I really don't recall ever hearing this as a complaint, but I could be wrong. I don't mind some light and levity in Trek- I just don't want Trek to turn into constant dumb comedy. Trek should be wagon train to the stars.
At this point I am pretty well convinced that there exits a subset of fandom that is only happy when they are angry. Oh, I recall it and seeing it on both sides. ST 09 was "too dumb and fun. Made Star Trek look stupid and wasn't supposed to be that way." Then Discovery shows up and it was "Oh, no! Star Trek was never about darkness and horrible topics or dark characters. It has to be lighter!"
Hell, Picard S3 is the sort of thing which would have appealed to me when I was a teenager but didn't now that I'm in my late 30s.
I’m really looking forward to the musical episode. This is Star Trek taking a risk and I hope it pays off. I’m rooting for it to pay off. If it doesn’t, then at least I can say their other risk (the lower decks crossover) did pull it off.
If it doesn’t evoke things precisely from 30 years ago and doesn’t treat everything from that era as though it’s the most precious thing ever, no they can’t be happy. Then we get Picard, season 3.
This season has more humor but it’s still serious enough to not be goofy. I think the writers saw how funny the cast can be and they lightened the show up more. After how dour Picard season three was it’s a welcome relief for SNW to be how it is the season.
Discovery was and still is also very silly, but not funny. "The stunt", the "out of left field", whatever does not organically develop from your show's concept or characters is silliness also, in my book at least. DSC has had plenty of that. And it's to the point here: I don't mind comedy, not even in ST, but it should not be forced or exist for its own sake. Somebody pointed out TVH as evidence how "ST has always been funny". Yes, but TVH wasn't silly, because the comedy came from the fish-out-of-water situation of the time travel. On SNW, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow..." also has comedic moments. In that case, they came organically out of that kind of situation. The misfires tend to come from situations where your sacrifice the integrity of your characters on the altar of a quick punchline. They do do that.
I can call it whatever I want, thank you very much - and in my informed opinion, held against 900-whatever many other episodes, this was one of the worst I've ever seen. And no, I did not give it a 1, but a 3 because I dislike the hyperbole one finds so often so social media and such ratings platforms. There is a middle ground between "GREATEST EVER!!!" and whatever hyperbolic nonsense haters come up with to crap over something they disliked. A 10/10 is rarely produced, as is a 1/10. But within this spectrum, this was very very low for me.
I feel the show sometimes ventures too far into the goofy one-liners and quips and it comes off just a bit too Marvel for my tastes, but other times they work really well, like the girls winding up Boimler in the Enterprise bar and you know they're gonna eat him alive.
Basically, I see this episode as a classic Broken Base one. Your enjoyment will be less determined over whether you know Lower Decks and more if you can accept Star Trek just being ridiculous for a short time.
I accept Star Trek as being ridiculous all the time. There's sound in space, aliens are humans with goofy colouring or foreheads. It's very silly.