After coming off an epic 136 hr Mass Effect Trilogy experience, I was looking for something a bit lighter to fill in the gaps as I plan the next Jack Gilmour story. Star Trek: Lower Decks kept appearing on my Amazon Prime timeline, so despite some bad press from various social media outlets, I thought ‘hey, why not give it a try?’

For those unfamiliar, Lower Decks is an animated comedy series set in the Star Trek TNG era, about a year after the events in Nemesis. It’s touted as an adult animation and although the humour didn’t always land for me, there were more hits than misses.

To boldly go where other, more important people have been before

Whereas Star Trek has traditionally focused on those at the forefront of exploration, Lower Decks follows the Starship U.S.S. Cerritos and its dysfunctional crew who spend most of their days doing ‘second contact’ and other such routine missions. Each episode is seen through the eyes of the lowly ensigns of beta shift, comprising of:

Beckett Mariner: the daughter of the ship’s overbearing Captain Carol Freeman, and who hates anything about career advancement, despite being captain material herself.Brad Boimler: a stickler for the rules who’s desperate to impress the senior bridge crew.D’Vana Tendi: An Orion scientist who’s over-enthusiastic about everything to the point of annoyance.Sam Rutherford: an expert engineer with cyborg implants who loves his job and the details in everything.

The format of the show very much follows the same ‘planet of the week’ format that TNG did, with each episode following the beta shift team as they get mixed up in something way over their pay grade. There are some nice sci-fi ideas in many of the stories, and a holodeck episode with some great visual direction throwbacks to the movie franchise.

Brad Boimler (Hologram): Oh my God, Mariner, you gotta get me out of here. They keep showing me lights!

Woke trash!

It’s safe to say that Lower Decks was not well received by many social media commentators (including many of the ones I watch), who dismissed the whole thing as another agenda-driven pile of woke trash, full of flawless female characters and useless male ones who get shown up at every opportunity.

Jack Ransom: She’s finding little ways to inject joy into otherwise horrible tasks.
Captain Carol Freeman:Then give her worse jobs.
Jack Ransom: I’ve got her emptying —- out of the holodeck’s —- filter!
Captain Carol Freeman:… Ugh. People really use it for that?
Jack Ransom: Oh yeah. It’s mostly that.

And for most of the first two episodes at least, I could see where they were coming from. Boimler is shown as a complete wet fish, whereas Mariner belittles him at every opportunity and breaks Starfleet rules whenever she feels like it with no consequences. In fact, I found Mariner such an unlikable character at first that I nearly gave the whole thing up there and then. It was only at the end of the second episode, where we find she’s done something to secretly help Boimler’s self-esteem, that I thought ‘okay, let’s see where they’re going with this’.

And I’m very glad I stuck with it, because once the writers settle down and start telling good stories and you find out more about Mariner’s history, I found myself understanding her motivations and warming to her a lot more. Mariner and Boimler eventually become good friends, with Mariner looking out for him and helping stand up for himself. All the characters get their chance to shine during the show (even the male ones – OMG!), including an unexpected and heartfelt heroic sacrifice later on in season 1.

Beckett Mariner: Brad, when a Starfleet relationship seems too good to be true, then– red alert, man! It probably is.
Brad Boimler : You think she’s cheating on me?!
Beckett Mariner: No! I think she’s a secret alien who’s gonna eat you, or a Romulan spy, or a salt succubus, or an android, or a Changeling, or one of those sexy people in rompers that murders you just for going on the grass!

Bringing back the joy of TNG

Although not in the same league as something like Galaxy Quest, Lower Decks also knows how to gently poke fun at some of the absurdity of Star Trek while celebrating it all at the same time. There are lots of call-backs to old episodes and some TNG races make guest appearances.

At time of writing, I’ve just seen episode 2 of season 2, where Boimler has been transferred to the U.S.S Titan (with a very familiar captain) and has frayed nerves from being barraged with non-stop exciting life and death situations. There’s a great scene towards the end where, surrounded by crew mates who crave nothing but action, Boimler waxes lyrical about how the tales of peaceful exploration on the Enterprise was what really inspired him to join Starfleet. And in the modern Trek era, that’s something to be applauded. If the creative team keep up with honouring the spirit of Star Trek, then I’ll gladly keep looking forward to future episodes.

Clar: If need you to tell me that your senior officers are infallible heroes!
Brad Boimler : Well they’re not, and that’s okay. We all joined Starfleet to dive first into the unknown. We’re explorers, of course we don’t always know what’s going on. Did Picard know about the Borg? Did Kirk know about that giant Spock on Phylos? Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lamp thing from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time? That whole thing.

Ed Ryder is a research scientist by day and writes in the evening when he can fit it in.
Like a bit of fun urban fantasy or fancy some hardcore dystopia? Check out his books from the links below!

Jack Gilmour: Wish Lawyer on Amazon 

In Vitro Lottery is out now on Amazon