Star Trek: Lower Decks

[Famous Mortimer]

This is finally being released after years of delays. Unbelievable! Starring Snoop Dogg, Michael Madsen & 40+ Star Trek actors.

Has to be seen to be believed.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JUwb_gJEkuo

Oh dear. I felt bad for everyone in that trailer.

[Camp Tramp]

Reactions to the trailer have been overwhelmingly negative so far across all the forums I watch.

[Phil_A]

I dunno, I just don't really get the point. Aside from the ships it doesn't scream Star Trek, in tone or content. It just looks like a watered down Rick and Morty fitted out with bland characters and that generic shrill US animated comedy tone.

Like, why is it about the engineering and maintenance crews? Surely a proper Trek comedy would be about the people on the bridge, and parody the tropes we see in actual Trek? Or if you're doing it about redshirts, why not make it about the actual away teams, and mine some black comedy from their life expectancies?

I suppose you could say that's well-worn ground, but at least it would actually feel like a Star Trek show. And the "well-worn ground" problem highlights the "What's the point?" question even more.

The idea of a Lower Decks spin-off has been discussed as far back as the TNG episode of the same name (which felt at the time like it was written as something of a backdoor pilot), and I think the concept of having a Star Trek show from the perspective of the lower ranking crew members has some legs. The problem is I don't think anyone expected or wanted it to be made like this.

It smacks of the same muddled thinking that sunk the rebooted Trek movies, the idea that the only way you can make Star Trek now is to make it appeal to people that don't watch Star Trek. So you end up with something like this which only serves to alienate the core audience and leaves everyone else bemused.

[greenman]

Its the kind of thing you can tell came from a coked out exec meeting, merge the previous idea of lower decks with a Rick and Morty cash in, "we can't lose!".

[dr_christian_troy]

If it has decent and subtle references to the overall mythology - essentially, any kind of depth - I'll be pleasantly surprised.

However, seeing as the gist of the plot is that what they do has very little or no impact to anything important, I'm not optimistic. If anything I'm anticipating a light and hopefully enjoyable but ultimately pointless addition to the Trek universe.

[Blumf]

Just need to update this skit:

[JamesTC]

Reactions to the trailer have been overwhelmingly negative so far across all the forums I watch.

It'll be considered a huge success. So many Trek fans gobble up any old drek these days. Star Drek.

[JamesTC]

If it has decent and subtle references to the overall mythology - essentially, any kind of depth - I'll be pleasantly surprised.

It has a reference to the racist TNG episode Code of Honor in the trailer.

[JamesTC]

This is finally being released after years of delays. Unbelievable! Starring Snoop Dogg, Michael Madsen & 40+ Star Trek actors.

Has to be seen to be believed.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JUwb_gJEkuo

Somehow better than the Lower Decks trailer. At least it reminds me how pretty Linda Park is.

[Wonderful Butternut]

This is finally being released after years of delays. Unbelievable! Starring Snoop Dogg, Michael Madsen & 40+ Star Trek actors.

Has to be seen to be believed.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JUwb_gJEkuo

That's some of the worst shit I've ever seen.

Idk, maybe it'll be really clever and hilarious and confound my expectations. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Mister Six]

The idea of a Lower Decks spin-off has been discussed as far back as the TNG episode of the same name (which felt at the time like it was written as something of a backdoor pilot), and I think the concept of having a Star Trek show from the perspective of the lower ranking crew members has some legs. The problem is I don't think anyone expected or wanted it to be made like this.

Yeah, it's just too many steps removed from "proper" Trek. From TOS to the Star Trek: The Animated Series was one step. Fine. From TNG to a hypothetical live-action lower decks show. Also fine. From any era of Trek to a comedy/parody version - also also fine.

But this appears to be TNG to lower decks to an animated series to a comedy (and again to a modern-day, shrill and fast and LOUD post-Archer tone - see also the trailer for Close Enough)... as you said, trying to appeal to everyone and ending up making something that appeals to no one.

It's such a fucking bollocks, subjective concept. TNG doesn't 'feel' anything like TOS to me.

And yet both are more like each other than Lower Decks is like either one. Even setting the animaton on the bridge would be Trekky enough for me.

[idunnosomename]

But this appears to be TNG to lower decks to an animated series to a comedy (and again to a modern-day, shrill and fast and LOUD post-Archer tone - see also the trailer for Close Enough)...

that looks fucking AWFUL.

[Malcy]

Clip at 46m30s here.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JDGNY8EosSI

The female character in the clip is going to get annoying quick I reckon.

They've announced the title of the Nickelodeon CG series. Star Trek: Prodigy.

