‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Star Tawny Newsome on Her New ‘Trek’ Comedy and Whether the Series Finale Is Really the End: ‘None of Us Are Done’

variety.com:

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER WARNING: This story includes plot developments of the series finale of “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” currently streaming on Paramount+.

When “Star Trek: Lower Decks” premiered during the height of the pandemic in August 2020, it was seen as a somewhat radical experiment: It was the first animated “Trek” show since the 1970s.

It was the first “Trek” comedy ever. And it was the first time a “Trek” show focused on the junior officers aboard a Starfleet vessel: ne’er-do-well genius Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), anxious tryhard Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Orion science officer D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) and cybernetically enhanced engineer Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), all serving aboard the minor league starship the U.S.S.

Cerritos. Five seasons later, “Lower Decks” has more than proven itself as a worthy addition to the vast “Star Trek” galaxy, by marrying fast-paced satire with the creative freedom of animation to pay loving homage to every previous iteration of “Trek” — including a crossover episode with “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” in which Newsome and Quaid played their characters in live action.