Star Trek - Lower Decks
Second ContactBack to animation for the first time since TAS (not counting one or two in Short Treks). I've no idea what to expect with this series, I have heard nothing at all about it. I assume it's going to be similar to the TNG episode with the same name, all about the plebs on the ship, rather than the posh strawberry floaters upstairs. And being animated, it'll either be aimed at kids or be something quite weird.
Ok, so I gather it's a comedy and mildly adult. It gave me Rick and Morty vibes, it's not as weird or sweary as R&M but seems to be a similar humour and the animation is similar.
It was an alright opening, nothing to blow me away though. The second the Captain asked whatshisname to keep an eye on whatshername I guessed that
she'd be the Captain's daughter.
I did like the joke of the naked gym on the holodeck. Imagine the gooseberry fool Riker used to get up to with holograms.
EnvoysErghh an energy being episo....oh ok.
So this is just Rick and Morty in the Star Trek universe then? I don't hate R&M, but this should do it's own thing rather than be a PG version of R&M.
The episode was ok. It didn't really do anything to raise it above the most average of average.
Temporal EdictThe overestimating the time it takes to fix stuff makes the rest of Trek make more sense. It was always "how long to repair the warp core?" "15 hours captain!" "You have to do it in 5!".
The two handed fighting thing was a nice nod back to Kirk. And the O'Brien appreciation was nice.
Other than that though? It was pretty gooseberry fool. It's great that the episodes are less than 25 minutes long.
Moist VesselI guess the best thing I can say about this series is that it isn't boring. The episodes are short but they zip along extremely quickly.
But the jokes are weak. The plots feel like the writers think they are cleverer than they actually are. And the characters are a mix of over the top and too stupid to be believable even in a slightly surreal animated show.
Mariner acts smug, Boimler acts neurotic, Tendi acts needy and the captain acts incompetent. It's been the same in every episode so far.
The
ascending being horrific was great though. That was actually inventive.
Cupid's Errant ArrowWhy do comedy writers always think "man is jealous of his girlfriend's ex and so acts like a complete wanker" is great material? It's the most generic of sitcom plots and is very very very rarely ever funny.
Which probably tells you what I thought of this episode, utter shite.
Terminal ProvocationsA little bit better than the other episodes, but it's still not clicking with me. I seem to spend the entirety of every episode waiting for Rick to turn up.
There was some actually inventive stuff here. We've seen the holodecks malfunction a million times before, but Badgey was truly deranged. It got a bit too much by the end though and went from mildly amusing to irritating.
The biggest problems this show has are acting like a R&M tribute act and not knowing when a joke is over (also a R&M problem). The engine noise thing could have been fun. But went on. And on. And on. And then went on some more.
Much Ado About BoimlerAgain better than the earlier episodes but it's still meh overall.
I'm struggling to even write anything about the episodes. Umm, Boimler wanting to stay on the farm at the end was understandable, the character of Mariner desperately needs to become more than just "can't handle responsibility so acts like a wanker" and Tendi needs to learn what a dog is?
Veritas"They are scanning" x1000. Christ.
I think Americans find "repeat bad joke over and over" funny, I just find it annoying.
Haha, it's classified so in the flashback so some speech is bleeped and eyes are blacked out. Haha. Great joke guys. Haha.
The
Crusher and the ghost joke was the only funny bit.
I'm being a bit harsh. It was an ok episode, as long as you ignore the crap humour. The story could have been fleshed out into a decent episode exploring how so much of Trek is just people getting lucky. And it's always good to hear Kurtwood Smith. The
Q cameo was pointless though. Crisis PointIt kept bringing up racism against Orions...but did nothing with it. Just "haha, Orions take slaves!" and instead of taking an opportunity to show not all Orions are bad, it just makes a joke like "we haven't done that for at least 5 years". Hilarious.
I get this is a comedy show, but comedy (and Trek!) can make important points. Here, it was just "lol, stereotypes about different races are hilarious and sometimes true!".
I'm overanalysing it, but there's not much else to say. I'm really not enjoying this show very much.
How has nobody before discovered that Mariner is the Captain's daughter? Boimler has made a Barclay style holodeck simulation of the entire crew, used all of their personal logs and....had no idea?
