Star Trek: Lower Decks' cancelation highlights the issue with animation

Paramount+ has gone on a cancelation spree, ending every show on its service save for one, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. That show, despite season three just beginning production has already been given a green light on season four, and rightfully so. This has made it the only show still standing on the service. Star Trek: Prodigy is off to Netflix with an unknown future, and every other show under the Paramount+ banner has been canceled.

The latest two victims of what appears to be a mismanagement of funds, as well as a lack of viewers are Discovery and Lower Decks. Discovery was canceled a few months ago, just ahead of its fifth and now final season, while Lower Decks got the axed earlier this week. After Discovery was canceled, the show was given a chance to bring its cast and crew back for a minor filming session to put a proper conclusion on the series.

With the sets and such already built, it wasn't hard, they just had to get in and film before the studio had the sets taken down. It was probably quick, clean, and easy to do. Lower Decks will not be afforded that same finale, however.

Unlike Discovery, Lower Decks is an animated show and that means that putting together, even a final 30 seconds that can properly close out the series would cost far more than just filming a live-action conclusion like Discovery.

You're talking about getting writers on board to write a new scene, renting or leasing a recording space, and flying in the talent to record new dialogue, all while spending a lot of money to animate the new scenes. New scenes will have to be rushed as opposed to the other illustrations already made for the now-final season.

It just takes too much work to get the new scenes recorded, edited, illustrated, and put together than it would for a group of people to use already created sets and props one final time. This is the issue with animation. It takes longer to create and while it can give you more bombastic action scenes at a fraction of the cost, you're also looking at more per scene than your standard live-action show. So a scene with two people walking and talking could cost twice or three times the amount of any other type of shot like that in live-action.

The good news for fans, however, is that usually Lower Decks is written and filmed in a way where the end of the season leaves no standing, unresolved issues, just in case they were canceled. The only time that did happen, where there was a to be continued, was when they had an assurance they were coming back for another season.

So you'll likely get a satisfying finale regardless.