Breakdown of Star Trek Lower Decks

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to another

edition of Future Imperfect. I am Admiral Phillips,

and joining me in this adventure into the stars

are... It is I, Mike the Birdman, and I guess

I'm second in command on this. I'm not sure what

kind of class of vessel we're on now because

things just keep changing around here. But hey,

I'm here, I'm glad to be here, and excited to

talk about Trek for a change. Isn't that fucked

up? Also joining us are I guess I'll go next

Alex who somehow Hated the show, but then didn't

hate it It's weird how that works. And then finally

joining us is Aaron Polly day. Yeah, I have I

have a lot of weird feelings about this. Yeah

It feels strange to actually somewhat enjoy Trek

recently. I know So I guess without like further

ado like what was your we'll go into like to

the the initial impressions as we were watching

it and then finally what we thought as it came

out the other side so Mike if you want to start

with your initial impressions that hearing this

culmination of what came out okay so when when

Star Trek's lower decks was announced I saw the

trailer and I'm a pretty big animation guy. And

I'm thinking, okay, this looks kind of like Rick

and Morty style of animation. Don't know if it

suits the Trek aesthetic, but it's not the filmation

stuff from the 1970s. So, okay, sure. You've

got me hooked there. It's a popular animation

look. And as the humor went on with the show,

it did win me over as time went on. I wasn't

a huge fan of most of the pilot, but as the show

got on with more of of its episodes. I know friends

of ours who are also working the media, CBS has

sent out a press kit that showed the first four

episodes. I think the show really hit its stride

around episode five or six is where I really

started to like things. But as it went on, I

found myself liking the crew of the Cerritos

a lot more for the most part. I will say of the

two lead characters, one I really, really like,

and one floats between having some redeeming

qualities and wanting me to blow her out of the

goddamn airlock. Like, I can't stand Mariner

about... 90 % of the time. Occasionally, she'll

say something really profound. She'll have a

good moment of character development. She'll

have a good bit of banter with somebody. And

then she instantly turns in the hyper fangirl

annoying. I'm going to break rules for no visible

reason. Boy, I'm with you there. I'm with you

there. Now, Michael, we should probably clarify

that she's supposed to be a likable character.

If she was supposed to be an antagonist that

you hated. It's one thing, then it should be

doing your job. But you're supposed to, you're

supposed to like, I guess, side with her the

way it's written. I would dial her back about

30, 40 % because I more get Boyammer's point

of view. I mean, Mariner does have some funny

moments, but it's It's like they're trying to

overcompensate for something. I mean, I myself

am not a professional comedy writer. Like I'm

very much an early creative writer, very, very

amateur. And there's just some things with her

that just don't click with me. Although I marathoned

the season today in one sitting, I can see her

arc now that I've marathoned it in like three

or three and a half hours. And then now it makes

a lot more sense. But having the week to week

gap just lets you sit with it and it just, it

doesn't feel good. And, and I don't like that.

You know what it is? She is everybody on the

show. You know, you amplify yourself in a cartoon

space when you want to make it, uh, you know,

cartoony. Everybody's about an eight out of 10

on the amplification level. She's an 11 all the

time. There's like, is there ever a line in the

entire show where she's not yelling? There are

some moments in the middle of the show when it's

kind of revealed that she is Freeman's daughter

and she's talking with like somebody and she's

like look I don't want people to find out I don't

want to get treated differently and It took five

or six episodes for this to even come out and

I realize it's only a ten episode show But I

feel like something more should have come out

a little bit sooner. And I know there are hints

about it very early on, I think, like even as

early as the pilot. In fact, I'm almost pretty

sure that. Yeah, because the dad is an admiral.

Yeah. Yeah. He's like, she's stuck with you now.

And then she's like, oh, no, you didn't. Yeah.

And it's just something about her character.

I wish I liked the voice actress, but I don't

like the way she's written. No. She's obnoxious.

She's written to, or at least the voice direction,

is to talk very fast. Which is the Rick and Morty

thing, I think. Rick and Morty works when, Rick

and Morty, half of the dialogue is improvised.

And then it's just rambling. It's one guy doing

both voices. So he'll ramble one way and then

ramble back in the other voice. And sometimes

he does both characters at the same time. So

it's a little more natural where this almost

feels like It's almost like you're watching the

show at 20 % faster speed than you should Yeah,

I mean one character that really stuck out to

me. I think as the most likable Was um, I think

the character's name was Tendi. She's the Orion

science officer. I really liked her I really

liked her. Yeah, I loved Tendi. I actually think

that Tendi's the most interesting character in

the show and well written. She's also the most

Star Trek of characters because she has this

kind of like beautiful view of the universe.

Well, this wonder. Yeah. The only thing that

I have a complaint with Tendi, though, is that

she's supposed to be a medical doctor, right?

But she's rarely in sick bay and she's often

just doing maintenance off with Rutherford. I

think it was supposed to be hinted that like

you're hired as general science division. You're

basically hired as a general laborer ship position

and they call you wherever they need you and

your education means nothing. It's supposed to

be like that's not that's not Star Trek. I know

that but that's I think how that's the methodology

they're using though. Yeah, but that doesn't

make sense. That's what I'm saying. Like, well,

if you're ensign, it means you're an officer.

