by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
Many TV shows struggle in their first season to find their footing, usually making way to stronger followup seasons. It would be an understatement to say that Star Trek is notorious for this particular struggle, sometimes taking two to three seasons to get into the groove. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, it’s just par for the course to strap in and suffer through a mediocre season or two so that by season three you can be blown away. That is, until Star Trek: Lower Decks arrived on the scene. Last year when the new animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered, I was a bit thrown off by its first episode. It felt manic with mile-a-minute dialogue to make the Gilmore Girls blush and a goofiness foreign to most Star Trek fans that bordered on parody. My fear was the same as most: that this show was going to be more concerned with stale references and would have nothing beyond surface level humor. I couldn’t have been more wrong. They did something in that first season that I didn’t think was possible; they created a new Star Trek show that both expanded the universe while lovingly paying tribute to the franchise as a whole. They follow most of the pre-established rules of the Trek universe, breaking them mainly in the name of comedy, but never straying too far. The results: it worked, for the first time ever a Star Trek show knocked it out of the park in season one.
For those unfamiliar, the show gets its premise from a beloved episode of The Next Generation (TNG), where instead of spending an episode with the bridge crew, they focus on a group of junior officers and their perspective of life on a Starfleet vessel. While that episode of TNG was more serious and packed an emotional punch, Lower Decks hits hard with the comedy, while still being able to have emotional moments. Multiple times now this show has caused my Vulcan heart to melt and elicit an emotional response.
The series focuses on four ensigns aboard the USS Cerritos: Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Bradward Boimler (Jack Quaid), Samanthan Rutheford (Eugene Cordero), and D’Vana Tendi (Noël Wells). Mariner has all the qualities of an excellent Starfleet officer, she is a natural leader, a cunning warrior, and has a plethora of experience that makes her both street smart and good in any situation. Her only problem is she just doesn’t care. She likes to break the rules, disrespect her superior officers, and spend a lot of time in the brig. Boimler is the exact opposite, he is all about following the rules and being a go-getter with dreams of being captain someday. At the start of the show, he’s so green he has visited all of three planets (and yes, he counts Earth and Vulcan in that list). Boimler and Mariner are a great odd couple pairing and their friendship is reminiscent of Dr. Bashir and Chief O’brein on Deep Space Nine (DS9). Tendi is an enthusiastic and optimistic Orion with a mysterious past. She is often unsure of herself, but always trying to act positive in the face of adversity. Rutheford is the science nerd on the team. He has a newly implanted cybernetic eye piece which leads to some fun bits of comedy, like when it keeps resetting on him during a mission. He is ever the optimist which makes him and Tendi instant friends with the show constantly playing with the idea of a potential romance between them. This “will-they-won’t-they” is different from most shows on TV because it is not marred with drama. It’s a wholesome relationship that is content to live in both character’s naivety. When all four work together, they prove to be a formidable team and their friendship is the very heart of what makes the show great.
Season Two builds off the first in all the ways good second seasons do, by focusing on our core characters and their relationships with each other. The show also sticks to the classic Star Trek formula of the A plot/B plot in which we focus on two separate issues that relate in some way. Each episode gives one of our characters a chance to learn something and grow. Mariner starts out the season upset with Boimler for leaving the Cerritos to serve with Captain Riker on the USS Titan. She has a problem with letting people get close so by losing her best friend to another assignment it enforces that need to shut people out, which makes for some interesting character building. She goes on different missions with Boimler and Tendi and discovers something new about herself till it comes to a head in the finale and has a breakthrough. Boimler also goes a journey of self-confidence throughout the season as he shows that he is more than just a scared new ensign. Though he is the butt of many gags, he is always given a chance to shine and prove his worth. There is the ongoing mystery of the show’s primary antagonists, the Pakleds. They show up a few times throughout the season and are just so dumb it feels they were tailor made to be animated.
