Lower Decks is the ninth product in the franchise of Star Trek, the second in an animated key, but the first with an underlying ironic theme. The tenth if we want to consider that the Star Trek: Short Trek.

I have already talked about in the past Star Trek series on this portal, as well as the Role playing game, of the test of Kobyashi Maru, but you can't imagine the joy I felt while watching the whole series.

How can I describe this product? Think about the union of Star Trek, precisely, with Rick & Morty and add a pinch of Final Space. Yet to define it only in this way is an understatement. The truth is, he makes fun of every single Star Trek product released! Not that he didn't already fool himself with Star Trek: Discovery/Andromeda Ascension (with a "splendid" Kevin Sorbo), but at least that's funny.

But let's analyze this series available from 22 January 2021 on Prime Video, but previously released on CBS All Access from August 2020.

Lower Decks

Synopsis of the Star Trek series - Lower Decks

Welcome to the USS Cerritos!

The adventures of our characters take place on a “California” class ship, the USS Cerritos, taking into consideration what happens in the lower decks of the “less important ship of the United Federation of Planets”. You know the flagship? The world famous USS Enterprise, which is in charge of saving the galaxy from all kinds of threats, or which carries out all First Contact missions?

Here the USS Cerritos takes care of all Second Contact missions. What are these kinds of missions? Bringing diplomatic gifts, studying a planet, installing repeaters for subspace transmissions. In short, a bad job but nevertheless necessary.

The year is 2380, which is one year after the events of the 2002 film Star Trek: the Nemesis so we can safely say that the era is the “Next Generation”, as the uniforms demonstrate.

The first season of the series develops in ten episodes of the standard length of about twenty-four minutes, exactly like Star Trek: The Animated Series and a second season has already been announced.

Quotes, references to irony, but not only

From the very first episode the quotationism is evident for the Star Trek viewer. In many scenes, the characters recall events from past series. We see the first in command, the commander so to speak, using James T. Kirk's move, the famous “double fist punch”, or William T. Riker's famous plastic pose.
We see the Borg, the Bajoran character who praises the Prophets, the aliens of the Space Tunnel adored by that population, or the appearances of Deanna Troi, advisor to the Enterprise-D.

But, even if all these quotes are ironic, Lower Decks it is much more than that. Very different themes are covered throughout the series than in other Star Trek series. Friendship, personal relationships, individual growth are fundamental parts of the narrative.

There are no characters already formed, but we see the so-called half socks that have yet to gain experience. A member of the crew, in fact, is an engineer with cyborg grafts and, even if we see a clear parallel with Geordi la Forge, this yellow jacket, not yet so experienced, cannot fix everything, even if she tries every time. .

Obviously there is room, pass me the joke, even for the tragedy. Like any Star Trek product, death is a deeply present part of the life of space. Sacrifice for the greater good is one of the cornerstones of the narrative.
On the other hand, as Spock said:

The needs of the many matter more than the needs of the few

Conclusions in Lower Decks

I loved every single minute I spent watching Lower Decks.
After having enjoyed all the products of the franchise released in recent years, I have always had a bad taste in my mouth. It almost seemed as if they had lost sight of the purpose of what they were doing, sacrificing the story to show spectacular special effects, far-fetched stories, or even indulging too much in a complacency from the past. Yup Picard, I'm talking about you solving the ending like this, with a nice peppered mussels like Boris.

Se Star Trek: Discovery has been called a Star Trek TV series based on beating, Lower Decks is the right series to put the narrative back on track. Thanks Mike McMahan for giving us something already seen, but at the same time different!

A series to see? Without a doubt for lovers of the genre. Obviously you will have to accept some very small smashers such as having renamed the famous Romulan Beer as Romulan Whiskey. No, you really shouldn't have done that! But I forgive you! You are too cute to sulk.

I read comments like "best Star Trek series since the original series or Star Trek: The Next Generation". Maybe they are a bit strong comments, especially because I've always enjoyed Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Enterprise but one thing I want to tell you in all honesty: I can't wait for the second season to arrive which is scheduled for August of this year!