One of the best shows of the new world of Star Trek, we jumped at the chance to check out the new season! We can’t believe it’s been four years already!
As always we break down our reviews into three categories, Story, Acting, and Overall. So let’s jump in!
Story 9/10
This season picks up where the last season ended, and with the events from the Strange New Worlds cross-over having happened in this canon as well. They can’t talk about it, outside a couple snide remarks from Tawny Newsome’s Beckett Mariner.
This season does a lot of heavy lifting and shifting of the dynamics though. Whether it be between characters and their relationships, the format of focusing more on the crew without a major quest storyline hidden and barely hinted out for the bridge crew, or the promotion of certain members to lower managerment. That’s right, the Lower Decks are no more! The crew of the Cerritos are losing some Lower Deck members to promotion!
Shows with hilarious names like Cougar Town, find themselves regretting the name locking the dynamic of the series, when they find their stride deviating from the original series plot.
Time will tell whether this change will be a bad thing, but they always have the option to demote everyone like Mariner normally does!
From the episodes that we saw this season though, we are more then excited to see where the show goes. The series still does a great job playing with the history of Star Trek, making constant references back to series like Voyager, Deep Space Nine, and so much more! It’s fun that they can really munch on and make fun of (playfully) so much of the lore and history of the shows while still being deferential to the world it’s picking fun at. Don’t worry though about the promotion really messing things up though, as the crew says, no matter how much we get promoted, we are all still Lower Decks!
Acting 10/10
Normally in this section we take the time to talk about the acting skill of the people in the show. This is a little difficult sometimes with Animation, because it’s only their voice to compare. This has really never been an issue with Lower Decks. The actors portray their characters so energetically, with such love and attention that they transcend simple words and with each line they jump out of the animation.
The actors portray their characters so energetically, with such love and attention that they transcend simple words and with each line they jump out of the animation.
I do want to give a little extra love and attention though to newcomer, T’Lyn played by Gabrielle Ruiz. Playing an emotionless Vulcan can be a bit tough, but Ruiz does a wonderful job transcending emotion and has some of the most fun lines, and growth this season!
Overall 9.5/10
I already know that season three of Strange New Worlds has been affected by the writers and actors strike. I really hope that Lower Decks doesn’t suffer the same fate. If this season shows us anything, it’s that it can take a small change, run with it, and still produce the most fun, fan boy styled experience in the world of Star Trek!
Conner’s Final Thoughts
I never thought the actors and writers strike could go so long. As we watch this season of Lower Decks, it’s important to note that while we love our franchises like Star Trek, without the amazing writers and actors in the franchise, the series would never exist to be a well known and profitable brand for the production company.
With that said, I stand with the writers and actors and hope they get the compensation they deserve, and the balance of Hollywood is restored to the glory it once was where you could really get paid a living wage without having to be the next breakout 1 in a 1,000,000 star!
Thank you for the auspicious writeup.