Star Trek: Lower Decks debuts as an animated series on August 6 on CBS All Access.
Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman is helming the latest Star Trek project, an animated web series that follows the lives of the crew on the lower decks of the U.S.S. Cerritos. Though fans are always excited about new shows in their favorite universe, there is some question about Star Trek: Lower Decks.
The last animated series of Star Trek aired 22 episodes in 1973-1974 and won an Emmy. But at the time, it ran during Saturday mornings when cartoons were more tuned in to kids than adults. So the adult audience wasn’t as high as the producers liked. Now, 46 years later, the Star Trek franchise is giving it another shot, but this time, there’s no doubt the series is geared toward adults. Unfortunately, though, some adult fans aren’t as excited about an animated series as they would have been another live-action.
Once the trailer was released for Lower Decks, trekkies let their voices be heard. They weren’t excited about what is being referred to as a “poor Rick and Morty clone,” and even though fans can look forward to the voices of legacy characters, the set-up for the series, a comedy with juvenile humor, isn’t what they’d hoped for.
Star Trek fans are willing to give any new series based around the franchise a try, but their preference for live-action isn’t a secret. Star Trek has always covered serious topics and delved into some of the darkest parts of human nature. Now, Star Trek: Lower Decks is stripping away the seriousness and replacing it with ribald humor that is really appealing to audiences that love adult cartoons, not necessarily Star Trek fans.
The premise of the show might fair better with live-action, but then, of course, the humor that the franchise is going for wouldn’t necessarily have worked. It remains to be seen if dedicated fans will give Lower Decks a try. For those of us who just don’t watch animated programs, it’s already a definitive no.