Review: 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Sets Phasers to Fun for Season 3

With deep cuts, fast-paced storytelling, and franchise-authentic storylines, Mike McMahan's adult animated comedy take on "Star Trek" warps into Season 3 with phasers set to fun... plus, there's a same-sex romance in store for one of the main characters.

The 10-episode season, premiering on Paramount+ on Aug. 25, picks up where Season 2 left off: A galactic crisis rocks the Federation, while the crew of the Starship Cerritos face a problem closer to home – namely, Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) has been framed for destroying an inhabited planet. Shades of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" goose the season premiere along as Freeman's daughter, the perpetually self-sabotaging Mariner (Tawny Newsome), ropes her pals Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) into a rogue mission to clear Freeman's name.

The new season revels in Easter eggs, callbacks, and in-jokes with just as much energy as in past seasons, though perhaps with a little more finesse, while finding new angles to explore in old sci-fi tropes. Deadly illusions, diplomatic crises, and, yes, the holodeck all serve as story engines, just as fans would expect. But there's more attention paid to the characters, and their development, than in some of the more "serious" properties of the franchise, as Tendi comes to grips with her racial heritage (she hates being stereotyped as an Orion pirate), Boimler seeks to put aside his by-the-book persona ("bold Boimler" is a refreshing refrain), and Mariner, conversely, learns to put the brakes on her impetuous nature (under the watchful eye of First Officer Ransom [Jerry O'Connell]). Darker plot threads attend the deepening mystery of Rutherford's missing memories: Who took them, and why? Fans will certainly have their theories... and one likely suspect resurfaces at an unexpected moment.

Animation makes it more practical for "Lower Decks" to visit beloved corners of the "Star Trek" universe that would be expensive or impractical for the live action shows. One of the new season's episodes finds the Cerritos crew stopping by Deep Space Nine (with a couple legacy characters playing significant roles and being voiced by the original actors). Similarly, a whole cosmos-worth of different aliens can pop up from week to week, including species only ever seen on the original animated series from 1973.

McMahan and co. have a long, detailed memory for "Trek" lore, but they also bring a quality of attention to the series that other shows lack. If you have, say, a transporter-generated clone of yourself running around the universe, what heroics... or mischief... might they get up to? The "Berman era" of "Trek" from the '80s and '90s played with concepts like these to a limited extent before dropping the thread. The "Lower Decks" producers poke fun at that level of inattention, never more so than in a late-season episode that sees Mariner, Boimler, and the others raking the entire "Trek" movie franchise over the coals (in the most affectionate and good-spirited way possible, it should be noted).

"Lower Decks" has been, and continues to be, a tonic for a franchise that tends to take itself too seriously. At the same time, the show – like the other animated series currently being produced, "Prodigy" – stays true to the old-school core of "Star Trek" more consistently than any of the modern live-action series (with the possible exception of "Strange New Worlds," which is off to a good start, but which will have to prove itself in Season 2 to really convince die-hard fans).

If you've been looking forward to the return of "Lower Decks," you'll be happy to see the series is still in fine form. If you've been skeptical that this zippy animated Star Treat is more than just "The Simpsons in Space," now's the time to head on over to Paramount+ and find out why that's not the case.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks," Season 3, premieres on Paramount+ on Aug. 25, with new episodes weekly.