'Star Trek Lower Decks' Ending With Season 5

The Big Picture

Star Trek: Lower Decks
‘ fifth season will be its last on Paramount+.
The animated comedy’s conclusion may have been inevitable, with the main characters being promoted in the fourth season.
The final season will premiere this fall.

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ five-year mission is coming to an end. The animated Paramount+ comedy’s upcoming fifth season will be its last. Paramount announced that the series has reached its final frontier with its next season, which will premiere on the streamer this fall. Star Trek executive producer Alex Kurtzman and Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan addressed the show’s conclusion in a joint statement, « We remain hopeful that even beyond Season 5, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford and the whole Cerritos crew will live on with new adventures. While five seasons of any series these days seems like a miracle, it’s no exaggeration to say that every second we’ve spent making this show has been a dream come true. »

The statement does not indicate whether the series was canceled, or if it came to a natural conclusion. However, the end of the series may have been inevitable – the show’s fourth season, which premiered last year, opened with its four main characters being promoted from ensigns to lieutenants junior grade, meaning that while the series still follows characters in Starfleet’s less-glamorous roles, they no longer occupy the USS Cerritos‘ titular « lower decks ».

What Will Happen in Season Five of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’?

The fourth season of Lower Decks, which follows the adventures of the Starfleet support ship the USS Cerritos, ended with a confrontation between the ship and the independent fleet assembled by Starfleet Academy washout (and onetime Star Trek: The Next Generation guest character) Nick Locarno. The finale left the Cerritos crew on a cliffhanger, as the show traditionally does; in this case, Orion officer D’vana Tendi (Noël Wells) had to leave Starfleet and join her sister in space piracy in exchange for her aid against Locarno. The next season will surely engineer a reunion between Tendi and her friends. As per McMahan’s interview with Collider’s Samantha Coley, season 5 will also feature more Star Trek legacy characters and a « more joyful » Beckett Mariner, having worked through her issues with old friend Locarno in the finale.

At least one star of Lower Decks won’t be leaving Starfleet any time soon. Mariner’s voice actor, Tawny Newsome (who also played the character in live action in a crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is in the writers’ room for the upcoming series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ fifth and final season will premiere on Paramount+ this fall; no exact release date has yet been set. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. Past seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on Paramount+.