Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Will Visit 'Some Major Star Trek Planets' [Exclusive]
At over a half century old, the "Star Trek" universe is vast and diverse, with a series or movie for pretty much everyone. One of the most singular Trek shows out there is "Star Trek: Lower Decks," an adult-oriented animated comedy show about the support crew on the starship Cerritos. By virtue of its format and genre, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" gets to have fun with the expansive Trek lore a way that other, more serious entries into the franchise can't. According to the show's creator, Mike McMahan, that sometimes means revisiting classic Trek locales in the conext of the comedy show.
/Film's Danielle Ryan recently spoke with McMahan, who teased what we'll see in season 3. Ryan asked the showrunner about the plethora of minor Trek references and in-jokes the show manages to squeeze in, like the musical genre "Klingon acid punk." In response, McMahan shared some insight about what the writers' room is dreaming up for season 4.
"Luckily we're writing season 4 right now," McMahon said, revealing that fans will see plenty more Trek lore deep dives in the third and fourth season of the series. "There's a lot of stuff that I want to build on," he shared, explaining that part of why the famed franchise works regardless of viewers' background is because "there's this thing about 'Star Trek' that's so palatable and so broad." The series creator outlined some of the most widely-loved qualities about the show, saying that, "It's about respect. And it's about truth and respecting people of different backgrounds," but that the shows do tend to present some of the cultures on planets crews visit as a sort of monoculture.
They're boldly going where other Treks have been once before
The plan with a show like "Star Trek: Lower Decks," according to McMahan, is to "build out those monocultures into something that's more textured." His reasoning here seems to be that the show can dig into facets of certain Trek cultures that may have been missed on the first go-round, when previous Trek crews only visited a planet or met a group one time during what was, based on Trek's track record, likely a high-pressure situation. So where does "Star Trek: Lower Decks," with its ability to take a slightly more tourist approach, want to stop and look around a bit longer?
It sounds like the options are pretty limitless. McMahan gives Exocomp, a group of sentient robots that appeared in a season 6 episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," as one example. "We saw them in one episode," he says. "What if we started to build them out? Like, where could they have gone?" He also mentions that there are entire Trek planets that the show plans to explore, saying, "there are some major "Star Trek" planets where I'm like, 'Let's go there. We've never been there. Let's check this out. Let's see what it's like.'" Though the showrunner doesn't mention any planets in particular, he does point out that the combined Trek properties have over 700 episodes in total now, meaning there's plenty of ground to revisit.
With its third season set to premiere on Paramount+ sometime in 2022 and a fourth already in the works, it sounds like "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is aiming to boldly go where some Trek has gone before — only, to explore a little more thoroughly this time.