Star Trek Just Introduced a Whole New Kind of Starship

Star Trek has introduced an entirely new type of starship into its universe. (SPOILERS follow for the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode “Trusted Sources.”) The latest Star Trek: Lower Decks episode sees Capt. Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) launching her new second contact initiative. Starfleet decides to send a reporter from the Federation News Network to cover the occasion, putting Freeman, her ship, and her command under a microscope. She ends up heading to a planet previously featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Ornara. After discovering that Ornara doesn’t need the Cerritos‘ assistance, Freeman makes the decision to check out the nearby planet Brekka as well.

The Cerritos crew is surprised to find that Brekka has been taken by the Breen. The Cerritos crew comes under heavy fire and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to make it out alive until a surprising ship comes to their rescue.

The ship is the Aledo. It is part of a group of Texas-class ships secretly developed by an ambitious Starfleet admiral. What makes the Texas-class ships unique is that they have no crew. The ships are totally autonomous and run by onboard artificial intelligence. That AI proves more than capable of dealing with the Breen threat around Brekka. It’s a pretty embarrassing moment for Capt. Freeman, one that will likely be addressed further in next week’s Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 finale.

While the Breen incursion was an unwelcome surprise for Freeman, the character’s voice actor, longtime Star Trek fan Dawnn Lewis, expresses excitement at their inclusion during an interview with ComicBook.com. “I love all of the little Easter eggs and callbacks to all of the shows, and finding that, how the fans and the viewers of the show react to that as well,” she said. “It’s just really exciting. I think it’s really, really clever how Mike McMahan, our show’s creator, finds ways to drop little nuggets in and around each and every episode, and they don’t really put a spotlight on them, but they’re just included as though this is now part of our everyday life, until you notice it and go, “Oh, wow, that was really, really cool.” So yes, I think it’s great, but it also to me sets up an opportunity for us to dig a little deeper, because we knew what it was then, we knew what the Breen was then, but what is it now, now that it seems to be kind of a taken for granted piece of the puzzle here?”

Star Trek: Lower Decks is streaming now on Paramount+. The season finale debuts on October 27th.