Warning! The next accommodates spoilers for the Star Trek: Decrease Decks finale, “The New Subsequent Technology.” Stream it with a Paramount+ subscription and browse at your individual danger!
We have formally stated goodbye to a different Star Trek collection exiting the 2024 TV schedule, however there are nonetheless followers hoping we’ll see Decrease Decks pop again up on the upcoming Trek slate sooner or later. I rely myself as a type of, particularly after the animated collection added such a game-changing component to the franchise, opening up the floodgates for a lot of cool adventures down the highway. Starfleet now has a secure portal to the multiverse, and I needed to ask creator Mike McMahan how exhausting that was to clear.
Whereas Trek has delivered some WTF moments in TNG and different exhibits, it surprisingly hasn’t spent a lot time exploring the prospect of the multiverse. There’s the Mirror Universe, the parallel universe and, in fact, te different timelines that make for the Kelvin universe. All that stated, Decrease Decks exploded the idea of the multiverse and confirmed a seemingly limitless quantity of realities for Starfleet to discover with the brand new portal.
With such a radical change added to the Prime universe’s canon, I requested Mike McMahan if it was a wrestle getting it cleared, he confirmed as a lot, saying:
It was just a little bit… Star Trek has two varieties of multidimensionality, proper? You have bought the episode parallels from TNG, and you then’ve bought the Mirror Universe stuff. I’ve all the time thought the Mirror Universe stuff is not actually my cup of tea, but it surely’s so Star Trek. I like the concept. That is the place the Harry Kim line got here from the place he is like, ‘There’s greater than two universes?!’ So I feel that is very humorous…I labored for 4 seasons on Rick and Morty speaking concerning the multiverse. I put a number of thought into what concerning the multiverse can change into as fascinating as warp journey, proper? And what’s Star Trek actually about? And, and Star Trek is not about assembly, speaking goo or no matter. I imply, it’s, but it surely’s additionally about studying concerning the potentialities of life itself, proper? So it isn’t that huge of a leap to think about like alternate dimension, Lily Sloane touring the multiverse, studying concerning the potentialities of humanity and having a map of the multiverse quadrant is basically thrilling to me.
As somebody who considers Star Trek: First Contact top-of-the-line Trek motion pictures ever made, I completely beloved that Lily Sloane reference. I additionally adore that Mike McMahan talked about his time as head author of Rick and Morty, which tackles multiversal storytelling in addition to any franchise on the market. If Alex Kurtzman and crew are on the lookout for somebody to move up a collection diving into Trek‘s multiverse mishaps, he is the man to do it. Assuming they don’t seem to be nonetheless mad about his cheeky joke Discovery‘s Klingons, I feel he’d nail that job.
McMahan continued to speak about pitching the concept of a multiversal risk in Star Trek and what lastly offered the concept to the decision-makers above him. In doing so, he dropped one other huge identify in shouting out Decrease Decks voice actor Jerry O’Connell, who memorably had one other multiverse sci-fi fave years earlier than he joined Trek. Because the showrunner put it:
You are not attempting to get dwelling like Jerry [O’Connell] did in Sliders, you are attempting to find out about humanity and and develop from it. As soon as I noticed that was the way in which I may do it and that I may mislead that there was a nasty man ripping open the multiverse all season, and you then discover out, no, it is simply one other model of Starfleet that meant nicely. That felt so Star Trek to me that I actually did not get any pushback as soon as the powers that be learn that stuff.
Whereas it is nonetheless a bummer that Star Trek: Decrease Decks will not return anyplace on the 2025 TV schedule, there’s an upside in that the portal for exploring the multiverse now exists within the Prime timeline. This is able to imply that assuming a collection takes place after Decrease Decks is about, it is truthful recreation for this portal for use by different Star Trek exhibits. I hope it’s utilized by future creatives and never simply one thing the franchise leaves drifting in area like the nice Borgs from Picard Season 2.
Proper now, the chances of Star Trek: Decrease Decks returning to tv feels very slim. That stated, this fanbase is used to unbelievable comebacks of their beloved exhibits, and after Netflix saved Prodigy, I would say the collection could discover a dwelling but once more. We’ll simply need to cross our fingers and possibly write some letters to Paramount to see it occur, however I am down for the trigger if it means adventures within the multiverse.
Anybody who missed the finale or any of Star Trek: Decrease Decks can test it out on Paramount+ proper now. There are many nice episodes to look at or revisit when you’ve seen the collection earlier than, so do not delay in streaming it in the present day.