New Star Trek Live-Action Comedy Series in Development at Paramount+

Star Trek is getting its first live-action comedy series, which is in development over at Paramount+. The series was a surprise reveal during San Diego Comic-Con 2024’s Star Trek Universe panel in Hall H. During the Star Trek: Lower Decks portion of the panel, series star Tawny Newsome and panel moderator Justin Simien (Dear White People) broke off to announce that they are the creative team behind this new Star Trek comedy series: 

A post from the official Star Trek Twitter account revealed the first details of this new Star Trek live-action comedy: 

A new @StarTrek series is in development from co-creators Justin Simien and @TrondyNewman! In this live action comedy, Federation Outsiders serving a gleaming resort planet find out their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant.

There is one important takeaway from that synopsis: this Star Trek live-action comedy is in no way stepping on the toes of The Orville. Seth MacFarlane’s Star Trek parody series earned a dedicated fandom during its run (2017-2022) and is going to be the biggest thing some people point to as the reason for NOT needing this new show.

However, both Star Trek diehards and casual fans alike were critical of Lower Decks when it was first announced – but as series star Jerry O’Connell pointed out that initial “frosty” reception melted into a burning fandom after fans got to engage with the show. Star Trek Universe head Alex Kurtzman has already sung big praises about Newsome’s work writing this new series, and the premise does sound like an intriguing “Star Trek Truman Show” idea that could work just like Lower Decks – i.e., pulling from Star Trek canon while also commenting on it from a humorous-but-loving satirical point of view. 

What is Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 about?

According to Paramount+’s official synopsis: 

In season five of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked with closing ‘space potholes’ – subspace rifts which are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Jr. Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford…if they didn’t also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries and scariest of all: their own career aspirations. This upcoming season on Paramount+ is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.

Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos. The Star Trek: Lower Decks voice cast includes Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero as the junior officers and Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman as the Cerritos bridge crew.