Yes. Which means that if she's an ensign in medical,

she has a medical degree. She's probably has

a PhD in medicine or she's at least a nurse practitioner

or something. Yes. In Starfleet, you would have

at least a master's degree. Let's put it that

way. If you're an ensign. So what the hell is

she doing in tubes doing maintenance? Unless

she's monitoring the engineer like his vitals.

It seems to be hinted at that she just loves

doing the work so she'll do it anyway and that

seems to be what most of them in the lower decks

or at least in that crew they all just love doing

the shit work so they just keep doing it and

maybe they would be promoted if they weren't.

if that wasn't their personality types, I guess.

Which is weird because looking at the four main

characters with Routt, Rutherford, Tendi, Boimer

and Mariner, three of them are easily promotable.

If these people were on any other ship in the

fleet outside of the Cerritos, they'd be at least

lieutenant junior grades or if not full lieutenant

because they're mostly competent. They're just

not extraordinary. Yeah, and that they've even

said as much, you know, if this were some other

ship And I can I disagree and say that these

people would have never been accepted into Starfleet

Academy Let alone graduated from it. I think

even Boimler, it was halfway Boimler No, even

Boimler because he's socially incompetent. Well,

I mean we have a socially incompetent character

in TNG, you know with Barkley Yeah, but Boimler

is so brown nosey is so kind of out of touch

with Anything in the command division at all

that he shouldn't even be out of Starfleet Academy

of first -year Starfleet Academy Let alone graduated

in on a starship. So so what you're saying is

if they had made this about cadets or crewmen

that aren't officers Well, they would have made

this about people that aren't even in Starfleet

Academy yet But are trying to learn enough to

get into it like like it's an like an internship

Yeah They wouldn't be honest on a Starfleet vessel.

Okay, so let me give you my like overall impression

because maybe this will put my comments in context

I enjoyed the show. I actually thought when when

I when it was first announced, I was I'm okay

with that It's a cartoon big deal. I enjoyed

the 1970s cartoon. It was great And they're gonna

have some comedy in it. That's fine. It's a cartoon.

No big deal Watching it. I Could not say that

this is canon it cannot be canon. There are so

many, like, in -jokes and references that it's

clearly meant to be a comedy for the viewer rather

than a dramatic production of in the Star Trek

universe. Yeah, it took me a while to come to

terms with it. In my mind, I'm like, okay, think

of it like the whole show is one big Animaniac

sketch. Yeah, but it's not canon now that being

said if it was canon none of these characters

would be there There's there's absolutely no

reason why the whole you know command staff wouldn't

know that Mariner was the daughter of the captain

This this is you know, the definition of a you

know, leave your brain at the door popcorn cartoon

Yeah, and that being said if you if you go, okay

the this is definitely not canon in universe

this is a comedy these characters don't really

fit if you do that it's a fun show to watch and

i i enjoyed myself that also being said i hated

mariner i thought she was way over the top unlikable

um generally a drag on the rest of the show where

i liked boimler even when he was being a little

bumbling i'm like this guy has you know the best

intentions yeah he's bumbling but he's He's a

good guy. Tendi, the Orion girl, fantastic. Like

she's she's like this bright eyed, bushy tailed

new ensign. Rutherford, a great engineer. My

favorite character in the show is is a background

character, and it's the the Cation doctor to

Anna. I love that character, how just gruff and

pissed off she is constantly and how she swears

and is bleeped out. I think that's hilarious.

So. Is the show like great? No, it's not because

there are so many weird things that are happening

in it that just aren't Star Trek or are clearly

made to be a joke to the viewer rather than be

in universe. So it, you know, overall, like the

entire season, I would say it's five out of 10.

Is it worth watching? Yeah. It's the best thing

since Enterprise went off the air for Star Trek.

And it's a thousand times better than Picard

or Discovery. I actually laughed and had a smile

on my face at points during this season. Which

is a whole hell of a lot better than Discovery

or Picard. Now looking at it, you know, I know

we'll go into some of the episodes, but I was

either indifferent or sort of bleh about most

of the episodes, but there are two and Two episodes

in particular that I went I actually really liked

them and that made me actually like the show

One was much ado about Boimler episode 7 and

we'll talk at the very end obviously about the

finale because I liked that one too But the rest

of them were just for me was like yeah for most

like I could watch it But I found myself getting

bored Yeah, yeah There were there were elements

that I found it boring To be honest and there

were elements that I found it really funny and

really good it took me a couple episodes to really

I Don't know get into the mindset of the show

because I I found it very off -putting I was

trying to like it with an open mind considering

we've just had two downers of a Star Trek show

and This is the first light -hearted one we get

and the guy also wrote like TNG season 8 on Twitter

and wherever else it was. So I knew the guy had

more than enough mental capacity to write a show

that felt more Trek than what we've gotten. And

that being said, like, yeah, I found some of

the characters interesting. I did like I found

myself liking Boimler and the Orion the most.

