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

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Laugh at it or you're a fun-hating stiff!

Rick and Morty is funny.
Lower Decks is not funny.

I love Discovery, Short Treks, and Picard. I waa excited for Lower Decks, sold by the promo. My criticism is mostly in the behavior of the characters. When the main charactetd are assembled by the replicator spitting out hot bananas, everyone came off like dweeby elementary schoolers. Grown men and women simply don't act like that.

I guess I prefer the more serious tone of DIS and PIC.

Did anyone get the 28 Days Later references?

 

[Michael]

If only we could all stick to critiquing the show itself. That would be so sweet.

(It's supposed to be "post, not poster", right?)

That's the most sensible idea I read in a couple of pages. I need everyone on all sides to chill. People need to be able to express their opinion on the show without being accused of not knowing how to have fun or laugh and without being told they shouldn't be posting here. By the same token, people should be able to discuss the show without repeatedly going on a rant about how they are somehow not “allowed” to express their opinions when they clearly are. People having different opinions than you and arguing against your opinions ≠ a ban on your opinions.

I think you have all made your positions clear by this point. This whole discussion isn't going anywhere, so let's just get back to discussing the episode and the show rather than other posters' sense of humor, alright?

 

[NCC-73515]

Oh, and they ripped off 28 Days Later with the rage virus.

The same thing happened in the 2013 Star Trek game

Prime example of childish humor. Character psychoticly flails around Klingon sword until accidently carving out a chunk of a co-worker's leg she just met. Could you see Tom doing that to Harry?

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(both were not real IIRC, but still... XD)

Not all of the humor in LD is my style. On balance, enough of it is amusing that I'll keep watching.

Same here. I'll keep watching mostly because of the TNG style, while enjoying the good jokes and ignoring the odd ones.

 

[Tosk]

That's where I'm at too, generally. I didn't love the first ep and 90% of the jokes didn't work for me, but we're only one ep deep and I plan on giving it plenty of time to grow on me.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Rick and Morty is funny.
Lower Decks is not funny.

I love Discovery, Short Treks, and Picard. I waa excited for Lower Decks, sold by the promo. My criticism is mostly in the behavior of the characters. When the main charactetd are assembled by the replicator spitting out hot bananas, everyone came off like dweeby elementary schoolers. Grown men and women simply don't act like that.

I guess I prefer the more serious tone of DIS and PIC.

Did anyone get the 28 Days Later references?

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[BillJ]

Grown men and women simply don't act like that.

Starfleet likely has tens of millions of folks working for it. You seriously think that there are no cutups or non-conformists out there in all those people? Heck, Barclay, someone who shouldn't even be in Starfleet thanks to intense anxiety issues, made it all the way to the flagship of the Federation. How many Starfleet folks have we seen simply break down due to one thing or another? Ron Tracy killed thousands of people on Omega IV, and a fellow Starfleet officer, with his phaser. Is that how adults are supposed to act?

I can understand not liking the setup or the humor simply not landing for some folks, but this misconception of how adults actually act (have you looked at the world recently?) is really way off the mark.

 

[Michael]

^ Yes. Also, “men and women not acting like grown-ups” is practically what most comedies are all about. Some of my all-time favorite comedy shows and movies can be described like that.

 

[BillJ]

^ Yes. Also, “men and women not acting like grown-ups” is practically what most comedies are all about. Some of my all-time favorite comedy shows and movies can be described like that.

My wife and I have been married for 27 years, and she says I've always been the biggest kid in our house.

 

[fireproof78]

Grown men and women simply don't act like that.

Incorrect. It might be unusual or rare or over the top but I've seen such behavior in adults.

 

[BillJ]

It might be unusual or rare...

I'm not sure it is all that unusual or rare for adults to act like children or over the top. I've seen plenty in my time on the planet. While it isn't humorous, all one has to do is look to the anti-mask crowd during a pandemic.

And really, the only "over the top" character we have in Lower Decks is Ensign Mariner. Which is one character out of the main eight we've seen.

 

[EnderAKH]

I work in the print on demand industry. When the production facility gets a new machine, several from our team go down to the production floor and giggle, gawk at it and excitedly pour over impressions per minute numbers like wide-eyed kids seeing a magic trick for the first time. Adults do act like that.

 

[Vger23]

Starfleet likely has tens of millions of folks working for it. You seriously think that there are no cutups or non-conformists out there in all those people? Heck, Barclay, someone who shouldn't even be in Starfleet thanks to intense anxiety issues, made it all the way to the flagship of the Federation. How many Starfleet folks have we seen simply break down due to one thing or another? Ron Tracy killed thousands of people on Omega IV, and a fellow Starfleet officer, with his phaser. Is that how adults are supposed to act?

I can understand not liking the setup or the humor simply not landing for some folks, but this misconception of how adults actually act (have you looked at the world recently?) is really way off the mark.

Agreed. These are human beings....not boring, bleached, cardboard cut outs of perfect people. Heck, even TNG which is often criticized for having people portrayed as "too perfect" had humans acting flawed, immature, socially awkward, etc. at various times.

ALSO: Ron Tracy- best TOS villain of all time (controversial opinion...but I'll stick with it!)

