Star Trek: Lower Deck on CBS All Access

Eggs Mayonnaise

All In With The Nuts
It's like the kids from Bob's Burgers joined Starfleet.

But really, it's hard for something like this to exist when Rick and Morty has already existed for years. It invites comparison, and it loses.
 

The Question

Eternal
It's not even worth pirating, IMO. You could put your bandwidth to better use watching porn, put it that way.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
Why not both?

I didn't mind it, don't know why they sensored the swearing, either don't swear or don't sensor.

I don't watch Rick and Morty so I can't say if it's just more of the same, but I'd like to see more.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
I watched it. At least it had a plot and they seem to have places to go with the characters. The main woman talking fast constantly was annoying (I had to watch the bit where she suddenly started listing famous Trek characters back to make sense of it) and I don't know if the show did a good job establishing the setting in general. They need to calm down a bit. It's a bit weird doing a TNG parody at a time where the currently running Trek shows aren't anything like TNG.

I didn't laugh once so that's a problem.

I would say it tried to be more like Futurama than Rick and Morty, but then the rage virus stuff felt a bit like toned down R&M. I think they should probably try to avoid those comparisons because even the weaker episodes of R&M make me laugh at least once.



Like that was a pretty weak Rick and Morty but that 30 seconds is funnier than this whole episode was.

But hey it's the first episode maybe it gets funnier later I remember I didn't like Fry in the first episode of Futurama because he went "yahoooo!" and I thought it was too similar to Homer Simpson's "woohoo!"
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Why does everyone have ADHD?

I didn't like it. I tried. I always try with Trek but clearly the Kurtzman/CBS era is simply not for me. If others enjoy it then have at it but Discovery, Picard and now this simply doesn't click for me at all.

Why does this need to be set in the Star Trek universe? Nobody acts even close to anything you'd expect from anyone in Starfleet (and yes, I get it's a "quirky" comedy) but does saying "Kirk" "Spock" "Troi" "Worf" whilst winking at the audience really make it Star Trek? If this had been an original sci-fi setting then it probably would have been a lot better.

Everything about this era of Trek feels like they are ashamed of the things that make Trek great and are hell-bent on "modernizing" it for the audience but in the process completely miss the fucking point. This is evident in both Picard and Disco and now this. The whole episode was crammed with basic as shit Trek references that even people that are not fans have heard of and can pat themselves on the back for "getting it" like that is all you need to do. (It's not)

It really feels like it's a show made by people that don't actually like Star Trek for people that don't actually like Star Trek.

And the humour... uh. It's not even remotely funny? I was trying to figure out how a gag involving raising and lowering a shuttles shields like a demented hyperactive toddler over and over again got past the draft script process. Where is the joke? Why is that meant to be funny?

I'll admit I almost chuckled ONCE.

"Don't worry, the doctor will wave some light over it, you'll be fine."

That was pretty funny but literally everything else fell completely flat.

If they had the command level officers playing it completely straight it would have been better. Have them act as the flawless TNG style heroes and have the lower decks cast be off the wall and constantly getting into trouble. It would have made a much better juxtaposition but instead, they're a bunch of dudebros and just as madcap and crazy as everyone else. It didn't work.

It's not the worst thing I've ever watched but it wasn't good. Can it improve? Perhaps, but if that's the best they can do for their pilot I'm hardly convinced.

Am I too old? I don't get it.
 

The Question

Eternal
You know why old people don't get young peoples' shit? Because it objectively is shit. There's nothing wrong with us; media is, objectively, getting worse. Lazier. Dumber. It's been objectively proved to be the case with music, and I strongly suspect that were a similar study performed with film and televised media, the results would bear out that same finding, perhaps even more strongly.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Am I too old? I don't get it.

I imagine it's aimed at people who remember watching TNG, so you'd be right in the traget demo really. I can't imagine the kids liking it when there's so many better similar shows out there.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
Second episode, still haven't laughed. Doing the same "oh it's a shapeshifter!" joke twice within ten minutes was weird when it wasn't any funnier the second time (less, if anything!) I did smile a bit at the line about the Ferengi "doing the hand thing" and appreciated that he was actually just pretending to be a stereotype. But no laughing yet!
 

The Question

Eternal
Yet another Star Trek parody. Except it's worse, because this time they're actually trying to be funny and still failing miserably at it. Note to the Lower Decks writing room: Over the top and stupid didn't pass for comedy in Ghostbusters 2016, and it still doesn't work today.
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
I couldn't finish episode 2.

What I have finished instead was the second part of Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years which I watched straight after and at 22 minutes in the quote (aimed at the BBC studio tasked with doing Season 3's low budget effect shots) was: "Do you want funny effects then?" and the response being "No, it's only going to work if the effects are done straight, it's the script that's funny" sums up everything wrong with this type of show.

You can slap a Star Trek skin on it, you can do as many whiz, bang quick cuts, reveals, rapid fire delivery and pazazz as you like but if the script isn't funny or clever and the characters are not likeable at all then you're donzo.

 

The Question

Eternal
I wouldn't even compare this dross to Rick & Morty, which is a comparison I've seen some try to hang on it. Thing is, Rick & Morty is actually effective. Not to say it's fuckin' Hamlet or anything, but at least the characters are more than cardboard cutouts, which makes the absurdist and surrealist elements work. Lower Decks just hangs TNG window dressing on a '90s tween sitcom populated by intersectional checkmarks, with its "lead" exhibiting all the signs of clinical mania.

"What's it about?"

"Well, we have a wet behind the ears ensign trying to babysit a toddler who's perpetually at the apex of a sugar high."

"How fuckin' fascinatin'."
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
I couldn't finish episode 2.

What I have finished instead was the second part of Red Dwarf: The First Three Million Years...

Is it any good? I saw the advert but forgot to remember to possibly watch. Do they talk about the huge decline in quality after Rob Grant exited?
 

Mentalist

Administrator
Staff member
Unsurprisingly they don't dwell on the wild varying form the show goes through over the years but considering how much behind the scenes stuff we've all seen of Red Dwarf I was pretty happy with it. You're not going to learn any revelatory stuff but it's a fun and in-depth look back.
 

CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
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CaptainWacky

I want to smell dark matter
It's okay to like something. I would certainly prefer to enjoy it than to not.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
The writers seem familiar with trek history, which is more than be said of Picard season 1.
 

whisky

Boobie inspector
Ok, I know most of you gave up on this, but do yourself a favour and watch episode 10.
 
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