive letter-writing campaign by fans , the series was sold to Netflix ; the first season of the series is available to stream now, while the second season is expected to be released later this year.

Star Trek: Lower Decks chronicles the adventures of the Cerritos , a Starfleet support vessel assigned to less glamorous duties than the likes of the Enterprise . In addition to Quaid, it also stars Tawny Newsome , Noël Wells , Eugene Cordero , Dawnn Lewis , Jerry O'Connell , Fred Tatasciore , and Gillian Vigman . Star Trek: Lower Decks ' fifth (and for now, final) season will premiere on Paramount+ later this year . Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Behind every great captain, is a crew keeping the ship from falling to pieces. These are the hilarious stories of the U.S.S. Cerritos.

Watch on Paramount+

I’m Still Annoyed Star Trek: Lower Decks Was Canceled, But There Is One Way This Could Turn Out To Be Good News

It's a long shot, but I want it to happen.

Last week, the Star Trek franchise delivered both good news and bad news. In the former category, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for Season 4 , so taking that into account with the fact that Season 3 won’t come out until 2025, fans can take comfort knowing one of the best Paramount+ TV shows will be sticking around for several more years. Conversely though, Star Trek: Lower Decks is ending with Season 5, which will premiere to Paramount+ subscribers on a yet-to-be-announced date on the 2024 TV schedule . I’m still annoyed that Lower Decks has been canceled, but there is on way that this could turn out to be good news: if its characters are being spun off into a live-action show.

In summer 2023, Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome, who voice Bradward Boimler and Beckett Mariner in Lower Decks , played their characters in live-action for the first time in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “Those Old Scientists.’ This Lower Decks / Strange New Worlds crossover saw Boimler and Mariner being transported back in time and meeting Captain Christopher Pike and his USS Enterprise crew, and Quaid and Newsome did a great job of balancing their characters’ comedic sensibilities without getting too wacky (though Newsome did admit to me there was one “Mariner-ism” she wasn’t able to replicate in live-action ). Naturally Boimler and Mariner made it back to the 24th century by the end of the episode, and at the time, I was hoping there might be another opportunity for them and the Strange New Worlds characters to reunite someday.

Voyager’s ‘Tuvix’ Was A Writer’s Big Break In Hollywood. Now They’ve Shared Their Sweet Reaction To Star Trek: Lower Decks’ ‘Twovix’ Episode

Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Mike McMahan Previews Season 5 Stories For Mariner And Other Main Characters

However, now that I know Star Trek: Lower Decks is ending, my fingers are crossed that Paramount+ will consider letting these starring characters shine on their own live-action platform. This would be uncharted territory, to be sure… one might even say it’s boldly going where no one in this franchise has gone before! But seriously, it was one thing for Star Trek: The Animated Series to spotlight Captain Kirk and his Enterprise cohorts from 1973 to 1974 following The Original Series ’ 1966-1968 run. Giving the Lower Decks cast their own live-action show would be a challenging feat, but one I’d like Paramount+ to undertake because characters deserve to be seen for more than just five seasons.

Now obviously a live-action take on Lower Decks would need some tweaks compared to the original. Namely, the cartoonish antics would need to be toned down, as there are many gags that play well in animation, but don’t translate effectively in live-action. There’s also the possibility that certain characters would need to be recast, whether it’s because it because of scheduling issues with the current voice actors or it’s decided that others is a better fit for playing these roles in live-action, as Star Wars has done with characters like Saw Gerrera and Ahsoka Tano. I imagine Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome would be brought back as Boimler and Mariner, but we’d need to prepare for the possibility that folks like D’Vana Tendi and Sam Rutherford wouldn’t be respectively played by Noël Wells and Eugene Cordero.

But those hurdles aside, I think it’s worth Paramount+ taking the jump and moving Star Trek: Lower Decks from animation to live action. It would make for an intriguing experiment, and along with the animated show already having a sizable fanbase, this would be a great opportunity to loop in Star Trek fans who only pay attention to the live-action shows. If it doesn’t work out, then the streamer can cancel the new show too and call it a day, but if the show succeeds, then it opens up a new door for the franchise to venture into.

