Below Deck with Lower Decks: Boiming Even More Rifts

So, we're finally here: the season and series finale of .

What a ride these last few years have been, eh? If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether a "workplace comedy" that did its level best to balance humor with the best of Star Trek ideals could work, I'd have looked at you with one of those expressions I reserve for seeing milk in the grocery store on sale a week past its expiration date. And yet, Lower Decks did it. Not only that, but it made it look easy, to boot, and now here we are: four years and 50 episodes later. It's been a long ro—

:: referee whistle ::

:: Dayton, we’ve warned you more than once about that sort of thing. 15-light year penalty, repeat opening narration. ::

:: referee whistle ::

Come on. It’s a special occasion. Just this once?

:: No. ::

Okay, fine.

Since this article is being posted the day after "The New Next Generation" drops on Paramount+, I'm obliged to make sure I don't offer (too many) spoilers. However, since this final episode picks up pretty much where the last one leaves off, I think I'm okay saying the plot involves our favorite Lower Deckers and the rest of the Cerritos crew still dealing with the effects of the inter-dimensional rifts which have plagued them throughout this entire season.

Captain Freeman and the crew are being subjected to all manner of alternate realities and timelines. Do I want to describe any of them? Of course I do, but that might spoil things for people who haven't yet seen the episode! Instead, what I can do is take this last opportunity to celebrate how Lower Decks has made fun callbacks to other Star Trek series and films an intrinsic part of its interstellar shenanigans.

In addition to this week's episode, this season has been chock full of peeks into other realities in the episodes "," "," and, of course, last week's episode, "." Elsewhere, the show has made more than its share of references to the , to which we were introduced way back in the second-season episode "." Thanks to the popularity of that installment, the Terran Empire has continued to pop up in episodes of various Star Trek series including , , , and even .

Oh, and the rifts leading to some of those other dimensions and time periods? We certainly have plenty of those, from 's "" and "" to , and even the , which gave us an entire alternate reality in which to tell new stories featuring Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise.

Other divergent realities include the 185,000 universes glimpsed in Next Generation's "." There's also "," "," and the two-part "" from Star Trek: Enterprise, and even the alternate universe created by Q for the second season of just to name some prominent examples.

As for this final episode of Lower Decks, even without spoiling anything I think it's safe to say viewers will get their fill of alternate realities and other universes, offered in that special manner only this cast of characters can provide. "The New Next Generation" puts a cap on five seasons of fun, with the heart and soul of Star Trek baked along with the laughs into every episode. Will we see the Cerritos and its crew flying across our TV screens again? If I've learned anything from being a fan all these years, it's that you never say "Never" when it comes to what this franchise might conjure next.

Thanks very much to Mike McMahan and the entire cast and crew of Star Trek: Lower Decks. You did good, y'all. Until we meet again? Warp me!