Star Trek: Lower Decks – the latest adult animated show set in the Star Trek universe – will return for a third season on Paramount Plus this summer, with a fourth season also confirmed to air.
If you’d like to watch both the first and second seasons, then we have everything you need to know. We also have a similar article for Star Trek: Discovery, and a guide on how to watch the Star Trek films and shows in order if you want to become a fully-fledged trekkie yourself.
When does Lower Decks season 3 start?
The first thing you need to know is that the show’s third season will begin airing – in the US at least – on 25 August. This season will also feature a highly-anticipated crossover episode with the live-action series, Strange New Worlds.
In the US the series will debut on streaming service Paramount+, but the UK situation is less clear. Paramount+ has now launched in the UK, and new Trek like Strange New Worlds and the latest season of Discovery are available on there.
On the other hand, the first two seasons of Lower Decks, along with Picard, were exclusive to Amazon Prime Video in the UK. Paramount cancelled a similar contract with Netflix for Discovery at the last minute, so may be planning to do similar here, in which case Lower Decks would make the jump to the new streaming service. But there’s a chance it will stay with Amazon – and for the moment, Amazon is also where you’ll find the first two seasons to stream in the UK.
You can watch the official season 3 trailer below:
Watch Star Trek: Lower Decks on Amazon Prime Video
If you’re a Prime Video subscriber in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japan or India, then you can watch the first two seasons of Lower Decks right now.
You can sign up for an Amazon Prime Video subscription for £5.99 per month for the standalone steaming service, or £7.99 per month for a full Prime subscription which offers next-day delivery, e-books, music and access to flash sales such as Prime Day.
You can sign up for either of these over on the Amazon website. Plans are slightly cheaper if you commit to a 12-month subscription. In addition, there’s a 30-day free trial available for new subscribers.
Watch Star Trek: Lower Decks with a VPN
Star Trek: Lower Decks is also available on Paramount Plus in the US, a streaming platform with two tiers – $4.99 per month for ad-supported content and $9.99 per month for ad-free (along with offline downloads) as well as a seven-day free trial for both subscriptions.
While Paramount+ is now available in many markets, Lower Decks is only included in the US, Canada, and a few others – for now. However, you can use a VPN to access US Paramount+ from anywhere.
If you don’t know already, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is a piece of software that reroutes your IP address to allow you to browse the internet securely and anonymously. You can also use it to appear as if you’re based in another country – so for watching Lower Decks this would be America.
There are numerous VPN providers out there, but for the best combination of price and features, we recommend either NordVPN or ExpressVPN – two services we’ve tried and tested numerous times here at Tech Advisor. You can also explore some free VPN options, but these likely won’t have enough servers to access Paramount Plus successfully.
After you’ve downloaded your VPN of choice, you then have to overcome another hurdle – payment options. Currently Paramount Plus only accepts cards that are tied to countries where it operates. If you’re in one of those then you can just make an account as usual before switching on your VPN, but if not you’ll need to use our workaround.
You can get around the payment issue by purchasing a digital gift card. Here’s what you need to do:
- Connect to a US server on your chosen VPN
- Purchase an online gift card from an online retailer such as Walmart (you can find other options here). $25 is the minimum, which will get you nearly four months worth of ad-supported viewing. You may also need to get a US address and phone number to sign up, but you can get hold of those for free online.
- Go to the Paramount Plus homepage and sign up for an account with an email address, password and any US Zip Code – but don’t enter any payment information on the next page
- Go to the Paramount Plus gift card page and input the pin on your email gift receipt
- Choose the subscription plan you want to sign up for
You should now be able to watch Paramount Plus.
As always when using a VPN to access content abroad, be aware that you’ll be in violation of the terms of use of Paramount Plus, so the company could theoretically cancel your account if it realises you’re using a VPN. Proceed at your own risk.
Author: Hannah Cowton, Senior Staff Writer
Hannah Cowton is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor and Macworld, working across entertainment, consumer technology and lifestyle. Her interests and specialities lie in streaming services, film and television reviews and rumours, gaming, wearables and smart home products. She's also the creator of The London Geek, a geek culture and lifestyle blog.