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A more "serious" version of "Lower Decks"?

D

dswynne1

Captain
Captain
If the show was more "serious", a la TAS, from the start, would you still watch it? In my opinion, cartoons tend to be sitcoms, especially in regards to the show's comedy. Then again, we have shows like AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER that seems to strike a fine line between being "serious" and "funny". Then again, the art style can make the difference between being seen as "comedic" and not.

Am I making any sense on this? I do like the show, but I wonder if having more serious 'Trek means you can't have a serious cartoon, or something.
 
they could animate Picard Season 3 and just feature a 5 minute de-eyeballing of some beloved b-list character each week while Picard sips wine and laments his inability to make a difference. If he can't stop former child characters from being de-eyeballed, the very universe and all other possible universes will end. and then some more will end as well. And it will all be very sad and poinant and beautifully animated.
 
I like Lower Decks as is, but I'd be in favour of a more serious animated Trek if it were to involve mostly alien characters.
 
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That's what I wanted, and why I don't watch TLD. There's like 1? serious animated show out there. Primal? The rest are the same old same old 'comedic' ones or the new type of kid shows with their gang of friends solving a problem. Hell if TLD was like the later sans the juvenile 'comedy' I still would had watched it.
 
Since the "funny" parts of Lower Decks are not funny at all, I'd prefer a more serious version. Actually, the few serious moments are the only ones I have enjoyed so far.
 
I’m fine with the way it is, quite frankly. LD is not my overall "cup of tea," but I'm also not so selfish and narrow to think that every element of the reborn Star Trek franchise should be designed and catered to my specific tastes and preferences. What killed Trek in the late 90's was a suffocating "sameness" in the various products that were being put out. Everything looked and felt the same. The music, cinematography, dialogue, plotting, pacing, production design, visual FX, tone....it was like watching the same show for 25 straight seasons. I think the unfortunate side-effect was that it gave fans of that era an entitling sense that "this is what STAR TREK IS."

I like that CBS is taking the franchise, which by its very design is so broad and there are so many different things you can do with it, and they are using that to their advantage.

It amazes me that there are so many fans who just want more of what they had 25 seasons of back then. Dear Lord, I've had plenty of that....and I consider myself a pretty benevolent fan (ie: not a complainer). I see a lot of people declaring what Star Trek is / isn't and should / shouldn't be all over the place and on a constant basis. I couldn't disagree with those people more. Star Trek can be almost anything. Episodic, serialized, comedy, grimdark, action-oriented, thoughtful, operatic, grand/epic, small/stage-playish, etc etc etc. We've seen it be all these things and more for the past 54 years.

I actually think my appreciation for "differences" in series is what contributes to TOS, DS9 and DSC being my favorites. They are all very different when compared to the relative sameness of TNG, VOY, ENT, TAS.

I wish people would sit back.....breathe....and just let these different productions be what they are. I honestly can't fathom why anyone really, in their hearts, wants "TNG season 26" at this point. And, even if that is your bag....that's what The Orville basically is.

Let's continue to accept the variety that is being produced. It's the only realistic way you can have a franchise like CBSAA is building and not have it get stale to the point that nobody cares.
 
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Vger23 said:
I wish people would sit back.....breathe....and just let these different productions be what they are. I honestly can't fathom why anyone really, in their hearts, wants "TNG season 26" at this point. And, even if that is your bag....that's what The Orville basically is.
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It would be nice to be able to relax and enjoy what is out rather than wish for what cannot be.

ETA: Grammar.
 
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The Wormhole said:
I like Lower Decks just fine as it is. Though I will say that they probably could do a serious version of this show with the same characters acting just the same way they currently do, and it would still be a great show.
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Completely agree. I think Mariner is one of the more interesting characters and could be done as a straight characters and be entertaining.
 
dswynne1 said:
If the show was more "serious", a la TAS, from the start, would you still watch it? In my opinion, cartoons tend to be sitcoms, especially in regards to the show's comedy. Then again, we have shows like AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER that seems to strike a fine line between being "serious" and "funny". Then again, the art style can make the difference between being seen as "comedic" and not.

Am I making any sense on this? I do like the show, but I wonder if having more serious 'Trek means you can't have a serious cartoon, or something.
Click to expand...
The only reason TAS wasn't a live-action fourth season of TOS was because NBC was unwilling to spend the money to rebuild the sets (and first-run syndication being a viable alternative was still more than a decade away), but they were willing to spend a little money to have it as a Saturday-morning cartoon. Gene Roddenberry and DC Fontana went out of their way to not write down to the audience. Had it been a normal '70s cartoon, it probably would've been the Star Trek version of Hong Kong Phooey or Fat Albert or whatever else they had on back then.

I feel like some people basically wished Lower Decks was more like Star Trek's version of Batman TAS from the '90s. And the more things change, the more they stay the same. They weren't going to make a live-action Batman show starring Batman while Batman was in the theaters. So they went with making it an animated series and, like with Star Trek, they didn't write down to their audience. They fashioned the series off of the Bronze Age and Copper Age comics.

In the case of Star Trek today, live-action series are being made, so they don't need to make an animated series in lieu of one, like Star Trek in the '70s or Batman in the '90s. So my point of view would be: if you're going to make a Star Trek series that plays like live-action, might as well make it live-action.

What I like about Lower Decks is that it embraces that it's a cartoon instead of fighting against it.
 
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