Forget that shit about the borg, this is the 30ish year arc that we needed to see pay off.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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I'm not a big fan of the Lower Decks (the comedy just doesn't hit the right marks for me), but hot damn it really regularly serves up die-hard Trekkie fanservice.
Honestly, an on-the-nose animated star trek show would be incredible. It seems more like they wanted to make Rick and Morty and were stuck "toning it down" to fit the setting, which defeats the purpose.
I don’t think that’s a good comparison. R&M punishes it’s viewers for becoming emotionally invested in it’s characters. Final Space is a more apt comparison in my opinion. It’s stupid and irreverent, but the characters have emotional development. So when it drops the irreverence to have an emotional moment, it catches you off guard, but it doesn’t feel forced.
I’m not ashamed to say I cried during the last parts of Final Space.
That's an accurate description of about the first half of season 1. From there on out, it's pretty much a Starfleet workplace sitcom that leans into the silly/weird stuff from older Trek shows.
Outside of the animation Lower Decks doesn't seem to have much in common with R&M.
Mike McMahan was a series writer on Rick and Morty and is one of the listed creators of Solar Opposites.
The series creator is literally directly connected to Rick and Morty.
It's toned down the Rick & Morty feel from S1 and struck a decent balance, I think. They've tackled oddball issues concerning past Federation protocal and encountered their own (presumably canon) situations. That being said, the S4 opener was a bit bonkers.
I've watched all of TNG, Voyager and almost all of DS9 .... but I've stopped watching for years now.
I really have to get back into these shows and watch some more.
Thanks for this.
My advice: skip Disco, Strange New Worlds is much, much better. Maybe watch through Lower Decks seasons 1-3 before season 2 of SNW, but it wouldn't matter too much if not. Prodigy (cartoon hologram Captain Janeway show with kids for a crew) is also decent but definitely targeted at a younger audience.
Disco does provide context to SNW (as do the recent-ish Chris Pine movies), but in my opinion Disco is more of a modern recycled sci fi show with Trek branding, rather than a proper Trek show. SNW is close to TOS in style, in a good, updated kind of way.
Lower Decks captures a lot of that Gene Roddenberry "all the characters are good guys" style better than anything since Voyager as far as I'm concerned. It's a charming side piece show that really kind of ties it all together while drowning viewers in fan service.
Lower Decks captures a lot of that Gene Roddenberry “all the characters are good guys” style better than anything since Voyager as far as I’m concerned.
The Orville is on up there too, but I agree Lower Decks is better.
I think Orville captures the Gene Roddenberry character style a little better than Lower Decks, in homage to TNG and others of that era, meanwhile Lower Decks is both more of a "true" Trek while also being a meta commentary that's separate but adjacent to the main storyline. So Orville is kind of ahead of Lower Decks in terms of its significance to its universe, while Lower Decks is a bit more authentic.
Star Trek: Tacky Cardassian Fascist Eyesore
Edit: missed you making the point I was making.
Amazing catch!
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.
It’s just 725 episodes and 10 feature films.
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.)
- TOS: 79
- TAS: 22
- TNG: 178
- DS9: 176
- VOY: 172
- ENT: 98
725 + ST I-X
However, I did forget:
- DIS: 55
- SNW: 20
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.