Season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks has been somewhat underwhelming

Is it just me or has this latest season of Star Trek: Lower Decks not quite held up to the previous seasons?

When Paramount Plus launched the animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks, I was initially hesitant to jump aboard, but I wasn’t about to pass it by without giving it at least a shot. Of course, the only other animated Star Trek show we had ever had was The Animated Series, which is easily skippable if you ask me. However, when LD started up, I was pleasantly surprised!

Instead of anything resembling TAS, we were treated to a series that likely would find a home on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block with animation resembling Rick & Morty with a ton of Star Trek tropes thrown in. There were so many references back to various Trek series that it quickly became a favorite of mine. Unfortunately, this being the 2020s now, long gone are the 26-episode seasons of television shows, replaced with 10-episode seasons, which are entirely too short, if you ask me.

So once that first season had finished airing, I found myself eagerly awaiting the next season, which, of course is what the producers want. Unfortunately, I had to wait almost an entire year for that second season to start. When that second season hit, once again, week by week, I couldn’t wait for the next episode to drop every Thursday for ten weeks. This would continue now until this season. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Have the writers of Star Trek: Lower Decks run out of inside jokes for Trekfolk?

This season started off innocently enough with a great episode titled “Twovix” centered on Voyager and a ton of references back to episodes from that series, but the second episode, “I have no bones, yet I must flee” introduced us to the Moopsy, and I found it kind of lacking. I mean, sure, the characters are acting as they normally would, and the stories are all right. I just know that for my viewing pleasure, I very much prefer when subtle references are made to characters and stories from previous series.

By comparison, “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place” was a terrific episode. We got to visit Ferenginar, our Lower Deckers were put into awkward situations, and we even were treated to cameos from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine alums Max Grodenchik & Chase Masterson, but then they also gave us Episode 3, “In The Cradle of Vexilon” and Episode 6, “Empathological Fallacies”, which I really felt just missed the mark again. Maybe I’m just nit-picking, but with the way Star Trek: Lower Decks hit the ground running early on, I guess I’ve just come to expect more from it. They set a high bar for themselves early on, and I hope I’m just not expecting too much from them.