Posted in: Netflix, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: Star Trek Picard, star trek: Lower Decks, star trek: prodigy

Star Trek: Did TNG Era End with "Picard" & "Lower Decks" Finales?

Paramount shouldn't move on from the Star Trek: TNG era, and they can start by bringing back "Lower Decks" and "Prodigy" for more seasons.

As Paramount shifts its priorities in the Star Trek franchise, wrapping its first generation of streamer-era shows with Discovery, Picard, and most recently, Lower Decks with Prodigy back in limbo without any certainty for season three at Netflix, it seems we're set in a specific direction. Strange New Worlds is the only series, live-action or animated still active with Starfleet Academy currently filming and the untitled Tawny Newsome live-action Trek comedy in development, but not official. What was initially set as a live-action spinoff series for Discovery in Section 31 is a standalone film that offers little as far as expanding narrative possibilities by telling a fuller story of Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) embracing her new role in the top-secret organization. The only other major tidbit of note is the reintroduction of Rachel Garrett, the captain of the Enterprise-C on The Next Generation, now played by Kacey Rohl. The question remains: what of the current Picard post-TNG timeline with Starfleet Academy resuming the 32nd-century narrative of Discovery and SNW continuing its path as the direct prequel to The Original Series in the 23rd century?

Paramount Left Star Trek TNG Timeline in Limbo After 'Picard, Lower Decks,' and 'Prodigy'

When Terry Matalas concluded Picard after three seasons, it was supposed to tease into Legacy, which continued the story of the rebranded U.S.S. Titan-A, but now led by Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), arguably Star Trek's best comeback story (sorry Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham). As someone who rediscovered her humanity thanks to Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) on Star Trek: Voyager, only to be turned away by the organization she served thanks to prejudice against the Borg as she spent most of her life assimilated.

Rediscovering her humanity didn't mean rejecting her past completely. Eventually, after her run as the vigilante Fenris Rangers, Seven went above and beyond helping to save the Federation along with Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the TNG crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D taking down the Borg once and for all (in their last ditch effort?) to conquer earth once and for all. The ending saw not only Seven getting the endorsement of two, possibly three Starfleet admirals with Picard, Janeway, and, presumably, Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden)… and her former racist captain, the late Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), but she was able to finally get her deserved place in leadership with the news delivered by her former Voyager shipmate, Captain Tuvok (Tim Russ). The rebranded U.S.S. Enterprise-E flew off into the galactic sunset. Alas, that was not to be as Paramount NEVER greenlit Legacy, remaining in limbo, before Matalas accepted a new job at Marvel, showrunning their latest MCU series Vision.

When Prodigy wrapped season two, we saw an epic reunion of sorts, even if it's animated, that saw Crusher's mother and son back together as Wil Wheaton reprised his role as Wesley in a much bigger role as a traveler. In the season two finale, McFadden, who also had a recurring role, reprised Beverly and interacted with Janeway before the events of Picard. The final scene had the Crusher brothers finally meeting, but sadly offscreen. As we were treated with a bigger picture to fill in on the blanks with the Voyager crew, we saw Janeway and her former first officer Chakotay (Robert Beltran) reunited as he was revealed to be the captain of the U.S.S. Protostar. While the ship was revealed to be experimental, the full potential was used by the Vau N'Akat to act as a trojan horse to the Federation fleet. As the crew saved the day, the ship was recommissioned to be a ship of exploration, again leaving the timeline in limbo as Netflix didn't announced anything to the Nickelodeon animate series' future.

That leaves us with Lower Decks, which wrapped earlier in December on Paramount+. The only dramatic change for the finale was that the interdimensional wormhole would be left intact and studied up close by Starbase 80, leading the way to research would be the former captain of the USS Cerritos, Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), and Jack Ransom (Jerry O'Connell) promoted to captain, but wait! There's more. In another shocking turn of events, and also it's within Ransom's sadistic nature, he allows junior lieutenants Mariner (Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid) to share duties as provisional first officers, essentially leapfrogging their more senior lieutenant peers. Then again, sharing duties isn't new for the Cerritos, as D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) also share senior science officer duties.

While Paramount was content leaving Lower Decks after five seasons, it still leaves that void from that TNG era as both LD and Prodigy take place before the events of Picard. A third season of Prodigy and season six of Lower Decks could play that catchup to that era in a time jump, even if Legacy doesn't become a reality. It leaves so much meat to the bone. It's mind-bogglingly frustrating to gauge where Paramount wants to go with the franchise these days. We've had three prequel series to TOS with Enterprise, Discovery, and SNW.

Deep Space Nine took place in a separate region of space that was designed not so much to advance the TNG narrative, but we did get the universe-spanning Dominion War. Voyager was 99 percent set in the Delta Quadrant and earth events didn't affect the UPN series. Since we are getting Rachel Garrett back, we're finally getting another story to help bridge TOS and TNG. That's not even getting into the limbo of the Kelvin universe, which Paramount insists on staying in the TOS era. I know Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan is being diplomatic despite having additional seasons written, but give us fans a bone, Paramount! If you don't have anything planned, then what's wrong, at the very least, in giving us another season of Lower Decks?

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