While being one of funniest adult animated shows currently airing, Star Trek Lower Decks is also an exciting heart stopping adventure. I was reminded of this during my rewatch in prep for the season 3 premiere weeks ago. The Paramount+ animated series premiered 2 years ago and since it has claimed its place as one the Star Trek family’s best properties just as it passes the midway point of Season 3. It’s clean animation style, clever fast paced writing are an adrenaline rush for the funny bone and the array of characters and more than occasional guest star that harkens back to a past Star Trek episode or series that we adore, makes every episode a must watch for Star Trek fans.
With all the hilarious moments, what’s best are those when the series dips into its main canon storyline and the tone and action get serious. The balance of giving both high quality action and comedy in animated form is something Americans usually only experience watching Anime or children’s action. While American Anime studios like Powerhouse Animation are producing shows like Castlevania that are really pushing the boundaries of American made Anime, their shows have a clear darker, more adult tone with some jokes thrown in to break the tension as opposed to being a true comedy first. Futurama, Rick & Morty, Adventure Time, Bob’s Burgers and classics like The Simpsons and South Park all have done their part in contributing to adult American animation but there is still a large gap between what fans consider adult and what the industry does. Luckily much of the old industry that still thinks cartoons are just for kids are either retiring or on their way out and a much younger industry raised on cartoons that KNOWS animation isn’t just for kids is starting to take over.
Lower Decks feels just like a drama and more often an action adventure just as much as comedy and that is rare even for a live action. As far as I’m concerned it has catapulted itself as one of the top Star Trek shows standing up to the likes of TOS & TNG. Being an animation it has the ability to crossover any and every property and even do things we wished we saw on all the shows but couldn’t or didn’t get. The recent Deep Space Nine episode was so overwhelming and stimulating that it garnered and immediate double rewatch. It made me realize they can bring Picard back as long as Patrick Stewart wants to and could even do something with William Shatner who at 91 still looks like he’s capable of running a starship.
STLD (Star Trek Lower Decks) is easily one of the best properties currently being released right up there with Marvel Studio’s She-Hulk, Amazon’s Rings of Power and even HBO’s House of Dragons. Too many viewers think it’s about being wowed with special effects instead of focusing on the writing and the overall show/ series. If more people gave shows like Lower Decks and even Harley Quinn a chance we’d see a more successful animation industry even as a major part it seems to be devouring itself. Paramount does itself a disservice by not airing Lower Decks primetime on CBS as well as streaming it on P+.