[28] Other elements that were left for the second season include Sam Rutherford's memory issues, Beckett Mariner working with her mother Captain Carol Freeman, and the Pakleds being a threat.

[23] McMahan wanted to address LGBT characters and relationships better than in the first season, especially by more explicitly depicting Mariner as bisexual.

[29] The writers had a mandate from McMahan for the season to elevate the characters D'Vana Tendi and Sam Rutherford so they were true co-leads of the series alongside Mariner and Boimler.

[28] He wanted to explore new character combinations, such as telling a story with Mariner and Tendi together,[13] which some critics had called for after they did not have any episodes together in the first season.

Late in production on the finale, McMahan realized that this cliffhanger should include the "To Be Continued..." title card that previous Star Trek series used.

[35] The series stars a group of 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.

The ship's bridge crew, who have supporting roles, include Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman, Jerry O'Connell as first officer Commander Jack Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as security chief Lieutenant Shaxs, and Gillian Vigman as chief medical officer Dr.

[4] After Shaxs died in the first-season finale, the second season introduces a new security chief,[13] Kayshon, who is voiced by comedian Carl Tart.

[11] The season also depicts Shaxs returning to life in a storyline that plays on the numerous times that characters have been resurrected in Star Trek.

[13] Marina Sirtis also reprised her Next Generation role of Deanna Troi in the first-season finale, but she did not return for the second season which McMahan said was for story reasons.

[24] Robert Duncan McNeill, who portrayed Tom Paris in Voyager, reprises his role and also voices a commemorative plate of Paris that talks to a hallucinating Boimler,[6] while Alice Krige returns as the Borg Queen from the film Star Trek: First Contact (1996),[7] and Lycia Naff reprises her Next Generation guest role of Sonya Gomez.

[15] McMahan brought back Naff to have a callback that was not to one of the major Next Generation characters, and because he considered her to be "one of the original lower deckers".

[44] The model for the USS Cerritos features some "minor cosmetic changes" following the battle damage it received during the first-season finale.

[47] The season finale introduces the USS Archimedes, an Obena-class starship inspired by the Excelsior-class from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) but bigger and with some small design changes.

The skeleton appears as part of the collection that is being catalogued in "Kayshon, His Eyes Open", which also includes numerous visual references to many previous Star Trek series.

[55] The season begins with Mariner being interrogated by Cardassians in a holodeck program that is similar to the Next Generation episode "Chain of Command".

[54] Additionally, Dr. T'Ana and Tendi go rock climbing in "wej Duj" on a holodeck simulation of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, recreating the scene where James T. Kirk does the same in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

[56] In "wej Duj", the crew are seen running through the ship wearing various outfits including Anbo-jyutsu martial arts costumes and gymnastics leotards from the Next Generation episodes "The Icarus Factor" and "The Price", respectively.

The institute was first seen in Star Trek: Picard, and is shown to look roughly the same during Lower Decks a few decades earlier than that appearance.

[62][63] The cast and crew teased the season during a virtual Star Trek Universe panel for New York Comic Con in October 2020.

This panel primarily discussed the first-season finale and was released as an episode of The Ready Room, an aftershow hosted by The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton.

[64] Writing for Digital Spy, Dan Seddon described the trailer as a "wonderfully entertaining 2-minute package [that] has everything from space slugs to evil computers".

The website's critical consensus reads, "Lower Decks rights the ship with a more self-assured sophomore season that strikes an ideal balance between affection and irreverence.

"[76] Reviewing the first five episodes of the season, Brandon Zachary of Comic Book Resources praised the series for using its Star Trek references to develop the characters and story.

[79] Ben Pearson at /Film said the series continued to be an enjoyable entry in the franchise despite feeling that the amount of Star Trek references were becoming difficult to ignore for more casual fans.

He thought the second season was more focused and consistent than the first, had better jokes, and handled episodic storytelling and overall continuity as well as, if not better than, some of the live-action Star Trek series.

Handlen wished the series was more ambitious, though, saying it was easy to recommend to Star Trek fans who know the references but "it's hard not to hope that it might one day reach a little higher than 'Hey, remember the one where...'"[81] Shamus Kelley of Den of Geek disliked the series' first episode, but was encouraged to watch the rest and was "in love with the show" by the middle of the second season.

[83] Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica said the amount of Star Trek references "can get tiring in large doses", and questioned how well the series worked for people who do not know the franchise, but as a fan the series was giving him the fun, episodic storytelling with low stakes that he wanted from Star Trek.

Bennet was also thankful for the expanded roles that Tendi and Rutherford have,[79] something that Pearson agreed with despite concerns with that pair's dynamic in the season's first episode.

[89] Another explicit scene in the season that received criticism is when Mariner walks in on an orgy in "I, Excretus" and says a naked Boimler with his legs spread.