Star Trek: Lower Decks - The Complete Series - SteelBook

In an entertainment landscape dominated by IP and franchise familiarity, it’s hard to get an original idea past the corporate gatekeepers. How many rumored creative teams have come and gone on various projects over the years only for these potentially exciting entries of our favorite films and series to disappear into the ether? It’s countless! These kinds of stories are what make David Hughes’ Tales from Development Hell such a great read. For better or worse, Star Trek is just like any other IP out there with teams of producers and writers developing all sorts of new films and series. Most of which will never go to air or see the inside of a theater house. But one oddball series slipped through the cracks and miraculously lasted for five seasons! 

Believe it or not, there was a time when Star Trek took time to enjoy itself. Star Trek: Lower Decks probably isn’t the first thing you think of when “Star Trek” comes to mind. The outlier of the entirety of all things Trek, nonetheless, the series has the heart and soul of the brand. It’s crass, it’s loud, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but after so many dud Trek ventures, this one was refreshingly enjoyable to watch. 

Technically part of the Star Trek universe under Alex Kurtzman’s grim, dark, depressing, often boring umbrella of IP content, Lower Decks is most assuredly Mike McMahan’s baby. As an Emmy-winning writer and producer on Rick & Morty, this series has all of the hallmarks of that chaotic over-the-top show but tamps it down and applies it to the misfits that keep a starship flying. We have Tawney Newsome as the voice of the rule-breaker Beckett Mariner. Jack Quaid plays the ladder-climbing rule-follower Boimler. Noël Wells steps in as the Starfleet eager-beaver D’Vana Tendi. Last but not least, Eugene Cordero is the unnecessarily cybernetically-enhanced Rutherford. Through all 50 episodes, these grunts will do the dirty work required by the service of the USS Cerritos.

While I thought Lower Decks was a gas, it isn’t for everyone, and certainly not anyone who puts Star Trek on a pedestal. I for one don’t mind when a show takes a stick and pokes its franchise in the eye a little. I think that kind of content is a necessary reality check that maybe things shouldn’t quite be so deadly serious but I can see why a show like this would be irksome to a certain segment of fans.  

After all of Discovery, two deathly bland seasons of Picard, I stumbled into Lower Decks with expectations set for more banal Trek content. I’d heard it was a entertaining show from some friends and dreadful from others, so I largely stayed away when it first hit. But as I reluctantly (but thankfully) gave season three of Picard a shot and was delighted by Strange New Worlds, I gave this one a go and was pleasantly surprised that I got hooked into this adult animated series. 

When the show cooks it’s using plenty of gas. The series proved to be a delightful homage and satire of the entire Trek universe. One episode to the next, you could see Mike McMahan bringing that exhaustive fanboy knowledge of the numerous Star Trek shows and films to each episode. It's that sort of energy that made those early seasons of Rick & Morty so good. The kind of inside ball you can appreciate for a quick laugh but also doesn’t get bogged down in nostalgia bait. You can be a cursory fan of Star Trek and enjoy this show.

Is it perfect? No, Lower Decks is not a perfect show by any stretch, but it’s a fun one. In this universe full of grim Trek content like Section 31 (not looking forward to that review, but I’ll take the bullet), I’ll sign up for Lower Decks any day. Through all of the nonsensical madness, the show keeps things light and easy. It’s a tribute to the universe Gene Roddenberry created as much as it is a satire. I enjoy the idea that out there in the vast void of space, there is one starship full of misfits and screwups doing their jobs, hopefully without accidentally compromising the warp core and blowing themselves up. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Star Trek: Lower Decks - The Complete Series arrives on Blu-ray thanks to Paramount Home Entertainment in a ten-disc SteelBook collection. The discs are spread through two SteelBook cases, Seasons 1-3 in one SteelBook, and Seasons 4 and 5 in the second. So that does mean that there are a lot of stacked discs between the two cases, but thankfully I haven’t encountered any issues. Out of safety, I plated at least one episode per disc and nothing was amiss and the discs looked a-ok. Each disc is a Region Free BD50 and loads to an animated main menu with standard navigation options letting you play all episodes or picking a specific favorite. Essentially each disc is exactly the same as what was previously issued for Season One through Four with Season Five being the only new content on disc. The two SteelBooks are bound together in a paper slipcase with a divider so they’re not rubbing on each other or scratching. An art card is also included.

In keeping with a lot of modern animated shows these days, Lower Decks makes for a nice run on Blu-ray. Fine lines are clear and clean without any kind of pattern anomalies or banding. I liked that the show has some more “cinematic” focus pulls to give some of the visual gags more flare and personality. There are also some clever plays with depth layering to give the series a nice three-dimensional feel. The more 3D CG-looking elements are well-rendered and don’t look out of place for a show of this sort. Colors are bright and bold giving primaries and every shade in between the attention they deserve. All around the series looks pretty damn good on Blu-ray.

Each episode of Lower Decks warps onto Blu-ray disc with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio mix. Consistently, each episode sounds pretty great with plenty of active surround engagement. Most episodes are relatively front/center focused, but there are usually some clever drips into the surround channels. The bigger more active the sequence the louder and more dynamic the track gets. One of my favorite moments is from Season Three Episode One where our band of misfits go on a theme park ride version of the Phoenix complete with James Cromwell as Cochran and his classic rock music of choice. There are fun moments like that throughout the series but that one bit is a highlight.

