TL;DR – A solid end to a fascinating series.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

Star Trek: Lower Decks Review –

We have reached the end of the season for Star Trek: Lower Decks of what has been a solid season for the series. However, when you have summoned the great ‘To Be Continued …’, you must ensure you live up to that hype. In today’s review, we will first tackle the season finale and then look at the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, at the end of The Inner Fight, we discovered that the person behind all of the ship mutinies was former Starfleet Academy bad boy Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill). What is worse, he has just kidnapped Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and warped her away to his lair, where his fleet is kept. He is trying to start a revolution across space with a Genesis device to back it up. Starfleet is holding back so it does not accidentally cause a war, but Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) does not have the time to wait. We will be looking at the episode and series as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Some season finales are contained episodes, and others have the job of tying up a whole season, and today, we get the latter. This is tying up the missing ship arc and what has been up with Mariner. I was critical of last week’s The Inner Fight because the addition of Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) felt like a weird, forced addition, as it was the first time this came up in the show’s four seasons. Getting the actor back for a cameo made it land a bit better this week. It also helps when you get an added Wil Wheaton. However, I am glad that Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) was the one who got to do the Nick Locarno/Tom Paris joke that we all knew was coming.

Mariner has to take much of the plot by herself as she tries to keep the Genesis Device out of the hands of the people threatening to use it. After the frustration of the season when it comes to Mariner, I am happy that they finally had her have a positive breakthrough. Please, for the love of the Koala in the Sky, don’t walk this back again next season. With her taking control of the Steamrunner Class USS Passaro, we get a solid hero moment followed by one of the best Wrath of Khan homages I have seen. Everyone else in the crew was relegated to the B-Story, but while this could have been a negative, I liked how they all came together as a crew via First Contact speech, and you believed Boimler as Captain Boimler (Jack Quaid). Shout out to whomever in the production staff liked Titan A.E. and musical composer Chris Westlake for a soaring score.

When we look at the season as a whole, we get some downs but far more wins. For example, the opening of Twovix being all about USS Voyager but not getting any of the cast back felt like a missed opportunity. Like give Garrett Wang a promotion, he had earned it. Also, some frustrations with Mariner’s arc this season made works like I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee feel more frustrating as the season went on. However, as you can tell, given these are the points that I am reaching for, this has been a completely solid season overall.

When trying to think of my favourite for the season, I am conflicted because there are multiple options to reach for. With Something Borrowed, Something Green, we got the payoff for Tendi’s (Noël Wells) backstory that had been growing since the start. Also, our romp through Orion was such a blast, and I have gone back to watch this a couple of times since I was sad. Empathological/Empathalogical Fallacies bringing us more Betazeds and letting T’Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) shine. She has been the addition that the show needed, and she works with whoever she is teamed up with. Also, we can’t speak more highly of Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place, who brought back Rom (Max Grodénchik) and Leeta (Chase Masterson) and completely nailed them, but like last season’s Hear All, Trust Nothing.

The addition of T’Lyn was the first chance that I think helped the series move forward. I must respect that they chose to promote everyone to Lieutenant Junior Grade. It was a bold choice because it goes to the heart of the original premise of the series, which could have derailed the whole proceedings. However, it elevated the story’s potential, and they reached for it on the whole. This is all coming off the high that was already there after the cross-over episode Those Old Scientists in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

In the end, do we recommend Old Friends, New Planets? I think it was a solid ending for the season that tied together all the plot threads while pushing us towards Season Five. If nothing else, having a Ferengi Genesis Device needed a bribe to shut down might be the most perfect thing ever. I think this might be one of the stronger seasons we have had so far, and I am looking forward to Season Five and beyond.    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Star Trek: Lower Decks yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Lower Decks
Directed by – Bob Suarez, Brandon Williams, Barry J. Kelly, Jason Zurek, Megan Lloyd, & Megan Lloyd
Written by – May Darmon, Mike McMahan, Ben Waller, Aaron Burdette, Jamie Loftus, Cullen Crawford, Edgar Momplaisir, Grace Parra Janney & Ben Rodgers
Created by – Mike McMahan
Based Upon – Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – Secret Hideout, Titmouse, CBS Studios & Amazon Prime.
Starring – Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore & Gillian Vigman with Shannon Fill, Robert Duncan McNeill, Wil Wheaton, Max Grodénchik, Chase Masterson, Jeffrey Combs, Jack McBrayer & Gabrielle Ruiz and Troy Baker, Andy Richter, James Sie, Carl Tart, Phil LaMarr, Oscar Montoya, Charlotte Nicdao, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Roan K. Lai, Chris Perfetti, Gideon Adlon, Rachel Dratch, Janelle James, Wendie Malick, Dave Foley, Tom Kenny, Kether Donohue, Jessica McKenna, Kimiko Glenn, Vanessa Marshall, Nolan North, Debra Wilson, Ariel Winter, Asif Ali, Zach Cherry, Artemis Pebdani, Eric Bauza, Jon Curry, Paul Scheer Lauren Tom, Kari Wahlgren & Paul F. Tompkins
Episodes Covered – Twovix, I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee, In The Cradle of Vexilon, Something Borrowed, Something Green, Empathalogical Fallacies, Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place, A Few Badgeys More, Caves, The Inner Fight & Old Friends, New Planets