Warp Five: The Lower Decks Cast on the Cerritos' Future

Welcome to Warp Five, StarTrek.com's post-mortem with your favorite featured talent from the latest Star Trek episodes.

The epic conclusion of Star Trek: Lower Decks shook things up with our favorite crew aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos.

As Officer Brad Boimler states in his log in the finale's third act, "Now that the rift is a permanently open portal to other quantum realities, Starfleet considers it a gateway to a whole new frontier. The increased tachyon density means no modern starbase can be stationed nearby. Luckily, there's one with older systems that aren't affected — Starbase 80. The mission: explore strange new realities with a little help from some familiar friends. Kassia still runs the base, but when it comes to exploring the multiverse, Starfleet wanted their best to supervise missions going into the rift."

What does that mean exactly? Thankfully, StarTrek.com had the opportunity to speak to series creator and showrunner Mike McMahan as well as the Cerritos crew Tawny Newsome (Beckett Mariner), Dawnn Lewis (Carol Freeman), and Jerry O'Connell (Jack Ransom) about the changes.

Who's Going to Throw Mariner in the Brig?

The mother-daughter duo had to this season. However, in a surprising turn, Captain Freeman accepts her alternate timeline's fate of running SB 80 as her own by choosing to the post herself. As she bids farewell to her crew in the Cerritos shuttle hangar, Freeman tells Mariner, "When you first arrived, I didn't think you'd last week. Now, I'm proud to say you don't need me. It's my turn to go on an adventure."

For Dawnn Lewis, she equates Freeman's choice and experience to a normal scenario parents go through all the time. "It's like when you become an empty nester and you now start to feel like, 'Now that I'm not there, it's not like you're not available to them, but it's what do I do with the rest of my life?' And that's there she is."

"She's making a choice of what am I going to do with the rest of my life to keep me as interested in life, as interested in my career," continues Lewis. "And I'm confident that the kids are going to be okay. And if they're not okay, they're going to call me, and for sure, I'm going to be calling them to make sure they're okay. Even when she's on Starbase 80, there's still going to be a good bit of engagement between her and what used to be her unruly teenaged kids."

After all, it's this bunch — a Cali-class ship — that's responsible for saving the multiverse. "I knew we could do it all along," states Lewis. "There was never a doubt in my mind."

Tawny Newsome adds, "It's a fitting end to this chapter of Lower Decks. Like we said in the Starbase 80 episode, Starbase 80 is a place for second chances. It is not just a rundown, terrible place that it looks like from the outside. That message is really important, especially in Star Trek where so much about Trek is the best of the best of the best, doing the best job. It's really important to have some room and some permission for places that need a little bit more support, and therefore for people that need a little bit more support. So it's a lovely message."

Series creator Mike McMahan reveals, "For me, I love Captain Freeman and I love Dawnn Lewis. I really wanted to shake stuff up a little bit. Her character's relationship with Mariner had gotten to a place where it felt like they were working so well together, and we were not finding as many story opportunities. It struck me where I was like, 'Well, there's another family member of hers that we haven't seen her spending a ton of time with, and it would be really nice if she and her husband had a pseudo-Deep Space 9, to go on a new adventure."

Thankfully, Captain Freeman will have a worthy crew with her on Starbase 80. In addition to her husband, Admiral Alonzo Freeman, she'll be joined by William Boimler's Anaximander team, which includes alternate versions of T'Pol, Garak, Julian Bashir, and Lily Sloane.

"Also because Carol had earned across the series that she's not some fuckup, loser captain on a little ship, that she can bring it," McMahan adds. "That she's a good commander, and that you want to reward both the audience and the character for new challenges with that kind of stuff. It felt like a natural thing that happens when you're in your 20s and 30s and you don't get to be around your folks anymore. You have to be out in the world. That's going to be interesting for Mariner as well, that her mom isn't there to be a sounding board for that kind of stuff. It just felt surprising and complex, and it felt like a thing that could happen in a finale or a pilot in an interesting way. I was a little scared of it, but I also was like being a little scared of it makes me feel like it's worth doing, to see what comes from it."

"It's going to be very interesting to see who ends up being the quote, end-quote boss," quips Lewis. "There are lot of big personalities in that group so it'll be very interesting who falls into what lane and how those personalities adapt. As you can see, I'm talking about Seasons 6, 7, and 8 right now. I'm putting that out into the universe. That being said, it's going to be really exciting to see how all of us fare in these new environments and in these new roles."

As for her former crew, she's leaving them in good hands.

