Star Trek: Lower Decks did something in its fifth season that no other Star Trek series has managed to do since Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005. It brought Jolene Blalock back into the franchise. It also gave Alexander Siddig's Dr. Julian Bashir a voice as well as Andrew Robinson's Garak, and Garrett Wang's Harry Kim. Though Lower Decks has brought back other Star Trek legacy characters throughout its five seasons, including Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Nana Visitor, and Armin Shimerman, this is the first time that we've heard from these other characters in decades. So it's natural to ask what this could mean for the future of these characters?
Jolene Blalock hasn't acted since 2017 prior to returning to the voice role of T'Pol, and she has never been in another Star Trek series. So how was it that the Lower Decks team got her to return, and is this a possible opening for her to show up in other series?
Siddig and Robinson have all remained active in various iterations of off-canon Star Trek, including Along Together: A DS9 Companion, while Wang has been busy with The Delta Flyers' podcast, and he appears at conventions as well as on the Star Trek cruises. So it's clear these actors want to stay in the franchise. And them returning to Lower Decks clearly shows their willingness to return to a Star Trek series.
And while it's about time these characters got some attention, we'd love to see them come back to our screens in live action as Frakes, Sirtis, Gates McFadden, and other legacy actors from the franchise have. Yes, Lower Decks brought these characters back in an alternate timeline, but there are many opportunities for them to return in the Prime Timeline such as the way Robert Picardo's EMH is returning in Starfleet Academy.
It's great that new actors are coming aboard, and we're going to meet new characters, but we will never forget those that made Star Trek for us. And there's no reason why more of these legacy characters haven't been seen onscreen since Star Trek: Discovery reignited the franchise in 2017.