Star Trek: Lower Decks (animated series)

pixelburp · 06-08-2020 11:15pm

Meh, it's also possible it's cos it's a cartoon comedy. Theres a lot of projected blather about the live action shows from disgruntled YouTubers so would be loathed to believe the tattle. Trek or not cartoon comedies are a niche sell IMO despite being cheaper to produce, until the few become genuine hits like Rick & Morty (and even then mostly cult hits).

Evade · 06-08-2020 11:28pm

Yeah, Netflix don't do cartoon comedies at all. Unless CBS were charging way too much, in which case they would drop the price instead of not selling it at all, there's probably something else going on.

Justin Credible Darts · 07-08-2020 1:05am

I thought it was rubbish,

_Kaiser_ · 07-08-2020 9:20am

Evade wrote: »

Yeah, Netflix don't do cartoon comedies at all. Unless CBS were charging way too much, in which case they would drop the price instead of not selling it at all, there's probably something else going on.

Speculation is that that's exactly what'll happen as with the Short Treks and Netflix before.

I'll watch another episode or 2 anyway and see if it improves.

Greyjoy · 07-08-2020 10:06am

The best I can say about Lower Decks is that it has potential but that's it. For a comedy show it didn't raise a single laugh from me. The opening credits was amusing and Boimler's choice of holodeck program almost made me chuckle. But my god is that Mariner character insufferable. I would hope that they tone down the frenetic pace and babbling dialogue but judging from some critic reviews who have seen the next handful of episodes that doesn't seem to be the case.

pixelburp · 07-08-2020 10:12am

Many comedies (well, many shows really) tend to take a season to find it's rhythm and figure out what works or doesn't. Gags, characters etc moved around til something clicks. My goto comparison here is always Parks & Recreation: a tedious clone of The Office in season 1, yet reworked itself into a bonafide comedy classic. As to cartoons, shows like Futurama, The Simpsons, American Dad, Archer all started off poor to mediocre.

TheValeyard · 07-08-2020 10:34am

Evade wrote: »

Yeah, Netflix don't do cartoon comedies at all. Unless CBS were charging way too much, in which case they would drop the price instead of not selling it at all, there's probably something else going on.

Netflix definitely do cartoon comedies.

Final Space, Paradise PD, Rickleberry, Bojack, Rick and Morty, Big Mouth, etc

Evade · 07-08-2020 10:37am

I was being just a little bit sarcastic in an effort to point out that being a cartoon comedy wouldn't put Netflix off in the slightest.

TheValeyard · 07-08-2020 10:39am

Evade wrote: »

I was being just a little bit sarcastic in an effort to point out that being a cartoon comedy wouldn't put Netflix off in the slightest.

Ah, my sarcasm meter is disabled today it seems.

Also F for Family is pretty good.

pixelburp · 07-08-2020 10:46am

Never claimed Netflix would be put off, just that an untested cartoon comedy might be a tougher sell than (say), Picard with its obvious immediate bullet points of nostalgic attraction. It's as valid a speculation as the usual Disco/Picard bashing that the streaming sites were known to be "burned" despite being famously secretive about their decisions. It's all a bit of a "who knows" but maybe "surprising" was the wrong word for me to use originally.

Don't think it's wild to suggest Lower Decks is a weird, unique swing in the Trek universe and wouldn't blame any network taking a pause before committing on buying rights. I'm still a bit befuddled this happened at all.

[Deleted User] · 07-08-2020 12:33pm

No Europe distribution yet? Everyone going all Harry Mudd on it?

TheValeyard · 07-08-2020 12:56pm

Deleted User wrote: »

No Europe distribution yet? Everyone going all Harry Mudd on it?

No one here, ever would think about or do something like that.

Yo, Ho haul together, hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die

pixelburp · 07-08-2020 1:38pm

It's the unspoken creed of about 99% of the TV forum.

TheValeyard · 07-08-2020 1:46pm

pixelburp wrote: »

It's the unspoken creed of about 99% of the TV forum.

ive no idea what you are on about.

FutureGuy · 07-08-2020 8:43pm

More Star Trek in that 20+ mins than a full series of Picard.

