Star Trek: Lower Decks

[J!!]

I really, really enjoyed that. Way more than I expected to. I'd even say that this is the best pilot episode any Star Trek show has had.

The jokes had maybe a 35% hit rate, with only a few that made me laugh out loud, but none that made me groan or cringe, or want to walk away. The writing was sharp, but the pacing threw it off. It was like the episode was running at 1.5x speed, so that theoretically funny gags had no time to land properly before getting run over by the next line of dialogue. There were some pretty good self-referential Star Trek jokes in there, but they didn't overplay that aspect; most of the humor arose naturally from the characters and situations, as it should. I particularly enjoyed the bridge crew walking off doing their corny little end-of-episode gag, while the camera stays with our lower deck crew laying exhausted on the floor.

The characters were where it really shone for me; the main characters were all immediately likeable. They're fairly standard archetypes, but with lots of fun personality, and some great little complicating quirks to spice things up. The bridge crew meanwhile, walk a fine line, managing to come across as smug douche-bags, but without actually being assholes; dislikeable, but not hateable.

While the visual design of the show is based around the TNG aesthetic, which has always been a bit bland, but they are taking advantage of the animated medium to do some things that aren't usually doable in live-action on a tv budget.

The quality of the animation, however, deserves a lot of praise. Characters are very expressive in both their faces and body-language, movement is very fluid and natural, and there's a lot of little details that they could've skipped, but took the time to animate anyway. The actions scenes in particular stand out as some of the best that Star Trek has ever done. They feel very dynamic, but without losing the clear sense of what's going on & where everyone is.

Overall, it's going to take a little while to get everything dialed-in to where they need to be, but I am really looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

[thisithis]

So a new animated Star Trek series is on its way called Lower Decks, co-developed by someone who's worked in Rick and Morty (not a show I got into, if I'm being honest), and I have somewhat mixed feelings. But first a video

It has some of the animators from Rick and Morty. But really it has nothing to do with the creators, but Paramount is trying to trick into thinking that Rick and Morty's creators had something to with this show. The reality is Rick and Morty creators are Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon on Cartoon network, but Justin Roiland with Mike McMahan created a show on Hulu called Solar Opposites. But nowhere is the trick that Paramount is using Mike McMahan is the guy that created Star Trek: Lower Decks.

So Paramount is saying that the creator's Rick and Morty made Star Trek: Lower Decks, but really Star Trek: Lower Decks is created by the guy that helped create Solar Opposites with one of the creator's Rick and Morty.

[chaos42]

the only issue i have is that im not sure the characters are balanced enough. we will see, i worry they are going to do a discovery and make one person the leader and always right, i want to see a more diverse ensemble with each person given time to shine. this episode was mainly beckett's episode with a sam as the sub plot and brad being the butt monkey of the episode. dvana didn't really do that much but be the new girl, im just hoping that they will now that the intro is out of the way-because that sucked up a lot of time since its a 26 min show i feel length should have been more like 30 mins even or more the problem is that every thing has a rushed vibe needs to slow down a tad.

[clonetrooperkev]

I actually really enjoyed Lower Decks. I think that, like SFDebris has always said, comedy is very subjective. Judging this show's comedy is going to be tough. But for me the more interesting part of the show would be the characters themselves.

Mariner for instance I feel has a lot going on that we haven't seen yet. There are certain things she says that makes the inner dork in me theorize.

Boimler, while he is the butt of the joke in some cases(being the "Harry Kim" is the medical term), I think he represents the good in Starfleet. He's open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Tendi is great. She's optimistic, wants to work hard, and is a true dork.

Rutherford is one I'm not really sure of yet. Need another episode before I can get a handle on him.

All in all, it was a fun ride that I'm looking forward to continuing.

[chaos42]

I actually really enjoyed Lower Decks. I think that, like SFDebris has always said, comedy is very subjective. Judging this show's comedy is going to be tough. But for me the more interesting part of the show would be the characters themselves.

Mariner for instance I feel has a lot going on that we haven't seen yet. There are certain things she says that makes the inner dork in me theorize.

Boimler, while he is the butt of the joke in some cases(being the "Harry Kim" is the medical term), I think he represents the good in Starfleet. He's open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.

Tendi is great. She's optimistic, wants to work hard, and is a true dork.

Rutherford is one I'm not really sure of yet. Need another episode before I can get a handle on him.

All in all, it was a fun ride that I'm looking forward to continuing.

we should at least give it a shot
i think its going to have to work for it and its got flaws but most first seasons do -tng ds9 ect and they get better some don't like enterprise till near its end, and by then it was too late but we will have to see about it

[Mabus]

So the second episode appears to be an improvement over the first episode, being somewhat less annoying, some of the characters feeling more solid and having much less gross humor, even though the conclusion of the two plots was very predictable (especially Rutherford's). I also feel most jokes lack a punchline, but whatever.
Maybe the series will get better in the next episodes, who knows.

[Thebestoftherest]

Maybe it just had some growing pains if it takes thrse episode to hit it strive is better than discovery needimg three seasons.

[Link8909]

So, thanks to CBS putting the first episode up for free and ExpressVPN, I finally got to watch it, and I love it.

The characters are all likable, especially Ensign Tendi with her positive attitude and fangirling over being on the USS Cerritos, plus I like that we see her home world of Orion and it’s this beautiful planet like ancient Rome or Greece, also Ensign Rutherford is interesting with his cybernetic enhancements being from Vulcan and even glitching out.

The animation is good with a lot of detail going on and the characters are very expressive.

The jokes are really funny, defiantly a lot of refences both upfront and in the background, but really enjoyed the humor from the characters and their personality’s, Doctor T'Ana is great with her grumpiness and terrible bedside manner and the duo of Ensign Beckett and Ensign Brad plays very well, and the intro was hilarious with the USS Cerritos bumbling across the stars.

Overall my feelings on Lower Decks is very much like J!! and clonetrooperkev, and pretty much what I felt before the series launched, this was a lot of fun.

[chaos42]

Well saw episode 2 it was better, had some good stuff though again saw the plot twist coming. also beckett was shown being the one who knew better in most of the situations, they do really to let brad have moments and have it more of a back and forth. also i did like the sub plot of him trying to find another job. though i think the next episode might be more what im looking for in this series we will see.

[CharlesPhipps]

Just watched this episode and absolutely loved it. No, it's not a remotely serious take on Star Trek but it's basically GRAVITY FALLS meets STAR TREK and that's fine by me. Serious fans will love all the continuity nods and Easter Eggs.

Perfect.

Just think more Galaxy Quest than TAS.