Star Trek: Lower Decks (season 2)
The second season of the American animated television series "" follows the various missions and adventures of the "lower deckers" (low-ranking officers with menial jobs) on the USS "Cerritos", one of Starfleet's least important starships. The season was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with Secret Hideout, Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment, and animation studio Titmouse, with Mike McMahan serving as showrunner and Barry J. Kelly as supervising director. Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero voice the lower decks crew members of the "Cerritos", with Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell , Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman providing voices for the ship's senior officers. "Lower Decks" was ordered for two seasons in October 2018 with McMahan onboard as showrunner. Production took place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Titmouse beginning work on the season in August 2020. McMahan wanted to carry the energy from the end of the into the second. The season features many connections and references to past "Star Trek" series such as "", including several actors returning as guest stars. The season premiered on the streaming service Paramount+ on August 12, 2021, and ran for 10 episodes until  October 14. A was ordered in April 2021. Episodes. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Production. Development. CBS All Access, which was later rebranded as Paramount+, officially ordered two seasons of "" in October 2018. Mike McMahan was set as showrunner for the series. By late March 2020, work on the series was taking place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing staff to work from home. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman said in August that work on the season was "barreling ahead, full steam ahead", and was not delayed by the pandemic like the live-action "Star Trek" series were. The third episode of  the season, "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", is the 800th "Star Trek" episode produced for television. Writing. McMahan revealed in March 2020 that writing on the second season had already begun, and it was completed by mid-September. Due to the pandemic, the whole season was written remotely using Zoom and some of the season's new writers did not meet the others in person while working on the season. It was written knowing that fans would be able to stream the first two seasons back-to-back, with McMahan wanting to carry the energy of the first season 's final three episodes into the start of the second season; he felt those episodes were the point where the writing team fully "figur[ed] out what the show was" during the first season. McMahan said the second season would combine standalone episodes with season-long character arcs, and would take inspiration from the storytelling of "" and "" in addition to that of "". He noted that many members of the crew had seen all of the previous "Star Trek" series, but they revisited specific episodes together such as the "" episode "A Private Little War" which introduced the alien Mugatos. Writer Ben Rodgers  could not get over the inconsistent pronunciation of "Mugato" in the episode, a production mistake that the "Lower Decks" team wanted to celebrate, so the episode "Mugato, Gumato" has a running joke about the different pronunciations. McMahan said the second season would not undo the end of the first, with Brad Boimler working on the USS "Titan", which he compared to storylines on the series "Farscape" which took its characters away from the main ship. Other elements that were left for the second season include Sam Rutherford's memory issues, Mariner working with her mother Captain Freeman, and the Pakleds  being a threat. McMahan also wanted to address LGBTQ characters and relationships better than in the first season, especially by more explicitly depicting Mariner as bisexual. The writers had a "distinct edict" from McMahan to elevate the characters Tendi and Rutherford during the second season so they were true co-leads of the series alongside Mariner and Boimler. He also wanted to play with the character combinations, such as telling a story with Mariner and Tendi together, as well as focus on the supporting characters for some episodes such as Dr. T'Ana and Chief Engineer Billups (the latter being a  secret sleeper favorite character for the writers). Something McMahan was wary of was changing the main characters so much that they got too close to characters and storylines that previous "Star Trek" series had already covered. He hoped to show important changes in the main characters and develop them across the seasons without departing too much from the central premise of the series. An underlying theme for the season is the characters learning to trust each other, and it ends with Mariner successfully opening up to her mother. Freeman begins the season feeling that she should move up to "bigger  and better places", but learns by the finale that she is in the right place on the "Cerritos". That is another underlying theme for the season, which Freeman voices with the line "the carpets are greyer on the other side of the ship". Boimler has a similar journey in the season, wanting to be on the "Titan" but ending up happy to rejoin the "Cerritos". Freeman's arc connects to the season-long Pakled story, which ends with her being arrested for apparently destroying the Pakled homeworld. This ends the season on a cliffhanger, setting up a new character arc  for Mariner in the . Late in production on the finale, McMahan realized that this cliffhanger should include the "To Be Continued..." title card that previous "Star Trek" series used. McMahan hoped to replicate the success of the first season's last three episodes by again having a sketch comedy episode ("I, Excretus"), a penultimate episode that breaks form for the series ("wej Duj"), and a big finale ("First First Contact"). The idea of "wej Duj", which means "Three Ships" in Klingon, came from the writers wanting to do something that had not been seen before and being surprised to learn  that no previous series had told a contained story on a Vulcan ship. The episode shows "more lower decks than ever before" by exploring lower deckers on the "Cerritos", a Vulcan ship, and a Klingon ship, which McMahan said was the kind of story he would pitch if given the opportunity to make a "Star Trek" film. He described the episode as a "triple-mini-movie that's part ["" (1991)], part this Vulcan thing we've never seen before, and" also ties-into the season-long Pakled storyline. One element that he was not able to include, due to logistics , was having the full opening credits written in alternating Vulcan and Klingon text, but he was able to have the episode title shown in Klingon characters which is the first time a "Star Trek" episode title is not shown in English letters. For the finale, McMahan wanted a big moment that did not involve crashing the ship since that had already been done many times before in the