Mike McMahan Reveals the USS Cerritos’s Specialty in Star Trek: Lower Decks

Mike McMahan at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019

Probably the most information about an upcoming series came in the Star Trek: Lower Decks panel on Sunday morning. Series creator Mike McMahan was joined by the writers room, and they revealed a plethora of new details about the adult-oriented animated series.

In an STLV exclusive announcement, McMahan told the excited audience, “Lower Decks takes place on a ship called the USS Cerritos and it's a new class of ship, of support ship, that's always been out there, but maybe hasn’t been important enough to have had screen time yet [...] and the specialty of the Cerritos is second contact.”

What’s “second contact”? McMahan went on to explain: “First contact. Super important. Really dangerous. You don't want to set up any wars. You don't want to ruin anybody's lives. Second contact, you're showing up to the planet, you're finding all the good places to eat, you're setting up the communication stuff [...] You're like the Yelp of Starfleet.”

We also got some new, animated character art...and by animated I literally just mean that they blink now. The team also confirmed that they are set in the year 2380, so just post-Nemesis. They are also trying to be in keeping with canon as possible, which could see some cameos by other Star Trek actors, although nothing is confirmed. McMahan said, “I don't want to tease anything yet, but all I want to say is it's our dream. These are all our heroes. We would, if we can figure out a way to not mess up the show and get to geek out on working with all of these people that we love, we would do it.”

Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently in production and expected to debut sometime next year.