The fourth season of the American adult animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks is set in the 24th century and follows the adventures of the low-ranking officers with menial jobs on the starship 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. A fourth season of Lower Decks was ordered in January 2022. Writing began by that April and was mostly completed by September, with voice recording starting by June. The season features many connections and references to past Star Trek media such as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, including several actors returning as guest stars.
The season premiered on the streaming service Paramount+ on September 7, 2023, with its first two episodes. The rest of the 10-episode run was released weekly until November 2. The season received a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nomination for its sound editing and several other awards and nominations. A fifth season was ordered in March 2023.[1]
Paramount+ ordered a 10-episode fourth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks in January 2022, when it also announced season renewals for the other Star Trek Universe series.[4] Writing for the season began by that April,[5] and was mostly completed by September.[6]
After the success of the second-season episode "wej Duj", which had a different format than previous episodes of the series, McMahan said the writers were trying to bring those types of ideas to the whole fourth season.[7] He later said the season would have an episode that continued from the third-season episode "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption", in which the narcissistic exocomp Peanut Hamper met the evil computer AGIMUS,[8][9] but said there would not be a standalone Peanut Hamper episode in the season like that episode was. McMahan added that there would be an episode set on the planet Orion, a romantic episode, and a wedding.[10]
The series stars a group of ensigns that serve 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. The ship's bridge crew, who have supporting roles, include 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.[2][3] Newsome had begun recording voice overs for the season by June 2022, when she was also doing additional dialogue recording (ADR) for the third season.[11]
McMahan did not anticipate the positive fan reaction to second-season guest star Gabrielle Ruiz's T'Lyn when working on the third season, so she only has a small role there, but he hoped to explore her further in future seasons;[12][13] he later described the fourth season as going "to T'Lyn town. I want to know what she's up to."[7] T'Lyn is a "provisional ensign" aboard the Cerritos in the fourth season.[3]
Independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for the series,[14] with Barry J. Kelly serving as supervising director.[15] The art team was about to begin work in mid-July 2022,[7] and animation was nearly complete in September 2023.[15] The animation style reflects the look of "prime time animated comedy" series such as The Simpsons, but with more detailed backgrounds and environments than is traditional for prime time animation.[16]
Despite Orions being introduced to Star Trek more than 50 years earlier, this season is the first time that the planet Orion is seen on screen. Art director Nollan Obena's approach to desiging planet locations for the series was to have diverse locations on each planet, just as different regions on Earth look different. For Orion, these different locations range from farmland to a city inspired by the film Blade Runner (1982). Though Orions are traditionally associated with pirate culturee, Kelly did not want their homes on Orion to continue that theme because "pirates and drug lords get pretty snazzy homes. They live on island resorts that do not look like a pirate ship".[15]
A trailer and the key art poster for the season were revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2023, when the season's premiere date was also announced. The poster continues the series' theme of referencing the posters of the Star Trek films, with this one being an homage to the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) poster.[3] Commentators highlighted the potential promotions that the trailer teased for the series' main characters as well as the arrival of T'Lyn on the Cerritos.[17][18][19] Another trailer and poster were released in August, and commentators highlighted the reveal that the series' main characters would be visiting the USS Voyager in the season.[20][21] The episode "Caves" was screened at a Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con in October 2023, before its release on Paramount+. This was followed by a discussion about the season with McMahan.[22]
As with the previous seasons, 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.[23][24] Mondo and EXO-6 announced the availability of new Mariner, Boimler, and Badgey figurines to coincide with the season's release,[25] and Funko announced Funko Pop figurines of Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and Badgey with the release of the season finale. By that time, Hallmark released Badgey Christmas ornaments as part of their 2023 line of Star Trek ornaments, and the creature Moopsy from the season's second episode was added to the Star Trek: Lower Decks – The Badgey Directive moble game.[26] In March 2024, Master Replicas announced a Moopsy plush toy would be released later in the year.[27] Responding to the fan enthusiasm for Moopsy which led to this merchandise, McMahan said the writers did not know audiences would respond that way but he understood why they were drawn to a creature that was adorable, with a child's voice, but also scary.[22]
The season premiered on Paramount+ in the United States and Latin America on September 7, 2023, with its first two episodes.[3] The rest of its 10-episode run was released weekly.[1] Each episode was broadcast in Canada on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel, and made available on Paramount+ in the UK, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and South Korea later in 2023.[3]
The season was released for purchase on digital platforms on February 5, 2024, and it was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the U.S. on April 16, 2024. The physical release includes behind-the-scenes featurettes for the finale and the season as a whole, as well as audio commentaries with cast and crew for several of the episodes.[28]
Rotten Tomatoes reported 100% approval with an average rating of 8.80/10 based on 18 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mirthful as ever while having grown into a proper Star Trek serial in its own right, Lower Decks' fourth season swabs the series' formula into a pristine polish."[29] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 83 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[30]