Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 1x01 - "Second Contact"

[Blooded]

Just watched Lower Decks "Second Contact ". Painful. Hard to watch. Hated the story and the animation. I mainly hated the voice acting. People speak two sentences, literally one after the other, not even a breath between words or pauses. It annoyed me.

Genuinely, I don’t think anyone is surprised to see these comments from you. You were never even trying to approach this show with an open mind, judging from other comments that you have made.

1. Keep Calm, take a deep breath. 2. Refresh the page, the poll is open now. I just opened it.

Aha, now I know why no one tried to sink the overall rating before the show went live, like was tried with Picard

I was not expecting the mother-daughter dynamic. The show and dialogue is pretty fast paced, but it feels appropriate for the series.

It never crossed my mind, during the media hype. But, for some reason, it did during the early stages of this episode, before moving to the back of my mind, again.

I think I discarded it, because of the different surnames. For whatever reason, it didn’t cross my mind that Mariner may be using her fathers surname.

I like this twist. It adds some real weight to Mariner’s character.

Mariner is really going to get on my nerve big time. also why wasn't she written up for stabbing Boimler with the Bath'leth.

We didn’t see what happened, in the aftermath of that stabbing. We also clearly saw evidence, in this episode, that she can twist Boimler’s arm to do whatever she wants.

The show is allowed to let us connect these dots ourselves, rather than spelling everything out

I actually quite liked Mariner. She’s a self-destructive person and, clearly, her own worst enemy.

Well, that sucked. Congrats on being 0 for 3, CBSAA Trek.

Starting to see a recurring theme with who is against the new Trek shows, and who isn’t.

Hey, with the number of new shows coming out, you’ll soon get to say that you enjoy less than 50% of Trek’s television shows! Might as well give up, at that point

So much of the show seems poorly conceived. Ensign Mariner is a fuck up who doesn’t give a shit, but she’s also a hypercompetent know-it-all who insists on being the acknowledged as smartest one in the room, which makes her insufferable.

If you haven’t met a person like Mariner in your life, who has all the skills and abilities, but lacks the self-drive and discipline to use them correctly, then I’m very surprised. Mariner is very real.

Throw in the fact that she appears to be the daughter of a broken marriage and, suddenly, a lot starts to make sense about why she is the way she is. But, I guess you have to have an open mind to see all this, rather than sitting there for 20+ minutes, looking for things to complain about...

The premise itself seems broken at its core. So much of the pre-release copy about the show joked about how the Cerritos was one of the “least important” ships in the fleet, but all of the senior officers still seem very capable and professional.

This show can’t win. Previously, it was being criticised because “Starfleet wouldn’t let such incapable and unprofessional people into their ranks,” but here you are, now criticising it for NOT having a senior crew that are incapable and unprofessional. Incredible.

No one is a coward or a screw-up or and no one fucks up.

The ship was taken over by an alien virus, because Ransom, our first officer, failed to report that he had been bitten by an alien insect.

If that’s not a screw up in the Trekverse, or not “f*cking up,” then I’ve no idea what is.

The show itself has no point of view and very few actual jokes. It needlessly namedrops characters from across the franchise as if just mentioning them is supposed to be funny or, I dunno, endearing or whatever.

Humour is not just “jokes,” so if that is how you personally define comedy (“knock, knock!”), then this show was never going to work for you. Nor would many comedies, as it happens.

Characters can’t name drop legacy characters who they’ve likely studied and/or looked up to?

EDIT TO ADD: On second watch, I’ve realised that Mariner’s parents don’t actually appear to be separated, given he calls her sweetheart, and says he loves her. Either way, still an interesting dynamic, as you’d assume both parents have served on separate ships, to climb to their current positions, so Mariner likely hasn’t always had both parents around. Would explain a little.

Also, her parents are an Admiral, and a Captain. She, herself, clearly has ability and knowledge, but appears to have rebelled against the fact that her parents are such high-ranking officers. That’s a dynamic I don’t think we’ve seen before, in a regular?

I’ve not seen any of the replies to me, yet, but I imagine I’m probably already getting chewed out for thinking the parents were separated haha.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

source?

The word "probe".

 

[NCC-73515]

The word "probe".

The Enterprise was a probe, sent by the probe agency, and still had a few hundred people aboard
There's no reason to assume such a big thing isn't manned, or rather whaled.

 

[Blooded]

The word "probe".

Doesn’t mean it is unmanned, that’s just an assumption made by Starfleet, when they assumed it was a probe. May well not have been.

EDIT: Xindi probe was manned, in fact.

 

[NCC-73515]

Which is just the kind of thing we want to see from a Starfleet crew when an invasive force is storming through the galaxy, is turning around and going away.

Starfleet!

The weakest ship has to stay and be destroyed? What regulation is that? XD

 

[brandnewfan]

I’m watching now on an old Apple TV.

There’s a voice over describing everything. I’ve already turned off the hearing impaired voice over option but the voice is still there.

Is this normal?

 

[NCC-73515]

Try watching with a browser

 

[Muji]

I haven’t read any of the posts in this thread as I wanted to give my view unaltered by others. I just finished watching it. The first few minutes were basically a rehash if the trailer, and it was a little uncomfortable. After that, it really got into its stride, made some funny ‘in’ jokes, and did a good job of introducing the characters. They’re not that much like they were in the trailer.

Then, when it really got going I was just sat back, enjoying it. It’s charming and entertaining and I ended up really liking it. I’m sure there are people out there who will find issue with it, just as they do with everything; they will actively hate it on principle. I don’t much care because I really liked it and I’m looking forward to more.

Edit: My main worry was it was going to be like the Orville but it wasn’t. Thank God. It avoided feeling like a cheap, knock-off parody and slotted in nicely.