Meh.
No Small PartsLandru? That's a blast from the past.
Something shocking happened, I actually liked this episode. It's still playing out like "Rick & Morty Lite", but it wasn't so unbearable here. Bringing back the Packlids (sp?) was a weird choice, but they sort of work in a comedy cartoon.
Nice cameo from Riker and Troi, although the Enterprise reference brought back memories of how bad that series finale was. Overall S1 was pretty bad with just a handful of highlights. Trek shows often start out gooseberry fool though, hopefully this finds its feet and starts doing its own thing in S2. Because Rick & Morty + Star Trek references = gooseberry fool.
Strange EnergiesI was hoping S2 would be better, but on the strength of this, it seems they are committed to doing R&M with the occasional Kirk mention or TNG cameo.
I'm struggling to think of anything positive to say about this one. Both plots were crap and the humour was non-existent.
Kayshon, His Eyes OpenStarfleet all shower together in a communal area? It's the first time I've been tempted to join...
I enjoyed the badass soldiers taking the piss out of the easy life Picard's Enterprise had. They really did have way too much time on their hands if they could have concerts all the time.
Otherwise? Some nice action, some funny Riker stuff but overall meh.
We'll Always Have Tom ParisGood salamander joke.
But a truly terrible pirate joke.
Overall not too bad, it moved along nicely and had some mildly amusing moments. And it was good to see Tom Paris, even if he didn't have much to do.
Mugato, GumatoUrghh, will this series ever end... The whole show could have suddenly become interesting if
Mariner was suddenly revealed as black ops/Section 31. But nope, it was just bollocks. The mention of Quark was nice, I've seen his name above bars, so I guess he's doing well. Weird how Rom became the Ferengi Grand Nagus at the end of DS9, but there are still feral Ferengi around. Rom needs to sort himself out.
An Embarrassment of DooplersHow to write a Lower Decks episode.
Step One: Write out some references to TOS/TNG/DS9.
Step Two: Think of a joke, it doesn't matter if it's actually funny. Repeat the exact same joke at least 20 times.
Repeat those steps for ten episodes per season.
So yeah, this episode. Quarks bar, Data/Lore dolls. Kirk and Spock. "Hilarious" duplicating man joke. Great.
Meh.
The Spy HumongousPakleds are so strawberry floating stupid. And I mean the concept, not the creatures themselves. Even though they're stupid.
And that's about all the enthusiasm I can muster to write anything about this shite. I hope Prodigy is a better animated series than this crap. I can't wait to get this finished.
Where Pleasant Fountains LieJeffrey Combs loves Star Trek. That voice though, he might have played 80 different roles across Trek, but every single time I hear it I can't help but think of Weyoun.
The medieval cosplay planet was atrocious. Really dire and dreadful stuff.
But the other story wasn't too bad. Crash landing on a desert planet with an evil AI, that's classic Trek territory and they actually told a half decent story.
It's been a while since anything in this show held my attention, so it was great to get half an episode that was ok.
I ExcretusPart crap, part fun. They finally decided to drop the references to other Trek series and just decided to build the entire episode out of them.
But some of it worked quite well. It was fun to watch them strawberry float up.
Wej DujThe Klingon and Vulcan ended up highlighting just how crap the main characters in this show are. I'd have happily watched a few episodes of Klingon/Vulcan lower decks.
The Packleds are still a terrible choice of enemy. They are not funny.
The
Borg lower decks was a decent joke. Even if they made the usual mistake of keeping the joke going way too long. Not bad, the show has improved slightly over the last few episodes. If it keeps up this momentum, then it might be really good by season 30.
First First ContactSo-so episode. With a decent cliffhanger.
I assume
Freeman will be fine.
But the Rutherford (who's been a crap character so far) revelation is more interesting. Let's hope they do something great and not some standard Section 31 bollocks with added wackiness. Overall this was mainly a terrible season, but it did pick up in the second half. And I did like the Klingon/Vulcan episode. If they can keep the upward trajectory for S3, then this show might be more bearable.
GroundedIs the only available ship on Earth a theme park ride, or is it just an excuse to shovel in some extra Trek references?
Still, the references here were ok.