But Rutherford, I found to be a little bit annoying,

but in like just a weird way, like he was not

really Starfleet material he just happened to

be a cyborg guy that worked on the ship every

other line is haha Or or he's like he can program

himself to do any task pretty much and and then

you have Mariner where she's just a total oh

like just To know everybody for some reason knows

everybody and everything and yet She's like this

lowly cadet because she keeps getting demoted

And the only place that she's survived is, which

this I get, the only place she survived is on

the Cerritos because her mom is the captain.

Which means that she can kind of filter and protect

her, whereas any other ship she would have been

booted out of the fleet, which is correct. But

the fact that she's still in the fleet, amongst

the monumental screw -ups, speaks volumes of

where Starfleet's at in this point in time. But

remember, it just can't be canon. No, well, especially

with some of what happens later, but But yeah,

I mean I I didn't hate the show but I am going

in I wanted to hate it Just because it was like

a Rick and Morty knockoff the animation style

and like the trailer just put me off like no

other There was no way No possible way. It was

gonna be as well written as Rick and Morty is

no layering, whether or not you like the comedy

of Rick and Morty, the layering in of jokes that

don't pay off for multiple seasons or callbacks

to different things, background B &C storylines,

they were not going to have that kind of witty

writing in here. I had no hope of that. What

I hoped for was would this be a cartoon that

as a kid and I had to put myself in that mindset

as a kid I would have liked to have watched and

I would say for overall yes I would Saturday

morning cartoon you know if you take out some

of the more craft stuff like the bleeping of

the swear words and stuff this would have fit

on like like adult swim for sure adult swim or

fox or something in you know the early 2000s

when they were experimenting with new shows I

think one of the things this show has going for

it is that it can attract that Rick and Morty

audience is because if Trek is suffering from

anything right now in my opinion is it needs

an influx of new blood because a lot of the older

fans are grumpy and Star Trek has tried to do

something with Picard and Discovery and there's

pushback on both sides like some people really

like Discovery some people really like Picard

And there's fans like us who are a little more

critical of it. We like aspects of both of those

things, but it's not us. But we're not drawing

anybody new in, or at least remarkably few. I

think Lower Decks is a chance to reach out to

a new, youthful audience which has more spending

power. Not on CBS All Access. No, which is weird.

Lower Decks is actually Star Trek in its own

weird way. are like the antithesis of Star Trek

in many ways, where it's dystopian and dark and

not hopeful at all, and the characters are not

memorable. Like, hey guys, we've been talking

about lower decks, and we actually know characters'

names. Yeah, I can name three characters out

of Discovery. I can name... maybe three out of

Picard, and one of them I only call Allison Pill

and Romulan Samurai. That's all I can remember.

There's Romulan Legolas. I don't know his name.

There's Murder Girl. And there's Drunk Spanish

Pirate. Then there's like Lisa Lisa laser eye

and discovery I don't know her name and they've

mentioned it like twice but like in discovery

You know Saru, you know, like yeah, I don't know.

Yeah Tilly You know Stamets and see I can't even

do that and I've watched every damn episode of

discovery like four times to take notes on it

And I still don't know their goddamn, but you

know what? There's ten episodes of lower decks

And here we are talking about Rutherford about

Tendi about Boimler Mariner as much as we hate

Mariner We can still remember her name. There's

ransom. Who's the first officers? There's dr.

Tana. Who's the cation? We know these characters.

There's bad G For God's sake. My God, I love

Badgey. Badgey is the most Rick and Morty -ish

of all the characters they've made. I loved Badgey.

As crazy as that is, as on Star Trek as Badgey

is, that was fantastic. You're going to have

to take off. The holodeck scene says, I'm going

to help you. Thank you, Father. Wait, are you

going to try and kill me again? Maybe there's

funny stuff. There's memorable stuff, and it's

actually kind of light. It's light hearted and

fun. I might not agree with everything that the

show says. I completely don't think it's canon,

but at least it's good. Yeah. And that's something

I think lower decks. can really bring to the

franchise. It can bring back that sense of hope,

that sense of lightheartedness. It can bring

new people in. It can make people excited for

this. And this is the most. Yeah, it can be fun.

Like this is the most fun I've had with Star

Trek since the revitalization of the property

with Discovery. I remember how disappointed I

was with. Picard. In fact, I actually had an

interaction with a fan on Twitter a couple weeks

ago. They were exclaiming how excited they were

about Picard. And I said, I can't get excited

as Captain Picard fights the fucking Reapers.

Yet with lower decks, I saw things in Star Trek

that, you know what, maybe they don't solve every

single weird disease that happens in space. There's

this freak funny farm that that they call it

because you know what without you know a dr mccoy

or dr crusher or a holographic doctor not every

weird disease gets cured there has to be a place

for these people to go that was the episode that

i first watched and i was like i actually like

this now yeah like it was legitimately interesting

well especially when like they realize that they

are finally going to uh uh you know to like a

sanitarium, and it's like all beautiful women,

and they're fawning over them. They're like,

you're not really a freak. And they kick him

off the planet. He's like, no, I want to stay.

They are there to get better. It's not like they're

just there to be hidden and they're treated nicely.

