Star Trek: Lower Decks shakes up the core premise of the show

Star Trek: Lower Decks had its entire core shaken up.

Star Trek: Lower Decks tells the story of four ensigns aboard of the U.S.S. Cerritos. They are Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimier (Jack Quaid), D’Vana Tendi (Noel Wells), and Sam Rutherford (Euegene Cordero). The four of them are the main focus of the show, usually getting the bulk of the screen time and lines.

They’re also among the lowest, and most inconsequential members of the crew. That was, until the start of the fourth season. In the season premiere, Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimier, and D’Vana Tendi are all promoted to the rank of lieutenant junior grade. So not only are they moving up from ensigns, but they are now able to get their own quarters on the ship, no longer sleeping in the bunk area of the ship.

Sam Rutherford would have to wait until episode two of season four to get his promotion when it’s revealed he has turned down many opportunities in the past to get promoted; as he just wanted to stay with his friends. Because he’s refused the offer so many times, it’s revealed that he can just accept a prior promotion.

Thus keeping the four together.

Star Trek: Lower Decks shakes up the formula in an almost series-killing way

Never mind the fact that one of the Voyager’s most necessary crew members was Ensign Harry Kim, but fans will be quick to remember that Worf started off as a lieutenant junior grade. The same grade that the four key characters on Lower Decks now are.

The entire premise of the show was to highlight the uninteresting and the never-mentioned crew members of a Starfleet ship, but the more and more the show goes on, the less and less that concept still exists.