I really don’t like Lower Decks. Before you downvote, I would never tell anyone it’s bad or that they shouldn’t like it. I just really can’t figure out why most people seem to like it so much.
Similar to what I’ve heard many fans of LD say, I don’t like Discovery or Picard either but I love Strange New Worlds. That seems to be pretty common among the Lower Decks fandom. Yet no matter how many times I try to watch LD I always end up borderline hating it. I don’t even like the crossover episode with SNW.
For reference, the things I specifically dislike are: I don’t find it funny; I think that the characters are too cynical, hyperactive or doe-eyed; and I’m normally a big proponent of 2D animation but I don’t like LD’s art style either.
It’s cool that they have brought back so many characters, actors and details from the old days, but to me that’s not enough to get over the things I don’t like. I’m also not one to notice that they faithfully recreated a minor detail from the classic series without it being pointed out to me.
Is it just that my sense of humor and other tastes are too different, despite sharing a lot of other opinions with fans of LD? Or is it the deep Trek references that people love so much but often go over my head? Or is it something else entirely that I’m not getting that makes so many people love this show?
Whatever it is that’s lost on me, I’m glad so many people are getting their joy from LD. I just need to convince my coworker to stop recommending it to me. :P
(I also spent over an hour editing this before posting it to make sure it sounds as diplomatic as possible, so hopefully I don’t still manage to piss everyone off with my heresy.)
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Totally fair opinion. I like it because it’s the Wizard behind the Curtain scenarios.
That peace treaty and the wonderful meal prepared?
Yeah… guys on the lower decks had to make that happen. Mundane paperwork, etc.
How did this magically get resolved so quickly? Lower decks did it.
It’s the Star Trek equivalent of Super Store where you see the lofty ideals and futuristic space travel is really just every day life with people doing people things like we do today. Whether good or bad.
For me its the quickness of the dialogue. And since it is animation they are not held back by grand scale budgets for every little detail of a new planet or giant space ship battles. Again this is my take. And it took me a minute to appreciate LD.
Thanks! I did like how they even pointed out how fast Mariner and Boimler talk compared to the Enterprise crew in the crossover with SNW. But I definitely prefer the latter. Maybe that’s a sign I’m getting old. Can’t keep up with what the kids are saying these days.
I’m not sure it is the age or getting old, or just the type of brain. I’ve always was more attentive to people who spoke faster from keeping my mind wandering during the conversation. I was always told to slow down my speech throughout school.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to like it, or pretend to like it, or justify why you don’t like it, or even tell people that you don’t like it.
Totes fine to just dislike it and move on. For me I not only love LD but it actually brought me into trek fandom through the backdoor, and I’m currently watching TNG all the way through.
But I’m not diminished in any way by you not liking it.
Now as for your coworker, I recommend
hitting him with a brickbeing direct and saying “I don’t like it, but you’re free to give me other recommendations you think I’ll enjoy.”The first few episodes Mariner was written as hyperactive and overbearing to the point of being off-putting.
But they responded to feedback and wrote her differently going forward and seem to have made some edits to earlier episodes.
It might be worth seeing some later episodes once it got settled in.
Yeah, I disliked her episode 1 abuse / harassment of Boimler enough that I stopped watching.
Now it’s my favorite ongoing show.
If you don’t find the humour funny, it’s not going to work for you. It’s half humour, half love letter to trek. Star Trek meets Futurama
To some extent, the characters have to be hyper and heightened because they have to fit a Star Trek episode in under half an hour
Not just humor, but a particularly cynical humor. And yes, I think you have a point: To laugh, you need to be able to laugh at hubris and incompetence.
I turn to #StarTrek because I have encountered these attributes all too often in a real life that much more resembles the hell that Guinan described to Jean-Luc Picard when the crew traveled back in time to keep one of his ancestors on track to launch on a space exploration than not. It just isn’t funny to me because I have suffered these attributes my entire life and what #LowerDecks captures is but the palest, most faintly visible shadow of it.
I turn to #StarTrek because I’m desperate for something better.
I like LD because of its sense of humor and Trek deep cuts.
The LD characters are much more like “real” people than the other Trek series to me. By that I mean: TNG was full of people that I would admire and look up to if I were on that ship. LD has people I could see myself becoming friends with. But maybe that opinion reflects the age I was/am when watching each of them.
If you aren’t a fan of the humor, and don’t get the deep cuts, then I could see why you aren’t finding much to like about it.
The LD characters are much more like “real” people than the other Trek series to me.
This is why I like it, it’s closer to how I expect “real” humans to act even 400 years in the future.
The other treks are more idealized, heroized, professional.
The other treks are more idealized, heroized, professional.
Which is something LD likes to poke fun at.
You certainly are allowed to dislike or even hate a Star Trek product. Every fan has things they like or don’t like. Heck, it’s one of the things this fandom is known for!
What I love about LD is the fact that it pokes fun at pretty much every Trek trope there is, while also being proper Trek itself. It’s a fine balance for sure.
I don’t think you’re necessarily missing anything. Lower Decks is probably my favourite Star Trek series by a decent margin, but I think that people’s varying tastes is part of the Trek experience.
Like the first Star Trek I ever watched was TNG, with a partner who hated DS9 because of how far it was from the much more utopian tone of TNG. My best friend, however, loved DS9 most of all for that exact same reason. I can’t tolerate The Original Series because of how campy and cringe it is, but I have friends who love it for that.
If you hate Lower Decks, then your perspective is one I can’t really relate to, but that just feels like regular old Trekkie solidarity to me - with a show so varied, inevitably there’s going to be diverse viewpoints. That in mind, I’m not going to try and change mind, I’m just going to highlight why I love Lower Decks.
