It's hard to believe, but after five incredible seasons, Star Trek: Lower Deckshas officially come to an end. Though we'd have loved to see it go on for many years to come, the animated Star Trek comedy went out on a high note and left us with all of the warm and hopeful feelings that have defined the franchise for decades. To celebrate the final episode Paramount+ has teamed up with Collider to bring you an exclusive look behind the scenes at the series finale as stars Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaidhop into the recording studio together.
Never short on laughs, the duo take plenty of time to goof off and get into character together in the most hilarious ways. In our exclusive BTS video, you'll see Quaid perfecting his final Boimler scream while Newsome fights to contain her boundless Star Trek knowledge like a true Trekkie — stars, they're just like us! I recently spoke with Mike McMahan for the Lower Decks finale and asked him what it's like having these two in the studio at the same time, given that most of the show's voice work is recorded individually. He knows they could've delivered an incredible finale either way, but having them together in this way adds just one more layer of care to Lower Decks that we're sorely going to miss. He explained:
"We've only done it a very, very few times. Really, what it is is when we get an episode in, and we are doing pick-ups, meaning we're rerecording a line, then they can hear the whole cast, and they match that energy. But I think a lot of it really is that Tawny and Jack are friends, and so are Eugene [Cordero] and Noël [Wells]. Their friendship is growing and you can feel that friendship in their performance. They're great performers. They could have done it without it, but it does add this ineffable niceness to it that makes you know that even when they're joking around, they love each other as friends."
What's Next for Star Trek?
While the past two years have seen many Star Trek shows come to an end — Lower Decks, Discovery, and Picard have all said their farewells — there's still plenty to be excited about as a fan of the franchise. Lower Decks fans in particular have a lot to look forward to as Newsome works to bring audiences not one but two new shows after her tenure as Beckett Mariner comes to an end. Newsome serves as a writer on the highly anticipated Discovery spin-off Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which is currently in production. Newsome is also working on a Star Trek sitcom with Justin Simien. When I spoke to Newsome earlier this year, she said of the series:
"All I can share with you is that we keep writing it, and we keep turning things in, and they keep saying, 'Please keep writing.' So, as long as they allow us to do that and they don't say, 'Stop. Close your computers and go home,' we'll continue making it. And yeah, as long as they don't tell me, 'Please shut your laptop and throw it in the sea,' I will keep working on it. It's been such a joy. I love Justin Simien with all my heart. I can't wait to hopefully keep doing it."
You can watch our exclusive behind the scenes video above and head over to Paramount+ to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks in its entirety.
Image via Paramount+
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