Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 is probably the best first season of a Star Trek series I have ever seen. Since Star Trek: The Next Generation first aired in 1987 Star Trek has had a track record of having really bad first seasons, and the shows getting progressively better as they went on, usually peaking around season 4 or season 5 if they make it that far. However, Lower Decks has broken that cycle by giving us the first amazing first season of a Star Trek series since Star Trek: The Original Series aired back in 1966. Not counting the first season of The Orville of course.
The thing about Lower Decks is that on the surface it just seems like Rick & Morty in space, and even the trailers really focused on the humour and disturbing elements that are the staples of Rick & Morty, because that's where Lower Decks showrunner, Mike McMahan comes from in terms of writing shows directly before getting the Star Trek job. However, Lower Decks is so far from being Rick & Morty in space that it might shock people who came onboard to watch this show because of McMahan, only to discover that this is the most Star Trekky Star Trek series we've had probably since Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005.
Over the last eleven years since Star Trek (2009) came out, Paramount Pictures and CBS have been trying to make Star Trek more accessible to the mainstream audience, because, let's face it, Star Trek needs to be more accessible to the mainstream audience or the franchise will die. Most Star Trek fans got into the francjise because a friend or a family member, usually a parent or an aunt or uncle, introduced them to it through one of the TV shows or a movie at some point in their lives, whether it was something they grew up on or saw as an adult. As a result Star Trek has become a generational franchise. But these days with thirteen movies and 788 episodes across nine TV series (two animated, and seven live action) the younger people (the children and nieces and nephews of Star Trek fans my age) maybe aren't as interested in watching the older shows like TOS or TNG because they're over fifty (TOS) and thirty (TNG) years old and are seen as cheesy or campy in some circles. Which resulted in CBS trying to bring in new viewers by giving them the Kelvin timeline movies and new shows like Discovery, where the viewer doesn't need to know previous Star Trek shows and movies to understand and enjoy the new stuff.
What I liked about Lower Decks season 1 is that it used the animated format to tell stories that couldn't be told in the live action shows, while giving us an entertaining look into the lighter side of the Star Trek Universe, which we desperately needed during these trying times. I've heard some grumbling about the show not continuing Star Trek's legacy of delving into important social and political topics. That was never the intention of this show. They did a few things, but one of the things that's really turning people off about the current slew of live action shows is that they focus too much on the heavy topics, often leaving the viewers overwhelmed and in despair, which is something we don't need more of right now. Yes, it's important to talk about these issues and it's important for Star Trek to talk about these issues, but the world is such a dark place right now that I relished the opportunity to sit in my chair for 30 minutes each week and watch a fun, light-hearted Star Trek series where the messages are there if you look hard enough for them, but aren't there to be what makes an episode enjoyable. Which is the way it was when I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager as a kid. The messages were there, but they were still couched in the Sci-Fi story being told, where everything was an allegory rather than openly telling us that this is the message a particular episode is about. As a kid all of that went right over my head, but I still enjoyed Star Trek for the characters and stories. Not every show has to be smart to be good.
When I reviewed the pilot episode I said there weren't any characters that I really latched onto, but that I hoped that by the end of the season, there would be. Now, at the end of the season, I can say that I have indeed latched onto a character. That character is Ensign D'Vana Tendi, the Orion ensign in Sickbay. She was so lovable and funny that I loved it whenever she was on screen. While she and Rutherford didn't get as much development as Mariner and Boimler did, they still got quite a bit of screen time, which I enjoyed greatly.
The only cast member I'm familiar with is Jerry O'Connell because he's voiced Clark Kent/Superman in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies starting with Justice League: Throne of Atlantis in 2015 and also appeared in the final two seasons of The Big Bang Theory as Sheldon's older brother, George Jr. Everyone else is new to me in terms of me seeing their work. Fred Tatasciore's name is familiar to me as he's done a lot of voice work for other animated shows and movies that I've at least heard of if not seen.
The look of the show feels very much like classic TNG. The USS Cerritos, the ship of the show, looks like it was kitbashed from other starships. It has the saucer and deflector dish of a Galaxy class starship like the Enterprise-D, while it has the warp drive nacelles of either an Akira-class starship or a Saber-class starship though McMahan took inspiration for the design of the ship from the USS Reliant in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is pretty cool. Even the Bridge, Engineering, Sickbay, the Holodeck and the ship's bar are reminiscent of those locations on the Enterprise in TNG. Though the Transporter Room actually looks more like the Transporter Bay on the Defiant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall season 1 of Star Trek: Lower Decks is the best season of Star Trek that we've had in a really long time. If you're a Trekkie and you haven't seen it yet, you need to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks. And if you have been watching it and aren't caught up on the end of the season yet, you need to do so ASAP. I'm giving season 1 of Lower Decks 10/10 stars.
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