Nickelodeon and CBS Television Studios today officially revealed the title and logo for its all-new animated series STAR TREK: PRODIGY, which follows a group of lawless teens who discover a derelict Starfleet ship and use it to search for adventure, meaning and salvation. The series is developed by Emmy® Award winners Kevin and Dan Hageman ("Trollhunters" and "Ninjago") and overseen for Nickelodeon by Ramsey Naito, EVP, Animation Production and Development, Nickelodeon.
The CG-animated series, which expands the Star Trek Universe, will debut exclusively on Nickelodeon in 2021 for a new generation of fans.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Clip at 46m30s here.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JDGNY8EosSI

The female character in the clip is going to get annoying quick I reckon.

They've announced the title of the Nickelodeon CG series. Star Trek: Prodigy.

Wow, that if anything is even more annoying than the trailer. I don't like to shit on things before they're released, and the people who make trailers are often astonishingly bad at their jobs, but this really does look horrible.

[Mister Six]

URL for people who can't be bothered skipping around to find it: https://youtu.be/JDGNY8EosSI?t=2796

Didn't make me laugh, but

Spoiler alert

the leg meat was well-rendered

[close]

.

[Wonderful Butternut]

This it nitpicky as fuck, but it pissed me off:

She's drinking Romulan Whiskey which appears to be identical to Romulan Ale. Illegal, blue, and highly intoxicating. So why didn't they have her just fucking drink Romulan Ale? Are they intentionally trying to look like they haven't watched any previous Star Trek properly? Can't even get that little bit right.

I bet the one for kids will end up being better because it won't disappear up it's own hole trying to be all edgy by having the characters drink and say rude words, like bum and willy.

[Malcy]

Yeah the Romulan whiskey thing was just odd. They just seem to do whatever they like with Trek now.

[Blumf]

Yep, I sincerely hope that's excused by her being drunk, and stupid.

Is that clip really the best they can show? Not a single thing you haven't seen before in a comedy, but worse.

[Alberon]

That whole clip I was thinking how they should have played it. Just tone down the thing a great deal and it's funnier. You can still have him get caught doing a captain's log and her making fun of him. But get rid of the bottle smashing and a lot of the bat'leth waving. She's still slightly drunk and drops it on his foot or something. Just because it's a comedy and animated doesn't mean it has to be a cartoon.

I get the feeling this is the opening shot of the first episode.

[JamesTC]

"Romulan whisky"

STOP GETTING TREK WRONG

[beanheadmcginty]

I don't want to sound like I'm in any way supportive of this hideous shitefest, but we've got human ale and human whisky and they're both brown and get you drunk so surely it's possible to have Romulan ale and Romulan whisky that are both blue and get you drunk?

[Wonderful Butternut]

Yep, I sincerely hope that's excused by her being drunk, and stupid.

Is that clip really the best they can show? Not a single thing you haven't seen before in a comedy, but worse.

Maybe they're trying to confound our expectations and the follow up to this scene is her sitting down in front of the Captain or First Officer as they chastise her for pissing her career away with another bout of Academy undergraduate behaviour and tell her that she needs to start acting responsibly now that she's a commissioned officer before she gets fucked out of Starfleet or posted to a subspace relay station in the middle of nowhere. I'm not hopeful though.

I don't want to sound like I'm in any way supportive of this hideous shitefest, but we've got human ale and human whisky and they're both brown and get you drunk so surely it's possible to have Romulan ale and Romulan whisky that are both blue and get you drunk?

I know, but it's still wheeling out item X to do the exact same thing as the very similar item Y just makes it look they didn't bother reading the previous source material properly. This is on top of two recent series (plus large bits of Ent) that have shown questionable understanding of what made Star Trek good, and just looks like even more laziness and ignorance[nb]Literally. As in the sense of ignoring it[/nb] of what's gone before. Otherwise it probably wouldn't register with me.


Just to not be a total downer, I do like that the aesthetic fits into the timeline properly. The series is set in the 2380s and their ship in terms of things like hull design, interior colour scheme and LCARs displays looks like it was designed and built at broadly the same time as Enterprise-D, which is reasonable. A lot better than the hideous shite that passed for starships in Disco.

[idunnosomename]

IT'S A BLAST SHIELD AND IT GOES UP AND IT GOES DOWN BLAST SHIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Malcy]

Some thoughts on ep 1.

The opening titles are great. Proper Trek titles again. I think the best part of the whole thing was the look and the setting. Nice to be in a familiar part of the Trek universe.

The characters are ok. Not as annoying as i thought but still some crappy dialogue with people saying 'yo yo wassup' and stuff like that. Its probably one of the best episodes of recent Trek but the bar wasn't exactly high to begin with.

