8
votes
Star Trek: Lower Decks S02E01 - "Strange Energies"
Link information
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- Title
- Star Trek: Lower Decks | Season 2 Premiere | Full Episode | Paramount+
- Authors
- Paramount Plus
- Duration
- 25:49
- Published
- Aug 19 2021
I recently watched season 1 of Lower Decks. I felt pretty mixed on it.
When I first heard of the show, I was hoping it would be like the episode of TNG: Lower Decks, which is one of my favourites. The episode features hard decisions and sacrifice, and young people stepping up to adversity. It's the kind of serious themes that Star Trek always handles with aplomb.
This show is... basically the opposite of that. Both the crew and command staff are disinterested and often incompetent. There's no mutual respect among crewmates. Frankly these Star Fleet officers often act like immature children.
I'm not a staunch defender of the Roddenberry ideals - in fact DS9 is my favourite series of the bunch. But that's because it challenges the ideals of Star Fleet, rather than ignoring them outright.
The stories are apparently canonical, which leaves me feeling a little sour. If this ship is meant to represent the average starship then Star Fleet is in far worse shape than I realized.
Now for full disclosure, I didn't realize it was a cartoon before I started watching, so I probably entered with skewed expectations. I'm probably not in the target audience for this one, and me not enjoying it doesn't mean it's a bad show. I've actually seen mostly praise for Lower Decks, so my thoughts are probably in the minority.
I'm not sure if I'll watch season 2. There's hints that the show can tackle real topics, but it's mostly been fleeting so far. Guess I'll see what others say about season 2.
Yeah, not many of these people seem to belong to the cultures described by the earlier series. They seem to have their hearts in the right place, but too many dialogues bog down into little recitations about pettiness. When was the last time you revisited the original animated series? I think it holds up quite well. It would be very nice if a more contemplative animated show could be attempted again. A nice balance could be struck between TNG-era pacing and the benefits of animating your scifi, I think.
I almost talked about that, but TAS is actually the only Trek I've not watched. Mostly due to its age and the fact that it's not considered canonical, so I felt I'd be okay without it.
I'm definitely open to watching it though! It's only 22 episodes, and may be more to my liking. So I appreciate that you mentioned it.
I might as well go to bat for the very popular show, but similar to the Orville, I like having an iteration of Star Trek that is more episodic and doesn't weigh the fate of the universe every time there's a season finale. I don't really have a problem with the crew of the Cerritos not being as high minded as early TNG era Enterprise, because I like the ironic detachment in the lens of a comedy, and it makes the sincere moments hit harder when the crew has each other's back and the Federation ideals are challenged. I get that the show isn't for everyone, but I think it's a blast.
Shoot, this should be S02E01, my bad. Really liked the episode, Lower Decks continues to knock it out of the park.
Episode is available until the 25th, US only.
fixed
Why am I a week ahead of the thread? :)
I liked the first series of this, but the second doesn't have the same magic. Its still fun with all of the in-jokes, though.
Paramount puts the season premiere of their episodes on YouTube a week after it premieres on their site.
Seems to be geo-blocked, can’t access it from Europe.