It's there that they're actually getting treated

and made better. Yeah. They're being cured. There's

still hope in that. Here, it's not saying much,

but this show is a lot better than the Stargate

cartoon was when they made that. There was a

Stargate cartoon? I didn't even know that. Oh,

yeah. Stargate Infinity. I watched it on like

Saturday mornings. Wait, I think I remember this.

I think it had a terrible toy line. Several hundred

years in the future, and it is bad, bad, bad,

bad. So I was worried this was going to be worse

than that. And it is thankfully not. uh now looking

at the other episodes here so we do want to get

into too many of the plot lines or is there specific

episodes that you guys thought were highlights

we should we should probably talk about the last

episode for sure i i do want to talk that they

did have a lot of nice callbacks to older series

even though they were just more or less throw

away fan service and conversation usually by

Mariner um And then I enjoyed the fact that Q

showed up, just as a weird cameo. Like, no rhyme

or reason, but he just shows up just to, you

know, be a dick. He tricks with them and they

told them to bug her off. Yeah, more or less.

And then he's like, oh, shit, go bug the Enterprise.

Yeah. And then he leaves, which is funny because

this is probably the longest or the latest that

we've ever seen him show up in canon. at this

point and then of course like that that started

like the turning tide for me of a little bit

of the the content with the show and which again

that's like kind of a crappy reason but the the

finale honestly was the the one that I gravitated

towards the most yeah watching it I'll say this

I think I said it to you guys in chat message

it felt like a three -parter like why was it

was 60 minutes worth of content that they crammed

into just under 20 before they used the last

bit of air time to just advertise Discovery,

which I didn't like. I didn't like that either.

I was like, why, why waste it on Discovery? Why

not tease something for like season two? Can

I talk about, can I talk about that thing with,

with the last episode in Discovery? So you have

this episode 10 of Lower Decks. It's fantastic.

It's hopeful. You have a big smile on your face

because Boimler kind of, you know, gets a reward

at the end. Let's put it that way without spoiling

it. There is some really funny parts. Riker shows

up. That's going to be spoiled everywhere else.

Riker and the Titan. So you have this great,

you know, this kind of great feeling in your

heart. And then comes Discovery Season 3 promo,

where it's a mess of space junk after a battle.

You can't tell what's going on. People are screaming

or upset. Michael Burnham is tumbling through

space and going to crash into a planet and suddenly

you don't care. And that took up four minutes

or whatever of the air time, which I was like,

no, add that to the very end after it's over.

You can't tell what's going on. It's just like

it's millions of pieces of space junk. There's

like a portal that like Michael Burnham tumbles

out of. She's tumbling and screaming to the computer

over time travel. Three foot long hair. Yeah.

God, what a piece of crap. What a way to ruin,

like, this really kind of hopeful, uplifting,

fun episode. Let's just throw a whole bunch of

bullshit at the end about Discovery Season 3.

If they were going to show something at the end,

they should have shown that little teaser they

made about how Janeway is joining the other animated

cartoon. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been amazing.

Just like a 10 -second thing where you hear Janeway's

voice and... And she says, like, welcome to whatever

the ship's name is. Or, yeah, welcome to the

Academy or something. Yeah, coming 2021. But

they want, obviously they want to advertise something

that's going to be airing on the same network.

So blah, blah, blah. But I almost feel like lower

decks would have done better on Hulu or another

platform like Netflix. Yep. I think Hulu would

have been really fitting for them. Like up here,

it's on Crave, which is basically our only Like

our only streaming platform outside of Netflix

that's like available up here So it is like a

lot of people when you get your cable package

it comes with it. So it's it's pretty standard

So I feel like it's available to more Canadians

like in a percentage wise than it is to Americans

I don't see people subscribing to CBSL access

to get this show even though it's one of the

better things on there as far as the plot of

this last episode, feeling like it was going

too fast. It felt like a Power Rangers episode

or something from like a like the 90s when a

kids show where it was like so, so much was happening.

They put enough plot that you could have done

a three or four parter. Yeah. And this would

have been a pretty cool two parter if they took

the time to space things out. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It could have easily been a two hour long episode,

like two one hour standard, like TNG episodes,

that kind of thing. So like our Total runtime.

It could easily been that. Easily. Did you like

when when Riker showed up and they showed his

his bridge and it actually had people on it and

it actually had things? On like a card sense,

I'm like the joys of animation. You can hire

a whole crew. Should I talk about the should

I talk about the lower the the problems with

lower decks and and the Starships in it? Should

I talk about them? Yes, please. So let's start

with with the Titan. I should say Titan because

I hate it when people say The Enterprise or something

like that because it's a proper name. So you

say Enterprise or Titan or Ceratos. Anyway, Titan

actually has phaser strips exactly where it should

have, but they're glowing blue for some reason

and are indented into the ship rather than out

of the ship. So when it comes in firing, it looks

very strange. That's my only comment on Titan,

but Cerritos is really weird. And I think that

there was some, there had to have been some behind

the scenes production issues with this, because

there are two things that you generally see in

the show. The master systems display, the MSD,

which shows kind of like the decks of the ship

when they're inside. And then you see the exterior

of the ship. When you look at the exterior of

the ship, you can count the window rows for decks.

