My Review of "Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season One"

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season One is a Star Trek series that you wouldn't expect to be a Star Trek series. First off it doesn't even look anything like what you would expect a Star Trek series to look like. It's completely animated and it's animated as a comedy animation. There's not a lot of episodes and each episode is only half an hour long. I don't know how they packed so much into these episodes while keeping them entertaining.

The season starts off introducing us to the setting of the show. It's not about the bridge command anymore. That's all been overdone with all of the other Star Trek TV shows and movies. This is about the lower decks of the starship. These are the grunts that are working the menial jobs.

There's Mariner who is this rebellious crew member that doesn't aspire to become part of the main bridge command but seems to exhibit all of the qualities for bridge command. She's pretty much lived a very full life that keeps getting revealed as the season goes on. One of the biggest secrets that she has on the ship gets revealed earlier on in the season and it puts the series for a loop. It pretty much explains her motivations in Starfleet.

Then we have the other main character Boimler. This guy is a go-getter that is probably the total opposite of Mariner. He really wants to work his way up to bridge command but doesn't have any of the life experiences to do this. Everything he does is by the book and he follows protocol to a T. This works to his advantage but also against him in other episodes.

The juxtaposition of these two main characters is fun and absolutely hilarious at points. As the season progresses we soon see Mariner's influence on Boimler and vice versa. The two are a great pairing and it doesn't really take long for the series to really take footing. It's startling to me how fast they get their legs in this series because usually shows need at least a few episodes before we really get on board. I was pretty on board from the start.

It really is a very inclusive Star Trek series. I don't think you really need to know any of the Star Trek lore to understand what's going on in this series. They do make a lot of references to older series that have played but you really don't need prior knowledge to keep up. I really didn't know who some of the people they were talking about but I was able to keep up. My brother kind of kept me in the loop at times but I'm not sure if that had any affect on my perception. If you are a big fan of Star Trek this would be an added bonus because you'll understand everything that they're talking about when they're making throwback references.

First and foremost this is a comedy. They make a lot of fun outrageous jokes that poke fun at their character's personalities. It's like a really absurd sitcom in space. They created some really fun situations for the main characters to play around with. I have to say that the writers for this series are really good and know how to tie up the episodes in a neat little package.

After watching this season I started to understand why they made this series animated. In fact, I'm shocked they don't have more animated series. They're able to get even more zany and interesting because of the fact that it's animated. I know a lot of the past Star Trek series were limited to the budget that they were provided. With animation the storywriter's imaginations can go wild. Most of the scenarios in this season just couldn't be done if it was live action. Even with today's level in CGI it would look pretty weird played out in real life.

The characters are also more animated and fun in this series than any of the other Star Trek series. A lot more people may be more inclined to watch it because it's animated and a comedy. Usually when you think of Star Trek you think serious TV shows with morality questions. There are still morality questions in this series but they're hidden in a lot of comedic antics.

Overall, I really liked this series and I hope they continue to make more of it. Perhaps this series can be so successful that they can build different TV shows and continue to step outside of the box of what our perception of what Star Trek should be. I have to give this season an 8 out of 10. It's very enjoyable and I think more people would be willing to jump into it. Finally there's a Star Trek series out there that doesn't seem elitist to the general public to watch.