Star Trek Lower Decks

Come to think of it, what is the main character’s motivation supposed to be? Her parents may have pushed her, but she both got into the naval academy and seemed to do well, possibly brilliantly, there. But now it’s been several years and she is guaranteed no future in Starfleet and currently seems to be stuck supervising holodeck jizz-moppers and vending-machine technicians. Why hasn’t she jumped ship to join the Klingons or Orions or an independent band of smugglers and pirates? Unless she feels she’s really found her niche.

Well, on the one hand, her father is an Admiral, but her mother–while a Captain–is Captain of one of the least important ships in Starfleet. She is basically like a tugboat Captain. So maybe a similar career trajectory?

Just from the first episode we saw that:

  1. She enjoys helping other civilizations, especially if she’s able to circumvent the Federation’s rules to make it happen more quickly.
  2. She’s definitely a federation fangirl.
  3. She is having a great time.

Seems like a pretty sweet gig.

Episode two is out. As they say on Taxor, female feces outside inside feces.

I gave it a try. I’ll give it one more episode for the requisite 3-episodes-to-decide rule.

Awful. Barely laughed. Just plain not funny.

A few laughs, but not many, and not as many as there could be. I laughed when the shuttle lurched into the sky, stolen by the drunken Klingon, and appreciated some of the more obscure ST references (especially seeing a Vendorian shapeshifter again: Vendorian | Memory Alpha | Fandom). Eh, I’ll stick with it.

Episode 1 was kind of meh, but episode 2 was fucking hilarious. The shuttle’s cock pit littered with to go containers were cracking me up.

I hope we get more episodes like episode 2.

I loved how supportive everyone was of Rutherford. Very Trek.

“Aww, bears!”

Lame.

We watched the first two episodes tonight. It was more amusing than laugh out loud funny, but we enjoyed it and will be watching more.

Episode 1 is now available on YouTube (In the US, sorry Canada).

The entire episode is on youtube for a while at least. I enjoyed it. I do have a question though: what’s the joke with the bridge officer with the bad 5-o’clock shadow?

The general joke with all the bridge officers is that they’re all a bunch of narcissistic assholes.

I think that one in particular is supposed to have Action Hero Perma-Stubble.

Scotty would approve of all those lower-decks crewmembers making good use of “buffer time.” Margaritas from the replicator? Why not? A few good laughs in this episode, and nice to see, at the end, Chief O’Brien getting his due in some distant-future society. Best line: “Starfleet… the funnest frontier?!?”

Buffer time sounds like a good idea to me. Though margaritas on the job probably wouldn’t be the best idea - especially when dealing with starship running things.

I’ve got to give props to Mariner’s voice actor - she’s really got the knack for it. I think her jokes land the most consistently entirely on the strength of the voice work.

The fight made up entirely of Kirk hammer-blows was very funny.

Other funny lines:

“Surrounded by spears? Who am I, Kirk? What is this, the 2260s?”
“I! Respect! Your! Sovereignty!”

Anyone notice the Borg kid in the future classroom? That was a neat touch.

The painfully awkward talent night was good - on TNG we only ever saw the senior officers enjoying masterful performances by other senior officers. Of course most of them are going to be crap.

Also, everyone was kneeling in front of displays. Apparently there are no desks or chairs in the future.

And Mariner and the Orion chick from Medical were so loud the Klingons could hear them across space. LOL.