this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Risa
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Star Trek memes and shitposts
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Seeing all these star trek posts makes me think I should watch star trek. I really like animation so I wanna check out lower decks but it seems like it's too baked into everything else star trek and I wouldn't get it. What do you guys think?
Lower Decks heavily references a lot of stuff, but most of the time the references are overt and pretty much explained, eg when they go over how a crew from another show solved a particular problem in the past. It's certainly better having watched the other shows beforehand, but it's not like you won't understand what's going on. Lower Decks is different to a lot of other Trek shows though in that it's much more light hearted and really doesn't take itself seriously, but it does capture the core Trek charm where all the characters are generally good but faced with difficult and conflicting situations, rather than a lot of shows where the characters just act horribly to one another to create drama.
I'm a firm believer in open-gate fandom, so I say jump in any which way that feels right!
I'm a longtime Trekkie and even I don't get half the references. Its mostly just bonus gags slipped into the very fast dialogue in the show. Give it a shot!
You might also be interested in Strange New Worlds; it's a new series that, IMHO, does a great job of capturing the spirit of older Trek series.
It’s just 725 episodes and 10 feature films. No sweat!
Seriously, though, there’s plenty to enjoy without all of that, and you can always go back and catch up at your own pace. The show is great on its own.
11 feature films. You forgot Galaxy Quest.
i think you're undercounting by more than a hundred episodes :)
I think he skipped counting that show and those feature films on purpose.
(He did forget that there! are! 11! feature films! including Galaxy Quest, though.)
725 + ST I-X
However, I did forget:
which brings it up to 800. Oops!
you also forgot PIC (30), PRO (20), and LD (32), so, 882 total to date.
Well, no episodes of Picard, or prodigy would be referenced in lower decks
Ah, I didn't realize you were only counting events eligible to be referenced in LD. But...
spoiler
I would be surprised if LD doesn't eventually reference things from season 2 of Picard, at least. Also LD could do their own time travel, so really everything is on the table.Yes, of course you should watch Star Trek! That goes without saying, regardless of your interest in Lower Decks.
(But yes, Lower Decks does make a lot of in-joke references. I imagine it's still funny without them, but you'll be missing quite a bit.)
BTW, Lower Decks is only one of three(!) animated Star Trek series now (with the others being Star Trek The Animated Series from the '70s, and Prodigy). I've only seen the first episode of Prodigy, but I get the impression that it might be less self-referential and thus might be a better introduction. Also, everybody says it's really good.
Prodigy does reference a fair bit, in particular Voyager as it stars Janeway. It's also very much targeted at young children. It's still good, but bear that in mind.
I really liked Lower Decks, and I had never watched a single Star Trek episode before. It works very well on its own, though there are times where I could tell I was missing the reference obviously.