Warning: This Article Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – "Old Friends, New Planets"
Summary
- Creator Mike McMahan explains why he chose not to resurrect Ensign Sito Jaxa from Star Trek: The Next Generation in Lower Decks season 4 finale.
- McMahan sees bringing back Sito as fan service and disrespectful to the impactful storyline of her death.
- Instead, Lower Decks used a powerful flashback featuring Sito, allowing viewers to see her again without undermining the importance of her death.
Star Trek: Lower Decks creator and showrunner Mike McMahan explains why he didn't resurrect Ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lieutenant Beckett Mariner's (Tawny Newsome) revelation in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, "The Inner Fight" that she and Sito were friends in Starfleet Academy, as well as the return of disgraced former cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill) led fans to speculate that Sito would turn up alive in Lower Decks' season 4 finale. Sito died in the line of duty in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, episode 15, "Lower Decks," the episode that literally inspired Star Trek: Lower Decks.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, we asked Mike McMahan if he ever considered resurrecting Sito Jaxa, and he explained why bringing back the tragic Bajoran Ensign was "never on his radar." Read his quote below:
No, no, no, no. That would be a type of fan service. To me, that would be disrespectful to a storyline that had a lot of impact on me. And it would feel good, but also a little hollow. Like did we learn nothing from Pet Sematary? Metaphorically, undoing that [death] for the sake of an animated comedy instead of using the weight of it for character development, that was never on my radar. It would have gone against how I see Trek canon.