franchise. Instead, for the first time in "Star Trek", the hull plating is stripped from the whole ship. This was inspired by debris getting stuck in the hull of the USS "Enterprise  in the " episode ". The finale also introduces Cetacean Ops, the water-based starship facility that had previously been mentioned on other Star Trek" series but never seen. McMahan said he had been "waiting [his] whole life" to see that. Casting. The series stars a group of ensigns serving in the "lower decks" of the "Cerritos"—Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as D'Vana Tendi, and Eugene Cordero as Sam Rutherford—and the ship's bridge crew who believe "the show is about them, but it's not"—Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as  first officer Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as security chief Lieutenant Shaxs, and Gillian Vigman as chief medical officer Dr. T'Ana. After Shaxs died in the first-season finale, the second season introduces a new security chief, Kayshon (voiced by comedian Carl Tart), but Shaxs soon returns in a storyline that plays on the numerous times that characters have been resurrected in "Star Trek". After the end of the first season, McMahan confirmed that Jonathan Frakes would return as his "Next Generation" character William Riker in the second season after guest starring in the first-season finale. Marina Sirtis also  reprised her "Next Generation" role of Deanna Troi in the first-season finale but did not return for the second season because "the stories didn't go that way", according to McMahan. He said there would be other characters in the season returning from previous "Star Trek" series who would "come in a way that you don't expect". Robert Duncan McNeill, who portrayed Tom Paris in "Voyager", voices a commemorative plate of Paris, while Alice Krige returns as the Borg Queen from the film "" (1996), and Lycia Naff reprises her "Next Generation" guest role of Sonya Gomez. McMahan brought  back Naff to have a callback that was not to one of the major "Next Generation" characters, and because he considered her to be "one of the original lower deckers". Additionally, Jeffrey Combs—who previously portrayed multiple characters across the franchise—voices an evil computer named AGIMUS. Other first-season cast members who returned for the second include Phil LaMarr as Admiral Freeman, Mariner's father; Lauren Lapkus as Jennifer Sh'reyan, an Andorian ensign on the "Cerritos"; Jessica McKenna as Ensign Barnes as well as the "Cerritos" computer; writer Ben Rodgers as Lieutenant Steve Stevens; Rich Fulcher as many of  the Pakleds, including the Pakled leader, King Pakled, and Emperor of the Pakleds; Marcus Henderson as Lieutenant Jet Manhaver; Paul F. Tompkins as Dr. Migleemo; and Paul Scheer as Chief Engineer Andy Billups. Animation. Independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for the series, with first-season episodic director Barry J. Kelly taking over from Juno Lee as supervising director for the second season. Work on the season's storyboards began in August 2020, and animation was in the final color phase by May 2021. Music. Composer Chris Westlake was unable to record his score for the first season with  a full orchestra in a traditional recording studio due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was able to with the second season. Recording for the season's score began by May 2021 at the Sony Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, with a live 60-person orchestra. The series' main theme was re-recorded with the full orchestra for the second season. For the "Klingon acid punk" records that are featured in the episode "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", Westlake wrote lyrics for the songs that were translated into the Klingon language by its creator, Mark Okrand. Selections from Westlake 's score for the season were included in the series' , which was released by Lakeshore Records on October 8, 2021. Marketing. The cast and crew teased the season during a virtual "Star Trek" Universe panel for New York Comic Con in October 2020 which primarily discussed the first-season finale and was released as an episode of "The Ready Room", an aftershow hosted by Wil Wheaton. McMahan again teased the series later in October during the "Virtual Trek Con 2" virtual event. A teaser for the season was released during the "First Contact Day" virtual event on April 5, 2021 , celebrating the franchise on the fictional holiday marking first contact between humans and aliens in the "Star Trek" universe. The season's premiere date was also revealed during the event. The official trailer was released during Paramount+'s animation panel at the 2021 Comic-Con@Home convention, with McMahan and the cast also discussing the season. Writing for "Digital Spy", Dan Seddon described the trailer as a "wonderfully entertaining 2-minute package [that] has everything from space slugs to evil computers". Scott Collura at "IGN" said the trailer looked like "more of the same" fun as the first season, with "the  usual dose of deep, deep "Star Trek" references and Easter eggs", while James Whitbrook of "Gizmodo" said the series was "looking better than ever for round two. And that means more jokes, more delectably silly references to Trek's past, and more earnest Starfleet vibes". Collura and Whitbrook both highlighted the Tom Paris commemorative plate featured in the trailer, which was also released as a physical commemorative plate for purchase. As they did with the first season, animation studio Titmouse released a shirt with a unique design on it alongside each episode. The designs were available for one week each , and fans who bought all ten received a bonus eleventh shirt. Release. Streaming. The season premiered on Paramount+ in the United States on August 12, 2021, and ran for 10 episodes until October 14. Each episode was broadcast in Canada on the same day as the U.S. release by Bell Media on specialty channels CTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) and Z (French) before streaming on Crave. Prime Video has the streaming rights for several territories, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and India. Home media. The season will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the U.S. on July  12, 2022. The release includes over an hour of bonus features, including the animatics for each episode, a round-up of the references and Easter eggs to other "Star Trek" series in each episode, featurettes about the sound design process and the making of the season in general, and audio commentaries with cast and crew for several of the episodes. Reception. Critical response. Rotten Tomatoes reported 100% approval with an average rating of 8.20/10 based on 10 reviews. Accolades. At the 2021 Golden Reel Awards, James Lucero, James Singleton, Mak Kellerman, Michael LaFerla, and Michael Britt were nominated for Outstanding  Achievement in Sound Editing – Animation Series or Short for their work on "Strange Energies". Also, the episode "wej Duj" has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.