Fans were treated with a preview of a scene from the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks during the Comic-Con@Home Star Trek: Universe panel. That scene is now available online.
See the new scene
NOTE: Video is region-locked to the USA. We will provide the Canadian version if it becomes available.
More Lower Decks and other Star Trek Universe news coming from Comic-Con@Home
We will soon be posting a full report on all the Lower Decks news and other Star Trek Universe news coming out of virtual Comic-Con. Keep up with all of TrekMovie’s CC@Home coverage.
Comic-Con@Home Star Trek: Lower Decks panel
ICYMI: More new images
Last night CBS released 16 images from the first four episodes of Lower Decks, along with confirming the titles for the first four episodes.
From “Temporal Edict,” one of 16 new images released last night
Lower Decks coming on August 6th
The new half-hour animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks will premiere on Thursday, August 6 on CBS All Access. Following the premiere, new episodes of the series’ 10-episode first season will be available to stream weekly on Thursdays, exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers in the U.S.
Lower Decks will also air on August 6th in Canada on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and be available to stream in Canada on Crave. It has not yet been announced where and when Lower Decks will be available outside of the USA and Canada.
Keep up on all the Star Trek: Lower Decks news here at TrekMovie.com.
I have a good feeling about this.
So their response to the bland, unlikeable, zero personality Burnham… is to give us a new lead character who’s overflowing with personality, to the point where you want to punch her every 3 seconds. Great work writers.
Seriously, I can’t imagine watching another 60 seconds of her, let alone an entire series.
Agreed. Both characters are extremely irksome.
For those people who are insisting this is “canon”: you really want Starfleet to be about junior officers who get drunk on duty, cavalierly waive about lethal weapons, and wound other junior officers with said weapons? What is this, kindergarten?
So this show is best treated as a parody of “real” Star Trek, rather than an in-universe show; fair enough. (As I’ve noted before, the producers were very careful to say this show is “consistent” with canon, not that it is canon; although frankly, I’d love to know how on-duty drunkenness is consistent with canon, but set that aside.) But I question how a parody helps CBS from a business perspective.
Franchises that become parodies of themselves are treading on very, very thin ice. Cf. Bond after the Austin Powers movies. Only a complete retooling of the Bond franchise, one that made it much more hyper-realistic, saved it. This is a strategic mistake on the part of CBS.
(I should clarify: by “both characters” I’m not referring to Michael Burnham. I mean both *animated* characters, Boimler and Newsome.)
The clip says they are on shore leave, not on duty. (Though, they are wearing the uniform)
Well… They were both off duty….
This show wasn’t irksome. I say Lower Decks is canon. You say it’s not canon. Let’s agree to disagree. Preference is subjective to you.
I will say the same as I did above: lighten up and open your mind.
“Canon” is only something socially inept weirdos argue about.
You write: “frankly, I’d love to know how on-duty drunkenness is consistent with canon…”
See Scotty in “By Any Other Name.” Also, they’re on shore leave. Before you know it they’ll be drinking, gambling and getting into massive bar fights with Klingons and Naussicans — behavior that no straightlaced, self-respecting member of Star Fleet would ever engage in.
Also, they’re on shore leave.
Not if they’re on board a ship, they’re not.
It’s a cartoon, homeboy. Lighten up.
Steve, would you characterize yourself as being bland, unlikable and having zero personality? Asking for a friend.
Oh lighten up and open your mind a bit.
But you waste 60 seconds whining about it on the internet?
Grow up.
The fact that your first instinct after seeing a woman “overflowing with personality” is to punch her really says a lot.
The fact that you focus on her gender says more. I don’t care if the character’s a man, woman or goat, she was extremely annoying in this clip.
Does it tho? Unless I’m mistaken you just implied you’d even want to punch an innocent animal if it annoyed you.
One shouldn’t read too much into the author based on hyperbole.
So don’t watch it. Star Trek isn’t meant for guys who want to punch women anyway.
Good comeback!
Then don’t.
Nice!!
Love it!
