When ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ debuts, we’ll be following the crew of the USS Cerritos but what they’ll be up to and how that leads into comedy hasn’t been made clear. Thankfully, creator Mike McMahan (‘Rick and Morty‘) opened up about the crew’s mission at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019. The goal of this Federation vessel is actually quite important to Starfleet, but it is also rather boring compared to the explorations, first contacts with alien cultures, and wars that we’ve seen in “Star Trek” throughout the years.
According to McMahan:
“Lower Decks takes place on a ship called the USS Cerritos, and it’s a new class of support ship – called the California class – that has always been out there, but maybe haven’t been important enough to have screen time yet. So, you will be meeting the crew of the Sacramento, the crew of the Fresno. And the specialty of the Cerritos is Second Contact, that is their gig. So, First Contact is super important, really dangerous. You don’t want to set off any wars, you don’t want to ruin any lives. Second contact, you are showing up to the planet, you are finding all the good places to eat, you setting up the communications stuff…I wanted to explore how [after] first contact happens, and you are starting to join the Federation, and you already have warp capability…but, what is happening next? What is Starfleet doing to back up that offer of joining?”
This is showing us an essential piece of how the United Federation of Planets expands which we haven’t seen much of a focus on before. At the same time, it isn’t quite as exciting as the premise of the other shows and is the perfect place to give us a comedy-drama.
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It should be fun to watch alien races interact with Starfleet officers for the first time as we’ll be getting a view at more than just a planet’s diplomats here.
‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ features the voices of Jack Quaid as Ensign Boimler, Eugene Cordero as Ensign Rutherford, Dawnn Lewis as Captain Freeman, Tawny Newsome as Ensign Mariner, Jerry O’Connell as Commander Ransom, Fred Tatasciore as Lt. Shaxs, Gillian Vigman as Dr. T’Ana, and Noël Wells as Ensign Tendi.
Are you looking forward to checking out ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’? Do you feel that “Second Contact” is an excellent premise for a “Star Trek” series? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Trek Movie