Lower Decks Season 4 Ep 1-2 are the first two chapters of the fourth season of an American adult animated science fiction television series created by Mike McMahan for the streaming service CBS All Access (later rebranded as Paramount+). It is the ninth Star Trek series and debuted in 2020 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman’s expanded Star Trek Universe. The franchise’s first animated series since Star Trek: The Animated Series concluded in 1974 and also its first comedy, Lower Decks follows the low-ranking support crew of the starship Cerritos in the 24th century.
S P O I L E R S
Lower Decks Season 4 Ep 1-2 sets the tone for this new season with its deep dives into Star Trek Easter Eggs and certain progressive character development of our four main characters viz. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford. By the end of the second episode, all four have received promotions to Lieutenant Junior Grade, which as Boimler correctly points out, is the lowest officer rank and thus the status of our characters as “lower decks” remains unchanged.
Episode 1 takes a leaf out of Star Trek: Voyager (season 2, episode 24, to be precise) where an accident leads to Tuvok and Neelix becoming a composite being by having two Cerritos officers suffering the same fate on the actual Voyager spacecraft, which has been re-purposed as a museum. Episode 2 rehashes the series trope of Mariner trying her best to get demoted. This gets very boring and tired very quickly though. Her efforts are for nought as she realises that she misunderstood Ransom’s conversation with Shax.
Good fun as always, the return of Lower Decks is to be welcomed by Trekkers everywhere! Recommended!
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