In any case, at least there’s one more season of Star Trek: Lower Decks to look forward to, and my fingers are crossed that if a live-action spinoff show isn’t in the cards, the writers have crafted a stellar ending. While we wait for the last batch of episodes, look over the upcoming Star Trek TV shows that are officially slated.

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Star Trek: Best Book-Only Characters

• The Star Trek novels introduce unique characters like Akaar and Treir, adding depth to the expansive Starfleet universe.
• Characters like Nick Keller and Elias Vaughn bring new perspectives to the post- DS9 era, facing challenging galactic events.
• Mackenzie Calhoun leads the USS Excalibur in a new hero ship series, showcasing tactical genius in the New Frontier books.

Just like the universe itself, the Star Trek franchise is huge and far-reaching, encompassing several television shows, and numerous video games, movies, and books. While many of Star Trek 's most iconic characters appear in various series and films, there are many other great characters who only feature in alternative media sources. For instance, the final frontier has spawned some memorable video game-based characters .

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Yet perhaps the richest source of characters is the now questionably canon series of books that take place following The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine . From fresh takes on classic species like the Andorians and Orions, to some of Starfleet's finest officers, the Star Trek novels are a treasure trove of notable figures.

Leonard James Akaar

First appearence: star trek mission gamma book one: twilight.

• Author: David R. George III
• Publication Date: September 2002

Leonard James Akaar is unique among novel-only characters in that he does, in fact, make a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance on televised Trek . "Friday's Child," an episode of The Original Series , ends with his birth; however, the Capellan royal would not be seriously fleshed out until 2002's Mission Gamma: Twilight . By the time of the Deep Space 9 novels, Akaar had risen through the ranks of Starfleet to become an influential admiral with the ear of the Federation president.

Akaar's strategic mindset and steely resolve proved essential in preserving the Federation through some of its darkest periods, including the Borg invasion depicted in the Star Trek: Destiny series. The Starfleet legend may have been born in The Original Series , but the Star Trek novels were where he made his name.

First Appearence: Star Trek: Demons of Air and Darkness

• Author: Keith R. A. DeCandido
• Publication Date: September 2001

Star Trek features many inspirational female characters, from Kira Nerys to Katherine Janeway. However, few are as resourceful or as motivated as Treir , an Orion Dabo girl who transformed Quark's Bar into a highly successful business during the post- DS9 novels. Following her escape from Orion servitude, Treir earned her place as Quark's right-hand woman by implementing a series of radical reforms, including hiring a Dabo boy to attract more customers.

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Treir may not play a significant role in the canon-shattering events depicted in the Deep Space 9 novels, but this ruthless businesswoman helped to make Star Trek 's prose universe feel like a living, breathing place. If anyone is capable of giving Quark a run for his latinum, it's her.

Nick Keller

First appearence: star trek new earth: challenger.

• Author: Diane Carey
• Publication Date: August 2000

New Earth , a series of six novels that take place between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan , was intended to act as a backdoor pilot for a new narrative focusing on Commander Nick Keller . In the final novel, Keller takes command of a makeshift starship in order to defend the human colony of Belle Terre from alien attack. Keller was conflicted between overthrowing his inept captain and preserving the lives of his comrades, and it's a great shame that a full series based on the space cowboy's adventures never emerged.

Interestingly, author Diane Carey based Keller's appearance on Scott Bakula, who would go on to play Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise . Keller, however, would make only two more appearances in the Star Trek universe, with both being part of the multi-series Gateways crossover event.

Elias Vaughn

First appearence: star trek: avatar (book one).

• Author: S. D. Perry
• Publication Date: July 2001

Elias Vaughn was a Starfleet officer and intelligence operative who joined Deep Space 9's command staff following the end of the Dominion War . Despite only holding the rank of commander, Vaughn's expertise proved a boon to the Federation outpost, and he played a role in several key events, including the USS Defiant 's post-war exploration of the Gamma Quadrant (depicted in the Mission Gamma sub-series).

