STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS… THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
I reached my breaking point of Kurtzman Trek halfway thru Star Trek Discovery’s (STD for short) first season, so internet warriors who cheer on what CBS All Access & Alex Kurtzman have done to Star Trek will accuse us naysayers of “blindly hating” anything and everything currently released under the Star Trek banner.
This is not true, of course. While I’m utterly reluctant to accept any so-called “Star Trek” released in the current climate, I am always willing to take a look and see approach and “give them a chance”, hoping for the SLIM possibility that they will come up with something faithful to Gene Roddenberry’s ideals. When they do something RIGHT, I’m the first to say so. With that in mind, here’s my analysis of the trailer for the latest Star Trek spin-off, Star Trek: Lower Decks. Let’s look at the good news, the bad, and the just plain ugly:
THE GOOD
- The animated set designs and uniforms ARE very faithful to a federation starship set in the TNG era, which is more than can be said for virtually ALL of Kurtzman Trek (even the “flashbacks” to TNG era events in Star Trek: Picard look somewhat off). Some of it just copies TNG exactly, like the holodeck on the ship apparently matching the same layout for the Enterprise-D, rather than the holodeck on the U.S.S. Voyager and other post-TNG starships. While not entirely accurately for a “post-Nemesis” show, it DOES give this animated show a nice callback to the gold standard of Berman era Star Trek, namely The Next Generation.
- The ship’s Doctor is a Caitian, which is a GREAT concept. For those unaware of what that means, they are a rarely seen feline-like humanoid species, first shown on the FIRST animated Star Trek series in the 1970s (M’Ress, a Caitian, was one of two new regular characters the show introduced). Adding in a Caitian crew member now is a terrific way to pay homage to the last time Star Trek was animated, while at the same time do the ideal thing for a new Star Trek series: expand on an intriguing element of the Star Trek universe that was never fleshed out. Much like Shran the Andorian was the “breakout” character on Star Trek: Enterprise, a Caitian Doctor provides endless opportunities to give the show its own unique path forward, while staying faithful to what came before.
- Jerry O’Connell voicing a “Riker-like” Commander on USS Cerritos. Again, this is terrific casting, much like I applauded the casting of Doug Jones as an new alien character on Discovery (sadly, his talented was then wasted due to poor writing). O’Connell is perhaps best known to sci-fi fans for being the lead of the late 90s/early 2000s era show Sliders, and the show lost its heart and soul when he left. He plays a likeable “Joe Everyman” very well, and having him as a “Riker-like” character on Star Trek is a MUCH better fit for him than casting Scott Bakula as a frontier-era Starfleet captain on Enterprise. I would love to see Jerry O’Connell join the Star Trek universe in a GOOD show.
- Finally, the basic premise itself, setting the show in the “lower decks” of the ship and having it revolve around the crew of the USS Cerritos who are the LOWEST ranked personnel, rather than the “senior officers”, like all other Star Trek shows, is also a solid concept and gives the show its own unique identity. It’s also far more faithful to Gene Roddenberry’s ideals than ANY of the other “spinoffs” inspired by Discovery that have been pitched, like a “Section 31” series. Ideally, however, “Lower Decks” WOULD have actually had a much closer feel to the TNG episode of the same name, which was actually quite a sobering drama. Alas, what could have been. And that takes us to….
THE BAD
- Sadly, pretty much EVERYTHING else I saw in the trailer. ::sigh:: Where to begin?
- The Humor! IT. DOESN’T. WORK. Sorry! I didn’t even smile once during the “funny” trailer. I am certainly open to a “more comedic” based Star Trek show, being a huge fan of The Orville, but the trailer for Lower Decks very much looks like what The Orville was FALSELY accused of being when it first aired: overtly focused on stupid, juvenile humor, making a mockery of Star Trek’s ideals, portraying the crew as a bunch of obnoxious jerks, etc., etc. I find it ironic they’ve gone in this direction after they spent the entire first season of Discovery sneering at The Orville for being more lighthearted in tone. It seems like they have gone 180o degrees in the other direction, in a desperate attempt to win over some of those fans who prefer The Orville. Hmmm.