To back up a bit, the purpose of a trailer is to entice people to want to invest their time and money to watch the whole series. Therefore, a trailer highlights the best of the show. As I had wrote previously, after watching the trailer, I knew this show was crap. The “jokes” fell flat, very sophmoric, the animation is bad and overall the writing sucks. Take any reference to Star Trek out, and you’d have a boring animated show about irritating people on a spaceship.
Watching the opening scene of the 1st episode, confirms what I initially felt. Can’t imagine watching the whole episode, let alone the whole season. Once again, CBS has given us a show that really isn’t Star Trek, but a cheap copy, catering to the lowered expectations of today’s viewers.
I’ve seen all the new CBS Star Trek, all of it is beyond bad. Pike was the only good thing in the 2nd season of Discovery, but I’m sure they’ll screw up the upcoming new show too. CBS needs to fire every writer they have and bring on people who can not only write, but understand and have respect for Star Trek. As it is, they have done to Trek, what Disney did to Star Wars, damage it to the point of irrelevance.
Oh get a life!
I would even go as far as saying you probably wrote this rambling delusional message before even seeing the trailer.
You don’t own star trek and it owes you nothing, it’s a goddamn sci-fi franchise that’s not real life, it’s entertainment. You have a choice, go elsewhere if you dont like it.
Yes, but expecting that entertainment to be good isn’t all that unreasonable.
While I totally diagree with Tom’s ramblings about DSC or PIC, I like both new shows a lot, I have to agree with him on LD. This show just doesn’t feel right for Trek. It isn’t Star Trek, it’s a Star Trek parody being official Trek at the same time and that’s absurd.
This is why I couldn’t get into Deadpool either. If Deadpool was an ex-universe superhero spoof, I’d gladly enjoy it but it’s set within the X-verse itself so if you don’t like a fictional universe to make fun of itself, it hurts…
I also avidly reject those “get a life” / “it’s entertainment” sentiments. We’re judging TV shows here, they are what they are and they will prevail for centuries, long after the producers, actors and our generation of fans have long passed… Nimoy is dead, Spock lives. So that “entertainment” is a lot “larger than life”. And if such a product doesn’t live up to my personal expectations, I am entitled to speak out about it.
Have you watched TAS and the absurdness it got up to?
I recall plenty of comedy. One I particularly remember is with tribbles and them growing to great size being beamed onto a Klingon ship to cause chaos and get a laugh out of the Enterprise Crew.
Oh don’t forget the one where the Enterprise itself plays jokes on all the crew.
Kirk is a jerk sowed on Kirk uniform was one of the pranks it pulled.
“This show just doesn’t feel right for Trek. It isn’t Star Trek, it’s a Star Trek parody being official Trek at the same time and that’s absurd.”
Fair enough to feel that way. That is pretty close to how I feel about TVH, though.
I feel completely the opposite. I thought both DIS and PIC were hot garbage, but LDS looks like fun so far. I like that it’s not taking itself too seriously. And I don’t give a crap about canon one way or another. I just want good shows.
Hot garbage, great way to put it, completely agree
I did watch both the trailer and this, as CBS puts it, “hilarious” scene clip. As I said, I found the trailer, and the subsequent short scene, to be anything but hilarious. They were juvenile and boring.
Just like your response to my post.
The “hilarious” short clip was also very predictable. Once it was established that the female officer (sorry don’t know these characters names and quite frankly, I don’t care) was drunk, and started playing with the bat’leth, I knew her idiot friend was going to get cut. It wasn’t funny, since I could see the “joke” coming a mile away.
But, that’s the whole point of my opinion, that a animated show, which is supposed to be funny, isn’t. What I have seen looks stupid, stale and sophomoric, IMHO.
Some will say, well you have to watch the whole episode/season and give it a chance, cause it will get better. While that might be true, I have serious doubts that will happen.
First, as I’ve said before, any trailer or short clip that comes out before a show starts, usually features some of the best of that show. This is done to get people to want to watch the show, paying CBS for the privilege. Purposely showcasing clips that make the show look bad, in a trailer or short clip, is akin to shooting yourself in the foot, it’s counterproductive. Based on that reasoning, I’m assuming that the rest of the episodes will be just as juvenile and boring as what I’ve already seen.
