Surprise, Star Trek fans: you’re much closer to animated, goofier take on life aboard a Federation vessel is landing in just over a month.
CBS confirmed today that Mike McMahan’s Lower Decks would begin streaming on CBS All Access starting August 6. The network also revealed a new poster alongside the announcement, which gives us our first look at the series’ starship: the U.S.S. Cerritos, where our hapless heroes — Ensigns Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) — serve in the titular lower decks. Because they’re the ones we’re actually following around this time, rather than the main bridge crew.
It’s an…interesting take on Federation design circa the TNG era, given that Lower Decks takes place in 2380, just a year after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. You’ve got the classic saucer shape, but then it’s like someone shaved the bottom half of the Galaxy-Class off, flattened out the nacelles, and then strapped them on to the saucer with two ungainly struts. It’s recognisably Star Trek, but also kind of weird. Which is perfect, given that the Cerritos is described as “one of Starfleet’s least important ships.”
We won’t have to wait much longer to see what she and her misfit crew get up to; Star Trek: Lower Decks will begin streaming on CBS All Access August 6 in the U.S., and at an undisclosed date in Canada on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave. No further information about international debuts or broadcasting partners has currently been announced.