 

[BillJ]

ALSO: Ron Tracy- best TOS villain of all time (controversial opinion...but I'll stick with it!)

"The Omega Glory" is easily in my top-ten of TOS episodes. I'll fight anyone on that count!

"No messages. Kirk, the savage in the cell with you. Did you set him free? You sent him, Kirk. You sent him to warn the tribes! The Yangs must've been warned. They sacrificed hundreds just to draw us out in the open. And then they came, and they came. We drained four of our phasers, and they still came. We killed thousands and they still came. "

 

[Vger23]

"The Omega Glory" is easily in my top-ten of TOS episodes. I'll fight anyone on that count!

"No messages. Kirk, the savage in the cell with you. Did you set him free? You sent him, Kirk. You sent him to warn the tribes! The Yangs must've been warned. They sacrificed hundreds just to draw us out in the open. And then they came, and they came. We drained four of our phasers, and they still came. We killed thousands and they still came. "

Same...love that episode.

Just got chills thinking about Morgan Woodward's crazed eyes and speech inflections during that scene. Brilliant.

I love Kang and Kor...but Tracy was just menacing, nasty, and murderous while STILL being (somewhat) sympathetic...and the idea that he was a Starfleet captain of a Constitution-class starship made it even more impactful.




But...….we digress!

 

[Vger23]

I work in the print on demand industry. When the production facility gets a new machine, several from our team go down to the production floor and giggle, gawk at it and excitedly pour over impressions per minute numbers like wide-eyed kids seeing a magic trick for the first time. Adults do act like that.

Good stuff....I'm not sure it's worth living in a world where you CAN'T do that.

That's just called the joy of life. In fact, I wish there was more of it in our world. It might be a happier place.

 

[fireproof78]

Genuine question to no one in particular-how should future humans act? There's been a lot of back and forth of what's funny and what's not. Certainly Star Trek has had its fair share of both, and Data's efforts to learn about humor fell rather flat for me in the Outrageous Okona.

But, it leaves me with the question of what is expected in these Star Trek characters. Is it a stiff and formal attitude towards their job? A grim sense of duty? Are they allowed to laugh and find joy in what they do? And, if so, how is it expressed?

I mean these questions in earnest because I'm genuinely confused by the responses of "adults don't act like ________" and little in the way of acknowledgement of the great variety of human behavior. And, the more I read it the more I wonder if such expectations are rooted in a desire to distance Star Trek from current society and humanity because such things are seen as undesirable. That current humanity is so offensive in its behavior that Star Trek must not appear too close to real humans.

Is it the escapism illusion that is been ruined?

 

[BillJ]

Are they allowed to laugh and find joy in what they do?

While only tangentially related, I think this is where Picard lost me. I was really looking forward to seeing Frakes and Sirtis again in "Nepenthe", then they dropped the dead kid trope squarely in my lap. Riker and Troi couldn't simply retire and move on with their lives, be happy and help a friend when he needed. We had to have a dead kid as their reason for moving on (honestly, I don't see Riker as the type that would've allowed his son to die because of a Starfleet ban on technology). Which is probably why I've latched on to Lower Decks. The franchise had move to a point where very little joy existed in the future.

 

[eschaton]

Regarding "maturity" - keep in mind that the ensigns are probably in their early 20s, with Mariner most likely a bit older as she has served on multiple ships and been demoted. 20somethings can be immature, particularly if they don't have any kids of their own. And I don't even think any of them - except for Mariner - seem particularly immature, insofar as they are taking their jobs far more seriously than most people I know took their jobs at that age.

As for the bridge crew, again I'm not seeing much. The captain seems pretty straight-ahead, other than perhaps not recognizing the contributions the ensigns make (but then, what Star Trek captain has?) The first offer seems a bit broish and full of himself, but he doesn't seem incompetent. The Chief of Security is trigger-happy, but so was Worf. The Chief Medical officer is pretty explicitly modeled on Pulaski.

 

[fireproof78]

While only tangentially related, I think this is where Picard lost me. I was really looking forward to seeing Frakes and Sirtis again in "Nepenthe", then they dropped the dead kid trope squarely in my lap. Riker and Troi couldn't simply retire and move on with their lives, be happy and help a friend when he needed. We had to have a dead kid as their reason for moving on (honestly, I don't see Riker as the type that would've allowed his son to die because of a Starfleet ban on technology). Which is probably why I've latched on to Lower Decks. The franchise had move to a point where very little joy existed in the future.

And that's completely fair. I hate the whole "dead child" trope and it wears rather thin for me, and might be why Riker and Troi's appearance in Picard was not as welcome as it maybe could have been.

As for joy in the future, that's what TNG was off putting to me. I didn't feel a lot of joy in it. And, that is extremely off putting when we are told that people are not working for money but do what they do to better humanity. Does a better humanity mean no joy?

 

[BillJ]

The first offer seems a bit broish and full of himself, but he doesn't seem incompetent.

I think the fact that he got bitten by an alien bug and didn't bring it to the attention of anyone does make him a bit incompetent. But the episode doesn't work if he doesn't wave it off.

It probably should've been one of the Lower Decks gang who got bit and waved it off. Tendi being freshly new to starships should've likely been the one.