Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 1 - Second Contact Review - What RoX & What Could Be Improved?

In this video, we review the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Second Contact.

Please note, spoilers ahead.

August 6th, 2020 was the date of the premiere of the latest entry into the Star Trek universe, the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks, from the creators of Rick and Morty. Not being a fan of their other works, because I never saw it, I had no idea what to expect going into this premiere episode. Watching it, I wanted to pick up five things I thought rocked and five things that needed to be improved.

Right out of the gate, I have to say the animators and creators of the show nailed the design aesthetics. This is the most authentic looking Star Trek that we have seen since Star Trek: Enterprise. I don't quite understand, since this is supposed to take place after Star Trek: insurrection, why we are back to the Next Generation-era uniforms, as Star Trek: First Contact introduced an entirely new uniform. Those have been abandoned here, just as they have been in Star Trek: Picard, and the reasoning has never been given.

The feel and the look of the ship, the bridge, the entire design just feels like Star Trek. And that's a very good thing. Even the opening cinematic feels like something that we could have seen in Star Trek the Next Generation, with the shot of the starbase and the Cerritos docked inside.

One of the biggest misses for me was the humor. I didn't think it was funny, I just thought it was dumb for the sake of being dumb. The whole fallout from the away mission reminded me of the TNG episode The Naked Now, it wasn't even in original story. I think some of the premises could have made for a good story, if this was taken a serious Trek, which we knew going in it wouldn't be. It just seems that under the direction of Alex Kurtzman, we just can't get a good, serious Star Trek series.

Finally, one of the things we feared coming out of Picard and Discovery were colorful metaphors. And they are there, they dropped an S-bomb (even even though they bleeped it). Language such as this prevents it from being appropriate for younger audiences, and the silliness is not something that a court rack fan would appreciate. If you can't make your point without swearing is it that good of a point? It is lazy story telling, lazy creative, and does not bode well for the future.

In the end, the design aesthetics cannot override bad story writing. I give this episode a final rating of a D.

#StarTrek #LowerDecks #SecondContact

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