And you can easily count at least about 18 decks

when you take windows, lifeboat hatches, big

chunks of space where there isn't windows, but

there's more than enough room for decks. It's

about 18 decks. But when you look at the MSD,

it's 11 max. Like the MSD shows that there's

a single deck on the edge of the saucer. where

when you look at the exterior of the ship, there's

clearly three decks, if not five. I know in dialogue

they mentioned something about deck 20 at one

point. It sounds like they're playing a little

fast and loose, or it could even be issues where,

you know, one part of the animation team doesn't

meet the other, or the writing team doesn't necessarily

have contact, or blah, blah, blah. It's just

a little loosey -goosey. Again, because it's

a cartoon, you can get away with a little more.

But yeah, because the supposedly the MSD was

actually done like by the Akutas who who did

all the graphic design on TNG through enterprise.

So they know what they're doing. I trust the

Akutas. Right. But when the exterior of the ship

totally suggests a much, much, much larger ship

where they're talking about the California class

like Cerritos is actually fairly small, comparatively

speaking. When you look at the exterior of the

ship with all those window rows and decks, it's

like, wow, this actually might have more internal

volume than a galaxy class. It's huge from the

outside. Yeah, it's straight. How many different

types of ships do we see in the show? We see

the Cerritos. We see the Solvang, which gets

blown up. We see the Titan. We see the Vancouver.

Was that another type of the Cerritos? The California.

Another California. Yeah, it's Cerritos. You

have the Solvag, which is another California

class. There's the one that has the Tellarite

Captain in it. Is it Merced? Yeah, that is also

a California class. Titan is a Luna class. But

you see some stuff in the background, but the

only like close up ships, if I remember correctly,

are only Californias. That's what I thought because

I was wondering because I guess I looked down

for a second and I was trying to figure out because

they go to one episode and they meet Mariners

friend who's now randomly a captain and she's

commanding the Vancouver and they mentioned this

class can do like heavy demolitions or construction

on planets. That is a different class. Vancouver

is a different class. I don't know what the class

name is. Okay. Yeah, because I was wondering

about that thinking that is really fascinating

to add that to Canon loosely because obviously

I'm a big dork and whatever I see something new

and shiny. I'm thinking I want to put that in

a role playing game or something equivalent.

But I thought that was interesting how lower

decks did that how they were introducing little

things like that. Vancouver is a Parliament class

Starship. Okay. And what are its defining characteristics?

We see it once. That's it. That's unfortunate

because I think that's a cool sounding name for

a ship first off. So go Canada. To me, when I

saw it, it's bigger than a California class.

It definitely has more decks, but it kind of

looks like a pared down nebula. Does that make

sense? Like, you don't have the big roll bar.

that a nebula or a Miranda has, but it has these

giant impulse drives on the back that make it

look like it's a freaking beast at sublight speeds.

So I don't know. It does look bigger. Like I

can look at a picture of the ship and count one,

two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,

ten decks on the upper side, at least like on

the upper side of the saucer. So. It's definitely

bigger than a California class. Cool guys having

a guy who knows ships with us. It looks like

three or four decks on the edge of the saucer.

And it has those weird saucer indents that a

California class has as well. It's bigger. It's

bigger. But I bet you there's an MSD somewhere

of it that shows it tiny as well. Yeah, the internal

and external stuff is weird in this show. It

doesn't really add up. It's another one of the

things that makes me think that it's not really

canon. One of the things. Oh, sorry, Erin. Go

ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say

one of the things that I think Lower Decks does,

and this is probably my inner sound dork coming

out. The show sounds authentically track. Like

I love the sound is the theme song is more track

than any of the of the previous track from 2009

onward Yeah, I'll agree I agree with that the

sound effects library sound great hearing the

beeps and bloops of tricorders doors phasers

Force fields. It's just to me. It's little things

but when I closed my eyes today for just a second

because I was really, really tired and I was

just listening to discovery and the sound designer

on this, I can tell in my opinion anyway. You

mean really you weren't listening to discovery.

No, no, no, sorry. No, no, I was listening to

lower decks. What I mean is they painted such

a vibrant soundscape and with a cartoon, you

really have to. And I think if lower decks does

anything right, It's got a crew of very passionate

people who I think will find their footing in

season two and beyond. And that's something I

guess we should be kind of, I guess we should

probably begin to wrap this up is where does

this series go? Boimer is off the Cerritos now.

Who do you follow now? In my mind, they have

one of two things they're going to do and I hope

they don't do the one. I hope they don't start

the episode off with immediately having Boimler

being kicked off the Titan and returning in shame

just to reset the status quo. I have a feeling

they may do that. Or does it follow, does it

jump back and forth where it's a few episodes

of him there and then he comes back? I don't

see them writing him out of the show. I think

they're going to have him on Titan for like maybe

two or three episodes before he comes back to

Cerritos. And he's probably going to come back

to Cerritos with his rank. And he ends up being...

