Comic-Con@Home: First Look at Star Trek: Lower Decks

Comic-Con@Home care of Comic-Con International: San Diego is supplying animation nerds with plenty of content over the weekend. Some exciting panels are on the docket including The Simpsons, Family Guy, Crossing Swords, and Solar Opposites. But, hidden inside some of the bigger virtual events there are some treasures for those curious about upcoming adult animation content.

Case in point is one of the first panels of the con, the Star Trek Universe Virtual Panel. Majority of the free-to-watch showcase features the live-action heavy hitters of the STU including Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. However, tucked into the middle of the explosive panel is a feature on the upcoming Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Star Trek: Lower Decks which will be premiering on August 6 on CBS All-Access is a different look at the crew of the Starfleet.  

In place of the mighty adventures of commanders and captains, Lower Decks dives into the more disposable characters of the USS Cerritos. The show promises to be a more lighthearted view of the final frontier while delivering jokes and comments that would never appear on other Star Trek content.

The panel, hosted by creator/showrunner/executive producer Mike McMahan, offered us some insight on what to expect and how the series fits into the Star Trek Universe.

Lower Decks will fit into the continuity somewhere after Nemesis, but long before the currently running Star Trek: Picard. McMahan shares that one of his main goals was achieving something that can seamlessly fit into Star Trek canon while remaining quite unique to anything that we have seen from the franchise before.

Everything in the animated series should be recognizable for fans. Things just won’t be utilized the way that one would expect. This is made more clear after the short clip the panel provides which is our first official look at the new show.

The first look at Star Trek: Lower Decks features Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and his more rambunctious co-worker, Ensign Beckett Marnier (Tawny Newsome). The Star Trek jokes are numerous, especially with Beckett well past drunk on Romulan Whiskey and stabbing Brad with a Bat’Leth.

The show looks to be as humorous and light-hearted as was promised. Utilizing decades of content for their own amusement should give this show a chance to establish itself for fans. Especially when tools like the holodeck are utilized. And yes, spoiler, the holodeck will get some “mileage” as was shared by Quaid and McMahan during the panel.

Other attendees in the panel include voice actors Eugene Cordero, Noel Wells, Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman. Each cast member shares their perspective on their individual characters and favourite scenes. Unfortunately, much of the spoilers were quickly censored; the one drawback to having a virtual Comic-Con.

Regardless of any episode plots being spoiled or not, the short panel was enough to get fans excited for the first animated Star Trek show since that weird one in the 70s. 

But, it is also not the last, as a new animated children’s show was also officially announced during the Star Trek Universe Virtual Panel, Star Trek: Prodigy.

For now, we are only a couple of weeks away from the premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks on August 6 on CBS All-Access. A show that adult animation fans and science fiction nerds can watch in harmony.

The Star Trek Universe Virtual Panel is free to watch on the Comic-Con@Home website or on YouTube.