Release date: August 6 (airs weekly on Thursdays)
Cast: Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero
Age rating: TBD
Episodes: 10 (half hour)
Boldly go where no one's gone before when you watch Star Trek: Lower Decks online, starting Thursday. CBS All Access is debuting the first animated Star Trek series in the franchise since the 1973–74 series Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Lower Decks follows the support crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in the year 2380. So, no captains or admirals here. Instead, the focus remains on the crew members who didn't get much attention on series like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi balance their duties with their social lives, all while their ship is rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
- What to know about Star Trek: Picard season 2
- Star Trek: Discovery season 3 release date, cast and more
- New TV shows: What to watch this month
Lower Decks is the third Star Trek series developed by CBS All Access, after Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. And there's another one, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, coming down the pipeline.
At last year's Comic-Con, creator Mike McMahan said, "It was really important to me that even though we are a comedy, the comedy does not come from punching down on Trek, or making fun of tropes. It feels like every episode is a Star Trek episode, but we are focusing on people in the ship who are funny, and you will love."
McMahan also teased that longtime Trek fans can look forward to references and Easter Eggs. "If you love Star Trek, it is in a shared universe. So, there are jokes, and jokes that you guys will get, about like Odo’s bucket," he said.
Here's everything you need to know about how to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks online.
How to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks online anywhere, with a VPN
Just because CBS All Access isn't available everywhere doesn't mean you can't watch Star Trek: Lower Decks if you're away from home. Watching the new animated Star Trek series along with the rest of the internet can be pretty easy with the right VPN (virtual private network). You can stream the show from wherever you go.
We've evaluated many VPN services, and our top pick is ExpressVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. It's also affordable at $12.95 per month. (Signing up for longer periods of six months or a year reduces the cost even more.)
How to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks in the US and Canada
For fans in the U.S. and Canada who want to stream Star Trek: Lower Decks, they can watch on CBS All Access, which costs $5.99 per month with ads or $9.99 per month for the ad-free version.
How to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks in the UK and Australia
Unfortunately, CBS All Access is not available in the UK or Australia.
If you're traveling abroad and want to use the service, check out ExpressVPN.
Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer
The official Star Trek: Lower Decks trailer opens with someone narrating a captain's log ... but it turns to only be Ensign Brad Boimler. And when his friend, Ensign Beckett Mariner, catches him in the act, she gives him a good teasing.
Star Trek: Lower Decks cast
The voice cast of Star Trek: Lower Decks includes:
- Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner
- Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler
- Noël Wells as Ensign D'Vana Tendi, who works in the medical bay
- Eugene Cordero as Ensign Sam Rutherford, an engineer
- Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman
- Jerry O'Connell as Jack Ransom, first officer of the Cerritos
- Fred Tatasciore as Lt. Shaxs, a Bajoran officer
- Gillian Vigman as Dr. T'Ana, a Caitian and head of medical
- Paul Scheer as Andy Billups, chief engineer of the Cerritos
Star Trek: Lower Deck reviews
Here's a roundup of reviews of Star Trek: Lower Decks.
New York Times: "Through four episodes, Lower Decks feels caught in between. It’s a smooth and zippy package, but it doesn’t register very strongly as either a geekfest or a transgressive satire. Which is another way of saying it’s not all that funny. Wherever it’s going, it’s not doing it very boldly."
Rolling Stone: "It’s just over the edge of being too adult for kids to watch — Mariner complains that a yeti she once met was “being a dick,” and in one episode gets a punishment detail to clean the holodeck of what’s implied to be semen — but never really delves into truly R-rated Trek content. "
Vulture: "Lower Decks actually makes a good entry point for new or casual fans with only a passing understanding of the franchise. It’s fun and sometimes even surprising. But it fosters an ironic distance between what it wants to be and Star Trek as a whole. "
