I like a lot of Star Trek, and while I have seen quite a bit of it, I would not call myself a Treker or Trekie or whatever they call themselves these days. That Paramount/CBS seems to be going all-in on Gene Roddenberry’s most famous creation isn’t that surprising because I am not sure that the streaming service originally dubbed “CBS All Access” has much else going for it. Why should I pay for a streaming service to watch episodes of something included in every basic cable package imaginable, and possibly still for less if you have the right kind of TV antenna? I mean, I did watch the new version of The Stand, and that was like a text book definition of “underwhelming”.
But the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks just finished its second season, and I for one really dig that show.
For the uninitiated, Lower Decks is set on the USS Cerritos, a Starfleet ship that doesn’t get the big missions. The pilot, for example, said the Cerritos handles missions like Second Contact, the first trip Starfleet makes back to a planet after First Contact protocols have been established to take care of the paperwork that First Contact doesn’t handle. While Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) certainly seems to be a highly competent officer, her first officer Commander Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) appears to have an undeservedly high opinion of himself, the Bajoran head of security Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) looks like he never met a conflict he couldn’t resolve with his fists, the ship’s engineer Billups (Paul Scheer) is a timid mouse of a man, and the half-feline chief medical officer Dr. T’ana (Gillian Vigman) looks like she’d rather not deal with any of the others ever. Basically, these are Starfleet officers that probably get the job done but aren’t generally entrusted with the challenging missions.
Besides, the show isn’t about them. This is Lower Decks, and that means the real stars are a quartet or young ensigns who get stuck with all the crap jobs. There’s freewheeling Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), a young woman who breaks every rule she can and somehow gets great results in the end anyway while secretly being the captain’s daughter. Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) is by-the-book but a screw-up and something of a coward. Overenthusiastic Tendi (Noel Wells) just loves being in Starfleet while working in Sickbay. And then there’s Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), a young engineer with some new cybornetic implants that just loves machines. It’s these four that we see what life on the Cerritos is really like, and they’re an engaging foursome to spend time with.
There’s a lot to like about Lower Decks. Set sometime after the series finales of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, Lower Decks is a show that doesn’t mock Star Trek so much as play with the toys there and have a bit of fun. It’s respectful of the franchise, and it’s easy to see why: whoever makes this animated series is clearly a fan of the world of Star Trek. This is a show jammed full of Trek Easter Eggs, especially if you know where to look. A second season episode featured a trip to a dead artifact collector’s ship, and pretty much every item in there was a reference to some past episode of some series, including the previous animated series from the 1970s. Actors from older shows have made some cameos too, and at least one was a deep cut. And none of it feels like this is set up to make Star Trek look stupid. This is a franchise that has, at times, delivered some good comedic episodes. The only real difference is Lower Decks is an entirely comedic series.
It’s also very creative in how it tells stories. Season one ended with Boimler promoted and transferred to the USS Titan under Captain William Riker (guest star Jonathan Frakes, clearly having a ball as a sillier version of his old character), but given Trek‘s episodic nature and the need to hit a reset button, it probably won’t be a surprise that Boimler will end up back on the Cerritos before too long. The only real question is how. Season two even did one particularly good episode by showing what being a “lower decks” crewman onboard a Klingon or Vulcan ship is like, and the reoccurring villains are the Pakleds, a race that first appeared on Next Generation and are known first and foremost for being very stupid. Combine that with a lot of character-based humor, and the end result is a winning show.
Let me put it this way: Lower Decks would drop a new episode on Thursdays while Disney+ was dropping new episodes of What If?, with the latter filled with famous actors doing voice work and what was probably a high production budget, and I still largely preferred Lower Decks for its smart comedy and fun characters. I think I know what I am looking forward to more.
Grade: A-
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