No, I don’t own Star Trek, but if I did, I wouldn’t green-light crap like this. As far as the franchise owing me and other fans, if you mean “owe” as in staying within established canon, and presenting a sci-fi show that takes itself seriously and treats it’s fans with respect, then yes, it does owe me and other fans “something”. Star Trek was always a serious sci-fi show, everyone involved treated it that way, as did the fans. Sure, there have always been light-hearted moments, but not at the expense of the audiences intelligence. Making a Trek show that is a comedy is not easy, you need good writers. So far, I see no evidence that CBS has good writers, on any of their Trek productions.
I’m not suggesting this show is real life, that’s a silly point to make. And starting your response with “Oh, get a life!”, shows to me how immature you are, which explains to me why this silly, unfunny, animated nonsense seems to be just your speed.
Bottom line, I have an opinion about what I’ve seen, so far, of Lower Decks. Some here agree with me, in full or in part. Some, don’t agree with me at all. That’s neither here or there, we’re ALL entitled to our opinions. If I chose to watch an episode or two (likely, cause I’m curious enough to see if it gets better), my opinion may change on a more positive note, and I’ll be more then happy to say I was wrong in my original opinion by posting here.
The real problem today is not some silly animated show, but the fact that a lot of people, such as yourself, can’t seem to handle the fact that people have opinions the opposite of yours. Sorry, but that is real life, different people with different experiences, likes, and dislikes expressing opinions that differ from yours. I strongly suggest you get used to it, cause it’s not likely to change.
Sophomoric, irritating, and not-particularly-memorable animation about sums it up.
Same animation style is Rick and Morty and people love that show. It’s subjective of course and for me it doesn’t irk me in any way.
Tom can help me with DIY anytime. His nail head-hitting accuracy is second to none.
In your opinion.
That’s your opinion but no way is Trek damaged. It is not the age you grew up in anymore; Trek needs to adapt to stay relevant. If you don’t like it then jog on.
Adapt – yes. Dumb down – no.
So that means you’ll be detaching yourself from all this new content and won’t have need to comment on any it from now on, right? Okay, bye!
Yeah, no.
This was bad, really bad. Totally overdone, senseless, pointless drivel… It has the Trekish opening moment and then it turns into something I’ve just no interest in pretty quickly…
So much looking forward to anything else: DSC S3, PIC S2, SNW, PROD… but LD is just not doing it for me. And no, it’s not “don’t judge before watching”… It’s pretty clear this is superfluous animated comedy in exactly the same style of stuff like R&M or FG… And I’ve seen enough of that to deem this totally irrelevant… no matter how inventive and creative some “storylines” and easter eggs may end up…
It’s a VERY bad idea to have a spoof, a parody set in the very same universe it tries to make fun of…
I don’t see it making fun of Trek at all. I see characters that are over eager and have a very comedic dynamic but the Universe behind it is intact. This show is perfect for Teens of the day.
It’s not being pitched at teens (at least I hope not, with the Romulan ale jokes).
Neither was Revenge Of The Nerds…
As an avid Anime fan when I was a teen plenty of shows hinted at the drinks or had characters drunk off their A** with alcohol and oh I didn’t care.
Oh and the Simpsons on fox… that’s rated TV-PG and you know Homer and his obsession with DUFF.
I disagree but it’s not bad or great. Let’s see what happens.
I see where you are coming from and this series is a gamble. However, I don’t see it affecting ‘Trek in the long term. If it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work. At least they tried something new to attract new fans.
Rick & Morty and Family Guy aren’t even close to being in the same style.
THANK YOU! A statement like that shows the commentor is engaging this content on the most cursory level for the express purpose of self-satisfyingly writing it off.
