Mike McMahon is a writer and producer known for his work on Solar Opposites, Rick and Morty, and Star Trek: Lower Decks. Star Trek: Lower Decks just wrapped its fifth and final season. It was the first animated Star Trek series in decades and the first Star Trek comedy show featuring the lives of a low-ranking support crew on the Starship Cerritos in the 24th Century. McMahon Spoke to Immersive via Zoom about crafting the final season.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length]
What was your first impression of Star Trek?
I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on a tiny crappy TV that was not connected to cable. It was one of the first grownup shows, and I thought maybe grownup shows were cool. I was obsessed with Jeordi and Data. I’d never seen any characters like that.
When I graduated college, I got every season of Star Trek on DVD, which was the first time I saw every Trek. It was the first time watching it in order all at once. I just fell in love with it as an adult. That’s when I was really blown away and saw Deep Space Nine and all of Voyager. I feel like I became a fan twice.
It’s incredible how each incarnation of Star Trek has its unique energy. Can you talk about how you first became involved with Lower Decks?
Initially, producers Alex Kurtzman and Aaron Baiers saw my Twitter feed about The Next Generation. They knew I worked on Rick and Morty as well, so they brought me in for a general meeting about doing a new animated Star Trek show.
I told them that my favorite part of Star Trek was the first five minutes of every episode before anything bad happened when they talked about prune juice, violin recitals, and Data’s paintings. I would do a show that mainly was that and a little bit of the plot instead of the other way around.
I wanted to do a comedic take on it, but the comedy would never be at the expense of Star Trek. I developed it with them, we took it out, and we ultimately sold it to CBS All Access, which became Paramount+. I have been working on it ever since.
Now, let us fast forward to Season Five.
We knew it was probably gonna be the end of the show. I wanted it to feel like a regular season at Lower Decks. I didn’t wanna accelerate it so far that it didn’t feel like the show anymore.
What was your concept in terms of wrapping it up?
The first half of the season is kind of Lower Decks shenanigans as usual, but then there are a lot of additions to make sure it feels final. The entire back half of the season is episodes that I had been planning on doing, and we just kind of moved them all forward. We had lots of fun this season and brought on many guests like Brent Spiner.
What was it like saying farewell to this project?
In the finale, we wanted to leave you with a feeling that this is a ship of people who like each other. We are so happy to have been a part of Star Trek. We also wanted to make sure they felt like we knew this was a final thing while giving them something to like, laugh, share, and enjoy. So, finding that balance and accelerating just enough will leave you wanting more but not leaving you wanting more in a betrayal kind of way.
What’s it like being on the other end of this now, being a Star Trek fan, and now you are a part of the lexicon?
It’s awesome. Going to Star Trek: Mission Chicago was surreal. It’s an honor to have my show get a positive response from this particular crowd. These are my people. I love that there are comics, card games, and people who cosplay. I’m so proud of it.
Star Trek: Lower Decks Is Streaming on Paramount+