 

[Michael]

Genuinely, I don’t think anyone is surprised to see these comments from you. You were never even trying to approach this show with an open mind, judging from other comments that you have made.

Please stick to discussing the show and the episode, not the posters and their motivations. There's no reason to get personal.

 

[Crewman6]

Starting to see a recurring theme with who is against the new Trek shows, and who isn’t.

Hey, with the number of new shows coming out, you’ll soon get to say that you enjoy less than 50% of Trek’s television shows! Might as well give up, at that point

Holy shit, do not fucking try to psychoanalyze me or put me in a box of "who does or who doesn't like what." I approached this show as I have with every Star Trek show ever: with hope and optimism. It's not my fault the show fucking sucks, as it wasn't my fault that Voyager, Picard and Discovery all sucked, too.

If you haven’t met a person like Mariner in your life, who has all the skills and abilities, but lacks the self-drive and discipline to use them correctly, then I’m very surprised. Mariner is very real.

Throw in the fact that she appears to be the daughter of a broken marriage and, suddenly, a lot starts to make sense about why she is the way she is. But, I guess you have to have an open mind to see all this, rather than sitting there for 20+ minutes, looking for things to complain about...

BTW, Mariner it not the product of a broken home, you read that wrong. And she's just two different lazy character tropes jammed together into an annoying stew that's pitched an insufferable volume. There's almost nothing "real" about her at all.

This show can’t win. Previously, it was being criticised because “Starfleet wouldn’t let such incapable and unprofessional people into their ranks,” but here you are, now criticising it for NOT having a senior crew that are incapable and unprofessional. Incredible.

The show can't win? "Previously it was criticized"? By who? Before it came out? By me? Nope. You're resorting to the "some people are saying" fallcy?

I don't give a shit about anyone else's complaints, I'm talking about mine. And my criticisms are what they are, devoid of any other context or consensus. And the show is fatally flawed at its core. Starfleet has had plenty of incompetent people in its ranks across the franchise. A show about a ship of screw ups is a comic premise that would have a point. This show wants to have it both ways. Ha ha ha, the Cerritos is a crappy ship. In the opening credits, it runs away! But it's not a crappy ship and it's officers aren't crappy and the joke about "Second contact", for instance, never pays off, because the crew is still doing what is clearly a very important job even if it's slightly less glamorous. There's no tension, no engine for comedy here at all, no real point of view to the show. It's a watered down version of its own premise.

"Hey, would it be funny if we followed a crappy Starfleet ship?" Sure! "Well, it's not really going to be that crappy. Just very slightly less important than the enterprise. Which is basically every other ship in the fleet, anyway." Ha ha. What a brilliant concept, sure to provide endless comic possibilities!

Humour is not just “jokes,” so if that is how you personally define comedy (“knock, knock!”), then this show was never going to work for you. Nor would many comedies, as it happens.

Are you fucking kidding me? Knock knock jokes? Fuck the fuck off with this condescending bullshit, seriously.

Comedies have funny characters in funny situations doing and saying funny things. They're called jokes. This show has very slightly offbeat characters in straightforward situations acting....almost exactly like the characters would in the non-comedy version. Once again, there's no comic friction here at all, nothing is playing off of anything else.

Characters can’t name drop legacy characters who they’ve likely studied and/or looked up to?

No, it can't. Because there's literally no fucking reason why they would in the way the show has them do it. It's the laziest kind of fan service bullshit. No character would ever act that way in real life. It's dumb, it's pandering, it's not funny and it's not how any recognizably human person would ever behave.

This is the worst bullet point reply I've ever seen.

 

[Trekker4747]

The weakest ship has to stay and be destroyed? What regulation is that? XD

It was several Borg vessel coming in. "The needs of the many..." and all.

I'm sure plenty of "weak" ships were at Wolf 359. But, hey it's "funny" to see a Federation vessel just turning around out of a Borg battle knowing what a serious threat they are.

 

[Tuskin38]

I mean all of that is just your opinion.

Humour is subjective after all.

 

[Tuskin38]

No character would ever act that way in real life. It's dumb, it's pandering, it's not funny and it's not how any recognizably human person would ever behave.

Good thing this isn’t real life then. We’ve seen trek characters in the past act similarly to other characters.

 

[NCC-73515]

It's hilarious to see it majestically fly by... and hit everything on the way XD
And just as funny to see it approach a massive battle... and then nope out after one hit XD

 

[Markonian]

Hi! Glad you people are enjoying it!

Is there any “passing the baton” kinda moment. Like we had in previous shows.

USS Cerritos is California class.
Mariner served on the USS Quito.
Do we learn the names of any other ships or ship classes?

 

[ProwlAlpha]

Crewman 6, calm your load. If you are going to post your opinions, stop getting butt hurt if people disagree with you. I actually enjoyed the show. I went into seeing the episode as exactly as it was, a comedic take on Star Trek. While the dialogue did go warp speed, it was a very unique take in the story and ended very Trek like.

 

[brandnewfan]

It was okay. Not bad, not the best thing ever. But I’ll keep watching for sure.

 

[Precious Tritium]

“Everyone, protect this slime.”

I think that got the heartiest chuckle out of me.

I loved it. Loved the whole thing. What a fantastic time to be a Trek fan.

 

[Trekker4747]

Hi! Glad you people are enjoying it!

Is there any “passing the baton” kinda moment. Like we had in previous shows.

Well, there were a number of rapid-fire name drops by Ensign CONSTANTLYSHOUTINGANDTALKING! right at the end.

 

[Michael]

Crewman 6, calm your load. If you are going to post your opinions, stop getting butt hurt if people disagree with you.

We don't need any of that in here. Stick to discussing the show. Personal attacks won't get you very far.