Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 premieres Sept. 7 on Paramount+. Below is a spoiler-free review of the first eight episodes.
Star Trek: Lower Decks pursued a lot of nutty stories across its first three seasons, but it landed its biggest conceptual swing in July in its crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Those Old Scientists.” Lower Decks rides that critical and creative high into its fourth season premiere episode,“Twovix,” which crams in everything that’s great about the animated series: its deep love for the Trek franchise, its evolving cast of endearing characters, and ambitious plotting. With age comes maturity in Lower Decks’ storytelling, and the bulk of season 4 continues to tell strong standalone yarns while experimenting with an overarching serialized arc that's mostly successful.
The season premiere picks up after the events of "Those Old Scientists,” with Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) still doing the grunt work aboard the USS Ceritos alongside new Vulcan addition T’lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz). However, Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and First Officer Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) are clear-eyed about the Beta Shift team’s contributions to the ship and the accomplishment of many of their prior missions, so they’re assigned to help oversee the transportation of a beloved Federation artifact: the USS Voyager. (“Twovix” is an all-out celebration of Captain Janeway’s crew and ship featuring a litany of deep cut Easter eggs.) The ensigns’ eventual triumph marks a turning point in their careers and promotions put the “lower deckers” on a fresh path that allows the writers to explore their individual excitement, or lack thereof, about what it means to ascend Starfleet’s ranks.
More responsibility serves the whole cast well, especially the eternally competent but anxious Boimler, who spends a lot of season 4 pressed to rise to the occasion of leadership without the safety of any training wheels. On the flipside, Mariner’s self-sabotaging behavior and frequently aggressive impulses are also addressed; there’s a welcome, concerted effort to have her “grow up” a bit and face why she’s often her own worst enemy. On a lighter note, Tendi and Rutherford also get plenty of quality screen time, which ends up filling in the specifics of their respective backstories; “Parth Ferengi's Heart Place” (the best episode title of the season) straight up confronts the sweet, simmering chemistry that has so many viewers shipping the characters.
One of the most delightful surprises of the season is how well T’lyn integrates into the cast. Deemed too emotional to serve aboard the Vulcan ship Sh'vhal, T’lyn’s steady Vulcan countenance and unexpected empathy are readily accepted by the Beta Shift team. They all use her as an unlikely sounding board while they try to navigate the emotional landmines dredged up by their new positions. Ruiz does a beautiful job portraying T’lyn’s confusion regarding their perplexing outreach, which culminates in a surprising revelation about her own struggles in “Empathalogical Fallacies.” It’s a satisfying arc that firmly cements her as a wanted member of the Cerritos.
For those who appreciate Lower Deck's unrepentant weaving of Trek mythology into the spine of its storytelling, there’s a lot to appreciate in “Something Borrowed, Something Green,” which cracks open the Orion homeworld to curious outsiders. It’s an epic adventure for Tendi, Mariner, and T’lyn that’s character-centric while adding so much to the little known pirate warriors. Likewise, “Caves” celebrates the proud tradition of stranding Starfleet officers in a hole for an episode, spinning that age-old cost-cutting strategy into a clever, mini anthology episode that prompts each character to reveal something surprising about themselves. “Parth Ferengi's Heart Place” gives Deep Space Nine its due in with a celebration of all things Ferengi and a cameo from fan favorite Rom (Max Grodénchik).
More than ever before, season 4 sees McMahan and his writers utilizing their established, deep bench of original characters as the foundation for many episodes. Familiar faces like AGIMUS (Jeffrey Combs), Peanut Hamper (Kether Donohue), Badgey (Jack McBrayer), the Delta Shift team, and even Boimler’s ensign nemesis make appearances, which in turn deepen the resonance of Lower Decks’ world-building. Investing in its own ecosystem of recurring characters not only puts the animated series on the same level as its live-action counterparts, but it also rewards the viewers who have invested in this show too.
There are a few bobbles, including “In the Cradle of Vexilon,”' which introduces a kind yet omnipotent computer that needs to be serviced yet squanders that interesting premise by reducing it to an overly loud and chaotic doomsday implosion of the planet. (It feels like it should have been a lot smarter in what it has to say about AI and human governance.) The same problems extend to “A Few Badgey’s More” which attempts to tell an evil robotics story that gets too big and too silly to be taken seriously. There’s also an overarching villain story that starts at the end of the premiere and builds too slowly over the course of the season, growing repetitive before it’s able to pay off in a consequential way. But even with some missteps, Lower Decks has proven its worth four seasons into its run, possessing a crew and characters you want to spend time with.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/star-trek-lower-decks-season-4-review