I'm looking forward to the rest of it. 10 weeks of Lower Decks then back to the misery of DSC for the following 13 weeks.

[Blumf]

Some thoughts on ep 1.

The opening titles are great. Proper Trek titles again. I think the best part of the whole thing was the look and the setting. Nice to be in a familiar part of the Trek universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr4bomaqMTE

Yeah, that's not too bad (Letraset Crillee present). Still not watching it.

Not the best looking ship, seems a little unbalanced with the high saucer vs low nacelles/engineering, doesn't hang together. It's no Miranda class, but at least it's not as lardy as the Nebula class.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I thought it was absolutely horrible, loud, brash and painfully unfunny, filled with characters tiresomely "bantering", and there was a fair amount of tedious gross out humour too. The lead white bloke is bland in the extreme, and I think I might hate Mariner more than I've hated any other Trek character in the show's history.

[Malcy]

I thought it was absolutely horrible, loud, brash and painfully unfunny, filled with characters tiresomely "bantering", and there was a fair amount of tedious gross out humour too. The lead white bloke is bland in the extreme, and I think I might hate Mariner more than I've hated any other Trek character in the show's history.

Agreed on Mariner. Had a strong dislike for her since the trailer. Mike McMahon said something along the lines of it's not American humans on board but Earth humans. So why do they all talk like annoying present-day Yanks?

Odd that they bleeped the swearing as well. Either leave it in or don't use the word. I had a bit of a chuckle during the opening titles but didn't laugh or really find any of it funny.

[Alberon]

I've only watched five minutes so far. Having everything pitched at the same hyperactive level is just fucking irritating.

[Famous Mortimer]

I thought it was absolutely horrible, loud, brash and painfully unfunny, filled with characters tiresomely "bantering", and there was a fair amount of tedious gross out humour too. The lead white bloke is bland in the extreme, and I think I might hate Mariner more than I've hated any other Trek character in the show's history.

Get fucked you Neelix apologist I will end you


(Sorry, I react badly to people not hating Neelix)

[Lemming]

Pretty mixed feelings. On one hand it feels, on the surface at least, more like Star Trek than Discovery or Picard did. But on the other hand, the tone is so fucking annoying. It's like a headache in cartoon form, everything turned up to 11, everyone shouting, everything happening too fast. The dialogue alienated me too, surely this is gonna look very dated in as little as five years' time. "HER BODY BE BANGIN'!", wow.

Didn't think it was funny, which isn't great for a comedy, obviously. Didn't work as sci-fi either - neither the giant spider nor the zombie virus really had any amount of peril to them. Ideally the show would work as a straight science fiction thing and the laughs would come from there. Imperfect comparison, but the best episodes of Red Dwarf always put the crew in actual jeopardy and the scripts treated the situations seriously, with some properly good sci-fi plots that could easily be transplanted into something like TNG with minimal tweaking. This pilot episode, meanwhile, did basically everything it could to avoid working as a regular Star Trek episode. The spider just molests you with funny goo and steals your underwear, and the zombie situation doesn't matter because you can  h i l a r i o u s l y  continue your date while they run around the ship biting people.

I don't really like the idea of portraying the senior officers as a bunch of clueless dickheads either, and that looks like it could end up being a core component of the show. We're at the point where any attempt to "deconstruct" Star Trek gets very boring very quickly. I know the TNG episode Lower Decks tried to do a similar thing, but it didn't really click with me there, either (except Riker actually is a completely unlikable fuckhead so at least that part was believable). It wasn't even written well here - the way the Captain talked down to the main dude just made her seem like she's a crap commander who wouldn't be in charge of a ship for long. "Senior Staff are filled with hubris and care nothing about most people on the ship" isn't even really a theme outside TNG anyway - Kirk doesn't talk down to anyone in TOS, Sisko ran DS9 as a community rather than a military organisation, and Janeway (best Captain) frequently encouraged everyone on board to take an active role in ship operations.

Oh, and it has to be said, I hate the animation. I don't know why every cartoon since Family Guy has to look exactly like this. Cheap I guess but goddamnit it's ugly. Some of the ship design is cool and it's nice to have more unusual alien designs now but the human characters look like shit.

At the very least I'll keep watching it. There's room for it to go places if it doesn't end up being a bunch of critically unfunny Lol Holodeck Sex and Lol People Getting Injured jokes. Mariner is shaping up to be annoying but there's potential for her to be interesting if they don't go down the awful "misunderstood genius who's just too cool and outside-the-box for Starfleet" route, and instead take the character down a route where she learns that acting like a dipshit on a starship involved in tense humanitarian/diplomatic crises with lives at stake is a really bad idea and will probably get people killed.