Collecting all five seasons, fans of the series have a great bunch of bonus content to dig into. You have behind-the-scenes featurettes, mini-documentaries, and a whole bunch of episode-specific audio commentaries with various cast, crew, and special guest stars. As the series went along, the documentary or “Decktionary” materials slimmed down, but the number of commentaries went up so it’s a win-some lose-some, but still tons of content to enjoy. All told you’ve got nearly five hours of bonus content. 

• Season One Disc One: 
• Second Contact - 
• Lower Decktionary: Joining Starfleet (HD 6:21)
• Full-Length Animatic (HD 22:29)
• Deleted Animatic (HD 1:02)
• Envoys -
• Lower Decktionary: Aliens Among Us (HD 7:31)
• Temporal Edict - 
• Lower Decktionary: The Animation Process (HD 8:09)
• Moist Vessel - 
• Lower Decktionary: The Main Titles (HD 7:15)
• Deleted Animatics (HD 1:18)
• Cupid’s Errant Arrow - 
• Lower Decktionary: Art Design (HD 4:59)
• Season One Disc Two
• Faces of the Fleet (HD 24:43)
• Hiding in Plain Sight (HD 7:39)
• Terminal Provocations -
• Lower Decktionary: The Holodeck (HD 6:31)
• Much Ado About Boimler -
• Lower Decktionary: Division 14 (HD 4:05)
• Veritas - 
• Lower Decktionary: Deck Dynamics (HD 5:06)
• Crisis Point - 
• Lower Decktionary: The Music of Lower Decks (HD 6:19)
• Crisis Point: The Rise of Vindicta Trailer (HD 1:28)
• No Small Parts - 
• Lower Decktionary: All in the Family (HD 6:30)
• Season Two Disc One:
• Strange Energies - 
• Animatics (HD 00:58)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:01)
• Keyshon, His Open Eyes - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Mike McMahan, Jack Quaid, and Jonathan Frakes
• Animatics (HD 1:00)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:31)
• We’ll Always Have Tom Paris - 
• Animatics (HD 1:03)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:26)
• Mugato, Gumato - 
• Animatics (HD 1:01)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:03)
• An Embarrassment of Dooplers - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Mike McMahan and Jack Quaid
• Animatics (HD 1:00)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:04)
• Season Two Disc Two:
• A Sound Foundation (HD 13:19)
• Lower Decktionary: Season Two (HD 32:37)
• The Spy Humongous - 
• Animatics (HD 00:43)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:03)
• Where Pleasant Fountains Lie - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Tawney Newsome, Paul Scheer, and Garrick Bernard
• Animatics (HD 00:50)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:01)
• I, Excretus - 
• Animatics (HD 1:03)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:07)
• Wej Duj - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Mike McMahan, Gabrielle Ruiz, and Kathryn Lyn
• Animatics (HD 00:51)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:02)
• First First Contact - 
• Animatics (HD 1:03)
• Easter Eggs (HD 1:03)
• Season Three Disc One:
• Grounded - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Jonathan Frakes, Tawny Newsome, and Mike McMahan
• Season Three Disc Two:
• Lower Decktionary: Season Three (HD 33:07)
• Hear All, Trust Nothing -
• Audio Commentary featuring Nana Visitor, Armin Shimerman, Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells, Jack Quaid, Eugene Cordero, and Mike McMahan
• Docking At Deep Space 9 (HD 12:22)
• A Mathematically Perfect Redemption - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Barry Kelly, Kether Donohue, and Mike McMahan
• Crisis Point 2: Parodoxus - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Twny Newsome, Noël Wells, Jack Quaid, Jerry O’Connell and Mike McMahan
• The Stars At Night - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Jack Quaid, Dawnn Lewis, and Fred Tatasciore 
• Season Four Disc One:
• Twovix - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Jack Quaid, Mike McMahan, and Brad Winters
• Something Borrowed, Something Green - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells, and Gabrielle Ruiz
• Season Four Disc Two:
• Lower Decktionary: Setting Up Season 4 (HD 8:33)
• Old Friends (HD 28:45)
• Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero, Chase Masterson, and Mike McMahan
• The Inner Fight - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Dawnn Lewis, Tawny Newsome, and Mike McMahan
• Old Friends, New Planets - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Robert Duncan McNeill, and Mike McMahan
• Season Five Disc One:
• Dos Cerritos - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells, and Mike McMahan
• The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Jack Quaid, Barry J. Jelly, and Mike McMahan
• Season Five Disc Two:
• Lower Decktionary: Season 5 (HD 25:24)
• Fully Dilated - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Brent Spiner, Noël Wells, and Mike McMahan
• Upper Decks -
• Audio Commentary featuring Fred Tatasciore, Brad Winters, Megan Trevino, and MikeMcMahan
• The Next Generation - 
• Audio Commentary featuring Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells, Jack Quaid, Eugene Cordero, and Mike McMahan

Star Trek: Lower Decks likely won’t go down in television (or streaming) history among the greatest Trek series, but it’s a damned entertaining show. The series delivers callbacks to classic series episodes and film moments while standing on its own two feet as a humorous take on familiar material. Star Trek has always had a soft heart with more than a few purposefully humorous episodes and more than a few unintentionally silly ones so Lower Decks feels right at home. Thanks to Paramount Home Entertainment/CBS Studios, Star Trek: Lower Decks - The Complete Series beams all fifty episodes home to Blu-ray. All five seasons spread over ten discs ride in nice stylish SteelBooks featuring goofy images of our core four characters. If you already have Season One through Four on Blu-ray, you’re not getting anything new, but if you haven’t picked these up, this collection is a great way to go. Recommended