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Vaughn was haunted by the death of his wife, Ruriko, and his troubled relationship with his estranged daughter, Prynn. This relationship was complicated by the fact that Prynn was also assigned to Deep Space 9. However, father and daughter were eventually able to reconcile–but not without some bumps along the way.

Christine Vale

First appearence: star trek: the belly of the beast.

• Author: Dean Wesley Smith

While William Riker's USS Titan has made notable appearances in Star Trek: Lower Decks , the starship's adventures were originally chronicled in a series of spin-off novels. These books featured Christine Vale , a former detective turned Starfleet officer, as Riker's second-in-command. Vale was initially unwilling to take the post, as she disliked the idea of Riker working so closely with his wife, Deanna Troi.

Luckily, Vale took the post, which allowed her to act as a counterweight to any of Riker's Troi-related biases. During her time aboard the USS Titan , she helped to explore the Beta Quadrant and fend off a Borg invasion. Indeed, her record was so good that, following Riker's promotion to admiral, she took command of the Luna -class starship.

Thirishar ch'Thane

From their initial appearance in 1967's "Journey to Babel" and 2001's "The Andorian Incident," references to Star Trek 's Andorians were true and far between. One important detail was disclosed in The Next Generation , however: Andorians have four sexes , with all four required for successful reproduction.

The character of Thirishar ch'Thane (or "Shar") was a response to this premise. Shar served as Deep Space Nine's science officer following the end of the Dominion War, but was torn between his commitments to Starfleet and to his mating group, who wished him to return to Andor. This dilemma was further complicated by a dangerous decline in Andorian fertility, which threatened to cause the Andorians' extinction in the long term. Shar was eventually able to use his scientific knowledge to help solve the Andorian fertility crisis.

The Jem'Hadar are one of Star Trek 's most iconic creations , a powerful race of warriors motivated by their addiction to the chemical ketracel-white. During the Dominion War of 2373–2375, the Jem'Hadar were central to the Dominion assaults which nearly overwhelmed the Federation Alliance.

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After the war's conclusion, Taran'atar , a Jem'Hadar without a ketracel-white dependency, was sent to Deep Space Nine as a cultural observer. Taran'atar's struggle to adjust to the Alpha Quadrant during peacetime makes for fascinating reading, as does seeing the fearsome warrior growing closer to his former enemies. Taran'atar's story takes some strange twists and turns, but he remains a fascinating character.

Mackenzie Calhoun

First appearence: star trek new frontier: house of cards.

• Author: Peter David
• Publication Date: July 1997

In 1997, Pocket Books published the first of Peter David's New Frontier books. While these novels included several characters from TV Trek (mostly notably Commander Shelby from "The Best of Both Worlds" ), they focused on a new hero ship, the USS Excalibur , and a new captain: Mackenzie Calhoun . Calhoun, an alien warrior modeled after Mel Gibson, was depicted as a tactical genius capable of beating Starfleet's toughest challenges–including the infamous Kobayashi Maru test.

Calhoun soon became a fan-favorite, with his New Frontier series including over 20 volumes. The Xenanian captain was even popular enough to be made into an action figure, the only example of this honor being bestowed on a character originating from any of Star Trek 's novels.

Created by Gene Roddenberry

First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Latest Film Star Trek Beyond

First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series

Latest TV Show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Creation Year 1966

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• Series & Movies

Published Apr 10, 2024

The Best Star Trek Siblings

Best friends and/or bitter rivals, here are some best groups of siblings from throughout the Star Trek universe.

StarTrek.com

The Star Trek universe is full of siblings. Sometimes they are the best of friends. Sometimes they are bitter rivals. But, regardless of the tenor of their relationship, each familial clan still thrives and stands out through the rich storytelling the franchise serves up.

The rules for this list are as follows — they have to have appeared on-screen (not merely mentioned) and be identified as a sibling, no matter if that means biological, adopted, foster, or chosen. Additionally, siblings connected through different familial relationships are kept separate.

In celebration of Siblings Day, here are the a handful of the best sets or groups of siblings from throughout the entire franchise.