Acting like an NCO, even though he's like a lieutenant

junior grade. Does that make sense? Like, yeah,

because this show is showing ensigns doing enlisted

work, which is really weird. It's another one

of these things that it just doesn't make sense

in the show and in Canon that you don't have

so many crew that they're sleeping in corridors,

especially when they're officers, like ensigns

are officers, folks. You don't have them sleeping

in scut. Freaking cots in the middle of a corridor

like that, right? They might have bunked rooms

But aren't they like a shared room somewhere

in like a lower level of the ship? Yeah, the

the the only thing okay So you have enlisted

you have your enlisted people which don't go

to Starfleet Academy, but they're kind of like

skilled people, right? Just like in the Navy

you have your enlisted people you have your torpedo

man. Yeah, exactly They might actually be in

shared rooms Right. But they're not going to

be in corridors. Your ensigns are above those

people. Your ensigns are officers. Why in the

hell are they sleeping in corridors, first off?

So regardless, maybe Boimler comes back and actually

acts like an NCO like O 'Brien was to the ensigns

in the show that are acting like enlisted. I

don't know. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah,

I almost felt like the reason they did the whole

sleeping in quarters, it was almost to give them

like a I don't know like a firefighter feel that

they're all they're all bunked together for their

shifts but which again didn't make sense to me

I thought like that would have been like I can

see them being bunked together if they're like

a go team for like an away team or something

and but they're all different departments and

yeah you know what I mean like yeah if they were

all in security yeah and they're all listed They're

listed and they're bunking together because,

you know, they're on the midnight shift. That

makes sense. I could see that, but this was like,

I don't know, it was like a dorm room. It's literally

a corridor, remember? It's not even a room. They're

sleeping in nooks in the corridor. It's not even

a room. People are walking by all the time. Yeah,

I was curious to know how this was laid out and

why they're doing this cuz they were sleeping

like in those Japanese capsule hotels Yeah, where

you just like so that nobody else will disturb

you while you're sleeping And again, it's not

like the ship has so many crew that they should

have to be doing that and it's not like this

the ship has a Limited amount of space inside

even if you go by the MSD which shows like 11

or 12 decks There's more than enough room there

to have like two three hundred crew. I think

at one point they mentioned there's a hundred

and five people aboard the Cerritos. I think

that was a number that I remember hearing more

than once. It was low, low one hundreds. Yeah.

Like it just seems to me like the deck layout

in the ship sleeping arrangements. And I know

that's nitpicky as hell, but It, like Aaron pointed

out, these guys are officers. They're not just

some schlub who changes the lights on, you know,

the L cars display. It's likely a excuse to save

on animation so they could have them all in one

place for extended periods of time. Which makes

sense. Yeah. Now I wasn't sure, you know, before

the show started, look, should it get a second

season after watching the finale? Yeah, it's

kind of clear. like I almost wonder if because

the guy who wrote the pilot episode also wrote

uh the finale and the pilot does feel distinctly

different from what the show ended up becoming

later on I am wondering if this was a case of

uh he's told he's not told if they're gonna get

a second season and he's like fuck it I'm just

gonna write the Star Trek episode I want to write

and we'll fit it in Like if it was that's the

intended way he wanted to make the show but CBS

is like make it wacky Yeah, I could kind of see

that I mean in the finale honestly like I loved

it just from the fact that they actually showed

the Titan that they have Riker that they have

Troy on it that they have Boimler actually, you

know get what he wanted out of it And then the

fact that yeah, it was still had some wacky elements

to it and I really hope that they don't go the

route of putting him back on the Cerritos or

making him demoted and putting him back in the

hole down there. But I think that there's a lot

of room that they could still go with it. And

after seeing the finale, I definitely liked it

a lot more than I cared to admit. You think they

might bring him back as a replacement for the

head of security? I could possibly see that or

I could see one of the other three getting promoted

somehow up there. Like I could see him becoming

like a con officer on the Cerritos and having

some of the other ones finally get promoted and

then maybe Mariners like, hey, this sucks. I'm

down here by myself. Maybe I should actually

straighten up enough to get promoted. Yeah, I

mean. The show, I think, now has demonstrated

over 10 episodes. It had a rough start, but it

started to find out where it wants to go. With

things looking up the Season 2, do we know when

it's coming out? Sometime next year or the year

after? Soon -ish. It depends on where is it animated?

That's the question. That I don't know. That

I don't know. I know they were talking about

Star Trek Prodigy, which is the Janeway show,

comes out next year. It's entirely animated in

the States. So they're not looking at six month

to a year lead times like a lot of the Korean

shows are. So I mean, potentially, if it's written

and they can voice it, we could get it next year.

We could get it next year this time. I'd be OK

with that. I'd be OK with that, too. It's a more

realistic timeline than, oh, two years from now,

we'll get another season. No. You know what's

funny? I'm more excited to see more discovery

or not discovery. I'm more excited for more lower

decks that I am for any more Picard or any more

discovery. I'm going to give a willingness to

watch strange new worlds and Prodigy has my waifu,

which is Captain Janeway. I know find me strange

and weird, but she can do anything she wants.

that's my captain baby even though even though

she's supposed to be an admiral i don't care

i'm going up the chain of i'm going to hell for

that one i'm more than willing to watch more

lower decks i'd rather watch lower decks again

than even a single like the entire season of

lower decks than a single episode of discovery

or or a card i'm i'm with you there like there's

only one discovery episode that i i would probably

throw in there is watching Well besides that

because he's just funny as hell And and that

would be the one where you find out why Like

what sealed pikes? You know destiny coming into

the chair Yeah with the the telos for episode

actually is good, but that's barely a discovery

episode. That's kind of like an original series

episode Yes, need to know it's kind of like fingers

crossed. That's what they're gonna use as the

template for strange new worlds sort of yeah

Yeah, I'm hoping they do well with that because

at least then I would have one Trek show that's

that's live action that I would care to watch.

