I truly honestly do not know what Boris wants from Lower Decks. I thought I did but now its about doing different types of comedy and LD becoming more. More what I don't know. 
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x01 - "Strange Energies"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Eh, I wouldn't be hard on him. He doesn't feel the show and Trek fans want to love everything.
I have nothing against him. I just don't understand the point. I thought I did.
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Amaris
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Same.
Goofy and Trek are not new companions. An entire episode of the most lauded Trek in the history of the franchise is devoted to alien women in go-go boots stealing Spock's brain to use as the central computer running their entire society's environmental systems.
I’ve never said that anyone is being dishonest, just that you and other people have spent several posts explaining why I’m simply not going to get my vision of the show as evolving speculative comedy that doesn’t rely on exaggeration, covering highly controversial subjects like money in the Federation (as if any fan opinion really stands a chance of being transformed into reality). I, on the other hand, am interested in how and why the show works for people, and if it doesn’t in certain areas, why not, and also if they have their own ideas on what it should be.
See, I don’t actually know how you feel about it: whether it’s the most amazing thing in the world, at least for a side dish like french fries, “just fine” (for french fries, so let’s not raise our expectations) or what. I know that you’re defending the show as-is, so the exaggerated writing probably works for you, or maybe you believe that it’s useless for Star Trek fans to argue that a production should go somewhere it doesn’t seem to be, whatever their personal opinions. But if someone says that the structure of the show suits them and here’s why, that’s their opinion, just like I have my own, and there’ve already been a couple of interesting posts in that vein.
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It has some excellent characters and stories while being fun. That's all it presented itself as and I like that.
Actually, I'd argue the vast majority of Star Trek is goofy and the best Star Trek is usually some semblance of it. The best DISCO episodes to me are the ones with Harry Mudd. The best Picard is when he's speaking in a goofy French accent with an eyepatch. More goofiness would have probably made NuTrek better.
And when DSC finds the descendants of World War III humans on a distant planet and they're still stuck in the 21st century technologically and have religious teachings about the Red Angel saving their forebears from nuclear bombs that's a side of Trek we don't see much anymore, either.
I just realized I haven't been to this thread yet.
The episode pretty fun.
The story with the strange energies and Ransom was fun, and of course it was Mariner attempting to do something innocent that set the whole thing in motion. Steve Stevens obssesion with Ransom is hilarious.
Kinda felt sorry for poor Tendi and her determination to get Rutherford to act the way he had before.
It was pretty clear from the start there was no way Mariner's mother letting her do her own was going to last.
The episode pretty fun.
The story with the strange energies and Ransom was fun, and of course it was Mariner attempting to do something innocent that set the whole thing in motion. Steve Stevens obssesion with Ransom is hilarious.
Kinda felt sorry for poor Tendi and her determination to get Rutherford to act the way he had before.
It was pretty clear from the start there was no way Mariner's mother letting her do her own was going to last.
I think there is room for both. I love the balance of the two.
With the BEST Trek dialougue EVER WRITTEN:
And I quote: "Brain and brain...WHAT IS BRAIN??!!..."
See, but that’s part of what I mean by intrinsic comedy. Nobody had to exaggerate the basic characters and situations. Ensign Garrovick had his own quarters with a nameplate. They just encountered an outside factor, aliens who could, you know, extract brains, and then kept going with unintentionally? funny lines of dialogue. Or the game of chula on DS9: if hopping about and singing the Allamaraine is what had to be done, then you just do it. Or maybe we can find something funny in the administration needed to “buy” a house. Let the humor flow from the setting, so it remains as specific to Star Trek as possible.
Neither Spock's Brain nor Move Along Home were intended to be funny.
The Tribble episodes, the Mudd episodes, and most of the Ferengi episodes (on DS9, plus Rascals) were intended to be funny, exactly the same as all of the Lower Decks episodes. There's no intrinsic comedy from the setting. There're stylistic changes in the writing, music cues, plot beats, character actions, etc. that are far removed from more serious outings.
The Tribble episodes, the Mudd episodes, and most of the Ferengi episodes (on DS9, plus Rascals) were intended to be funny, exactly the same as all of the Lower Decks episodes. There's no intrinsic comedy from the setting. There're stylistic changes in the writing, music cues, plot beats, character actions, etc. that are far removed from more serious outings.
That feels a bit lazy also, but at least it was temporary and they were walking a fine line. I can’t really list “The Trouble with Tribbles” as one of my favorite episodes, but the effect you mention is not as pronounced as on LDS, where the exaggerated setting is in your face (corridor bunks) and actually detracts from the humor, as opposed to letting the usual situations make fun of themselves almost without trying. The “lower deckers” could be moved to individual quarters because certain cargo space has become redundant (subtle humor: we see it explained from A to Z on deck plans only tech fans would want to see, the joke being that previous shows wouldn’t have bothered with that level of detail). Step by step it would become a different kind of show, one where humor has to be squeezed out of the most unusual places. That would be my challenge for McMahan, not that it makes a difference as a BBS opinion, of course.
None of that sounds funny.
I like a wide variety of humor. I grew up with MASH, with Monty Python, and with the Three Stooges. I like it all. for Lower Decks the exaggeration is built in. So, I take that as it is presented. Do i wish it was more straight laced? Actually, no. The comedy works very well as they explore an interesting dynamic of the characters. Could it be done? Yeah, probably, but then it would feel more like live action and my interest would diminish greatly.
Or Procol Harum.
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