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What DON’T you like about the show?

I think the big thing for me is that while I don't mind the main four characters, they seem to be reasonably well-rounded and thought through (though their continual references to other Treks are a little too meta to be taken seriously), the Cerritos command staff just seem to be the most colossal bunch of petty and incompetent asshats. Freeman seems to have no business being in charge of anything, much less a starship. Ditto Ransom and Shaxs. And whilst I suspect that this is a play on junior workers the world over wondering how the hell a hated senior manager got to be in that position when they're obviously no good at it, it feels rather... off for a Trek series.
 
It feels different to a degree, but a good different. It is good to know that there are just people out there, making their way.

Actually, that really sums up why I live The Orville so much. (Are we allowed to talk about The Orville on TrekBBS?) Star Trek always seems to be based around exceptional crews, people who work for 18 hours a day and never take a day off and have multiple degrees and are all real renaissance men and women with skills and knowledge that the average person couldn't hope to achieve, which is of course all perfectly laudable, but The Orville crew are really just the ordinary people in a Trek-style universe instead. The people who show up for their 9-5, cash the paycheque, grab a beer, and spend the evening slumped in front of the TV or playing some Xbox. The ordinary people. I like that Lower Decks is trying something similar. And I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, even the exceptional people. After all, Jean-Luc Picard wasn't Jean-Luc Picard straight out of the Academy...
 
I think the big thing for me is that while I don't mind the main four characters, they seem to be reasonably well-rounded and thought through (though their continual references to other Treks are a little too meta to be taken seriously), the Cerritos command staff just seem to be the most colossal bunch of petty and incompetent asshats. Freeman seems to have no business being in charge of anything, much less a starship. Ditto Ransom and Shaxs. And whilst I suspect that this is a play on junior workers the world over wondering how the hell a hated senior manager got to be in that position when they're obviously no good at it, it feels rather... off for a Trek series.
It's important to remember we are seeing the senior staff through the perspective of the junior officers on this show. Were we to look through the crew's perspectives of the senior officers on the other shows, it's possible we'd also see them in an equally unflattering light. This is sort of touched on in the TNG episode Lower Decks where Ensign Lavelle views Riker as some sort of hardass Starfleet poster boy who sleeps in his uniform when in fact Riker is actually a laid back and personable fellow who in fact sleeps in a blue silk shirt.

And while the senior officers on the Cerritos certainly display personality flaws and tend to be enormously disrespectful of their crew, I can't find any professional flaws that should prevent them from holding the ranks and positions they do. Particularly given they command one of Starfleet's average and ordinary ships and not one of the front top of the line ships like the other shows.

That's another important thing to remember, we've never seen a show based around ordinary Starfleet before. TOS was about one of Starfleet's top capital ships. TNG was Starfleet's flagship. DS9 was an independent outpost cut off from the rest of the Federation at first, and later became the central command post in a galactic war, not to mention they had Starfleet's only true warship. Voyager, Enterprise and Disco center around Starfleet's newest most advanced ships, and in the case of Enterprise and Disco, the most important ones as well. These are all situations where personnel of higher caliber than average officers, although these ships still ended up with people like Lt. Bailey, Barclay, and Mortimer Herron assigned to them. The Cerritos is more everyday Starfleet with a crew and senior staff accordingly reflected.
 
Is there any word if Season 2 will have more?
Nope. In fact, ten episodes seems to be CBS's magic number for their Trek shows, Picard's seasons are ten episodes, SNW will have ten episode seasons, and IIRC there's talk Disco's fourth season will be reduced to ten episodes. With all that in mind, I would be quite surprised if Lower Decks had more than ten episodes in its second season.
 
It's important to remember we are seeing the senior staff through the perspective of the junior officers on this show. Were we to look through the crew's perspectives of the senior officers on the other shows, it's possible we'd also see them in an equally unflattering light. This is sort of touched on in the TNG episode Lower Decks where Ensign Lavelle views Riker as some sort of hardass Starfleet poster boy who sleeps in his uniform when in fact Riker is actually a laid back and personable fellow who in fact sleeps in a blue silk shirt.
Exactly this. This is told from a certain point of view and it's primarily Mariner's who is extremely jaded and cynical of the higher ups.
 
Looking at all the images of the Cerritos I finally realise what I find "off" about the ship. The position of the nacelle pylons being on the middle of the saucer, in my mind if they were located more to the rear it would look better. It's not a deal breaker (it puts me in mind of the repair ship from Armada II) and it's better looking that a lot of other modern era ships, but still looks weird to me.

Admittedly, when they finally start to show it here in the UK I don't think I'll be caring much about the ship design but rather (hopefully) enjoying a Trek show I am genuinely looking forward to!
 
I'm not really a fan of how referential it is. I get it, McMahan loves TNG and we live in pretty creatively bankrupt times, but the constant references and fan service is getting a bit much.


ITA about the fan service.

I've seen a couple of eps and thought, "OK ... I know where this is going."


Looking at all the images of the Cerritos I finally realise what I find "off" about the ship. The position of the nacelle pylons being on the middle of the saucer, in my mind if they were located more to the rear it would look better. It's not a deal breaker (it puts me in mind of the repair ship from Armada II) and it's better looking that a lot of other modern era ships, but still looks weird to me.

The Cerritos IS a repair vessel.
 
I wish they let go of the lower decks premise and did a show about the bridge crew. I like Freeman, Ransom, Shaxs and T'Ana a lot more than Mariner and the others.
 
There’s a stronger case for Lower Decks having more episodes than the others. It is shorter, for one, and also episodic, so there’s more opportunities to explore different characters and different corners of the ship.
 
For some reason, people seem to struggle with the idea that this show is not meant to be taken seriously.

At all. In any way.

I would have no problem with that if it was actually funny. But it's not. At least the Ensigns are not, the bridge crew had me giggle a few times. But the lower decks crew? No comedy there!
 
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