Star Trek: Lower Decks / “Star Trek: The Lower Decks” is the third series in the Star Trek universe in recent times and the first animated series since Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973 – 1974). What does it look like and is it worth watching?

First, Star Trek: Lower Decks is not like The Animated Series. At one time, The Animated Series was launched as a cheap alternative to live action series. The animated series made it possible to save on expensive scenery, film, special effects, and on the fees of actors who took part only in voice acting. TAS continued the plot and traditions of The Original Series – in each series, the USS Enterprise team faced another problem, helped aliens, fought space monsters, etc. In short, it was classic Star Trek, only a cartoon. However, Lower Decks and The Animated Series still have something in common, but more on that later.

Secondly, Lower Decks is unlike any of the last big shows in the Star Trek universe, neither Star Trek: Discovery nor Star Trek: Picard . More realistic and darker, the new Star Trek has lost what the classic series had – a positive attitude and the spirit of science fiction of the 60s and 70s, when it seemed that nothing was impossible for humanity. In this regard, Star Trek: Lower Decks is closer to the classics.

The idea to make the main characters of the series not the captain of the ship and the bridge crew, but ordinary crew members, clearly refers us to John Scalzi’s novel Redshirts (2012), which received the Hugo and Locus awards at the time, especially since Scalzi , in turn, borrowed many of the details for the book from the Star Trek universe. In addition, the authors of the series were clearly inspired by such fantastic animated films as Futurama , Final Space and Rick and Morty .

This is not surprising given that Lower Decks’ Mike McMahan was one of Rick and Morty’s lead writers and rose to the rank of showrunner in season four. Pickle Rick, one of the most famous episodes of Rick and Morty, is his work for which the screenwriter received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. Between Rick and Morty and Star Trek: Lower Decks, McMahan managed to make another animated series, also fantastic – Solar Opposites for Hulu. But let’s move on to the Lower Decks itself.

Star Trek: Lower Decks tells the story of four junior officers of the Federation spacecraft USS Cerritos, far from as famous and new as the USS Enterprise. The Cerritos are assigned to minor missions that usually don’t go according to plan, and the four young ensigns find themselves at the center of everything. The inhabitants of the lower decks literally live on the decks, in the corridors – they do not have personal cabins, like the senior officers (it was a joke about the unrealistically huge crew apartments in all Star Trek seasons). In general, they respect Starfleet’s bylaws and traditions, but they have their own opinions about how rules should be interpreted and commands should be carried out. Especially Ensign Beckett Mariner, who knows more about space than most captains, but hates bridge crew and doesn’t want to be promoted in any way.

Actually, the entire Star Trek: Lower Decks is built on the confrontation between the bridge crew and junior officers, who often understand things better than their seniors, do all the work for them and pull the ship out of trouble. And in this regard, the show breaks the Star Trek canon by showing many of the senior officers as narrow-minded, narcissistic morons out of touch with life. However, it is impossible to be offended by Lower Decks and its heroes, they are damn cute. And, despite the fact that the authors of the series often show the bridge crew in a not very attractive light, in this banter and jokes one can feel a real love for the Star Trek universe and knowledge of many of its details.

Yes, many of the jokes in Star Trek: Lower Decks are exclusively for their own, and the heroes often pour them like a machine gun. The same Mariner can in one sentence refer to the events of three or four different series that have been released over the course of 50 years, and if you don’t understand what is at stake, then most likely you won’t appreciate the humor. However, there are enough jokes on more general topics, both traditional for science fiction and more mundane, making fun of corporate culture, stamps of modern and classic TV shows (and not only Star Trek), social inequality and even politics.

The authors of the series managed to assemble an interesting team of very different characters that complement each other perfectly. Ensign Beckett Mariner, who denies stupid rules but respects Starfleet, is Captain Kirk in a skirt, flailing through and a very snide girl who will not be fired from the fleet just because [spoiler]. Ensign Brad Boymler, on the contrary, is a too correct rookie who wants to curry favor and get on the bridge, however, under the influence of the Mariner, he becomes a little more cynical and lively in the course of the series. Ensign Rutherford is The Next Generation’s version of Geordie, a cyber-implanted engineer who prefers work to dating girls. Well, Ensign Tandy is the first Orion in Starfleet, an energetic and cheerful girl from the medical service.

Together they make an excellent team, whose adventures are interesting to watch. And by the way, many of the methods that the inhabitants of the lower decks deal with trouble are vividly reminiscent of those that Kirk and his team used in The Original Series. Recklessness and violation of Starfleet directives in those days happened in almost every series. Alas, in the era of Picard, they tried to forget about this, so Jean-Luc himself, as a rule, remained on board and sent Riker to sort things out. So, the heroes of Star Trek: Lower Decks follow Kirk’s precepts and boldly, and sometimes blindly, go towards any problems.

The new generation Star Trek series has divided fans. Someone completely does not accept the work of Alex Kurtzman, who in fact manages the entire franchise now, someone, on the contrary, is sure that Star Trek needed a shake-up and innovation a long time ago. And some, like, for example, your humble servant, believe that both the old (I watched TOS 4 times) and new series have every right to exist and in fact do not deny, but rather complement each other. However, there is still a problem here.

Star Trek has become too much. There is a fear that in the pursuit of diversity, Kurtzman and company will simply “talk” this topic to death, tiring the audience. Judge for yourself. In addition to Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks renewed for more seasons, we also have Star Trek: Short Treks . The children’s animated series Star Trek: Prodigy is coming to Nickelodeon (2021). Work is underway on separate series about Captain Pike, who will be played by the same Anson Mount, who appeared in the second season of Discovery, and Captain Philippa Georgiou, whose role will be returned by Michelle Yeoh. But that’s not all! Series are being developed about Starfleet Academy and about … Khan Noonien Singh, the iconic character of The Original Series.

Am I the only one who thinks this is overkill? After all, all Star Trek fans remember very well that after the rich 90s, when three Star Trek series came out at once, the 00s followed, with failed films and Star Trek: Enterprise that did not take off. We had to wait a long 15 years for the next series. Maybe slow down a bit?