And I'm going to watch the others just because

they're a train wreck and I want to see how they

go because of Star Trek. But honestly, like I

probably won't watch them a second time. So final

question to our panel of esteemed admirals here.

What do you want to see in season two of lower

decks for myself? I like the character developments

that I'm seeing. I really want to see Tendi and

Rutherford's relationship develop because I love

that scene right in the very end where they're

like thinking you don't remember who I am. He's

like, no, but I don't remember what I don't remember.

And she's like, that's exciting because I get

to become your best friend again. was genuinely

heartfelt. And I want more of that. That made

me feel great, man. Oh, God, she was so because

there are so many ways that you could have that

be a big downer like, oh, you don't remember

this great relationship that we had. And it wasn't

sexual by any means. They were just really good

friends. Oh, yeah. And then there's so many ways

that could just be played for a downer. But it

wasn't. It was like, man, I get to be your best

friend all over again. And I'm you know, I raised

my hand and I said, yes. That well, that's how

it should be. Yeah, exactly. That is Star Trek.

That's hope that's positivity Thank you. That's

what they stand for. Thank you. I hope in season

two we finally get to see Captain Wharf Yeah

That would be cool seeing him come back because

he said he'd love to come back his work He just

doesn't really want to put on the prosthetics

and be a regular until they give real money Yeah,

funny how that changes everything but but as

far as Patrick Stewart level money. Yeah. Yeah

Give me his money and then I'll show up if they

said hey, we're gonna do a Captain Wharf we're

gonna do a couple Captain Wharf TV movies like

they remember they were trying to do ten years

ago and like if they said hey 20 million dollars

he'd do it, but I Can see him coming back and

they could even do You know have him be a recurring

character that shows up now and then on there

having him, you know have him pilot a ship so

we get to see his adventures or even if it's

like a flashback of I Don't know Mariner Mariner

served with him maybe on his ship for a little

bit She mentioned at some point doesn't she?

Yeah, right and Rikers, you know help train her

and all this so they could do it where like how

maybe how she met Riker is she was You know just

a cadet or something on and it was out with Warf.

So you could do a Captain Warf episode. I don't

know if I want to see Borg anymore. No, I'm kind

of over that. I'll pitch you my season two. OK,

I want USS Titan and then like four California

classes to go through a trans warp conduit to

an area in the Alpha quadrant. But that's like

six thousand seven thousand light years from

the Federation. And they get to do a season where

it's old school TOS type stuff where the Titan

where Titan is actually kind of being used as

a fast responder slash resupply vessel for these

Californias. It's it being the heavy, you know,

it's acting like the backup for all these Californias

to go out and actually make first contacts and

explore this new quad this this new area. And

you get these cool TOS -style episodes where

you're meeting new species because, hey, we see

these characters are kind of competent, sort

of, through the last episode, but let's put them

in situations where now the stakes are real.

Now we have people that are relying on you. And

Titan can be there to pull your ass out of the

fire if it gets really bad, but... You need to

rely on yourself. Okay, how about this? They

get sent out to that part of the Alpha Quadrant,

whatever, and that's where we finally re -encounter

the parasites from season one. Sure, why not?

That'd be pretty cool. You can put them in there.

It's like that's like... Riker goes out there

like, why are we going out there? It's a secret

mission, and you know, they still have the comedy

parts and everything, and the secret mission

is they finally figured out where they were transmitting

that beacon to. That'd be a hell of a way to

end a season. And so you get out there and you

can have all your jokes and make it all lighthearted.

They get out there, have Boimler meeting up with

everybody. Everybody's so friendly. Everybody's

so friendly. But then he witnesses them all eating

the bugs. And he's like, that's kind of weird.

But he just doesn't get it. You have a new character

that's a Trill symbiote as well that's all freaking

completely paranoid about all of this and is

really off put by the fact that these things

are kind of like the Trill symbiote in this one

crew member and is disgusted by it. And there's

like, I don't know, I think there could be some

comedy gold out of that. It was just completely

freaking out all the time. Like, Oh my God, I

hope you don't think that I'm like this. Well,

you kind of are, but you're not a bad slug. You're

a good slug. Yeah. I mean, you could, there's

so many things you could do. And I think I don't,

I'm not as versed in TNG, like as every episode

as you guys are, but Is there another alien race

other than the Parasites that had that big of

a cliffhanger that was never followed up upon?

You know who I'd love to see be more of a threat

than just a one -line joke? I want the Gorn in

the combat. The Gorn hegemony sounds friggin'

cool. I can tell you a lot about the Gorn because

I've written for Star Trek Adventures a lot about

the Gorn. But the Gorn are actually fairly close

to the Federation space. They're way far away.

