Review: 'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Broadly Goes Where No Trek Has Gone Before - NPR

Ensigns Tendi (voiced by Noel Wells), Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid) do Starfleet's grunt work on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Ensigns Tendi (voiced by Noel Wells), Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid) do Starfleet's grunt work on Star Trek: Lower Decks.

The difference between all these previous efforts and the one represented by Star Trek: Lower Decks, premiering Thursday August 6th on CBS All Access, is a simple one:?

True, the franchise has poked the gentlest of fun at itself, over the years — a throwaway line here, a winking reference to previous Trek series there.

But Star Trek: Lower Decks is an official Trek property, its yuks are both nerdily meta and rigorously in-canon, and they go — more broadly than boldly, it must be said — where no Trek has gone before.

No, the Cerritos' remit is, according to by-the-book striver Ensign Boimler (voiced by Jack Quaid), all about following up, which is "still pretty important — we get the paperwork signed, make sure we're spelling the name of the planet right, get to know all the good places to eat.".

(Normals, you can skip this paragraph. Nerds, keep reading, here's what you want to know: Lower Decks takes place in the waning days of the TNG era — 2380, to be specific, just after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. And no, you haven't heard of California-class starships before; they were created for the series. Also, the official shorthand designation for the series we're encouraged to adopt is ST:LDS, which makes it sound like a show about Space-Mormons on a five-year mission to seek out planet Kolub, but whatever.).

The overtly comic nature of the series combines with its animated status to drive its tone — and its plots — to extremes of slapstick violence that previous, staid-by-comparison Trek series would never condone nor tolerate.

If nothing else, though, Star Trek: Lower Decks, by staking its claim as the officially licensed Star Trek Comedy Series, will likely throw The Orville, with its untenable mix of glib goofs and maudlin drama, into a profound existential crisis.

In interviews, showrunner McMahan calls ST:LDS the "first Trek comedy series," implying that others may follow.

And once we get enough official Trek comedies, surely reality series can't be far behind