Why You Should Be Watching Star Trek: Lower Decks
Recently, Star Trek: Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan got very real in an interview with CinemaBlend and said that the best way fans could ensure they’d get more seasons of this animated series is to be vocal about why people should watch. As for us, we’re convinced this is the best new Star Trek show around (sorry, Strange New Worlds) and one that all fans worth their weight in latinum should be watching. With that in mind, we’re here to give you an entire warp core worth of reasons you should start streaming this show on Paramount Plus.
It would have been very easy for Star Trek: Lower Decks to be nothing but a kickass Star Trek parody, but we also love how much it manages to both respect and deepen existing lore.
First and foremost, we recommend Star Trek: Lower Decks because it is the funniest show the franchise has ever created. Sure, Star Trek has had moments of levity before, but they often fall as flat on their face as Scotty did in Star Trek V. With Lower Decks, you get a dedicated comedy that manages to deliver plenty of genuine laughter without getting as crude as Rick and Morty or as outright gross as Short Treks.
On a related note, the humor in Star Trek: Lower Decks is tailored very specifically to hardcore fans of the franchise. There are plenty of jokes about everything from the insane holodeck misadventures of Starfleet to the over-the-top beauty shots of the Enterprise in each Star Trek movie. While there is much more to this show than just Easter eggs, it’s worth noting there are plenty in almost every frame for fans to find and appreciate.
It would have been very easy for Star Trek: Lower Decks to be nothing but a kickass Star Trek parody, but we also love how much it manages to both respect and deepen existing lore. This is the only show around that will help you catch up on what fan-favorite characters like Tom Paris and Kira Nerys have been up to since the end of their respective shows, and that’s a powerful reason to tune in.
Part of Star Trek: Lower Deck’s humorous appeal also comes from the fact that many of the characters are just as geeky about Starfleet as viewers.
Between the ambitions of the writers and the limitless vistas of animation, we finally have a Star Trek show that can go as big (and, yes, as boldly) as the creators can dream.
On top of everything else, Star Trek: Lower Decks deserves special kudos for showing real character growth and career advancement among its junior officers.
Part of Star Trek: Lower Deck’s humorous appeal also comes from the fact that many of the characters are just as geeky about Starfleet as viewers. Ensign Boimler (voiced wonderfully by Jack Quaid), for example, takes pride in his Tom Paris commemorative plate, which itself is a joking reference to the collector plates once released by Franklin Mint.
Ensign Mariner (voiced marvelously by Tawny Newsome) usually plays it cooler than Boimler, but she gets appropriately hyped when she discovers the bar they ended up in has graffiti from Kirk and Spock to commemorate their time in that same establishment.
On top of everything else, Star Trek: Lower Decks deserves special kudos for showing real character growth and career advancement among its junior officers. Even with the serialized format of modern Star Trek, it often seems like anyone not named Michael Burnham is stuck in a kind of stasis field and rarely gets to evolve out of their initial archetype.
In this cartoon, however, Boimler alone has served with Riker, gotten a transporter clone, discovered his “bold” side, and navigated the pain and pleasure of a promotion, which is more character growth, honestly, than we saw in all of The Next Generation put together.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is more than just a great cartoon…it’s also one of the greatest Star Trek series ever created and certainly the best of the currently running shows. We like to root for the little guys over here, and that’s why you’ll find us doing the “Chu Chu dance” after each new episode.
Fortunately, there’s still room for more fans on this train, and we encourage you to start watching Lower Decks on Paramount Plus as soon as Vulcanly possible.
