Rent Star Trek: Lower Decks: Series 2 (2021)

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Series 2 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

As a tall order for Star Trek, Lower Deck was a great surprise of an adult-animated comedy that found a way to pay as much homage to Trek fandom as it does to poke fun at it. For what could’ve been a stumbling Rick-and-Morty take on Star Trek, considering the same creatives and art style, this show manages to embrace more of Star Trek than recent Trek shows. While Discovery stumbled to find its footing and Picard felt like a meandering retread into nostalgia, this animated series found the sweet spot of what makes Star Trek so much fun.

Series 1 started strong, and Series 2 continued onward just as engaging. There’s drama in watching to see what happens with Boimler (Jack Quaid) and if he’ll continue to serve with his friends on the Starship Cerritos or pursue his promotion on the Titan, especially since he gets to work alongside Riker (Jonathan Frakes). There’s an awkwardness as Mariner (Tawny Newsome) handles her recently revealed nepotism for being the daughter of the Cerritos’s Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis). There’s a strong friendship between Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) that one hopes to last, considering how much these two dorks care for each other.

There’s another explosive finale to this season involving the Pakleds and another cliffhanger of a new development involving an unlawful arrest. But the real meat of this series is all the asides in between, acting as semi-standalone episodes with a lot of fun with Trek lore, Trek characters, and Trekkie fandom. One of the funniest episodes involves the Cerritos handling a duplicating and pensive race known as the Dooplers, where all it takes is one to create a Tribble situation on the ship. While Tendi and Rutherford handle that situation, Boilmer and Mariner connect better at a dive bar, where they learn some fascinating stuff about legacy characters. My favorite is the hologram episode, which has now become an expected episode where the Trek fandom spills over into the movies in a brilliant way that still evokes strong development from the characters, especially with Tendi trying to shed her pirate roots.

There’s a daring nature that’s more prominent in Lower Decks that always felt held back in other Star Trek entries. The combination of animation and humor allows this show to go where Trek has never been. Primary among those new areas explored is sex. There’s a hilarious training hologram sequence in which the entire crew of the Cerritos engages in erotic sex, where the whole crew struts naked and makes out with each other. If previous Trek entries treaded into this territory with mere ripples of eroticism, Lower Decks takes a cannonball, and it’s all the better for it.

Some issues with the season don’t entirely resolve as neatly. Shaxs, for example, returns from the dead, and his revival is mostly kept hush-hush because his resurrection is probably not all that compelling. Boilmer returns to the Cerritos in a manner that seems far too convenient. It’s a tricky staging for this show that wants to poke fun at Star Trek’s faults yet still go through some of the motions. It should also be mentioned that Lower Decks is so astute in dabbling in Trek silliness that only the most hardcore of Trek fans will be able to read every gag. The good news is that the jokes are so fast and frequent that you may not have to worry about why Boimler wants the autograph of Tom Paris.

Even with its faults, Lower Deck is an absolute delight of a Star Trek series. The second season showcases that this show has the appeal to be as dedicated to what makes Star Trek work and mock what doesn’t, gush at what’s great, and have fun all along the way. In addition to Strange New Worlds, this is Star Trek at its best and a must-watch for any Trek fan, new or old.