Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5 is the animated comedy’s final season on Paramount+, but series stars Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Eugene Cordero, and Noël Wells will see their characters go out with a bang. In one of the few times all four stars have been together in the same place, the Lower Decker actors assembled at New York Comic Con.
Picking up from where Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 left off, season 5 begins with D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) back home with the Orions. Meanwhile, the USS Cerritos encounters an alternate reality doppelganger, with Lt. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) meeting her more successful double, Captain Becky Freeman. That kicks off Lower Decks’ final season of hilarity, involving an Orion war, Klingon targs, a spoof of Star Trek: Enterprise’s infamous decontamination chamber, and the return of Star Trek: Voyager’s Harry Kim (Garrett Wang), who is finally promoted to Lieutenant.
Screen Rant interviewed Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero about where their Lower Deckers are headed next in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, Harry Kim, and Twin Twains.
Star Trek: Voyager’s Harry Kim Is A Lieutenant In Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5
Garrett Wang was so excited to be on Lower Decks.
Screen Rant: Let’s talk season 5. There’s so much cool stuff in the trailer that we can talk about. You have Garrett Wang as Lieutenant Harry Kim, which is awesome. Did you guys get to record with Garrett?
Jack Quaid: No, no, unfortunately not.
Tawny Newsome: We see Garrett a lot of the cons, and he has been so excited about it.
Jack Quaid: So excited.
Tawny Newsome: Like, when they called him to offer it to him, he was like, “Guys!” He’d see me in Eugene at the cons, he’d be like, “They called me in!” I’m gonna come do it.” And then when they booked him to record, he’s like, “Guys, I got my date when I’m gonna record, this is when I’m coming in.” And then they recorded it. “Guys!”
Jack Quaid: “I recorded it!”
Eugene Cordero: And then he was like, “Guys, can I start telling people that I’m in this?” Oh, every moment of it. And honestly, after watching it, it’s amazing.
Would The Lower Decks Cast Return To Play Their Characters In Live-Action?
Tawny and Jack have done live-action, but Eugene and Noel haven’t.
Screen Rant: One of my favorite things in the trailer, also as an Enterprise fan, is the decontamination chamber, which was awesome. Would you guys do that in live action if you had the chance? Actually do your own decon scene?
Eugene Cordero: I’ll do anything in live-action. Yeah, give me a job, I’ll take it. You know, if you’ve got a job over at Screen Rant, like, I’ll do your backgrounds. I don’t care.
Jack Quaid: Do it.
Eugene Cordero: I think all of us would be excited to do a live-action with all four.
Jack Quaid: Oh my God, I want them in live action so bad.
Eugene Cordero: We got jealous when they did it.
Tawny Newsome On Making Captain Becky Freeman Different From Lt. Beckett Mariner
Mariner meets her double in Lower Decks season 5.
Screen Rant: In season 5, you meet an alternate universe USS Cerritos, which is great. Tawny, tell me about playing Mariner and Captain Becky Freeman, making them a little different.
Tawny Newsome: Oh, my gosh. I love playing Becky Freeman. The name is so effed up, like a black woman named Becky is just, it’s… Something’s wrong, just spinning the other way. Like it’s not right. And I love just trying to do her voice a little bit different. I loved at the end – spoiler for the end of the episode – her trying to pretend to be our Mariner and trying to, like, sound kind of cool. “What’s up, guys?”
Jack Quaid: “How do you do, fellow kids?”
Tawny Newsome: Yeah, she’s doing a very good, “How do you do, fellow kids?” skateboard over the shoulder type vibe. I love stuff like that. Some of my favorite episodes of Trek are where people get to play alternate versions of themselves. So this is a dream.
Jack Quaid Describes Boimler’s Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Running Joke
Something about Boimler’s physical appearance changes
Screen Rant: Jack, Boimler got a taste of the captain’s chair at the end of season 4. And you know, I feel like Boimler really is going to be a great captain someday. But let’s talk a little bit about what he’s up to in season 5.
Jack Quaid: Well, without spoiling too much, essentially, he is trying to emulate a person that he meets because he sees how successful this person is, and it’s one of my favorite season-long arcs that Boimler has ever had. Because he is just, you know,, his whole journey is increasing his confidence, and he backslides a little bit immediately, which is so funny to me. And he goes about it in kind of the wrong way, but it is a very, very funny arc. Without giving too much away, there’s something about his physical appearance that does change and is tracked throughout every episode. And it’s one of my favorite little visual gags that the show has ever done. So I’m very, very excited for
you guys to see what’s in store from Boimler this season. It’s amazing.
Screen Rant: Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. I absolutely love it.
Jack Quaid: It’s so great. Occasionally, it’s very gross to look at, and it’s wonderful.
Noël Wells Talks About Tendi’s Orion Homecoming In Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5
Is a pirate’s life for Tendi?
Screen Rant: Noël, Tendi is the greatest Orion character ever in Star Trek. Tell me a little bit about playing Tendi back home with the Orions. And the blue Orions is such a cool storyline.
Noël Wells: Yeah, it’s been really… Well for her as a character, she’s been sort of living out her dream, and now she’s back in a place she doesn’t want to be stuck, and she’s trying. I think she has this point of view that maybe she can actually make a difference, or maybe she can change things a little bit, and watching Tendi sort of putting these idealistic points of view into action, and seeing how it blows up in her face, but then also seeing how she ultimately is potentially changing things for the better in terms of how she sees the world. It’s fun. It’s fun to see her do the highs and lows. She gets to be Tendi, she gets to be a pirate, she gets to fight with people. You see her with her family. You also see how big of a heart she has. And also you see that a lot of Orions play against the stereotype of what we’ve seen in Star Trek thus far.
Eugene Cordero On Rutherford Coping Without Tendi At The Start Of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5
Rutherford isn’t handling it well
Screen Rant: Eugene Rutherford doesn’t take Tendi being gone too well. They’re just besties. Tell me how he’s doing that, and when the season starts.
Eugene Cordero: He’s thriving. No, he’s broken up. He’s having a hard time doing the things he loves to do. But he’s also like a, you know, perfectionist in a way, or he gets really excited about his work, so he’s going to try to make work the most important thing. But yeah, he misses his bestie, and is hoping for them to reconnect in one way or the other. And I think he grows because of it. Let’s just say that he grows because… And yeah, he becomes a better Rutherford.
Jack Quaid & Eugene Cordero Talk Twin Twins In Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4
“Horses! Horses! Horses!”
Screen Rant: Jack and Eugene. I just also want to say that my absolute favorite joke in season 4 was Twin Twains. I say, I loved it!
Jack Quaid: Us too. I say, I loved it.
Eugene Cordero: I don’t know if I could actually say that correctly.
Jack Quaid: That’s our Twain. Yeah. I think my favorite thing that I got to sneak into that episode just really quick was there’s a moment where the two of us just kind of talks simultaneously. One of the things… You can’t make it out because we’re talking at the same time, but one of the things I get to say is just, “Horses! Horses! Horses!” And it just made my entire year.
About Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5
In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, the crew of the USS Cerritos is tasked with closing “space potholes” – subspace rifts that are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford … if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries, and scariest of all: their own career aspirations. This upcoming season on Paramount+ is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.