With adult animation now firmly in it's boom period, it was only a matter of time before someone adapted "Star Trek" for a similar show. "Lower Decks" is that show, one which though I felt was alright, fell a bit short of some of it's contemporaries.
On board the USS Cerritos, a Starfleet vessel primarily concerned with maintaining diplomatic relations with pre-existing Federation members, the crew of the lower decks attempt to balance the drudgery of keeping the ship working with the occasional moments of alien based nonsense that come their way. Two such, Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) attempt to maintain a friendship despite the latter's timid nature and love for the rules, and the formers wild, freewheeling, scattershot approach.
I don't think this show is going to win you back to "Star Trek" if you feel disenfranchised with the changes that "Discovery" and "Picard" have made to the traditional Star Trek tone. Again, there is swearing here and violence. It feels, to me, like "Rick and Morty"-Lite - not quite willing to go as far or as deep as that show, but still wanting to head for that ballpark. It's not surprising really, when you consider that the driving creative force is Mike McMahan, who worked as writer and producer on both "Rick and Morty" and "Solar Opposites".
Though it improved along the run, so much so that the finale is actually really good, my overall feeling was that it was alright, but not amazing. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, a little bit, in focusing on the ensigns work rather than the bridge crew as it's core idea - but then the bridge crew themselves become increasingly important characters as the show runs on. I know this would be a much harder idea to write, but I think I'd have preferred if they were below decks on the Enterprise, during the "Next Generation" run, and their stories ran parallel to the established events of that show. Not in like a one-for-one comparison, but with the major beats acting like a B story to whatever they were doing. So what does "Q" showing up and transporting people about do to them, or the death of Tasha Yar.
As I said, it's pretty good. Settling into itself a bit more as the season runs on, which hopefully looks good for the second season. We'll see.
On board the USS Cerritos, a Starfleet vessel primarily concerned with maintaining diplomatic relations with pre-existing Federation members, the crew of the lower decks attempt to balance the drudgery of keeping the ship working with the occasional moments of alien based nonsense that come their way. Two such, Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) attempt to maintain a friendship despite the latter's timid nature and love for the rules, and the formers wild, freewheeling, scattershot approach.
I don't think this show is going to win you back to "Star Trek" if you feel disenfranchised with the changes that "Discovery" and "Picard" have made to the traditional Star Trek tone. Again, there is swearing here and violence. It feels, to me, like "Rick and Morty"-Lite - not quite willing to go as far or as deep as that show, but still wanting to head for that ballpark. It's not surprising really, when you consider that the driving creative force is Mike McMahan, who worked as writer and producer on both "Rick and Morty" and "Solar Opposites".
Though it improved along the run, so much so that the finale is actually really good, my overall feeling was that it was alright, but not amazing. It wants to have its cake and eat it too, a little bit, in focusing on the ensigns work rather than the bridge crew as it's core idea - but then the bridge crew themselves become increasingly important characters as the show runs on. I know this would be a much harder idea to write, but I think I'd have preferred if they were below decks on the Enterprise, during the "Next Generation" run, and their stories ran parallel to the established events of that show. Not in like a one-for-one comparison, but with the major beats acting like a B story to whatever they were doing. So what does "Q" showing up and transporting people about do to them, or the death of Tasha Yar.
As I said, it's pretty good. Settling into itself a bit more as the season runs on, which hopefully looks good for the second season. We'll see.