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Star Trek gets animated! The latest show in the “modern” era of Trek is an animated comedy from Mike McMahan. Featured the rapid fire dialogue of Rick and Morty and a healthy dose of Trek nostalgia/trivia, Lower Decks tries to push the franchise in a new direction. The main cast are a group of “lower deck” officers: underlings who get no part of the glory of space exploration. The series deals with their personal mishaps, failed missions, and contending with their superior officers. The pilot, “Second Contact”, introduces the cast and the USS Cerritos. Plus, you get some space zombie action, an alien spider, and some action packed phaser fights.
The series was announced as focusing on the support crew of a starship, rather than the main bridge crew usually focused on in previous series in the franchise. It is set in 2380, after the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), aboard the California-class starship U.S.S. Cerritos. Discussing the direction of the series in June 2019, Kurtzman called it a “love letter” to Star Trek that would be appropriate for audience members aged “11 to 70”. He explained that things that would typically be the “A story” of a Star Trek episode would be taking place in the background of each Lower Decks episode, so “huge, crazy, crazy shit is going on in the background and that’s super peripheral to the story that you’re actually focusing on”, which he felt would make the series a unique addition to the franchise. When putting together the series’ writers room, McMahan wanted to hire writers from different comedic backgrounds and with different levels of interest in Star Trek due to the different elements the series would need to balance. The series’ writers include M. Willis, Chris Kula, Ben Rodgers, Ann Kim, and David Wright. Star Trek author David Mack served as a consultant on the series to ensure the series would fit within the franchise’s canon.
Independent animation studio Titmouse provides the animation for the series, with a style similar to Rick and Morty. Work on the animation had began by the end of February 2019. McMahan wanted to honor the previous Star Trek series by including alien designs from throughout the franchise. He particularly wanted to reference The Animated Series to acknowledge it as the franchise’s first animated series and make it “even more canon than it was before”. The uniforms worn by the crew of the Cerritos are based on unused designs for the film Star Trek Generations (1994) which McMahan said look similar to costumes used in all Star Trek series.
The Wikipedia plot summary of “Second Contact”:
Ensign Tendi has her first day of work on Starfleet’s USS Cerritos, where she meets fellow support crew members, Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, and Rutherford. Meanwhile, Boimler is tasked with a secret special assignment and Rutherford attempts to keep his dating life intact while a sci-fi disaster strikes the ship during a “Second Contact”.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss how effectively Star Trek has (once again) moved into animated territory. Plus! They give their thoughts about Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford, how well Star Trek can do comedy, and how the show should try to work out its own niche in the franchise.