- The tone. Again, if this show was an animated series set in the ORVILLE universe, I could be more forgiving, since The Orville has been established right off the bat as a much more lighthearted and silly universe. However, this is set in the post-Nemesis world of a TNG-like starship. A comedy “Star Trek” series CAN theoretically work, as Star Trek has always had episodes that are purely comedic in nature, ranging from The Trouble With Tribbles, to The Voyage Home, to Bride of Chaotica!, but those stories always used a more sophisticated type of humor with professional officers caught in a crazy situation and having to improvise and make the best of it. Mocking Starfleet officers themselves, and making them out to be obnoxious idiots, just makes the world of Star Trek more low-brow, and comes across as tacky and pathetic.
- The characters. Aside from the brilliant idea of a Caitian CMO (and the jury is still out on how well THAT will be executed), there’s very little to latch onto here. Like Star Trek: Enterprise, the series seems to suffer from a number of “generic” stock characters and a feeling of “Been there, done that” with its “diverse” crew. It pales in comparison to The Orville, which had a number of “firsts” despite characters like Isaac being dismissed as a Data knockoff and Bortus being dismissed as a Worf knockoff.
- The ship design. The interiors are very much in the spirit of the Galaxy class starships of that era. The EXTERIOR leaves much to be desired, and doesn’t make any logical sense why a starship would be designed that way. Though, to be fair, the FIRST animated Star Trek had a number of similar problems, like the completely unbelievable design for the “first starship with warp drive” supposedly ever built.
AND THE UGLY….
- The Animation. Yes, it’s from the “creators of Rick & Morty”, and it shows. Count me in the minority, I was never interested in checking out Rick & Morty (it’s described an animated “homage to Marty and Doc from Back to the Future”… well, if I wanted to see that, I’d just watch the REAL Back to the Future animated series!) A modern day Star Trek animated series with some vivid and beautiful animation could really set it apart from the low budget “Hanna Barbara” style animation of 1970s Saturday morning Star Trek, and some of the fantastic alien worlds would look stunning if done in an animated show instead of being fully CGI in a live action Star Trek. But nope, they’ve gone in the opposite direction and given us throwaway “animation” that looks like some forgettable show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. The new series lazy animation style actually makes the low budget, stilted 1970s animated Star Trek look MUCH BETTER in comparison!
- It’s “Brought to you by…” the same tired team that gave us Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. Yes, if you want to accuse me of “judging it before I’ve seen it” for that, I am guilty as charged. I am so tired of seeing “Produced by Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth and Secret Hideout Productions”. By comparison, Rick Berman had a far better track record than the current crop “in charge” of the Star Trek franchise, but Berman Trek also suffered from him insisting on overseeing all the TV series AND the feature films at the same time, resulting in a lot of tired blood and stale tropes that Star Trek kept recycling. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sure, Alex Kurtzman could theoretically oversee a fantastic show. I could win the lottery tomorrow, too. I’m not banking on either event happening.
So, in conclusion, the trailer for Star Trek: Lower Decks leaves me thinking that Star Trek is sinking to lower drecks. (For those who want to accuse me of just hating it because Alex Kurtzman’s name is on it, I will note that the trailer for Star Trek: Picard actually looked pretty decent). There’s also the talking point out there that I hope it will fail, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I would LOVE to be proven wrong and see CBS knock it out of the ballpark and FINALLY give me a show with the words “Star Trek” on it that I love tuning into every week. But I seriously doubt this will be the one. It’s a good thing I keep my opinions off “official” Star Trek message boards in the current climate though… those “tolerant, open-minded” Discovery fans have a tendency to scream “TROLL!!!” and then block and/or ban anyone who DOESN’T think everything that airs on CBS All Access is awesome. I think that says more about them and who really embraces the “IDIC” concept, doesn’t it?
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