It turns out that alien invasions, potential engineering disasters, and metaphysical crises are all in an average day's work, in an outing that's also a clever nod to a 30-year-old episode of "The Next Generation".

Lower Decks flips the script on its own concept, reversing the format of the show and its Star Trek: The Next Generation inspiration.

"We're sort of the stars of the show around here," Boimler — beard ever bearding — put it to Mariner. In quintessential fourth wall tipping-over fashion, he's right! The clue's in the title of the series. With only this and two more episodes to go, Boimler is equally and unknowingly admitting that they are soon the stars of the show no longer.

The Next Generation did it first, but this might be even better. With the help of Jerry O'Connell, we break down the latest 'Star Trek: Lower Decks,'; "Upper Decks."

That fateful incident — which saw the Enterprise's resident android comprehensively obliterated — occurred in “Star Trek: Nemesis” (2002), set in 2379. "Lower Decks" season 5 takes place in 2382, so he should be very dead indeed at this point in the "Star Trek" timeline.

Tawny Newsome is developing a live-action Star Trek comedy series unrelated to Lower Decks. The sitcom will focus on resort employees on a 25th-century planet, featuring intergalactic reality antics. Newsome's project is still in early development, aiming to include connections to other Star Trek series.

Lower Decks is a show about Starfleet's underdogs, which means that other members of the Cerritos crew have been overlooked - until now.

Lower Decks' Season 5 episode 6 introduces new arrival Ensign Olly — a junior officer with a history of leaving trails of destruction in her wake.