1937
by Olorin
There's a meme with Yoda saying, "If into the comments section you go, only pain will you find." I saw just a little bit of some YouTuber ranting about Lower Decks but it was plain that he simply hated all current Star Trek. I can grant a dispensation to anyone who hates Discovery, because although I like it, it does make questionable choices. But the guy apparently hated Picard also. I've got nothing for anyone who claims to be a Star Trek fan but hated the Picard series, other than to say, haters gonna hate. Sure, there were some things about the Picard series that I would have done differently, but on the whole it was good and just to see Picard again, taking on a new challenge at this point in his life, was a blessing. For that matter, I could probably count myself in the camp of those that said they'd have required nothing more than Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen sitting on the porch and drinking tea.
But in the case of Lower Decks. the negative commentary will probably be justified. I think the problem is trying to make Star Trek into a comedy, or at least that's what the trailer makes it seem like they're up to. I'm not opposed to humor. There was plenty of humor in TOS, but it was character moments and it always was to further and maintain the relationships between the characters. But somewhere in the movie era, they took a wrong turn with humor. Humor was in general well done and deftly incorporated into ST III and IV, but then Shatner blew the wheels off the wagon in V. There was some pretty boneheaded humor in VI also. And of course we had to suffer through the Enterprise joystick in Insurrection. In spite of that, I'm not opposed to an occasional humorous episode. The X Files, which was in general a pretty dark show, had an occasional humorous episode. When they were well done, they were a break from the usual diet of aliens plotting to take over the world, or grotesque creatures eating people. But later on, they leaned too heavily on them, and that helped undermine the show IMHO. So humor is like antimatter, very useful but very dangerous. And humor is not what Star Trek is supposed to be about.
As for animation, I'm not unequivocally opposed to an animated Star Trek. The original animated Star Trek was quite good, but it was Star Trek that just happened to be animated. It also had the advantage of being able to show things they couldn't have done on a 60s TV budget with 60s effects technology. But that's not a factor any more. And as for another supposed driving factor, showing Starfleet through they eyes of someone who's not the captain, that's been done too. Most obviously, that's Discovery, with Michael Burnham being the main character but not the captain (yet), but also there was a TNG episode that was done through the eyes of people who were not senior officers, like the nurse. That episode was called, as I'm sure everyone remembers, Lower Decks. So once again, Star Trek reuses a title and thinks no one will notice, no one will care, and/or everyone will approve. And they will undoubtedly sully the legacy of the TNG ep in the process. It was actually pretty good.
But in trying to fathom why they are doing Lower Decks, I can only chalk it up to CBS' desire to propagate Star Trek into every ecological niche, and Alex Kurtzman being their willing handmaiden.
For some reason, I had a hard time mashalling my thoughts for this post. Even now as I'm about to hit submit, I'm not certain they say what I want them to say...if I even know what that is. But hopefully they make some sense.
"Olorin I was in the West that is forgotten...."