Star Trek: Lower Decks animated series has first table read

Mike McMahan has revealed via social media that development of Star Trek: Lower Decks has made some pretty significant progress.

There are certain milestones in the creation of any new television series that are seen as good signs that everything is proceeding according to plan. For months Trek Nation has followed the steady stream of announcements in the development of Star Trek: Picard with growing anticipation for the series to make its debut sometime later this year.

However, that hasn’t been the case when it comes to Star Trek: Lower Decks, the new animated series being developed by Rick and Morty‘s Mike McMahan. While animation is a different animal than a live-action series such as Picard, fans have been waiting anxiously for some kind of update only to be left wondering.

On Tuesday, they finally got the update they’ve been waiting for.

McMahan revealed via his Twitter that Lower Decks is having its first table read for the first episode of Season 1.

A table read is when the entire cast and crew gathers to read a script out loud and is usually the first step in pre-production. It is a huge milestone for Lower Decks as this means the first scripts have been written and the premise for the series has moved past the development stage.

In addition, if the series if having a table read, that means that at least some of the voice actors for the series have been cast.

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Now, just because the first table read has taken place doesn’t mean Lower Decks will be arriving on CBS All Access any time soon. In animation the voice actors are usually recorded first followed by animation being created for the episode. As Alex Kurtzman told Trek Movie, the animation for Lower Decks could take up to a year to produce, so the series won’t make its debut until possibly as late at 2022.

However, the fact that the first table read is happening is a great sign that things are indeed moving forward for the project.

Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the adventures of the support crew of one of the many, many inconsequential ships in Starfleet. It is long overdue that Star Trek embraced comedy and there are few that are more qualified to make that happen than McMahan.

Keep it here on Redshirts Always Die for more on Star Trek: Lower Decks as it develops.