22. Wesley and Jack Crusher

Dr. Beverly Crusher bore two incredible gifted sons — Wesley Crusher (son of Jack R. Crusher) and Jack Crusher (son of Jean-Luc Picard). Despite being decades apart in age, we're certain Wesley's journey as The Traveler allowed him to watch over his mother and half-brother from afar.

Losing her husband, the elder Jack, and Wesley to the stars made Beverly more protective of her youngest child, hiding him away from all of Jean-Luc's enemies and Jean-Luc himself.

21. D'Vana and D'Erika Tendi

"Something Borrowed, Something Green"

The daughters of B'Rt and Shona Tendi, one of the fifth largest families in the Orion Crime Syndicate, grew up very close. However, D'Vana would crave more out of life other than piracy. Pursuing her love of science and space, D'Vana would leave the family trade and her role as the Prime for a career in Starfleet.

D'Erika would see this abandonment as a betrayal as it forced her to take on the role as the family's prime assassin and live in the shadow of her sister's Mistress of the Winter Constellations legacy. The two sisters would reconcile when D'Vana returned home to Orion following news that her sister was kidnapped ahead of her nuptials. In later negotiations to save her best friend Beckett Mariner and provide the Cerritos with an Orion warship, D'Vana negotiates an offer D'Erika cannot refuse — her return to Orion, reuniting the sisters once more.

20. Worf and Nikolai Rozhenko

"Homeward"

The son of Worf’s foster parents, Nikolai Rozhenko, and Worf didn’t get along as children, though they respected each other’s strong wills and personalities. Their paths crossed as adults when Worf was assigned to prevent his foster brother from further violating the Prime Directive as he observed a race known as the Boraalans.

19. Cleveland Booker and Kyheem

"Sanctuary"

Though not biologically related, Cleveland Booker and Kyheem referred to each other as brothers. Raised together, Kyheem felt Booker was a coward who abandoned their family. They shared the same empathic abilities and worked together to drive the Emerald Chain’s swarms of locusts to the ocean, healing their rift in the process.

18. Tasha and Ishara Yar

Tasha Yar essentially raised her younger sister Ishara on the torturous colony Turkana IV. The two sisters parted ways as young teenagers when Tasha escaped their homeworld and joined Starfleet. They never saw each other again; Ishara resented her sister.

Years later, Ishara used her relationship to Tasha to manipulate the crew of Enterprise into helping her commit an act of terrorism.

17. Kestra and Deanna Troi

"Nepenthe"

The firstborn child of Ian and Lwaxana Troi, Kestra Troi died in a tragic accident when she was six years old, shortly after the birth of her younger sister Deanna. Deanna learned of her late sister while helping her mother through a traumatic telepathic episode on the Enterprise .

Some years later, Deanna would go on to name her first daughter Kestra after her sister.

16. Narek and Narissa

"Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"

Two of the children of members of the mysterious Romulan cabal known as the Zhat Vash, Narek and Narissa were committed to the group's efforts of annihilating all artificial life in the galaxy. They worked together in this effort, though distrusted each other and frequently questioned and criticized each other’s methods. Narek often felt inferior to Narissa as he believed she judged him as the family's "Zhat Vash washout."

15. Ezri, Norvo, and Janel Tigan

"Prodigal Daughter"

Before she was Ezri Dax, she was Ezri Tigan, the middle child between two brothers, Norvo and Janel. Though there was tension in their family, Ezri was particularly close to her brother Norvo who she believed had several artistic gifts. The three siblings went their separate ways after Ezri learned Norvo had murdered a woman and Janel was involved with the Orion Syndicate.

14. Paul and Travis Mayweather

"Horizon"

Like many brothers, a stiff sibling rivalry existed between Travis Mayweather and his younger brother Paul. Paul resented Travis for leaving their family’s cargo ship the Horizon to join Starfleet.

When the two brothers reunited during Travis' visit "home" to the ship, Travis used his Starfleet training to upgrade the Horizon 's system, further irritating, but also helping Paul, and allowing a bit of a détente between them.

