Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated comedy show with goofy workers that keep Starfleet in ship shape! The show was created by Mike McMahon who wrote, produced, and was showrunner for Rick and Morty’s fourth season. McMahon also wrote the pilot, "Second Contact", and last episodes of two seasons. Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered on August 2020 on the former CBS All Access that became Paramount+. The third season is about to debut on Paramount+ on August 25th. It is the third Star Trek series on the network after the live action series; Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. This is of course, the second Trek cartoon show, with Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974). Plus, there was a Star Trek: The Next Generation epsiode that featured ensigns, “Lower Decks” (1994). The series takes place in the same time period as STNG, the 24th century.
"Second Contact" and the series begins with a star field until we get the Douglas Station, the same Spacedock-type that held the Enterprise for repairs. There we get the U.S.S. Cerritos, the same of the ship makes me laugh, a California-class light support cruiser. It has the saucer main hull and two long, warp nacelles. The ship is re-supplying before heading to Galadan. We get the heroic starlog as we see the bridge command personnel. The character animation is cartoony, so we get a license to go crazy apart from the computer animation. Actually, the Cerritos is responsible for second contact. The narration actually the log of Ensign Brad Boimler voiced by Jack Quaid. There is another lead role played by Quaid, Hughie Campbell, in The Boys. Boimler is a nervous guy with characteristic unruly, purple hair.
He is found giving the log in a supply closet. Boimler struggles to keep his log away from Ensign Beckett Mariner voiced by Tawny Newsome. The actress is also in the comedy series, Space Force, as Captain Angela Ali. Beckett has a red headband and sometimes her uniform is open to her white shirt. They both have the red command uniforms. She is drunk on Romulan whisky and also takes out a Klingon bat’leth from her box of contraband. Mariner swings it around, her pretend Klingon voice is funny, until she ends up slicing it into Boimler’s leg! The title sequence is a great send up of the Trek series epic music mixed with galactic visuals of space travel and the lead starship. A shuttle enters the Cerritos docking bay, the new personnel exit, including Ensign D’Vana Tendi.
Noël Wells voices Tendi and also Kelsey in the animated show, Craig of the Creek. She is an excited science ensign, an Orion, with freckles and her green hair parted to the side. Tendi reports in and is assigned to Deck 79, Lower Decks. Hot bananas(!) are ejected from the replicator, as Boimler works on it and Beckett stands around. Tendi reports in to Boimler as her orientation liasion. Mariner cuts in to take over, clarifies that they are “commanders in training”, and describes Lower Decks as the “scrappy underdogs of the ship”! This is the show’s concept in a few lines. Beckett doesn’t like senior officers. They go to take Tendi on a tour of the ship. The trio meets up with Ensign Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) who has a cybernetic implant on the left side of his face. Cordero has been on many animated and genre shows like Loki (2021). He is the last of our crew.
Boimler explains that he is an engineer and was just enhanced. Mariner notes his date with Ensign Barnes and activates his nervous mode! Boimler takes her to the bunks that are in a hall! Tendi rushes to see the viewscreen showing the nacelles warping through space. Mariner verbally trips up Boimler to take Tendi to the holodeck. Vendi shifts it from a beach to Orion. Boimler is excited to see the ship’s warp core. Boimler has to report to the bridge which Mariner explains is to clean up a spill! Then, she switches the Holodeck to her “all nude training program”! The show can give some adult humor! On the planet, Galardordon, the inhabitants are short, pink or purple-skinned with pig-like faces and horns. The leader of the away team, the square-jawed Commander Jack Ransom (Jerry O’Connell) who tells the chancellor that there will be construction teams sent down. O’Connell has several voice roles including the lead in The Death and Return of Superman (2019).
He swats an insect that bit his neck and then beams up the team. Lt. Cmdr. Steve Stevens (Ben Rodgers), Ransom’s biggest fan, asks if the bite should be checked by medical. They make plans to get beers later. Boimler is nervous in the turbolift when the doors open to the bridge. Ransom asks why he is not at his post when he is interrupted by the captain. This Captain Carol Freeman voiced by Dawnn Lewis who has many voice roles including The Simpsons. She orders Boimler to her quarters to go over his service record. We also see the purplish sore on Ransom’s neck! Freeman orders Boimler to closely watch Mariner! Rutherford has his date with Barnes and his cyborg implant malfunctions. Boimler joins the away team with Mariner. While Rutherford is chatting at the lounge, Ransom at the bar is seized by zombie-like reaction to the bite, and bites other crew members! During the chaos and the battle, Rutherford and Barnes continue their date.
Boimler is watching as Mariner drives away in an Argo-vehicle carrying a crate. Tendi reports to medical and sees the black fluids of the infected as Dr. T’Ana (Gillian Vigman) struggles with a patient. She has the doctor’s coat and is Caitian, the cat-like alien introduced with M’Ress in TAS, and T’Ana’s whiskers are frizzled. Tendi tries to restrain a patient, Nurse Westlake, who vomits black fluid on her! Mariner is meeting with two Galardonians when Boimler leaps out to accuse her. He suspects she is selling Federation weapons to them. Boimler goes on a rant firing a phaser to stop the aliens. Mariner explains that the crate has farm equipment. The Galardonians escape into a tunnel. A giant, spider-like creature charges after the Cerritos crew members from the tunnel! Mariner turns out to be an effective fighter and knowledgeable, but decided to stay away from the rigor of higher rank. The humor is hilarious, yet the show is a loving nod to the classic tropes of Star Trek from all of the series! A ship-wide crisis!, a dangerous creature on the planet, and the Lower Decks crew are there to keep the ship running and work together!
Four Tricorders out of Five!
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