Star Trek: Lower Decks is even worse after giving it a second chance

Watching the second episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks only further proves how we’ve come from Gene Roddenberry’s original idea.

About 1:26 of the episode lapsed by before the video was stopped. When something is bastardized so badly, you can’t help but reject it. That’s how it was watching the second episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks, a complete and total bastardization of the Star Trek franchise.

One gag was all it took to remind this writer that the show is as far from the spirit of Star Trek as it can be. The main character, Beckett Mariner is walking down a corridor with D’Vana Tendi when an energy alien invades the ship. What does Mariner do? Call for security? Impose a force field around it so that it can’t harm the ship? Try to rationalize with it?

No, she attempts to enslave it. Her exact words, “We can use this thing for all sorts of cool stuff.” Using a sentient alien creature for one’s own personal gain against their will? That’s the textbook definition of slavery.

It’s dismissed as a joke because “alien bad”, and when Mariner starts stuffing it into a container, the alien bargains with them. She then forces the alien to destroy parts of itself so she can get a tricorder with a blue stripe on it. She literally forced the alien to work itself to death so she can get a new cell phone.

That’s your main character folks.

If you’re a fan of Star Trek, a genuine fan of Star Trek, how in the world can this be acceptable to you? This is Star Trek, slavery isn’t played for laughs. Could you imagine Gul Dukat laughing as Kiera Nerys jokes about all the people he killed? What in the world has become of this franchise?

Who is this catered to, Star Trek fans? I’m confused because Star Trek fans love the franchise for its rich environments, sociopolitical debates, intrigue, and at times conflict. This was the Star Trek version of Star Wars: Last Jedi’s blue boob milk scene. A scene so utterly despised it kills an entire property.

Gene Roddenberry’s vision is being beaten to death with each passing episode of this slog of a show.

Star Trek is about challenging expectations and ideals, this show isn’t challenging anything, it’s playing to the lowest common denominator. For a fanbase that screams that Star Trek has “always been political” and that it’s always been “progressive”, to see them pretty silent about how far from the point this show has become is pretty telling.

Lower Decks spits in the face of what Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be.