Agreed. I want to write this off because I’m not even slightly into animated comedy. I’ve deliberately missed out on 35 years of animated TV history. And now I’m forced to incorporate that genre into my Trekdom after all. Add that doesn’t make me happy…
I’m an all-or-none sort of guy. If there isn’t a mental drawer called “animated comedy” in my mind yet, I still have to create one in order to deal with that subgenre. And that means giving Futurama and Rick & Morty another try before attempting to watch LD…
Yes, these characters look much closer to overdone cartoons such as Rick & Morty or Family Guy than to “normal people” as seen on TAS or Rebels. That’s what I’m talking about. These characters are not believable renditions of actual characters, they are something else that defies me…
The video linked in on the official site can be played in Canada, even if the version from the CBSAA Twitter account cannot.
What did I think?
It did make me chuckle. It also made me think of the brilliant but off-the-wall people that I worked with as an intern as an undergraduate or as a grad student.
Yes, Mariner is hyperactive and annoying when drunk.
Yes, she and Boimler are going to have to sort out how to get along.
Certainly, showing up together in sick bay with a Bat’leth wound while in space dock is predictably not going to go well. (Smile.)
However, Starfleet isn’t just about picking up the best and the brightest, it’s about the value-added in developing young officers.
Hey, they dealt with a young ensign with a Naussican knife through his heart, I think they can handle sewing up his leg…
I can’t tell if I am cynical, or excited. *Shuts off emotion chip*
Alright, so CBS made two dark and dirty Star Treks. Picard and Discovery.
Now they are making a Stoner Trek and Kids Trek.
Strange New Worlds may be the balance and bring us back to old school Trek.
This actually looks pretty enjoyable to watch. I already cringe a little at the female character’s over-the-top drunken cartoonishness, but the show looks pretty promising as a comedy set against a true-to-trek background.
Well said.
I feel a little better… The only chuckle came when she sliced his leg. That was kinda funny. Not sure I like the tone they are setting but we shall see. Maybe I was looking forward to this a little too much?
I demand Honor…. haha. Good one!
I don’t know if this is ok or not but here is a link to the video from my own server that you’re welcome to use/post.
http://startrek.wearetheborg.net/files/startrek/startrek_lowerdecks_firstlook.mp4
Non region locked, obviously.
All I can say is this looks fun to me. Maybe when the show itself will have me questioning my sanity but I have enjoyed everything I seen so far, including this clip.
Wait, is this show an origin story for Raffi on Picard?
When the characters make Ensign Tilly look like a capable officer, the writing is very much on the wall.
What? Tilly is a capable officer!
She’s a walking train wreck; inappropriate around her commanding officer and peers, whiny, regularly emotionally unstable and utterly out of her depth. Someone of her ilk would surely have been weeded out of Starfleet at the application stage, unless the assessment team were inept or corrupt.
Remember how hard the Academy was for Wesley? And he was a genius!
Standards… dropping across the board
Oh man, I want to give this show a chance but yikes.
Since that clip was only 1:44, I don’t think you really do.
Since a trailer is supposed to convince us to watch the show, I very much can and will judge it based on the content within the length of the trailer. That’s how it works. That’s how it’s always worked.
Then it’s a good thing you have been given free will to choose between not watching or watching.
Whew, and here I thought we were required to watch. Thanks!
Looks fun to me….hear’s to a good first ‘Trek comedy!
I hope it gets better than that. I had similar misgivings with the first scene of The Orville too, though.
The trailer looked interesting, but didn’t make me laugh. When Mariner accidentally hit Boimler with the bat’leth in this clip, I laughed out loud. Call it juvenile if you want, but people getting hurt is funny. I can’t wait till August.
Tonally it reminds me a bit of the pilot to Orville (although I’ve liked the rest of the series since, I still kinda wish they had stuck with that). Looks fun.
Unfortunately I’m a lowly Canadian, and as usual some cretin at CBS or wherever decided to region-lock this (and all other) Lower Deck video. The morons want to release this in Canada but insist on preventing us from seeing it…
Hi Silvereyes, you seemed to have missed my comment above if you go to StarTrek.com the official site, the trailers and videos there aren’t region locked for Canada.
Enjoy.
Thank you TG47!
I don’t get how folks are comparing this with the live action stuff? You know it’s an animated comedy, right? I mean, you see the thick black outlines on the characters, and the actively drunk officer?