13. Kor, Curzon, and Jadzia Dax

"The Sword of Kahless"

Having first met during the peace negotiations between The United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, Klingon warrior Kor and Trill Curzon Dax formed a close bond through adventurous escapades together, referring to each other as a blood brother.

When the Dax symbiont was passed from Curzon to Jadzia, Kor continued their familial relationship, going on more adventures with his blood sister.

12. Spock and Sybok

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

The two sons of the Vulcan Sarek, Spock and Sybok travelled very different paths. Although half human, Spock embraced the logical traditions of his people, while his older brother Sybok, a full Vulcan, rejected them, instead embracing emotions.

Estranged for decades, the brothers reunited and reconciled after a fashion when Sybok hijacked the Enterprise as part of his quest to find the Edenic Sha-Ka-Ree in the center of the galaxy.

11. Worf and Martok

"Soldiers of the Empire"

Worf and Klingon General Martok first encountered each other in a Dominion prison camp. They helped each other survive and subsequently fought side-by-side in the Dominion War.

After Worf helped Martok rediscover his honor and courage, the General welcomed Worf into his House as a brother. The two were almost inseparable after that, supporting each other with honor through the trials of their lives.

10. Dahj and Soji (and their Coppelia siblings)

Created from a single positronic neuron by Dr. Bruce Maddox and Dr. Altan Soong through a process called fractal neuronic cloning, Dahj and Soji were twins who appeared to be fully human. The women each separately encountered Jean-Luc Picard. Though Dahj was killed, Soji relied on Picard to save her home world, Coppelia, where dozens of other synthetic twins who had been created from Data’s neural network also lived.

9. Molly and Yoshi O’Brien

"Time's Orphan"

The children of the man considered by many to be the most important officer in Starfleet history, Molly and Kirayoshi O’Brien were both born under unique circumstances. Molly was born when the Enterprise was struck by a quantum filament, disabling the ship. While pregnant with Yoshi, Keiko O’Brien was injured on a mission, necessitating her son’s transfer into Kira Nerys’ womb, who carried him to term. Molly doted on Yoshi, and their bond was shown to be strong.

8. Saru and Siranna

"The Sound of Thunder"

Kelpiens Saru and Siranna were devoted to each other from childhood through adulthood. Though they parted ways when Saru left Kelpinar to join Starfleet, their hearts were permanently linked.

When Saru returned to his homeworld, he helped Siranna lead their people in breaking free of their fearful natures. Siranna, in turn, came to Saru and the Discovery 's aid when it battled the sentient computer Control.

7. Worf and Kurn

"Sons of Mogh"

Worf and Kurn, the Sons of Mogh, were separated for most of their lives following the attack that killed their parents. Kurn sought out Worf, revealing their relationship during an officer exchange aboard the Enterprise . Kurn was loyal to his brother and their family, but hid his heritage during his brother’s discommendation.

During the Dominion War, Kurn also faced dishonor. Worf helped Kurn assume a new identity to regain honor in the empire.

6. The Duras Sisters

Star Trek Generations

[ RELATED : Dynamic Duos: Lursa and B'Etor Duras ]

Lursa and B’Etor were the devious sisters of Duras. Their family held great honor within the Klingon Empire until the treachery of their father Ja’rod and brother Duras came to light as well as their own conspiring with the Romulan Sela. They had successfully instigated a Klingon civil war and were responsible for the destruction of the Enterprise before dying in the same battle.

5. Jim and Sam Kirk

"Lost in Translation"

Growing up in Iowa, both James Tiberius Kirk and his brother George Samuel "Sam" Kirk saw their futures in the stars. Jim, of course, became one of the greatest starship captains in Starfleet history. Sam became a celebrated scientist.

Long before James would take command of the Enterprise , Sam Kirk served aboard the flagship under Captain Pike as his younger brother was rising the ranks aboard the Farragut. While their relationship often had hurdles, as Sam felt their father favored Jim's career, specifically achieving the title of youngest first officer in all of Starfleet, as it modeled his own career while the elder brother pursued a path in sciences. No matter the timeline, there was never shortage of love, support, and old-fashioned sibling ribbing.