Bellbottoms · 07-08-2020 9:00pm

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Indeed.. if you believe the reports, both Netflix and Amazon likely passed on this one as a result of being burned on those earlier shows.

What reports? Any chance of a link?

Bellbottoms · 07-08-2020 9:02pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

I thought it was rubbish,

Me too. I thought it was awful. The best gag is in the title sequence. The ship turning around and warping away from the Borg battle.

Justin Credible Darts · 07-08-2020 9:27pm

Bellbottoms wrote: »

Me too. I thought it was awful. The best gag is in the title sequence. The ship turning around and warping away from the Borg battle.

I wrote on a trek forum my dislike and mentioned the iq to find it in any way entertaining.
Spoke how the character of mariner acted like a complete spaz on pcp and the whole thing was over the top and ridiculous....and moving at a complete frantic pace.

I got a warning for trolling, as in their mindset I must be trolling, how dare I have an opinion that is different from the majority.
Its a sad indictment when people thing that if you genuinely do not like something you are only saying it for attention purposes or trolling.

The sad part, I was hoping i would enjoy it.
On the plus side, any criticism of Picard now seems harsh in comparison

Bellbottoms · 07-08-2020 9:42pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

I wrote on a trek forum my dislike and mentioned the iq to find it in any way entertaining.
Spoke how the character of mariner acted like a complete spaz on pcp and the whole thing was over the top and ridiculous....and moving at a complete frantic pace.

I got a warning for trolling, as in their mindset I must be trolling, how dare I have an opinion that is different from the majority.
Its a sad indictment when people thing that if you genuinely do not like something you are only saying it for attention purposes or trolling.

The sad part, I was hoping i would enjoy it.
On the plus side, any criticism of Picard now seems harsh in comparison

I quite liked Picard, it was a little to long. And some things didn't work. But the way we tell stories has moved on. Picard is as different from TNG, as TNG is from TOS.

I agree with you on Mariner. We have seen how hard it is to get into Starfleet and how serious people take it. The quirky lets just mess around thing is not working for me. Neither is the pacing or how the characters speak to one another.

It might of worked better if it wasn't a Starfleet ship. A lot of the stronger jokes."This happens every week", "I was stuck in a cave for a month" are all the kind of things you would see in Fanzines back in the day.

I don't like the dynamic between Bomiler (?) and Mariner. It's very reminiscent of Rick and Morty. And they seem to share a lot of the same characteristics only dialled down.

I am shocked by the trolling thing. I guess there are some people who just want to watch Star Trek that is only like The Next Generation. And this is the closest to new TNG they are gonna get.

I reallt wanted to like it to. I will give the season a go. But if things dont improve. I wont be watching Season 2

Justin Credible Darts · 07-08-2020 10:02pm

I will watch the rest of the seson but with the audio off and off double speed, for the sole purpose of seeing what logos may appear on the screen , so can replicate them for my trek site.

As for Picard, it was not great, but worth a watch, not something I would go back and watch with fondness like say Deep space nine.
To me the worst trek ever were those kelvin timeline moves 11-13.,...horrendous....this lower decks was even worse.

Stark · 07-08-2020 10:09pm

I thought it was enjoyable enough. I like that it has a TNG vibe to it. I did squee a little bit when a Benzite walked in near the start. Remains to be seen how long I'll keep liking it. Enjoyed a few episodes of Rick and Morty but it eventually became too irritating for me.

Bellbottoms · 07-08-2020 10:11pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

To me the worst trek ever were those kelvin timeline moves 11-13.,...horrendous....this lower decks was even worse.

I liked the first Kelvin timeline film. Just the right amount of fan service and doing there own thing. Some stuff didn't work. But it was fun and easily the best Trek movie since First Contact.

The second was a **** show, and I still think there is maybe an hour to 45 minutes missing from that movie. They spend a lot of time setting up that there is something wrong with Kirk (Illness, whatever) but it never gets paid off.

The third one was an improvement over the second and I liked Jayla.