I really wish they didn’t try to suggest this was “canon”. I mean, it looks very obviously not. (Nor should it be.) Can I assume that was a joke on their part? Because I’m seeing folks here making apples to apples comparisons between this very obviously satirical take on Trek and characters on actual live action shows.
Well the official word on the show implies that it is canon although it was ambiguous enough so that it could be interpreted either way. We’ve seen plenty of drunk officers in live action trek So I don’t think this particular characters level of inebriation is enough grounds for conclusively disqualifying LDS from canon. The jury is still out on this particular debate…
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Canon is what CBS considers official Star Trek. It’s all make believe anyway.
which is exactly what I said Ninja.
And on top of that, they made it clear they ARE on shore leave in that clip. She isn’t on duty and hanging out on a star base. And yes, we have seen drunk Starfleet officers before lol.
But sneaking in Romulan Ale…well that should be grounds for expulsion, forget canon!
That’s my point Tiger2. We’ve seen Scotty inebriated multiple times, O’Brien and Bashir Drunkenly singing in one episode and you get the impression that it wasn’t a one off and I don’t think any of the senior staff would have passed a sobriety test after their state dinner with the Klingons. The point being that the characters being drunk is not grounds for dismissing the show as not canon. Based on what’s been said I’m leaning towards it being canon but as I said those comments were sufficiently vague enough to make a case either way so until the studio comes out and definitively makes it official one way or the other then the jury is still out and the debate amongst fans will continue.
Right, we fully agree. This is just nit-picking at a ridiculous level and I should know since I can nit pick with the best of them lol.
But seriously, being upset over seeing someone drunk? How is that out of ‘canon’? Even if she was drunk on duty, well she’s drunk on duty, that’s just a character development, which I’m going to guess Starfleet wouldn’t condone. I’m pretty sure Starfleet doesn’t condone a Captain poisoning a planet like Sisko did either but that doesn’t make him not being out of canon, it just adds conflict to the character and story.
I think some have to understand what canon is versus basic character development.
Yeah we’re fully aligned on this one, it was just lazy writing on my original post. My last sentence was meant to convey the fact that for as long as they use phrasing like ‘consistent with canon’ instead of just saying that it’s part of canon that I accept there will always be debate amongst the fans. There absolutely no reason that a show like this cannot be canon and nothing I’ve seen thus far has altered that view. However, LDS is clearly going to be stylistically and tonally completely different to anything we’ve seen in Trek and I totally get that some people have preconceptions about animation so I can understand why a lot of fans have trouble accepting it as canon. I think the studio get this as well and that’s why they’re using such carefully worded phrases when discussing its canonicity. Of course the longer it’s on air the waters will get muddied as other shows will inevitably drop LDS Easter eggs and that canon won’t be so one way any more.
Same debate people have had about TAS for ages.
Pretty much yeah. I mean to be fair nobody with authority on the subject comes and states whether it’s canon. To be fair as fond as Imam of TAS there are elements I’m happy are nit confirmed as canon!
There was an episode of DS9 where they basically said that almost everyone in Starfleet has illegally had Romulan Ale at some point or another.
The canon issue is complicated, the jury is still out there. I think it’s canon, some people say it’s not canon, no point arguing over that.
Well of course they’re calling it “canon”. It wouldn’t be a smart business decision if they didn’t. They want to make money. The want people to watch it. Calling it canon helps.
So for the final episode, they can show it was all just Tom and B’lanna watching tv inside some episode of Voyager. Because I don’t know what other characters would watch TV.
I have no issues with animation or humor but this is just not good quality writing. No disrespect to anyone who is enjoying it, but for goodness sake…why can’t they aim higher than this? Is it too much to ask for quality? I watched the entire series of the new She-ra and the princesses of power recently. For a cartoon, it was better executed and far better written in terms of character development than Picard was. I have no interest in watching this whatsoever.
Well I would say it’s probably worth at least watching one full episode of the show before out and out condemning the writing. Context is king and all that.
For what it’s worth, when you filter out the stupid garbage, there’s decent writing in R&M. You just need to delete Roiland. I’m hoping some of that may transfer.