Engage the Core with Captain Ransom

On passing the mantle to her first officer Jack Ransom, Lewis reflects, "It's very, very cool. It's everybody recognizing everybody has strengths. Like I said, when you grow up together where these folks have been, so you see how far they have come and you've come up together and you have each other's backs. And I think that that's great. I think that that's a great life lesson, which is really powerful in the way Mike McMahon writes and has developed our character arcs and the way he's developed the show. It is just really, really smart

As for Jerry O'Connell, he was thrilled by Ransom's promotion, noting how much it means to him in his own personal life. O'Connell shares, "I got to tell you, first of all, the finale of Lower Decks is the best. Thank you to the fans. Thank you to Alex Kurtzman. Mike McMahan really labored over this finale. He toyed with it. He messed with it, he tinkered with it. He fixed it, he changed it. Shout out to Mike McMahan. I just want everyone watching this to know before you write something about Mike McMahan on Reddit or on a message board, he really cares about you so much. He really thinks about you so much. He works, he lives, he breathes Star Trek and Starfleet."

"I am personally so excited to talk to you about the finale of Lower Decks because my wife [Rebecca Romijn] is Number One in Strange New Worlds," says O'Connell. "I now outrank my wife in Starfleet. I'm a captain. I want to say to my wife, because when the finale comes out of Lower Decks, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to watch it with her."

"When Ransom becomes captain, I'm going to be watching it with my wife and I'm just going to tap her on the knee," laughs O'Connell. "First of all, we have a chair in our living room. I'm going to step over it Riker-style. Leg is going to come over the chair. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to tap my wife and my wife is going to look at me and I'm going to go, 'Honey, look at me. I'm the captain now.' I'm going to say that to my wife."

"I want to thank Mike McMahan. I want to thank Alex Kurtzman. I want to thank all Lower Decks viewers. I want to thank all of Starfleet. I want to thank Will Wheaton. I want to thank Riker himself. I want to thank everybody. I want to thank Picard. I want to thank Dr. Crusher. Spock from Stranger New Worlds, Pike from Strange New Worlds. Everybody. La'An, M'Benga, Tawny, Jack Quaid, Noël, Eugene, everybody. I want to thank you for getting me to outrank my wife in my house. You have no idea how much this means to me. I promise to respect it, to honor it, to live my life with a Starfleet code and ethics. I will never forget this. Thank you. Thank you. Look at me. I am the captain now."

"What a great end for Ransom here," echoes Tawny Newsome. "What a great launch of the rest of his career. We started seeing early on, I think even in the second season, we started seeing Ransom's real potential as a leader. And he went from just being a little bit of a joke. People would kind of clown on to seeing that he's actually a really full character. He's a good person, he's a good leader. He's a little corny sometimes, but as I often say, 'Corny is not a crime.' So he can be corny and he can still be a really fantastic captain. And seeing him get to lead in that way I think is really cool."

"No, it's such a special episode that I get to be the captain," states O'Connell. "It's just such a fitting end for my character. I think it's just fitting how it's all about characters evolving and it's great that the Lower Deckers get to come up and be Number Ones as well."

Every Starfleet has their own signature command callout, and Captain Ransom has one that Mariner and Boimler really despise.

"Engage the core," laughs O'Connell. "It's so fun seeing Mike McMahan and all the other writers on Lower Decks coming up with catchphrases. It should almost be a game that all Star Trek fans play. We went through all of them. Oh man, it's so fun coming up with catchphrases if you're a captain. Pike has 'Hit it.' 'Burn it.' We came up with so many. 'Rip it.' 'Light them up.' 'We are in some stardust.' 'Kick it.' Really, play it at home, everybody. There's so many, we could just keep going."

"You know what, let that man live," shouts Newsome. "Corny is not a crime! Let him be corny!"

"Thanks for all your support for these last five seasons," concludes O'Connell. "It's been so fun. What a fun ride. I'm sure it's not over. It's never over in Starfleet."

And for his first action as captain, Ransom knows who exactly he wants on the Bridge with him.

Huddle Up, Provisional First Officers

Despite their hesitancy, Captain Ransom selects both Boimler and Mariner to be co-provisional first officers, interpersonal relationships be damned.

"Having him choose Mariner and Boimler to co-support him as XOs is such a great choice because we've been building since the beginning that they are best together," states Newsome. "They're two halves, they have very different working styles, but they're kind of these two halves that fit together perfectly. And I think make a really great officer."

"The whole Cerritos crew is stacked with amazing officers." Surprising her friends, Mariner exclaims, "Nobody on the Cerritos is even close to perfect. We're a mishmash of people and various creatures that don't fit in anywhere else. But we're a family. That's why I love it here. We believe in the mission and in each other. My mom might be gone, but she handpicked this crew, which is why I know we're going to be okay. This isn't the end of a story, it's the beginning. We're going to make her proud."

On Mariner's speech, Newsome reflects, "Her speech is about the people, it's about the crew, and that's the heart of every Star Trek show. But it's nice to just hear it said out loud. It's nice to hear it really celebrated. Tendi and T'Lyn are also two halves, the head and the heart, and I think that's what's needed in a good science officer. So I love that symmetry and I love Rutherford realizing that he's enough on his own. It's all very human. It's a very high-tech show about the future, but at the core of it's about what it means to be human."