Sisko's restaurant, ketracel white sauce, Tuvok. For once the references mostly seemed subtle, rather than screaming "LOOK! WE WATCHED TNG THIS WEEK!".
Decent opener for the season, following on from a decent end to S2. It's nice to see the show might have hit a run of form.
The Least Dangerous GameOk the run of form is over. This was shite and felt like it went back to being a Rick and Morty tribute.
I liked the D&D game the video of Martok. Other than that? A crap episode.
Mining the Mind's MinesBlack engineers with visors on their eyes really do love Leah Brahms.
Another crap one. Meh.
Room for GrowthLOL! MASKS! LIKE IN TNG! REMEMBER?! LOL!
The
bank robbery sex game in the holodeck was reasonably amusing.
But otherwise? Shite.
ReflectionsI thought the archaeologist was going to be Picard's ex who ran off with Q, but sadly not.
The Rutherford story was shite.
The other story was actually ok, it makes complete sense that ordinary people would look at the history of Starfleet and think "strawberry float that!". I'd love to explore space, but not with the health and safety record that Starfleet has.
So only a half shitty episode, that's a step up from the last few.
Hear All, Trust NothingNice to see DS9 and some old faces
Kira, Quark and even Morn! . But what a shame they didn't do more with it. I'm being harsh on a 25 minute comedy animation, but it felt like such a massive missed opportunity to do something decent.
The Mariner story was crap, the Orion story was shite and the main plot was a rubbish version of a typical DS9 Quark story.
A Mathematically Perfect RedemptionCastaway references in 2022?
This should have been terrible. A selfish robot meets bird people? In this series? It should be one of the worst things I've ever watched.
But....I really liked it. The annoying robot was actually pretty funny. And the bird people weren't really any more ridiculous than many other Trek species. Even the sex scene was funny.
I'm stunned that, finally, there's an LD episode I like.
Maybe the problem is the terrible main characters, I also quite liked the episode with the lower deck characters on the Klingon and Vulcan ships. Keep the main characters to an absolute minimum and maybe I'd like LD.
Can S3 end on a run of ok episodes like S2 did?
Crisis Point 2: ParadoxusFor a show that loves cameos and references from other Trek shows, they couldn't get
Scott Bakula to say a few words at the foundation of the Federation? Although I guess they made up for that with
Takei's cameo, even if they seemed to just chuck that in there, rather than building anything around it. Why was Sulu at Kirk's farm? Did Shatner back out at the last minute? After the Rutherford cybernetic thing being mostly nothing, they are now setting up Boimler's twin as a Section 31 recruit. It could be interesting I guess, but I bet it'll be a load of bollocks. LOL THEY SAID CLIFFHANGERS ARE gooseberry fool IN MOVIES BUT THEN DID IT THEMSELVES. LOL!! SO WACKY!
The show is back to being utter gooseberry fool. I think I just hate all the main characters.
Trusted SourcesThey summed up Picard quite well at the start.
Starbase 80 looks like a fun place to work, it'd be easy to look amazing there.
It seems weird for Starfleet to bring in unmanned ships. For a peaceful organisation dedicated to exploring and meeting new cultures, it doesn't really fit with their mission. Which is something I've always suspected, Starfleet is secretly a fascist military power, who are dedicated to conquering the galaxy, while pretending to be nice.
This was an alright episode, nothing much to moan about and nothing much to rave about. Which is a win for this series.
The Stars at NightOther than Data and The Doctor from Voyager, Trek really doesn't like AI much does it?
Why would
a Romulan paying for artefacts be nefarious, but Picard be above board? It's either ok to take the archaeological finds or not.
Rutherford's mystery wasn't as mysterious as I was hoping. Just a mad admiral. Meh. Shaxs being so excited to
eject the warp core might be my favourite moment in LD.
He was so happy and excited.
Post credits, was that
the Borg tractor beaming Badgey up? If they suddenly make him a Borg king, I think I'll scream. Decent finale!
By the time I post these reviews, S4 (and probably S5 and S6
) will have aired, but as of December 2022, I'm done. I know people seem to love this show, but I really don't. When it's at its best, it's average. And when it's at its worst, it's strawberry floating atrocious.
