Jonathan Frakes talks about the Star Trek crossover between Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds crossover

Star Trek: Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds will crossover this year with Jonathan Frakes at the helm.

Star Trek: Picard is wrapping up and Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are up next. The series is vastly different from one another, with Strange New Worlds serving as a live-action prequel to the original series, that takes fans back to the true, classic Trek. Lower Decks is more of a poor man’s Ricky and Morty, with the same style of animation, crude humor, and target demographic.

The two shows have little in common. They’re not even set in the same time period, with Strange New Worlds coming before the Original Series and featuring the original U.S.S. Enterprise, captained by Christopher Pike, while Lower Decks takes place after the return of Voyager from the Delta Quadrant and the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

Yet, this summer, the two shows are crossing over and Trek icon Jonathan Frakes is going to direct the series. Frakes recently spoke to TrekMovie and shed some light on what fans can expect from the crossover event, saying;

"Mariner and Boimler just happen to cross over from their animated world into the ship with Anson (Pike), and Rebecca (Number One) and Ethan (Spock) on Strange New Worlds. And it is a flat-out comic [episode]. It’s fabulous. It’s a fish out of water. Fortunately, both Quaid and Tawny look like their characters. So it’s so absurd to see them in three dimensions and their interrelations… Boimler is obsessed with Spock, and terrified of Number One. There is so much good stuff. And Mariner comes to save the day. It’s very, very funny. I’m very proud of it. And I can’t wait for people to see it."

There are a lot of expectations for the Star Trek crossover

There’s a certain section of fans that will eat up any and all things Star Trek, regardless if it’s good or not. Most people, however, won’t just blindly like something because they’re told to, or they’re not a real fan. The crossover between Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks is very risky. It could be so absurd it kills the momentum Strange New Worlds has.

It could be so hammy that it doesn’t vibe with the series. It could also be so poorly done that it makes the Lower Decks side of things look inferior in the process. These are worst-case scenarios, mind you, but the crossover could harm both properties.

Frakes has got to hit a home run with this idea.