Do you think that Brent Spiner would do lore

again? Again, money, just back a truck up to

his head. He doesn't want to. Yeah, I don't know

if he would play him physically, but I know.

No, I'm saying for something for like voice him

in an episode. Oh, yeah, I'm sure he would more

than be happy to come back as a voice actor.

He just didn't want to put on the prosthetics

anymore, which is why he's coming back as. uh

dr alton ego soon the long lost soon's cousin

brother's former roommate then again he listening

to his voice recently he sounds like he smokes

a thousand cigarettes a day so uh well that's

what happens when he he mimics patrick stewart

too much now i think finally is what i would

like to see in season two is maybe more than

a 10 episode order. The show can't be that expensive

to produce. And if they want to get themselves

up to binge -worthy status, they're going to

have to start doing 20 or 30 episode seasons.

I'd kind of be okay with that. If they gave us

a true episodic that was 25 whatever episodes,

like Alex just said, I'd be totally fine with

that. Even if we had to wait a little bit longer,

I'd be fine. Like if we were getting batches

of, let's say, 20 episode seasons nowadays, because

let's be honest, they're not going to do 65 syndicated

episodes anymore, but let's say they did 20 episode

seasons and they just did, you know, 10 in the

fall, 10 in the spring, 10 in the fall, 10 in

the spring. And you would have a cycle. They

need content. And like they've got nothing else.

Aren't they even canceling CBS All Access and

putting it into something else? No, you're thinking

apply them out. I think paramount they're rolling

it into paramount plus Yeah, which I signed up

for CBS all access in Canada cuz it's like five

bucks But I'll be curious to see how that gets

affected. Yeah, you know what you want in Canada

It doesn't have Star Trek, which is so strange,

but we have crave and we also get Star Trek on

Netflix So we get Star Trek on two fronts They

like CBS all access in Canada has a show called

like it's like a a police comedy and then they

have like the good fight or something and that's

it there's like three shows so so yeah i think

that's pretty much all i have to say on the matter

i i didn't like the show when it started liked

it when it ended and i'm optimistic for the future

yeah i i'm generally okay with it i think it's

i think it's by far the best star trek that's

been on television since Enterprise. It's probably

better than the J .J. Abrams movies, I would

say. Even though I was OK with the 2009 film

and Beyond was OK as well. This was better than

those. But I still have my reservations about

how it's being presented as slapsticky. You know,

like, don't say don't say this is canon. Just

say it's a Star Trek show. And be done with it

and have fun. But don't try to like say, oh,

no, all this is completely Canon and totally

in universe when it's so tongue in cheek. Now,

the thing is, is if they would stop trying to

shoehorn it into Canon and just say, this is

a separate Star Trek show, people would quit

complaining about Canon. Yeah. You know, to stop

saying discovery and Picard, you know, are completely

linked with the, you know, the surprise and before,

because it isn't. But I mean, stop it. Just go

with it and stop making a big deal out of it

yourselves. And people will just watch it for

what it is. Shit writing still. But at least

it wouldn't be arguing about canonicity. Anyway,

what I'm saying is lower decks. It's worth watching.

Yeah, honestly, it's a really good way to spend

a couple of hours. And if you binge it, I think

it's a little bit better. Yeah, we're all in

agreement. It's fun. Which you never would have

thought we would have said about this show. Yeah.

What a turnaround, eh? And I got my Spock helmet.

So I am very happy. There was a Gorn wedding.

I love that bit. Gorn wedding. It's so ridiculous.

Yeah. But Steve, I guess you should. Take us

back out. And I guess the next time we'll be

back on this show, we'll be in a couple of weeks.

And what are we going to be talking about? Didn't

we talk about how we were going to wait till

discovery? Yeah. That's why I said it's going

to be a couple of weeks. It's going to be. Yeah.

I think the idea is what three episodes at a

time. And then the first three, then, you know,

the next one and when the 10th episode which

is the final for the season airs we'll do a recap

and discussion on that because that way we'll

have hopefully a significant amount of plot and

points we can talk about for each because if

it goes like last season's with us every episode

being upset I'd rather only have to do that every

three weeks yep Yep, I have my vodka ready and

antidepressants. I'm ready for discovery season.

What's the code word to start? Ramune and whiskey.

You can hear something pouring in the background.

It's funny. So that wraps up this episode of

Future Imperfect. So how can the good people

find you online? Well, if you want to find me,

my personal Twitter account is at Birdman Dodd,

where I tend to reply to everybody. talk about

a lot of things, some political, some video game,

some stupid crap. I try to have a little bit

of fun on there, but I always interact with people.

The show's Twitter account, which is run by Alex

primarily, is at This Week in Geek. I'm on Facebook

as Aaron Paulier. You can find me there. Mike

basically covered me. I'm looking up anything

This Week in Geek and I'll be able to respond

to you. And, of course, you can find me on the

Twitters at SCP -21 or at AlteredGeek. And there's

a Twitter for this, I believe, as well, at Future

Warped. So you can get a hold of us on all of

these different methods. So until next time,

live long and prosper. Gorn Wedding!