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Star Trek: Lower Decks

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Emily Tsiao

TV Series Review

Even if you’ve never seen Star Trek, you’ve probably heard these words: “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Except this isn’t the U.S.S. Enterprise. This is the U.S.S. Cerritos. They don’t do that. Whereas ships like the Enterprise performed delicate, high stakes operations of diplomacy like establishing first contact with other planets, the Cerritos’ specialty is second contact—you know, getting all the paperwork signed, making sure they spelled the name of the planet correctly, that sort of stuff.

For some ensigns, like Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi, it’s an honor just to be part of the crew. They’re more than happy with the mundane tasks of cleaning up spilled coffee, fixing broken vending machines and delivering supplies to the planets they’re visiting. But for Ensign Mariner, it’s a nightmare.

Once upon a time, Mariner had hopes of becoming a commanding officer in Starfleet just like her parents. But she soon became disenchanted with the idea after realizing how much Starfleet’s system of bureaucracy actually prevented them from helping planets in need. She started breaking protocol to assist aliens, resulting in several transfers, before finally being assigned to her mom’s ship in the hopes that Captain Freeman could keep her daughter under control.

Unfortunately, that seems unlikely. Rather than keeping Mariner in line, assigning her to the lower decks of a lesser ship just gave her the opportunity to bond with Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi (who are all feeling a little underappreciated by the higher-ups in Starfleet, too).

As of yet, it’s unclear whether these ensigns will rise through the ranks to accomplish their goals. But for now, at least they’re not alone.

Where No Man (or Cartoon) Has Gone Before

If you thought that Star Trek: Lower Decks would be a great way to introduce your kids to the universe of Vulcans and Klingons (much like Star Wars: The Clone Wars helped to hook younger Jedi fans), think again. Because this TV-14 animated series is more of a merging with Futurama than a contemporary, canonical addition to the other space saga.

It’s a bit ironic, as well, since The Clone Wars’ animation style certainly looks more like it was created for adults than Lower Decks’ does. But just because these cartoons resemble the stylings of Cartoon Network, doesn’t mean they can’t get pretty graphic.

In the first episode alone, half the crew of the Starship Cerritos gets transformed into raging, flesh-eating, black-gunk-vomiting zombies (many of which are shot down with laser guns only after they start eating their fellow crew members). Nudity comes into play—although animated genitals are covered by black squares on the screen. And even swearing isn’t out of place—though again, harsher words like the f-word and s-word are censored out. And at the end of the day, nearly everyone likes to kick back with a drink (or several) at the ship’s bar.

So yeah, just because Lower Deckslooks like a kids’ show, doesn’t mean that it is. And families looking to share the Star Trek universe with their youngsters would be better off sticking with the classics.

Episode Reviews

Aug. 5, 2020, Episode 1: “Second Contact”

The crew of the Cerritos is infected by a virus that transforms them into flesh-eating zombies while visiting a foreign planet. Boimler is instructed by the captain to report any breaches of protocol by Mariner.

Many zombified crew members eat people alive and projectile vomit black gunk. Those not infected strap down the zombies and stun them with laser guns. A man’s leg is sliced open when his friend plays with a sword and we see his exposed bone. Tenti holds a beating heart while a doctor performs surgery. Two people are attacked by a giant spider but escape unharmed.

We see the naked backsides of several men as they exercise in a gym. A man wrapped in a towel walks through the lower decks. Mariner and Boimler strip down to their underwear to trick a monster into attacking their clothes instead of them. We see a naked man, but slime prevents anything critical from being seen. Two people kiss.

Mariner gets drunk on whiskey. Several characters drink at a bar. We hear a few misuses of God’s name, as well as “a–,” “b–ch,” “h—” and “p-ss.” We also hear a bleeped-out s-word.

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Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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