Review: Star Trek: Lower Decks — ‘Second Contact’ [1x1] ★★★☆☆
By: Dan Owen
Tags: Star Trek, Television, Review, Culture, TV

Speaking as a lifelong fan, the resurgence of Star Trek has ultimately been a positive thing. I loved J.J Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) reboot because of its excellent re-casting of iconic characters and for how it brought Trek into the modern era with a faster pace and swaggering confidence. The two sequels are of more debatable quality for most, but those fun performances pull me through any shortcomings.

Star Trek: Discovery was arguably the bigger comeback moment for the series, with the show back on television where it truly belongs, even if it was pulling in two creative directions thanks to a difficult road to production. The second season was enough of an improvement to leave me hopeful for the third, however. Star Trek: Picard is the only real stinker, which is astonishing considering it brought back Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard and didn’t have any “prequel” baggage that annoyed nitpickers of Discovery. It was ultimately a tedious slog of a show. Again, there were rumours of creative problems rocking Picard and the awkward influence of Stewart himself as a producer. I’m not excited to see more because it’s already tarnished some childhood favourite characters and blown several constants about Trek to smithereens (like ensuring Starfleet and the Federation are ultimately good and noble institutions, not full of wearing dullards who allow genocide).

But when those earlier projects were announced, I could immediately see the appeal. A big-budget Star Trek movie from a talented director the studio was totally behind making a mainstream success? Ooh yes, please! An expensive serialised Trek prequel series without a focus on the captain for once? Umm, okay, sounds intriguing! A new series with Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself returning after 17 years? Wow, give it to me!

So how about Star Trek: Lower Decks? A television series focused on the lower-ranking crew members of a little-known starship? Yeah, could be an interesting approach. Oh, and it’s an animated comedy? What?!

There was already a cartoon version of Star Trek produced between 1973–74 on NBC, which brought back all the actors from the 1960s Original Series to voice their characters. So it’s not like Trek hasn’t been down the path of animation before, where it’s definitely easier to do grand sci-fi ideas without as many concerns about the budget. And Trek doesn’t exist in a humour vacuum, either. All of the series have had their comical moments. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1987) is even considered a sci-fi comedy by many, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–99) undoubtedly had “comedy episodes” that are cherished favourites. The rebooted movies also play like fast-paced comedies at times, but Lower Decks is the first time the main intention has been to make audiences laugh throughout.

The series is the work of Mike McMahan, who once worked on South Park and was a producer and writer on the excellent Rick & Morty. He more recently co-created another sci-fi comedy cartoon called Solar Opposites (with Rick & Morty co-creator Justin Roiland) and was the guy behind the popular Twitter account TNG_S8, which posited ludicrous plot ideas for an unmade eighth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s very funny, go read it. McMahon’s a Trekkie with a clear love and knowledge of the franchise, so would appear to be the best person to make a Star Trek animated comedy that doesn’t go for the easy laughs. He knows Trek inside-out, so it won’t be a stream of gags about pointy ears and “beam me up, Scotty” references.

Lower Decks is certainly not as bad as it might have been without McMahon’s involvement, but it’s still unable to escape the issues that made me raise a Vulcan eyebrow when I first heard about it. I don’t have a problem with the idea behind this show, or even the fact it’s animated (beautifully, by Titmouse), but the nature of this being a comedy simply doesn’t work for me. It’s fine to poke fun at Star Trek. I do it myself frequently. I’ve laughed at countless sketches and spoofs we’ve had over the years, too. Galaxy Quest (1999) was so masterful at teasing Trek lore and fandom that it’s become an honourary Star Trek movie to many people.

But those sketches and comedy tributes were set apart from Star Trek itself. They existed outside of it to mock with a degree of distance. Star Trek: Lower Decks is set shortly after the era of Next Generation, and its characters mention classic people and events from the franchise’s long history. So this is a bonafide entry into Trek canon, right? But if so, why is everyone behaving like they’re in a Rick & Morty episode? For me, there’s a chasm I can’t jump over with a show that exists alongside all the others… but is there to suddenly be a gag-fest. The characters all behave like modern-day people, too, which is a problem Discovery also struggles with, but rarely to this extent. (At least there’s no swearing, I guess.)

It seems like CBS All Access has big plans for Star Trek to become a cash cow on the scale of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, which I’m happy about because the alternative is having no Trek to even grumble about. They have their flashy prequel Discovery, their nostalgic spin-off for Picard, and it sounds like the recently announced Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is going to be more episodic and fun… so Lower Decks is perhaps there to wean younger kids into the show. It’s colourful and entertaining. There are silly jokes and monsters. The characters are like teenagers.

If you like Rick & Morty, apply that sensibility to a Star Trek milieu. Maybe the idea is that kids and young teens watch Lower Decks and get hooked enough to progress onto the live-action shows? I have no idea if it’ll work. It seems to me that Lower Decks will mostly be watched by existing Trekkers, who don’t need to be convinced Star Trek is a good thing. They just want to watch Star Trek, as established by the shows and films produced until Enterprise ended in 2005.