Posted in: CBS, Star Trek, streaming, TV | Tagged: James Cromwell, Mike McMahan, star trek, Star Trek: First Contact, star trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3: Mike McMahan Breaks Down Premiere

Star Trek: Lower Decks returned for its third season with the premiere episode "Grounded," which saw the lower deckers trying to find a way to free their captain, Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), from charges that she helped orchestrate an act of terrorism by blowing up the capital of the Pakled planet. Creator Mike McMahan spoke with Trek Movie about the Earth-based episode, the homage to 1996's First Contact, Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine, and more.

How Mike McMahan Wanted to Set the Stage for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3

"For the first episode back, we wanted to feel like not only setting the stage for this season, but we also wanted to pay some of the bills from last season," McMahan said. "And we wanted to celebrate episodes where you go back to Earth. So it has a little bit of all those flavors. I really love the episode because I love First Contact. I love James Cromwell. And I love all of the Earth-based episodes of TNG and Deep Space Nine. I like being there for that stuff, but yeah, I think it does set the stage for like, 'Hey, this season is going to have a lot of heart in it.' It's not just going to be goofing around. We're going to be goofing around! But also, we're going to be doing some stuff with the characters that set up more stages for the future."

McMahan also broke down how lower deckers in Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) will grow throughout the season. "Oh, yeah, absolutely. It might feel sudden, but at the same time, we've had a year to watch that finale, where Boimler is literally diving through a threshold that he didn't feel like he was prepared for, man," he said. "When you watch all 30 of these episodes in a row, all the characters change each season. They're all based on experiences they've had in the seasons before. And the trick is, none of us have a huge change, right? Like there are things in our lives that make us feel more confident. And then we test to see if that's who we are. And Lower Decks is all about exploring personal truth, not maybe galactic new planetary truth. And so, every year, I challenge the writers and myself to say, 'Okay, what are we learning about the characters this year?' What did they not know about themselves? What were they wrong about themselves? And, as any good Starfleet officer might do, how do they allow themselves to move forward and to actually learn from the experiences they had, without changing what the DNA of what Lower Decks is all about."

For more on McMahan talking about the lower deckers' relationship with the senior officers of the U.S.S. Cerritos, revisiting First Contact, recruiting James Cromwell to reprise Zefram Cochrane, bringing more legacy characters & more, you can check out the whole interview here. New episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks stream Thursdays on Paramount+.

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