Home Video Review: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks The Final Season’ Blu-ray Welcomes You To The Party One Last Time
by Erik Amaya
In a featurette called ‘Lower Decktionary: Season 5’, Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan refers to the fifth and final season of the show as a party. CBS Home Video was kind enough to send Comicon.com a Blu-ray copy of the two-disc Star Trek: Lower Decks The Final Season and in presentation, content, and extras, the party vibe is readily apparent.
Picking up some months after the the end of the fourth season, D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) remains with a crew of Orion pirates while the rest of the lowerdeckers start to accept they’re not really part of the Lower Decks anymore. Of course, as McMahan mentioned to us at New York Comic Con in 2023, Star Trek has always had a mix of drama and comedy and the setup for this last season of Lower Decks leans into both with the show’s tell-tale emphasis in comedy always getting the focus. Tendi’s challenges in the first few episodes, for example, are more comical where they were dramatic in season 4. Samanathan Rutherford’s (Eugene Cordero) ongoing character arc, meanwhile, mostly consists of punchlines, but has a fabulously dramatic payoff.
Curiously, the storylines for Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid) are the most quiet of the whole series. Both still revolve around their career objectives, of course, with the pair coming to grips that their promotions also come with new challenges and an organic desire to mature beyond the lower decks. But what these tales might lose in dramatic weight — consider how dramatic Mariner’s season 4 story arcs tended to be — they gain back in some truly great comedy from the characters and anyone who interacts with them. A great example is “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel.” While Mariner has to face the way she and Jennifer Sh’reyan (Lauren Lapkus) broke up (or did they?) last year, Boimler gets it into his head that Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) is looking to use the lieutenant junior grade as a canary in the coal mine. Both threads are played to their absolute highest comedic potential, right down to both Ransom and Chief Engineer Andy Billups (Paul Scheer) failing to even understand what the “canary” reference means and, thus, encouraging Boimler to be the best canary he can be. Most episodes play out that way for the two main characters, and it reflects that growing maturity for both … even if Boimler still seeks to emulate someone other than himself for a confidence boost.
Other characters getting featured moments this season include T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz), who manages to be extremely funny while retaining that classic Vulcan comportment; disgraced Klingon captain Ma’ah (Jon Curry), who is joined by his provincial farming brother, Malor, played by Sam Witwer; the whole of the infamous Starbase 80; and the entire command staff, who get their own episode titled “Upper Decks.” The overall sensation hearkens back to the party atmosphere. Every character feels celebrated in a wonderful way and, at no point, does it feel like the writers, animators, or actors are experiencing senioritis. In fact, from the commentaries, one gets the feel McMahan and the stars would’ve loved to continue the series indefinitely.
And, to be frank, this reviewer would also love to get 10 new episodes of Lower Decks a year for the rest of time.
Visually, the show looks great on Blu-ray. The colors, which already look superb on Paramount+, pop with an extra depth and clarity. The actual motion also looks incredible and serves things like a giant nanite collective shaped into a giant D20 rolling down a Italianate seaside street extremely well. A couple of the space battles rival anything seen in a Star Trek feature film. Audio is also great, even if Lower Decks leans more toward the center channel to deliver punchlines in dialogue. Those looking for the best possible presentation of the series will not be disappointed.
The extra features continue the previously established pattern for Lower Decks home video releases: commentaries and the aforementioned “Lower Decktionary” featurette. The latter, as in seasons past, is a retrospective look at the season with McMahan, other members of the production team, and the voice cast getting into the underlying emotions and motives of the comedy. It’s a fun short feature, but it might cause some of the show’s more avid fans to tear up a bit.
Commentaries, meanwhile, see McMahan asking his cast and crew some pretty pointed questions about the conclusion of the series. He even goes so far as to warn listeners in the commentary for the season opener, “Dos Cerritos” that he will be spoiling season-long plot details. As with so much else about the season, the commentaries also have that party vibe with Brent Spiner dropping by to discuss what he thinks might be his last performance as Data, and Wells arriving ten minutes late to the commentary for the final episode, “The New Next Generation”, claiming she forgot about the switch away from Daylight Savings Time. That commentary also features the strongest case for the end of the series not being a creative decision as all the participants discuss other places the characters and the U.S.S. Cerritos could go in a season 6. McMahan also keeps asking Wells and Cordero about appearing as their characters in live action.
Whether or not we see this ship or its company again, though, Star Trek: Lower Decks The Final Season is still a remarkable achievement. It’s a great looking Star Trek show that never short-shrifts its characters to tell a joke. It revels in its nerdiness while telling stories about good people striving to be better. And, as McMahan set out to do six years ago, it feels like that one last spinoff from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It achieved its mission and we’re glad to have a Blu-ray to document it.
Star Trek: Lower Decks The Final Season is now available on Blu-ray wherever discs are sold.
