I really don’t like Lower Decks. Before you downvote, I would never tell anyone it’s bad or that they shouldn’t like it. I just really can’t figure out why most people seem to like it so much.
Similar to what I’ve heard many fans of LD say, I don’t like Discovery or Picard either but I love Strange New Worlds. That seems to be pretty common among the Lower Decks fandom. Yet no matter how many times I try to watch LD I always end up borderline hating it. I don’t even like the crossover episode with SNW.
For reference, the things I specifically dislike are: I don’t find it funny; I think that the characters are too cynical, hyperactive or doe-eyed; and I’m normally a big proponent of 2D animation but I don’t like LD’s art style either.
It’s cool that they have brought back so many characters, actors and details from the old days, but to me that’s not enough to get over the things I don’t like. I’m also not one to notice that they faithfully recreated a minor detail from the classic series without it being pointed out to me.
Is it just that my sense of humor and other tastes are too different, despite sharing a lot of other opinions with fans of LD? Or is it the deep Trek references that people love so much but often go over my head? Or is it something else entirely that I’m not getting that makes so many people love this show?
Whatever it is that’s lost on me, I’m glad so many people are getting their joy from LD. I just need to convince my coworker to stop recommending it to me. :P
(I also spent over an hour editing this before posting it to make sure it sounds as diplomatic as possible, so hopefully I don’t still manage to piss everyone off with my heresy.)
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Totally fair opinion. I like it because it’s the Wizard behind the Curtain scenarios.
That peace treaty and the wonderful meal prepared?
Yeah… guys on the lower decks had to make that happen. Mundane paperwork, etc.
How did this magically get resolved so quickly? Lower decks did it.
It’s the Star Trek equivalent of Super Store where you see the lofty ideals and futuristic space travel is really just every day life with people doing people things like we do today. Whether good or bad.
If you don’t find the humour funny, it’s not going to work for you. It’s half humour, half love letter to trek. Star Trek meets Futurama
To some extent, the characters have to be hyper and heightened because they have to fit a Star Trek episode in under half an hour
I like Futurama. But I can’t stand Lower Decks. I don’t know what it is, I just find it annoying and wildly unfunny.
Not just humor, but a particularly cynical humor. And yes, I think you have a point: To laugh, you need to be able to laugh at hubris and incompetence.
I turn to #StarTrek because I have encountered these attributes all too often in a real life that much more resembles the hell that Guinan described to Jean-Luc Picard when the crew traveled back in time to keep one of his ancestors on track to launch on a space exploration than not. It just isn’t funny to me because I have suffered these attributes my entire life and what #LowerDecks captures is but the palest, most faintly visible shadow of it.
I turn to #StarTrek because I’m desperate for something better.
Yeah, I wish the shows were like ten minutes longer lol
For me its the quickness of the dialogue. And since it is animation they are not held back by grand scale budgets for every little detail of a new planet or giant space ship battles. Again this is my take. And it took me a minute to appreciate LD.
Thanks! I did like how they even pointed out how fast Mariner and Boimler talk compared to the Enterprise crew in the crossover with SNW. But I definitely prefer the latter. Maybe that’s a sign I’m getting old. Can’t keep up with what the kids are saying these days.
I’m not sure it is the age or getting old, or just the type of brain. I’ve always was more attentive to people who spoke faster from keeping my mind wandering during the conversation. I was always told to slow down my speech throughout school.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to like it, or pretend to like it, or justify why you don’t like it, or even tell people that you don’t like it.
Totes fine to just dislike it and move on. For me I not only love LD but it actually brought me into trek fandom through the backdoor, and I’m currently watching TNG all the way through.
But I’m not diminished in any way by you not liking it.
Now as for your coworker, I recommend
hitting him with a brickbeing direct and saying “I don’t like it, but you’re free to give me other recommendations you think I’ll enjoy.”The first few episodes Mariner was written as hyperactive and overbearing to the point of being off-putting.
But they responded to feedback and wrote her differently going forward and seem to have made some edits to earlier episodes.
It might be worth seeing some later episodes once it got settled in.
Yeah, I disliked her episode 1 abuse / harassment of Boimler enough that I stopped watching.
Now it’s my favorite ongoing show.
I like LD because of its sense of humor and Trek deep cuts.
The LD characters are much more like “real” people than the other Trek series to me. By that I mean: TNG was full of people that I would admire and look up to if I were on that ship. LD has people I could see myself becoming friends with. But maybe that opinion reflects the age I was/am when watching each of them.
If you aren’t a fan of the humor, and don’t get the deep cuts, then I could see why you aren’t finding much to like about it.
The LD characters are much more like “real” people than the other Trek series to me.
This is why I like it, it’s closer to how I expect “real” humans to act even 400 years in the future.
The other treks are more idealized, heroized, professional.
