It was initially met with mixed responses from critics for its humor and large number of Star Trek references, but reviews for the animation, Newsome's performance, and later episodes were more positive.

CBS All Access officially ordered two seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks, a new animated series, in October 2018.

[21] McMahan said the season was "playing the hits" of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, adding: "Let's do our trial episode.

[23] The writers looked to previous Star Trek series to find similar characters and situations to what they were proposing for Lower Decks, to ensure that their comedic storylines were not straying too far from the franchise.

[21] The character Badgey began as a sketch of a Starfleet badge by McMahan that he felt could be similar to the hologram of Professor Moriarty from The Next Generation.

[21] He also described it as being a parody of the Star Trek films,[24] as well as a "big character therapy episode" that lets both the audience and Mariner see the relationship with her mother play out visually.

[21] "Temporal Edict" ends with a statue of Miles O'Brien from The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine who McMahan said was the most important Star Trek character, explaining that O'Brien is "the original lower decker, moving from an enlisted crewman all the way to professor of engineering at Starfleet Academy... those of us who spent years watching him grow across two television series know he is, without a doubt, the most important person in Starfleet history".

The Pakleds were introduced in the Next Generation episode "Samaritan Snare" and "used to be sort of a joke", according to McMahan, but are shown in the finale of Lower Decks to have secretly amassed power and become a threat to Starfleet.

[26] McMahan announced the series' main cast in July 2019, led by ensigns that serve in the lower decks of the Cerritos: Tawny Newsome as Beckett Mariner, Jack Quaid as Brad Boimler, Noël Wells as D'Vana Tendi, and Eugene Cordero as Sam Rutherford.

[3][4] In August 2019, McMahan said there was potential for members of the Next Generation cast to make cameo appearances in the series since those characters are in the Star Trek universe at the time that Lower Decks is set, but he did not want this to be in a way that would "mess up the show".

Frakes was open to reprising his role in Lower Decks, and McMahan thought it would be natural to have Riker appear if the Cerritos needed help from the USS Titan, so that was written into the season finale.

The uniforms have a flap on the front,[27] and continue the Next Generation tradition of coming in yellow for engineering, blue for medical and science, and red for command.

[42] McMahan said these characters "fit in perfectly in [the Lower Decks] world" and the series did not have to justify the difference in appearance from the original version that a live-action adaptation of the species likely would.

The episode also features a sequence where the crew slowly circles the Cerritos in a direct homage to a scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

[19] The pandemic also caused the timeline for the series' release to be moved up to before that of Star Trek: Discovery's third season, which meant Westlake had around two months less time to work on the score than he had expected.

[49][50] The series was promoted during the "Star Trek Universe" panel at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con, where the main cast and first look images were revealed.

Allie Gemmill of Collider called the trailer "a ton of fun and then some", comparing its adult-oriented tone to the series Rick and Morty which McMahan previously worked on.

[51] This was followed by a "Star Trek Universe" panel at the 2020 Comic-Con@Home virtual convention where McMahan and the cast discussed the series and revealed its opening scene.

[56] Amazon Prime Video was revealed, in December 2020, to have picked up the streaming rights for the series in several territories—including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and India—with the full first season released on the service on January 22, 2021.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Fun, but not very bold, Lower Decks flips the script on Star Trek regulation just enough to stand out in the franchise, if not the greater animation landscape.

[67] David Bianculli at NPR did not think the series was as delightful as Galaxy Quest but found it to be better than The Orville since animation allowed it to be "looser with its ideas and its humor".

[72][73] Writing for /Film, Ben Pearson thought the series was "surprisingly friendly to newbies",[74] but CNN's Brian Lowry said it was unlikely to attract new subscribers to CBS All Access.

Black, reviewing the season for Cultural Conversation, called it "exactly the series most Star Trek fans have wished for since 2005" which made the franchise "not just funny, but fun again.

[81] Daniel D'Addario of Variety said branching out to an animated comedy series was admirable for the Star Trek franchise, but "if the joke of Lower Decks is that its characters... fall short of demanding a show about their adventures, it's not hard to agree".

[89] Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone said the number of references were preventing McMahan from making the "wildly irreverent—and, more importantly, actually funny—comedy" series that he wanted to.

[92] Stuff's James Croot called the series a "lowering of the bar" for the franchise and "crassly crude", suggesting audiences watch The Orville or Galaxy Quest instead.

[80] Angelica Jade Bastién at Vulture said the animation was not visually unique, but still found it to be "bright and eye-catching",[95] and Blauvelt said it was "purposefully cartoony—but never less than engaging".

[67] Multiple critics praised the use of animation to create locations, aliens, and scenarios that would be difficult or impossible in a live-action series,[70][71][89] including Sepinwall, Shannon Miller at Collider, and Glen Weldon of NPR who all referred to Lower Decks's "unlimited special effects budget".

He was also critical of the lack of screen time for Tendi and Rutherford compared to Mariner and Boimler,[84] a sentiment that was echoed by James Whitbrook at Gizmodo.

[101] In contrast, Blauvelt and Black both felt the series was the exception to the Star Trek rule and had found its footing straight away.