How Rick And Morty’s Past May Determine Star Trek’s Future
Love it or hate it, there are few shows on television more influential than Rick and Morty. Not only has it shaped the course of Western animation for years to come, but writers for that show have gone on to shape other franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, it looks like Cartoon Network’s hilariously vulgar cartoon has shaped the most influential sci-fi franchise in history for the better. Not only was Lower Decks created by former Rick and Morty writer Mike McMahan, but he confirmed in a recent interview that his old cartoon inspired what he hopes to be a bold new direction for Star Trek.
The Star Trek Multiverse
If you’re more a fan of Rick and Morty than Star Trek (or vice versa), you’re going to need a brief refresher about the end of Lower Decks to understand this connection. With the warning you’re going to encounter some spoilers, here we go: Lower Decks recently aired a series finale in which Starfleet gained a stable wormhole to the multiverse. Now, instead of occasionally ending up in other dimensions through cosmic flukes or other bizarre space phenomena, the Federation can peacefully explore the multiverse whenever and however they want.
In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, McMahan opened up about how his experience writing for Rick and Morty shaped what he sees as the future of Star Trek. “I worked for four seasons on Rick and Morty talking about the multiverse,” he said. “I put a lot of thought into what about the multiverse can become as interesting as warp travel.”
Eventually, he came to an insight that we wish more franchise creators had: “Star Trek isn’t about meeting, talking goo…I mean, it is, but it’s also about learning about the possibilities of life itself, right?” Because of that, he feels that “learning about the possibilities of humanity and having a map of the multiverse quadrant is really exciting to me.”
In other words, McMahan seems to believe that Rick and Morty’s past should be Star Trek’s future and that future spinoffs should focus more on exploring the multiverse than simply warping from Point A to Point B. It’s unknown how much of an effect the ending of Lower Decks will have on this franchise. Discovery, which took place centuries later, certainly never made mention of Starfleet easily traipsing the multiverse. However, one or more future Star Trek series picking up where Lower Decks left off could provide this aging franchise with a much-needed shot in the arm.
It’s easy to say this because most of everything on the Trek horizon looks pretty disappointing. We’re excited for the next season of Strange New Worlds, but it’s tough to get equally excited about Starfleet Academy (a spinoff of the prematurely canceled Discovery) or the Star Trek origin film (which will seemingly do little but tread familiar ground). The live-action Office-like show starring Tawny Newsome sounds intriguing, but there’s currently too little info about it to get very hyped.
Given how much time and energy Paramount is pouring into the Star Trek origin movie, it’s safe to say that the studio is currently more interested in playing it safe than changing things up. That’s a shame, though, as the premature cancellations of both Discovery and Lower Decks point to a franchise in need of a creative shake-up (the more dramatic, the better). Taking a page out of Rick and Morty’s book might be for the best if only because it allows Star Trek to do what it should have been doing all along: boldly going where the franchise has never gone before.
There is, of course, a certain irony about Rick and Morty helping to potentially shape the future of Star Trek. When Lower Decks was first announced, there was plenty of hand-wringing about whether it would be nothing more than a Star Trek skin around Rick and Morty-style storytelling. Fortunately, Lower Decks soon developed its very own vibe of comedic nostalgia, but now, we can’t help but hope that Star Trek embraces the infinite possibilities of the multiverse with all the gusto of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith.
And if that doesn’t happen anytime soon, fans might have to petition Cartoon Network to loan Paramount a few copies of Mr. Meeseeks. Surely, getting Star Trek writers to actually write good Star Trek is easier than helping Jerry take two strokes off his golf game…right? If that doesn’t happen, fans will have to channel those demons who think pain is pleasure to enjoy an era of NuTrek somehow more painful than anything we’ve yet experienced.
Source: CinemaBlend
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