Star Trek: Lower Decks

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Okay I watched the first episode and apparently I can't watch any more without putting thirteen silver pennies on the grave of a hanged man during the lunar eclipse while reciting the lord's prayer in pig latin.

[GreyICE]

Okay I watched the first episode and apparently I can't watch any more without putting thirteen silver pennies on the grave of a hanged man during the lunar eclipse while reciting the lord's prayer in pig latin.

That's sad because the first episode is easily the worst of the three.

But good description of CBS all access.

[CharlesPhipps]

Okay I watched the first episode and apparently I can't watch any more without putting thirteen silver pennies on the grave of a hanged man during the lunar eclipse while reciting the lord's prayer in pig latin.

The first taste is always free. That's how they get you.

[TGLS]

‍

[Mabus]

You mean....the mother and daughter? I mean, you're complaining about them being too similar.

Well, before Mariner and Carol, there was Michael Burnham and Raffi.
And there's still the issue of why do these characters have to be the way they're written.

[GreyICE]

You mean....the mother and daughter? I mean, you're complaining about them being too similar.

Well, before Mariner and Carol, there was Michael Burnham and Raffi.
And there's still the issue of why do these characters have to be the way they're written.

Burnham is written like a Vulcan - low emotional displays, logical, focus on the sciences and reason. She does use logic as an excuse as much as an actual guiding principle, but that's just about the most Vulcan flaw in all of Star Trek.

Raffi is a former drug addict, someone who idolized Picard, and then when her idol failed and her dreams were shattered allowed her life to fall apart. She did half the things she did in the show to get to a semi-legal space station to see her family again, family who didn't really want anything to do with her.

Mariner is a comedy sendup of the entire notion of the "off the books officer". The one who is "a hard man who doesn't follow the rules, but gets results?" I mean come on, the police chief asking the newbie to "monitor X because I know he's up to no good" is just about the most classic setup for that sort of shit ever, and was clearly what they were riffing on. She tried to fight the first officer over who got to fight a death duel with a giant alien.

If you think these are all "the same sort of character" then I think it shows more about the lens you're viewing them through than it does about the writers.

[CharlesPhipps]

You mean....the mother and daughter? I mean, you're complaining about them being too similar.

Well, before Mariner and Carol, there was Michael Burnham and Raffi.
And there's still the issue of why do these characters have to be the way they're written.

Raffi is a hot mess to be true but she's also right about the conspiracy of Romulans in Starfleet.

Michael Burnham is the exact opposite of Mariner in about every way.

We also have Cassidy Yates to add the list of black women of Star Trek (among humans and regulars).

[CharlesPhipps]

I view Lower Decks through a not quite literal lens because, well, it's a cartoon and comedy, so while I have no doubt events similar to this canonically happened in the Trekverse--I view it "GASP" as perhaps maybe just a comedic exaggeration. Yes, I'm a Trekkie arguing not to take something completely seriously.

But one way to interpret Captain Freeman's "New Essentialist"-esque attitudes about the Federation that makes sense might be the fact that she came up as a Captain during the Dominion War. Her very harsh military discipline, efficiency, and hardassery could be a reflection of knowing when that was the only thing standing between the Federation and annihilation.

It's just that attitude has no place in Starfleet now and it's driving her batty.

Which....oh dear, just makes me realize I'm describing her as Krall/Balthazar Edison now. I kind of shot my argument in the foot there.

[GreyICE]

But one way to interpret Captain Freeman's "New Essentialist"-esque attitudes about the Federation that makes sense might be the fact that she came up as a Captain during the Dominion War. Her very harsh military discipline, efficiency, and hardassery could be a reflection of knowing when that was the only thing standing between the Federation and annihilation.

It's just that attitude has no place in Starfleet now and it's driving her batty.

Wanna know the sad part? Despite it being a comedy show and deliberately over the top, she still came off better than that idiot Captain Jellico from Chain of Command. At least she didn't override the recommendations of the entire command staff and ignore the chief engineer when she implemented her nightmare scheduling. And she reversed course when it was obvious her course wasn't working. And she didn't once suggest that a senior officer was plotting against her! So she's like three degrees better than Jellico.

Also I'd bet a hundred dollars against a jelly donut that Chain of Command came up in the writer's room while they were writing this episode.

[Link8909]

Okay I watched the first episode and apparently I can't watch any more without putting thirteen silver pennies on the grave of a hanged man during the lunar eclipse while reciting the lord's prayer in pig latin.

That's sad because the first episode is easily the worst of the three.

But good description of CBS all access.

Personally I think you're luck to even get CBS All Access, I've only been able to see the first episode here in the UK, and that's only because I got ExpressVPN, they won't accept UK payments and trying to get a Gift Card requires me to give out personal information to complete strangers, yeah... if I'm gonna do that why don't I just burn all my money while I'm at it.

Mariner is a comedy sendup of the entire notion of the "off the books officer". The one who is "a hard man who doesn't follow the rules, but gets results?" I mean come on, the police chief asking the newbie to "monitor X because I know he's up to no good" is just about the most classic setup for that sort of shit ever, and was clearly what they were riffing on. She tried to fight the first officer over who got to fight a death duel with a giant alien.

Pretty much, I like that Ensign Mariner is the kind of Officer that can list off the regulations off the top of her head, and clearly has years of real experience that would make her a great officer, but doesn’t care for the general Starfleet bureaucracy or even rising the ranks as they get in the way of doing genuine good, this not only makes her a great comedy duo with Ensign Boimler, but having her mother be her Captain is fantastic, not just for comedy but for a unique dynamic within the franchise.

I also think that if it was in her time, Ensign Mariner would be someone who would have joined the Maquis.

I view Lower Decks through a not quite literal lens because, well, it's a cartoon and comedy, so while I have no doubt events similar to this canonically happened in the Trekverse--I view it "GASP" as perhaps maybe just a comedic exaggeration. Yes, I'm a Trekkie arguing not to take something completely seriously.

That’s fair, me personally even with the comedy angle, I don’t see Lower Decks being out of place within the Star Trek universe, and it’s setting of being on the least important starship in the fleet helps with that, the USS Cerritos isn’t the USS Enterprise, so for me it makes sense that the crew of the USS Cerritos isn’t the best of Starfleet.

Also nearly every Star Trek series has been about the most important starships like the Enterprise’s, while others like Deep Space Nine and the USS Voyager have had extortionary thing thrusted upon them, so I love that Lower Decks is a series about the most unextraordinary starship in the fleet.

But even then what I love about this series is even with the comedy that could be used to justify poor decisions of the characters, none the them act incompetent, in the first episode they all make perfectly reasonable decisions based off of what information they had, even how the zombie plague started was while certainly a lack of foresight, is something I could easily see happening on any starship (and properly has happened on another Star Trek episode), and even shows the importance of Second Contact missions.