Creator and head writer of the show Mike McMahan is the perfect person to expand this universe, as he clearly has a love of the material. Best known as a writer on Rick and Morty, he has plenty experience when it comes to references and sight gags. His ability to recall the most obscure Trek references and not only sprinkle throughout each episode, but also use them in poignant ways to deliver some excellent social satire and smart jokes, is awe inspiring. In episode eight, “I, Excretus,” there is an alien character called a Pandronian originally introduced in Star Trek the Animated Series (TAS), who from scene to scene is drawn with either four or five fingers as a nod to the inconsistent animation of TAS. That cut was so deep it came out the other side! Another great reference in episode four “Mugato, Gumato” Boimler says, “I was reading up on the Mugatos, did you know they have alternate pronunciations? Isn’t that neat and inconsistent?” This joke is referencing the Original Series episode where the actors each pronounced Mugato differently, one pronunciation being “Gumato.” It’s a joke that really plays if you know your Star Trek, but also is used as a kicking off point for the characters in this episode to do the same for some excellent laughs. The comedy isn’t just references for reference’s sake; each episode typically has a message worked into narrative that uses those references in a smart way.
One major focus of the show is how it treats the idea of celebrity and nostalgia, and the audience relationship towards them. There is usually mention of an Enterprise crew member, another Trek show, or other famous Trek names. Commander Data bubble bath, Voyager Collectible Plates, prank calling Armus, Jadzia Dax, etc. When they do this, there is a sense of the show trying to say, “don’t put the thing you love on a pedestal.” It is talking directly to the Trek fanbase, which has been unforgiving of many of the modern iterations of Star Trek. The writers are showing you can be loving and respectful while poking fun and admitting that maybe the thing you love can evolve. In episode six, “The Spy Humongous,” there are a group of command candidates that let Boimler join their “elite” group. Throughout the episode, they act as though they are special and better than the rest of the crew, until Boimler shows them otherwise. These characters clearly represent the element of the fan community that acts as elite gatekeepers to the fandom. The show is very much making the point that there may be differing degrees of fan, but at the end of the day we can all love Star Trek together. I appreciate that they never hit you over the head with these messages, they are weaved into the storytelling organically to fit within the episode.
The show also furthers the idea that was introduced in DS9 that Earth and the flagship of the Federation might live out the Gene Rodenberry’s ideals of the 24th century, but on smaller ships and the fringes of the galaxy this idea of paradise and never having interpersonal conflict is not necessarily a fact of the universe. However, no matter where they are, everyone in Starfleet always tries to live up to those values. In episode five, “An Embarrassment of Dooplers,” the crew is faced with an alien delegate, voiced by the hilarious Richard Kind, who duplicates if he is embarrassed or ashamed. After causing him to duplicate at a rapid pace the more the crew tries to treat the Doopler politely, the more he duplicates filling the ship. The solution to this problem is very “un-Starfleet” and I love that it takes the captain losing her temper after trying every diplomatic way to solve the problem. This adds another layer of humor watching the crew be “rude” to the Dooplers because they are clearly unused to and unskilled behaving this way.
In an effort to not oversell the show, I have come up with some negatives. For one, there are only 10 episodes a season! Okay that’s not really a negative, but give me a break; it’s hard when you love something so much. I will say that not all the comedy lands. Like many shows they throw a lot of jokes at you, sometimes in an incredibly fast pace. The good news is most of the jokes work on varying levels, but there are some that just fall flat. If you are a diehard Trek fan, you will have the most fun with the show, but someone starting their Trek journey with Lower Decks might not find themselves laughing as much, or at all. I do think that a newcomer to Star Trek can still enjoy the show, but I would recommend watching some of the other Star Trek shows first. Another minor complaint I have is with the amount of time spent with the bridge crew. The TNG episode that the show is based on made a point to not give us anything from the senior officers unless the junior officers were directly connected to them in story, which led to a fun mystery as to what was going on in the episode. I understand that you can’t sustain a show like that without getting stale quickly. Also, when you have such talented actors like Dawn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Paul Scheer, and Fred Tatasciore playing the crew, you want to use them as much as possible, but they play a much bigger role than I was anticipating. Of course, this complaint makes me a hypocrite because my favorite character is Shax, the Bajoran head of security.
I could go on for hours talking about my favorite moments of the second season, like the return of Star Trek veteran Jefferey Combs or the line, “In the Nexus its always Christmas!” But I will leave you with this: Star Trek: Lower Decks is not for everyone, mainly because comedy is subjective. If you love Star Trek and have an open mind, I believe that you will still find value in the show as a continuation of the franchise. Even if you don’t love Star Trek and just want a funny show with good characters, this show is worth checking out. It currently is my second favorite Trek show after TNG, and after the cliffhanger they left us with in this season’s finale, I will be counting down the days waiting for the release of season three!
Grade: A
You can follow Nick Ferro on Twitter