The Heroic Stuff is Still Happening, But There’s a Full Galaxy of Comedy on STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Unlike other comedies that are set in outer space, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS does not exist in a world that’s “kind of” like STAR TREK. This animated series is fully part of the STAR TREK universe – albeit, a less glorious and more humorous part of it. For ambitious but nervous Ensign Brad Boimler, voiced by Jack Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), iconic heroes such as Kirk, Spock, Picard, and Data, are real role models. In fact, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS – which debuts Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi Channel – is set in the time between STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and STAR TREK: PICARD, and gets its name from an episode title in the seventh season of TNG. So how would Ensign Boimler react if he ever got to meet one of his heroes? “He would be absolutely starstruck,” said Quaid, no pun intended. “I don’t think that words would leave his mouth. I think he would basically just mumble, and smile, and maybe laugh, ‘heh heh heh’ … he would just be so hyper-conscious of himself, just wanting to impress. I think it would debilitate him immensely to meet any of his heroes. He would just go completely catatonic.” Boimler wants to be the next Kirk or the next Picard some day, and for all the right reasons. He’s a dedicated rules follower who takes his job working on the lower decks of the U.S.S. Cerritos very seriously. But his attitude puts him on a comedic collision course with some of his crew-mates, particularly the unnervingly irreverent Ensign Beckett Mariner, voiced by Tawny Newsome. The series is based on the funny realization that for every famous Starfleet officer who is getting plaques with their names on them for great achievements and discoveries, there are hundreds – maybe thousands? – of “worker drones” on every spaceship in the STAR TREK universe. They’re all highly skilled, or else they wouldn’t be part of Starfleet, but they’re mostly young and inexperienced and don’t always do the right thing, either through impetuousness or by accident. All the heroic stuff that STAR TREK is known for is still taking place in STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS, insisted series creator Mike McMahan. “That’s the thing with STAR TREK – if you get rid of the big stuff, if you get rid of the heroic drama stuff, it’s not really STAR TREK any more,” McMahan explained. “So we had to figure out how to make a show where – concurrently, as you said – you’ve still got the big stuff. But even the big stuff on our show, it’s ‘second contact.’ It’s smaller things. They’re on the Cerritos, they’re not on the Enterprise, where everybody’s the best of the best.” Both the workers and the officers on the U.S.S. Cerritos may one day develop into “the best of the best,” but they aren’t quite there yet. They’re still learning. And that’s how, through its spot-on animation and comforting familiarity, STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS finds a way to both respect this world, and poke fun at it. “It is reverential and it is a celebration of all things TREK, but at the same time, any time fun is being poked, it’s the characters doing it lovingly,” McMahan said. “They love being there and they know more about STAR TREK than we do, because they’re living in it. And they’ve clearly seen all the shows and the movies – just maybe in holodeck form, and not in movie form. But yeah, it’s true – we want to be a STAR TREK show, but we also want to have a good time. We are a very ‘have our cake and eat it too’ show.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv