List of Star Trek: Lower Decks characters
Star Trek: Lower Decks is an American adult animated television series created by Mike McMahan for the streaming service Paramount+. It is the ninth series in the Star Trek franchise, and was launched in 2020 as part of executive producer Alex Kurtzman's expansion of the franchise. Lower Decks is the first animated series created for All Access, and the first animated Star Trek series since the 1973–74 series Star Trek: The Animated Series. It follows the support crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in the year 2380.
Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero voice "lower decks" crew members of the Cerritos, with Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman also starring as the ship's senior officers. Characters seen previously in Star Trek also appear, including John de Lancie as Q, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi. The following list includes the main cast of Lower Decks, all guest characters with recurring roles, and a supplementary list of other noteworthy guests.
Overview
Main characters
Mariner
is a human ensign aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos and the daughter of Captain Freeman. Newsome described the character as irreverent and a rule-breaker, though she is actually "very good at all things Starfleet, she just doesn't care" and has been demoted several times. Newsome added that Mariner "just wants to ride her skateboard and eat her piece of pizza in peace, man." Mike McMahan confirmed that Captain Amina Ramsey was her former lover at Starfleet Academy. The namesake for Mariner is McMahan's own sister, Beckett Mariner McMahan. In June 2019, Mike McMahan, the series and character creator, hinted that Lower Decks would feature mainly original characters. The next month, Tawny Newsome was cast as Beckett Mariner, one of those new characters. As for the second season, McMahan also felt the writers did not adequately address LGBTQ characters and relationships in the first season, especially since it was their intention to portray Mariner as bisexual which is never made explicit. He said the second season would address this better. Sometime between the end of Season 2 and Season 3 she begins a relationship with Andorian officer Jennifer Sh'reyan. However, they break up due to a misunderstanding during Mariner's unauthorized interview with Victoria Nuzé. In the end of the Season 3 finale, Mariner shows no signs of getting back with Jennifer. In season 4, Mariner was promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade.Furthermore, for much of the first season, when production was impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsome recorded her lines in a recording studio set up at her house. Newsome began recording voice overs for the season in early June, in a recording studio which was not possible in the previous season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was unable to record with Quaid, as she did on the first season, due to his commitments filming The Boys.
In the first season of the series, Mariner wants to keep her relation with Captain Freeman a secret to the point of only using her mother's maiden name. In the second episode, "Envoys", Mariner is revealed to be the long-time friend of K'orin, a Klingon warrior. She convinces Boimler to stay at Starfleet after K'orin ditches them on an alien planet and Boimler cannot survive on his own in the environment. When Freeman wants Mariner transferred to another ship in "Moist Vessel", the captain gives Mariner continually harder and harder jobs, hoping she will grow bored and tired of the constant work and give up, then transfer herself. In the next episode, Mariner attempts to convince Boimler that his new girlfriend, Barbara, is an evil alien masquerading as human to seduce and cause harm to him, but instead the two find they have much in common and become friends. In the season finale, Boimler inadvertently reveals to the whole crew Mariner's connection to Freeman, but the mother and daughter make amends and reconnect.
In the third season, Mariner's mother is arrested and Mariner is determined to clear her name, including hijacking the drydocked Cerritos, but it turned out to be unnecessary since her mother's arrest was actually part of a Starfleet Security sting to expose a criminal conspiracy. Regardless of her intentions, Captain Freeman decides that she has been too lenient to her daughter and puts her on a strict probationary status under First Officer Ransom's command with full authority to have her dishonorably discharged if she ever disobeys him. Although enduring the senior officer's eccentric priorities is frustrating through this period, Commander Ransom is eventually satisfied that Mariner has shown satisfactory performance to allow the probation to lift.