I’ve never been more embarrassed to be a Star Trek fan.
I mean, we had Voyage Home and Last Frontier both chock full with shitty humor. This at least got me to laugh.
HAHAHA scotty and uhura hooked up, then Scotty hit his head. Classic.
Nuclear wessels.
Had me right up until it cut away from the bridge crew. Just that first interaction felt like over the top antics for the sake of “ZOMG!” mixed with fan service for the sake of “heh, I know what that is.”
I hope it gets better than this.
I WAS so looking forward to Lower Decks but obviously I will be not able to watch it as an international viewer. I can’t put it in words how pissed off and angry I am! They (CBS) are to stupid to collect my money and I just know the legal ways to watch it. Is that there policy: no we don’t care for your money but you can try to find it somewhere illegal… which is not allowed. What a mess!
My guess is something will be worked out somewhere before its released. I can’t believe neither Netflix or Amazon Prime has picked it up yet. Maybe it will land somewhere else but I can’t see this only being shown in North America (but probably didn’t cost that much so not as much of a priority like the others).
@Tiger2: I really hope you are right! I called Amazon Prime Video Germany and the guy said that he also really hopes it comes to Amazon and that he will forward my request to the responsible persons. Obviously he also was an Trekker because he immediatly know what I was talking about and said there are some problems with the license without getting specific. He was also looking forward to Lower Decks. I also called Netflix
(bad support by the way) and that guy just said it didn’t even premiered in the US so lets wait and gave me the link to their online support center which is useless for that question… ;-)I really hope they figure it out!
Wow, the Netflix response seems incredibly stupid.
It didn’t aired in the US yet?
Yeah, that sure is what happened with Discovery and Picard;
Netflix and Amazon waited for the show to air on CBS AA before they bothered trying to get any streaming rights…
Anyway my guess for the lack of an anoncement is quite simple: Kurtzman and Co. demand way too much money.
Kurtzman and his underlings are not the ones responsible for negotiating that stuff.
Even if it’s his mother, it wouldn’t change anything about my guess, though.
I’m hoping that this is a case of there being strong competition between the big streaming companies and the likes of Sky TV in Europe. If it’s the opposite and there’s not a huge interest from the TV companies then I fear it will end up with somebody like Channel 4 in the UK who tend to treat their quota of American genre shows and their fans with disdain. We’re still waiting for season 7 of Agents of SHIELD in the UK and when it does drop you can guarantee it will be airing at an ungodly time.
As someone living outside the US and Canada, I too hope that some distribution deal will be worked out. Many people seem to think that Lower Decks was originally planned to be released after Discovery Season 3 but with Discovery being delayed they had to change plans. Others have suggested that Lower Decks might have less appeal than the live-action Trek shows outside the North American market so nobody may be interested in picking it up. However, other animated comedies like Rick and Morty do run internationally.
Netflix seems to have a habit of sometimes dropping new content on their service without a prior announcement so there is a small chance we might be in for a surprise but I’m not very optimistic. The second season of Short Treks still hasn’t been released.
I really enjoyed being able to see Discovery and Picard at the same time as American fans because it allowed engaging in discussions about the episodes as they were released. I’d really hate to go back to how it was years ago when had to wait months after the American premiere for shows to be released here. 1) It makes it hard to avoid spoilers. 2) If you want to discuss with international fans you might be months late to the table.
The music doesn’t disappoint; it has the feel of the drydock scene from TMP and spacedock from TSFS.
I don’t think this justifies signing up for CBS All Access again, but I look forward to checking it out when Discovery drops. It was light and airy and sometimes I look for that kind of Trek. It’s all so serious in the other series, it’s a nice change if pace.
So when does Sito Jaxa die?
Well I laughed pretty hard at the end… it is nicely animated with good music and i thought it was funny… I’m sold! Come on August 6th!
I actually love Discovery. I mostly liked the Abrams movies. I love that we’re getting some new takes on Trek. Its wonderful that it is evolving and adapting as the our society does.
But this looks bad. Just incredibly tone-deaf dumb. Yalking down to the audience (especially kids) is thew very antithesis of Trek.