The USS Cerritos encounters a familiar enemy. while Tendi helps a struggling recruit find her footing.

Can you have too much fun with Star Trek, and can a show’s season finale be so different in comparison to previous episodes? These are two questions that kept hitting me while watching the final instalment of Mike McMahan’s Star Trek comedy spinoff. It’s noisy and eventful, but is it true to the previous nine weeks?

Structured like an explosive TNG finale that references characters and events from previously in the season, there’s a point where this episode stops being a comedy and just becomes pure Star Trek, with big music, starship battles, sacrifice and loss. It’s great, but was this the show we’ve been watching the previous weeks, and is this the show it has now  become?

The way things are left means that nothing will be the same again, and credit to McMahan for not hitting the reset button. And as for the Star Trek references, where do we start? From a direct sequel to The Return of the Archons and Samaritan Snare (the Pakleds are back!) to very meta references to what TOS stands for, and recognition that for those Enterprise guys it’s been a long road getting from there to here!

I especially enjoyed the use of a still of Kirk and Spock from the original animated series, cementing the canon, but why did it have to conclude with the same ending as the Picard finale. All is Lost, and then Riker comes to the rescue. Yes, of course I loved hearing Frakes (and Marina Sirtis) again and seeing their characters in animated form.

The USS Titan blasting away to the TNG theme – wow! And yet, do I want to see comedy versions of live action characters in this show? When Q appeared a couple of weeks back he at least felt like Q. These versions of Riker and Troi could have been on a Saturday Night Live skit. As a Star Trek fan (and a big admirer of these legacy characters) its great to see them, but I have a similar feeling to when they turned up in the Enterprise finale – it takes something away from the established characters in the ongoing series.

The regulars all get a chance to shine among the drama – Mariner invited by her mother to come up with a badass solution, Rutherford creating a virus, Boimler showing that he really puts his career first and Tendi looking after a novice robot – but how will their dynamic work next year?

Verdict: Too much fan service, with a lot going on, it feels like Star Trek, but not so much like Lower Decks. Importantly, it makes me want to come back for more, and hopefully in its second year it will settle down into being its own thing. 8/10

Nick Joy