However, when the Cerritos hosts a reporter while on Operation: Swing By, a followup mission with planets visited previously, Captain Freeman is met with hostile questions in her own interview about embarrassing previous incidents of the ship's mission and assumes that Mariner had revealed them in a previous interview made without her authorization. Incensed, a sentiment shared by the crew outside of Mariner's closest friends, the Captain reassigns Mariner to Starbase 80, only to discover to her profound chagrin that Mariner's actual testimony was the only interview unambiguously positive while the rest of the crew was actually responsible for carelessly admitting the embarrassing facts in their own interview. In response, Mariner resigns her commission and joins a rogue archeologist in her treasure hunting. However, she soon finds that she values Starfleet's ideals and returns to save her mother's ship from an out of control Starfleet autonomous vehicle with the rest of the California class fleet. With that, Mariner is reinstated and welcomed back into Starfleet, while forgiving her mother while declaring that she now wants to seriously advance in the ranks as an officer.
Mariner appears in a crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds where she and Boimler are accidentally sent back in time and meet the crew of the USS Enterprise. As Strange New Worlds is a live action show, Tawny Newsome portrays a live action version of Mariner alongside Jack Quaid playing a live action version of Boimler.
In season 4, Mariner is promoted to lieutenant junior grade alongside the rest of her friends and goes on a self-destructive spiral throughout the season. Mariner eventually admits to the Klingon warrior Ma'ah that she was close friends with Sito Jaxa who had died on a top-secret mission, leaving Mariner suffering from intense survivor's guilt, leading to her self-destructive behavior. Ma'ah inspires Mariner to finally begin moving forward with her life just before she is abducted by Nick Locarno who tries to get Mariner to inspire other lower deckers to rebel against their superior officers. Instead, Mariner stands up to Locarno and plays a major role in his defeat before being rescued by her mother and the other senior officers of the Cerritos.
In season 5, Mariner has finally fully accepted her promotion and her role on the ship and enjoys away missions, showing a much-improved attitude. Seeing a kindred spirit in young ensign Olly, Mariner takes Olly under her wing rather than letting the young Greek demigod be booted out of Starfleet. Olly ironically mirrors Mariner in many ways, including her former attitude and stated love of the brig. However, Mariner recognizes her potential when no one else does and gets Olly an engineering position on the Cerritos. At the end of the series with Captain Freeman's reassignment and Ransom promoted to Captain, Mariner is assigned as provisional First Officer along with Boimler to have them compete for the permanent position.
Boimler
Brad Boimler
Bradward "Brad" Boimler is a human ensign aboard the Cerritos, Boimler is a stickler for the rules and will need to learn how to improvise if he is to become a captain one day. Quaid described the character by saying "he would nail the written portion of the driving test with flying colors but once it actually got to him being in the car, it would be a complete and total disaster." Quaid originally auditioned for the role of Rutherford. Quaid additionally called Boimler the direct opposite of friend Beckett Mariner. According to Variety, "while great at sci-fi stuff, he's completely bound to the rules. He doesn't know how to follow his gut, and if he wants to be a captain some day he's going to have to learn how to improvise." Brad Boimler has also been likened to Quaid's character on the Amazon Prime Video original series The Boys, Hughie. Rolling Stone called Boimler "easily flustered try-hard who doesn't understand why his rigorous rule following goes ignored by Captain Carol Freeman" but liked the character nonetheless. In July 2019, Quaid was cast as Boimler.In the beginning of season one, Boimler is tasked with keeping his friend and co-worker Beckett Mariner in check by the USS Cerritos captain Carol Freeman, who, unbeknownst to him, is Mariner's mother. He sees his friend smuggling supplies to a pair of poor farmer down on a planet the Cerritos is making second contact to, and so he must decide to either follow the rules and report Mariner's behavior or break the rules like Mariner and do what's right. In the end, Boimler decides not to help Mariner but also not to report her. At the end of the first season, after discovering that Mariner is actually the daughter of Captain Freeman, he gets transferred to the USS Titan, serving under Captain William Riker, much to Mariner's dismay. With the inadvertent creation of his clone, William Boimler, Brad is returned with a demotion to the Cerritos, but soon begins to distinguish himself as an officer of considerable talent and command potential. In season 4, Boimler was promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade in the Cerritos. In season 5, after meeting an accomplished interdimensional version himself, Boimler gains a PADD of that version and strives to emulate him, most notably growing a beard. At the end of the series, the newly promoted Captain Ransom appoints Boimler Provisional First Officer with Mariner to have them compete for the permanent position.