One of the things that I talk to my friends about is how the hell does the universe of Star Trek still exist? I don’t mean the franchise, I mean how has it not gotten destroyed by some kind of quasar or time travel problem.
Because usually in one of these series, we follow just one ship and they’re going to nearly end the universe on multiple occasions. But the Federation has perhaps thousands of ships all doing the same thing. All encountering the same problems. One of them must fail at some point to allow the universe to rip itself asunder.
That’s my little rant about Star Trek in general. I honestly have always admired the series from afar. It’s so chunky that I don’t know how to jump into it. I feel that way more and more these days. Genshin Impact and League of Legends confuse me.
Anyway, I have been pushing to watch more actual TV and not just the same youtube videos over and over again. So, I did what any reasonable person would do and made a list of twenty science fiction shows and rolled a D20. It fortunately landed on 11, which was Star Trek: Lower Decks.
I did not plan to watch all of it in two weeks but here we are. I have no regrets.
The show concerns itself with the ensigns on the lower decks that do all the dirty work aboard a Federation starship. While the bridge crew goes to flute recitals, they’re hard at work cleaning everything up and stacking crates. They of course end up in all kinds of adventures and danger.
The series focused more on comedy than science fiction. Our main four for the first three seasons is endlessly optimistic scientist former pirate Tendi, the rebellious daughter of the captain Beckett Mariner Freeman, engineering cybernetically enhanced engineer Rutherford and finally desperate to prove himself ensign Bradward Boimler. These four carry the show for so long that when they finally bring in straightwoman Vulcan T’Lyn, it only serves to enhance the show with her deadpan delivery and reactions to everything else that’s going on.
It’s strange to find a show with no bad episodes. I can’t think of a single one that I actively disliked(okay, to be fair I skipped the second holodeck episode making fun of the new movies. I just don’t like the holodeck in general). Every character is interesting and never annoying. This can sometimes happen with multiple main characters, where you see that the episode is going to focus on X and you roll your eyes and pray for it to end.
Despite being a comedy, they manage to bring in some pretty great drama. Mariner has been around the block being impetuous and rebellious but it’s used to hide a pain that even she doesn’t want to acknowledge. Tendi and Rutherford’s backstories are really interesting. Watching Boimler’s growth into becoming the person he is at the end of the series is phenomenal. Every one of their voice actors always brings an energetic and fun performance.
It also does what a lot of newer Star Trek shows don’t do, which is show admiration for what came before without it turning it into constant self congratulating praise. When I think about the Chris Pine Star Trek movies I think about how often we had to stop in those just to admire the Enterprise. So many glory shots.
It also encompasses the joy of discovery and exploration. But that there are downsides to it like how most of the crew is brutally injured throughout the missions.
I know it’s not professional in a review to point out only the good things. But sometimes stuff is just good because it’s well made. Maybe my opinion would be different if I had seen every episode that was ever made but I have two friends who have done that and they both love this show.
Hunh, I wonder if that’s the Star Trek equivalent of “I’m not racist I have (person of color/LGBTQIA+) friends”.
Anyway, here’s Boimler going off on people who think the Federation is lame.
Franklin Cota, an author and podcaster 