I am not much of a fan of Voyager or Enterprise.

pixelburp · 07-08-2020 10:11pm

Justin Credible Darts wrote: »

I wrote on a trek forum my dislike and mentioned the iq to find it in any way entertaining.
Spoke how the character of mariner acted like a complete spaz on pcp and the whole thing was over the top and ridiculous....and moving at a complete frantic pace.

I got a warning for trolling, as in their mindset I must be trolling, how dare I have an opinion that is different from the majority.
Its a sad indictment when people thing that if you genuinely do not like something you are only saying it for attention purposes or trolling.

The sad part, I was hoping i would enjoy it.
On the plus side, any criticism of Picard now seems harsh in comparison

That forums reaction sounds about right. Like the show, don't like it everyone's opinion is valid but making snipes that to like it means a low IQ would get a card here too TBH. Perfectly possible to debate in good spirits without being a díck about other folks' preferences.

Bellbottoms · 07-08-2020 10:11pm

Stark wrote: »

I thought it was enjoyable enough. I like that it has a TNG vibe to it. I did squee a little bit when a Benzite walked in near the start. Remains to be seen how long I'll keep liking it. Enjoyed a few episodes of Rick and Morty but it eventually became too irritating for me.

I have to admit I was excited to see a Benzite as well.

Justin Credible Darts · 07-08-2020 11:22pm

The problem with almost all trek forums is their core base are very quick to jump on people who would say anything negative about a show.
You only have to look a person can state how they thought a show was rubbish and see the responses he or she gets completely outweight those who makes compliments.

You can be a fan of trek, love the shows and still find fault with certain shows in the franchise.

I remember at the time I never saw Enterprise and the show was finished a few years, and had for years read the slating this show got, and how others ripped into it.
When I finally got around to watching it, expecting it to be as bad as those reviewing said, i was delighted to find not only was it better than I imagined, but totally enjoyed it.
I mentioned this and no one cared.

When I mentioned Burnham in discovery sucked as a character, there was people whinging for days.

Look around the forums and look how anyone who is negative toward any aspect of the franchise is hounded.

Stark · 07-08-2020 11:29pm

pixelburp wrote: »

Many comedies (well, many shows really) tend to take a season to find it's rhythm and figure out what works or doesn't. Gags, characters etc moved around til something clicks. My goto comparison here is always Parks & Recreation: a tedious clone of The Office in season 1, yet reworked itself into a bonafide comedy classic. As to cartoons, shows like Futurama, The Simpsons, American Dad, Archer all started off poor to mediocre.

Don't think I'd agree with all of those. Simpsons had a poor first season but the likes of Archer and Futurama hit the ground running imo.

Slydice · 08-08-2020 12:09am

1: Well. It's a mixed one for me. It feels like it's throwing in some good nostalgia and lots of nods for me to like. The character interactions are .. different. I.. kinda like it. I hope it doesn't go too daft.

AMKC · 09-08-2020 11:38am

I just watched it now. it was not great. i do like that the ship at least looks like a 4th century TNG era ship if not the best design. i liked some of the characters and some I did not like. I thought they were spot on with what happened even do on a 24th century ship something like that should surely not happen but then I did not like the way it was done. there was some good jokes in it and some terrible ones too.

Spear · 09-08-2020 6:00pm

It's okay, just okay. It's only passably amusing, and not exactly inventive, just standard sitcom fare. At least the Orville manages old-school social commentary.

The most interesting aspect was that it made some fairly pointed criticisms of Trekdom, such as referring to spectacularly dumb ideas like cetacean ops or the way senior staff take all the glory and credit.

JayRoc · 12-08-2020 8:52pm

Spear wrote: »

It's okay, just okay. It's only passably amusing, and not exactly inventive, just standard sitcom fare. At least the Orville manages old-school social commentary.

The most interesting aspect was that it made some fairly pointed criticisms of Trekdom, such as referring to spectacularly dumb ideas like cetacean ops or the way senior staff take all the glory and credit.

I nearly turned it off after the first 90s seconds (the intro was just irritating nonsense) but I'm marginally glad I didn't; it does actually appear like the show might have something to say.

The idea that the senior staff/bridge crew might be a pack of glory-hungry incompetents is a nice spin, and one worth exploring

Star Trek: Lower Decks (animated series)

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