My favourite bit about Lower Decks is that it feels like a love letter to Trek, in all its forms. There’s a lot of references I don’t get, but I don’t need to get them to feel the warm fuzzies of knowing this show was made by people who are, first and foremost, fans of Star Trek. I like utopian sci fi because the state of the real world means that I can find real hope in the fantasy because in my heart, I believe in humanity.
Alongside all of that idealistic space exploration though, Lower Decks doesn’t shy away from the more pernicious aspects of Star Trek, and Starfleet/the Federation. The humour isn’t always my taste, but I think they use it well to poke fun at Star Trek, the show, but also the world within. The sometimes critical lens that is taken is part of why it feels so much like a love letter to Trek - if you truly love something, you’ve got to take the bad with the good and not pretend that everything is perfect.
It is fine that you don’t like it. I don’t really think you will get downvoted for it. I also don’t like LD as much as other people but I think it is fine.
There are many other trek things that I don’t like as much as other people, but in the end there are different parts of ST that resonates with different people.
The thing I like about ST is how realistic somethings from back in the day are. I also like the more serious tone of things, but I think with the popularity of things like the Orville etc you can see that a big part of the fandom was looking for something more light hearted.
Just tell your co-worker that LD is just not for you. I am sure he will understand.
My story is a bit different than others. I am not a Trekkie, and most of what I know about the franchise is from cultural osmosis and from catching the odd rerun of TNG in the 90s.
I have, however, been a junior officer in a ship, and much of Lower Deck’s content struck a chord because I’ve been there. I’ve been assigned the banal tasks, I’ve argued with other crew members on an opposite watch, and I’ve had to fight for the attention of the senior officers.
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging you to join the navy just to enjoy LD. That would be silly.
I think it’s the different humor and visual style case. And that’s ok. I don’t think you need to understand the many Trek injokes to like it- I know people who don’t know Trek and enjoy LD.
What I find interesting is that you feel the characters are cynical. I was quite suprised how endearingly idealistic the characters were, despite being written as flawed. They always make sure to do the right thing and they try very hard to better themselves. There’s a lot of character growth involved, which I much appreciate.
During the first two episodes, I also found the characters hyperactive. By the third one I adapted.
I don’t hate Star Trek: Lower Decks, but I did find it to be pretty boring. I watched the first 3 episodes on a flight last year and I almost fell asleep while watching it. The jokes just don’t land for me. I don’t know, it seems to be trying to be like Family Guy or The Orville (which I both love) but it ends up being more like “Our Cartoon President”, it is just dull, without edge. Maybe I will watch more episodes, it might get better, I don’t know. But I still haven’t seen all of DS9 and Voyager yet, so it will have to wait.
I’m completely with you on this, LD is clearly a hit with a lot of people and that makes me happy to see, but the show is just not for me. The characters are indeed way too hyper all the time which is tiring to watch, and I think it’s a shame because the concept and even a lot of the plots could be funny, but the characters never grow or change or become any less the absolute worst, so it’s kind of a wasted opportunity.
Anyway I’m not replying to dunk on LD. It’s a tv show and I don’t personally like it, whatever. I am replying to ask if you’ve tried The Orville.
Go with me here, because I assumed it was going to be just more of the kiddie style humour like LD. And it sort of is at first, so on my first attempt I bounced off the first episode and didn’t go back for a year. But we seem to have basically the same taste when it comes to Trek and I can honestly say The Orville turned into some of the best Trek I’ve seen. It’s got its weak points and annoying characters like anything else, but they’re a bit more like real people who change over time based on their experiences and aren’t just stuck in that typical animated show loop of being exactly the same again at the start of each new episode.
You might like it, you might not. Just a suggestion! :)
I love The Orville. Before Strange New Worlds, I considered it the only good nu-Trek out there.
Oh well, no further recommendations from me. But hello Trek-preferences twin, I guess :D
I’m curious if you also like Farscape and Firefly. Maybe we’re onto a highly specific sub-fandom.
Yes! Although, I have to admit I’ve never rewatched Farscape since it was originally on, I was still in school and me and my bestie were obsessed. Kind of worried to rewatch and find it doesn’t hold up. Firefly on the other hand, totally holds up!
Ok this will put the cat among the pigeons. And I probably shouldn’t be admitting it on the internet, but I just have to know…
spoiler
For all I love scifi, I cannot stand the Battlestar Galactica remake. Thoughts?
I like The Orville. I’ve watched the entire run of the show. Much like you with LD though, I don’t quite get how people love The Orville. It strikes me as leftover TNG episodes with a Find and Replace, followed by a liberal coat of Seth MacFarlane’s very particular set of Gen X influences. The morality is often pretty clumsy and I can almost imagine Seth and the writers being frustrated by the ambiguity that a good Trek episode can leave you with. Then, the way it had to start with a more Galaxy quest vibe to get a show order from Fox, followed by Seth wanting it to be more serious but also still be a Seth show, it’s kind of all over the place. I also find some of the acting performances to be amateurish to the point of distraction.
And for all that, I still like it. It scratched an itch and has a lot of heart. On the whole, it’s more than the sum of its parts, but for me it still has a ceiling. I like it about as much as I like Discovery, which I have also watched in its entirety though only once. The two shows’ issues are very different though, with the exception of tonal whiplash.
I have come around on LD. I think it is a similar love letter to to Gen2 Star Trek but handles the balance of trek-to-humor better, and for all their cartoon antics, I’ve found the characters more compelling than The Orville’s.
I’ve only seen the cross-over episode on SNW, It’s very much not my sense of humour but I’m happy for there to be more types of shows for more people, so long as I get my TNG style shows.
It’s just a star trek thing. I’ve lost count at the number of TNG, DS9, Voyager episodes I find dull and boring. There is hardly a concensus among fans on the series or movies that are good, don’t expect to love all the new stuff either.