The other treks are more idealized, heroized, professional.
Which is something LD likes to poke fun at.
That’s what I like about The Orville, actually. Even when the series became more serious, I still saw it as like Star Trek if all the officers were actual people.
You certainly are allowed to dislike or even hate a Star Trek product. Every fan has things they like or don’t like. Heck, it’s one of the things this fandom is known for!
What I love about LD is the fact that it pokes fun at pretty much every Trek trope there is, while also being proper Trek itself. It’s a fine balance for sure.
It is fine that you don’t like it. I don’t really think you will get downvoted for it. I also don’t like LD as much as other people but I think it is fine.
There are many other trek things that I don’t like as much as other people, but in the end there are different parts of ST that resonates with different people.
The thing I like about ST is how realistic somethings from back in the day are. I also like the more serious tone of things, but I think with the popularity of things like the Orville etc you can see that a big part of the fandom was looking for something more light hearted.
Just tell your co-worker that LD is just not for you. I am sure he will understand.
I love it simply because it’s a Trek show that stopped taking itself seriously. Star Trek always had an amount of stoicism about it, and LD takes it away and points out all the stupid stuff fans have just taken. And the whole thing works because it isn’t a crew at the edge of being heroes. My two cents.
Yeah this is it. Trek has always had such a grandiose atmosphere, but life isn’t like that all the time. It’s refreshing to see the principles of the Federation shine through its imperfect aspects. I love second contact, I love maintenance duties and bureaucratic bullshit and all the other details that makes a fictional universe feel “lived in”.
I think it’s the different humor and visual style case. And that’s ok. I don’t think you need to understand the many Trek injokes to like it- I know people who don’t know Trek and enjoy LD.
What I find interesting is that you feel the characters are cynical. I was quite suprised how endearingly idealistic the characters were, despite being written as flawed. They always make sure to do the right thing and they try very hard to better themselves. There’s a lot of character growth involved, which I much appreciate.
During the first two episodes, I also found the characters hyperactive. By the third one I adapted.
I don’t think you’re necessarily missing anything. Lower Decks is probably my favourite Star Trek series by a decent margin, but I think that people’s varying tastes is part of the Trek experience.
Like the first Star Trek I ever watched was TNG, with a partner who hated DS9 because of how far it was from the much more utopian tone of TNG. My best friend, however, loved DS9 most of all for that exact same reason. I can’t tolerate The Original Series because of how campy and cringe it is, but I have friends who love it for that.
If you hate Lower Decks, then your perspective is one I can’t really relate to, but that just feels like regular old Trekkie solidarity to me - with a show so varied, inevitably there’s going to be diverse viewpoints. That in mind, I’m not going to try and change mind, I’m just going to highlight why I love Lower Decks.
My favourite bit about Lower Decks is that it feels like a love letter to Trek, in all its forms. There’s a lot of references I don’t get, but I don’t need to get them to feel the warm fuzzies of knowing this show was made by people who are, first and foremost, fans of Star Trek. I like utopian sci fi because the state of the real world means that I can find real hope in the fantasy because in my heart, I believe in humanity.
Alongside all of that idealistic space exploration though, Lower Decks doesn’t shy away from the more pernicious aspects of Star Trek, and Starfleet/the Federation. The humour isn’t always my taste, but I think they use it well to poke fun at Star Trek, the show, but also the world within. The sometimes critical lens that is taken is part of why it feels so much like a love letter to Trek - if you truly love something, you’ve got to take the bad with the good and not pretend that everything is perfect.
My story is a bit different than others. I am not a Trekkie, and most of what I know about the franchise is from cultural osmosis and from catching the odd rerun of TNG in the 90s.
I have, however, been a junior officer in a ship, and much of Lower Deck’s content struck a chord because I’ve been there. I’ve been assigned the banal tasks, I’ve argued with other crew members on an opposite watch, and I’ve had to fight for the attention of the senior officers.
Disclaimer: I am not encouraging you to join the navy just to enjoy LD. That would be silly.
As someone who can only tolerate LD when highly inebriated, ty. I wish I could like it but gosh darn it’s really anti-trek in so many ways. I love the callbacks but hate how they dump on trek philosophy.
This is really it for me too. It reminds me of those old late night drunk cartoons, like Duckman. It works, but only for a certain state of mind, for me at least.
Interesting… Going to have to try it drunk!
Not liking the art style makes sense, it’s the same “kidney bean for a head” style that’s been taught at all animation schools for the last half decade now and it’s so overused that it just looks bad.
It’s the Rick and Morty style, essentially. Everyone’s copied it now.
I love LD but would agree with this.
My favorite part of LD is Star Trek™ shit going on in the background as they’re messing around with menial crap. It’s not always the funniest show but it kills me that there’s always like a proper ST episode going on in the background 😂