4. Michael Burnham and Spock

"If Memory Serves"

Having been rescued by the Vulcan Sarek and his human wife Amanda Grayson, Michael Burnham was raised alongside Sarek and Amanda's son Spock. The foster siblings faced a strained relationship at times, but when Michael was missing, Spock searched for her with the help of the Red Angel.

Michael returned the favor years later, leading the search for Spock when he disappeared and was accused of murder. Spock credited Michael with helping him become the man he did, and Michael was moved and proud when she travelled to the future and learned of Spock's legendary life.

3. Quark and Rom

"Family Business"

On the surface, it appeared that Quark and Rom didn’t like each other very much, but the truth was few brothers loved each other as much as this Ferengi pair did. Quark often berated and manipulated Rom, but Rom always stood by his brother in his times of need. Quark also unfailingly helped his brother during crises, even breaking him out of a holding cell to prevent his execution by the Dominion. When Quark learned Rom was being named Grand Nagus, he was initially jealous but also expressed how much he truly loved his brother.

2. Jean-Luc and Robert Picard

"Family"

As boys, Robert and Jean-Luc Picard bickered and battled constantly. The older brother, Robert, enjoyed bullying Jean-Luc. It wasn’t until Jean-Luc's return to the family vineyard following his assimilation by the Borg and subsequent rescue that the two brothers settled their decades-long rivalry.

Four years later, Jean-Luc was devastated to learn Robert and Robert’s son René had been killed in a fire at the vineyard.

1. The Soong Androids and Altan Inigo Soong

"Datalore"

[ RELATED : Android Ancestry: Examining the Soong-Type Line ]

Dr. Noonien Soong had a large family. Of his four sons, three were androids and one was human. The androids Data, Lore, and B-4 had challenging and complex relationships with each other. Data long believed he was inferior to Lore while Lore was jealous of their father’s pride in Data. Meanwhile, B-4 was used to lure Data and Picard into a Romulan trap. Data tried helping B-4 improve, but his programming was insufficient, despite Data giving B-4 his memory engrams.

Their human brother, Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, helped use some of those engrams to reconstitute Data in a simulation after the android’s death as well as using them to create numerous new pairs of synthetic twins. Altogether, they were, as Data described them, "An acquired taste." Most siblings are.

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This article was originally published on April 9, 2021.

Jake Black is a writer whose credits include Star Trek: Starfleet Logbook, Star Trek Magazine, and works for DC Comics, Marvel, WWE, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Supergirl, and many more. An eleven-year cancer survivor, he lives in a quiet Connecticut town with his wife, son, and twin daughters. Found online @jakeboyslim

Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1-4 are streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Switzerland, South Korea, Latin America, Germany, France, Italy, Australia and Austria. Seasons 2 and 3 also are available on the Pluto TV “Star Trek” channel in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The series streams on Super Drama in Japan, TVNZ in New Zealand, and SkyShowtime in Spain, Portugal, Poland, The Nordics, The Netherlands, and Central and Eastern Europe and also airs on Cosmote TV in Greece. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

In addition to streaming on Paramount+ , Star Trek: Picard also streams on Prime Video outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in Canada can be seen on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave. Star Trek: Picard is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel. The series will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in the UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, the Caribbean, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and South Korea.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on TikTok , Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , and Twitter .

Screen Rant

Star trek’s last 2 live-action shows are discovery sequels.

The Star Trek franchise is looking lean after the end of Picard, Discovery, and Lower Decks but the last Trek shows standing continue Disco's legacy.

• Star Trek: Discovery's success paved the way for Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, ensuring the franchise's future beyond 2025.
• Lower Decks' end marks the close of the 24th-century era, with Section 31 movie exploring past sins in the early 24th century.
• Despite gaps between time periods, the Star Trek franchise in the 2020s mirrors the cohesive era of the 1990s, promising a positive future.

When Star Trek: Discovery ends later this year, it leaves behind its two spinoffs as the last live-action Star Trek shows standing. Paramount+ recently announced that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has been renewed for season 4, while simultaneously announcing that Star Trek: Lower Decks would end with season 5 . With Lower Decks due to end later in 2024, and the future of Netflix's Star Trek: Prodigy unknown beyond season 2, 2025 looks like a lean year for televised Star Trek .

