I was wrong about Ma’ah’s story wrapping up in “A Farewell to Farms,” and for what it is (so far), “The New Next Generation” was the perfect ending to Lower Decks. Written by Mike McMahan, everyone’s top 2 candidate for a McMahan/McMahon, the showrunner wraps up the series the only way he knows how. With Direction coming from the fantastic Megan Lloyd while story editors May Darmon, Keyshawn C Garraway, and Diana Tay take one last run at great Star Trek. There is no mucking about, it is a familiar production crew with possibly a new Cerritos crew by the end.

Freaking out from Bill Boimler’s transmission, our Boimler quickly grabs Mariner and is ready to beg Carrol to put out the all-dog alert on the quantum dimensional issue this reality is about to have. Blindsided by her willingness to accept her two officers, the admiralty accepts the issue is of immediate danger and needs a ship near the dimensional rift to close it. They also need a ship that is going to be turned inside out like a Diana Ross hit, so they send over a thing to modify the shields and this lowly California-class has to deal with the issue alone.

The trouble is Relga, Dorg and Bargh’s sister (that family ruts like rabbits), wants to rip a simple Blood Wine farmer and his brother to pieces of petaQ. Running away from her, Malor requests asylum from the Cerritos while Ma’ah protests. He wants to commit harakiri instead. After deception, chasing, and a little bit of help along the way, Ma’ah and Malor are on the Cerritos while Relga chases after the ship in order to achieve something, but quite frankly I don’t know what it is she’ll get from killing them both. Revenge is sweet for only a few seconds, then you need to move on.

I’ve been fairly outspoken about this season of Lower Decks and how, despite being a late cancellation and a general “blah” season for the most part, I’ll repeat what I said last time out with “Fissure Quest.” Why was this season not a serialization of this story? You could still have filler episodes, but even without the finale being the series finale, this should have been a larger part of the season than it was. Why? Again, this is every Star Trek series that does it right.

Much like DS9 and TNG, Lower Decks started out with a very episodic structure that had a slight arcing plot over it, nothing too important yet. Now, in the 5th season, we’re getting Lower Decks’ version of The Borg, the Maquis, The Great Link, The Dominion War, The Jem’Hadar, and so on. I’m not saying it is better or equal to those perfectly, but it goes a long way towards saying, “Yeah, Lower Decks is fun, silly, and often inconsequential, but sometimes it can be serious and heavy too.” Why no one thought that during the early production of this story is beyond me.

On the verge of a dimensional fissure that is a bit more aggressive than usual, a whole Klingon ship and its crew are malformed from the DNA up into something it (ship) and they (crew) aren’t due to Soliton particles. Hence the admiralty gives the Cerritos crew blueprints to protect against this when they need to be nearby. Despite implementing the upgrades, the crew is “sidetracked” by the fact Ma’ah and Malor seek refuge, causing Relga to chase after the Cerritos as it and its crew head into the eye of the storm.

If there is one problem I have with “The New Next Generation,” it is this: In the writing, we’re told that the Cerritos crew takes a few hours to reconfigure the ship’s shields and work out the issue with the hull. That’s all fine. What “bothers” me so much is that Carrol gives these blueprints for the reconfiguration to Relga, a show of good faith, to protect her ship and crew. Again, doesn’t sound bad and it isn’t, at least in principle. What does get me though is the jump between getting the information and implementing it for active use.

Nothing establishes Relga’s crew as great engineers, nor does the writing or direction entirely say how long it is between getting it and its required point in the plot. A little bit of me wants to say that it could be a cut from Andy Maxwell’s editing, a bad cut at that which I assume was for pacing. If this was an edit from Darmon, Garraway, and Tay, then I’d have more serious questions. The way the jump is set up is that it happens almost instantly, which feels off given the established crew of the Cerritos took hours to do the work and even they said that was quick.

It is a tiny imperfection on an episode that is both longer and far more exciting than half of the episodes of the season. The pacing, for the most part, is brilliant. Everything flows well, everything moves us along well, and there is no wasted momentum, every beat lands where it is supposed to. As I said last time out, it is not only a celebration of Star Trek, this is a celebration of Lower Decks. Sure, there are references: The title and the Soliton wave are both from TNG. However, it tells a truly Lower Decks story that is Star Trek through and through.

As we’ve seen with Prodigy there are times where good shows can come back, so as an ending for now this was exactly what it needed to be. Do I want Lower Decks to come back and just do those episodic comedy bits that have no consequence? No.

I’m not opposed to them making up some of the season if there was a return, but establishing that Lower Decks can be fantastic, serious Star Trek too, I want to see that. It is part of the DNA of the show, it is the growth of the characters from episode 1 to now. Much like The Orville’s “transformation” from comedy to some of the best Star Trek around, Lower Decks can just as easily establish itself as more than just an extra bit of the franchise that filled out a schedule.

Ultimately, “The New Next Generation” is brilliant at capping off a series that is so deeply for the “hardcore,” yet also for the nonchalant fans. It has its faults, as the series and particularly this season have. However, for the most part, it does everything right when it matters. I still prefer Picard’s version of that ending, I think maybe here it was a touch forced, but it means nothing to me until/if we see Lower Decks return to whatever state Paramount Plus is in years down the line.

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Lower Decks “The New Next Generation”

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

  • A beautiful ending to a show that finally found its foothold.
  • A very Star Trek sort of story being told.
  • Stunning direction.

Cons

  • Something about the Klingon upgrades feels rushed.
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Keiran McEwen

Keiran Mcewen is a proficient musician, writer, and games journalist. With almost twenty years of gaming behind him, he holds an encyclopedia-like knowledge of over games, tv, music, and movies.

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