As sad as that may seem, there's something positive about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy carrying on the legacy of its parent show. After a 12-year gap, Star Trek: Discovery revitalized the franchise on TV. The success of Discovery season 1 and 2 laid the groundwork for the modern Star Trek franchise, and that can never be overstated. Without Discovery there would be no Strange New Worlds or Star Trek: Picard season 3, so it's only right that it continues to push the franchise forward into 2025 and beyond .

Gene Roddenberry's Son & Star Trek Executive Producer Comment On Franchise Future

Strange new worlds & starfleet academy are star trek: discovery sequels.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy are effectively sequels to Star Trek: Discovery , set in the show's disparate timelines. Strange New Worlds tells the story of what happened after the USS Discovery time traveled to the far future, while Starfleet Academy will continue the story of Star Trek 's 32nd century. Following the end of Star Trek: Picard in season 3 , live-action Trek exists in two time periods; the 23rd and 32nd centuries, leaving a 900-year gap in the middle . That needn't be an insurmountable gulf, as both SNW and Starfleet Academy are tied together by their connections to Discovery .

Star Trek: Section 31 , the franchise's first streaming-exclusive movie, also follows on from the events of Star Trek: Discovery , via the character of Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).

Looking back at the state of the franchise in the 1990s, post- Star Trek: The Next Generation , both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager were thousands of lightyears apart. However, they felt part of a cohesive era, anchored by TNG . There's a neat bit of symmetry then, as Star Trek: Discovery comes to an end, that there are two spinoff shows that are also wildly different in tone but anchored to a parent show. It's easy to be concerned about the future of Star Trek , following recent cancelation announcements, but the shape of the franchise in the 2020s feels much like it did in the 1990s, which can only be a positive .

Star Trek: Lower Decks Ending Is A 24th Century Tragedy

While Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy may be the Deep Space Nine and Voyager of the 2020s, they won't continue the story of the 24th century. Star Trek: Lower Decks ending with season 5 will bring an end to the 24th century period of the Star Trek timeline , at least when it comes to the TV shows. Michelle Yeoh's Star Trek: Section 31 movie will reportedly focus on the untold adventures of the early 24th century, which could shed new light on classic Star Trek: The Next Generation characters .

Rachel Garrett, first introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" is confirmed to appear in Star Trek: Section 31 .

As enticing as that might be, it's still disappointing that Star Trek: Lower Decks won't get the chance to further explore what happened after Star Trek: The Next Generation ended. There'll be a glimpse of the 24th century in Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 when it hits Netflix, but much of that will likely take place in an alternate future. While Star Trek fans will be well served for new adventures in the 23rd and 32nd centuries, there's a gnawing sense that the franchise is missing out on all the exciting things happening in the 900-year gap between Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy .

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is aiming to start production in late summer 2024.

All episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds are available to stream on Paramount+

Star Trek: Discovery

*Availability in US

Not available

Star Trek: Discovery is an entry in the legendary Sci-Fi franchise, set ten years before the original Star Trek series events. The show centers around Commander Michael Burnham, assigned to the USS Discovery, where the crew attempts to prevent a Klingon war while traveling through the vast reaches of space.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a television series that takes place before the events of the original series and follows Captain Christopher Pike as he mans the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show focuses on this previous crew of the Enterprise as they explore the galaxy with returning characters from Discovery.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

After being closed for over a hundred years, Starfleet Academy is reopening its doors to those who wish to pursue a career as Starfleet Officers. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will follow a new group of cadets as they come of age, and build friendships, rivalries, and romantic relationships while being threatened by a new adversary that could destroy the Academy and the Federation itself.

Star Trek: Section 31

In this Paramount+ exclusive movie event, Michelle Yeoh returns as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, who was first introduced in Star Trek: Discovery Season 1. Star Trek: Section 31 centers on Yeoh's character as she faces her past sins and is recruited by Starfleet's secret division that protects the United Federation of Planets.