Trekkers rejoice! A new animated Star Trek show warps into CBS All Access subscription streaming service this August 6th. Nine more episodes will follow weekly on Thursdays (in the U.S.). Helmed by Mike McMahan, a writer/producer behind the insanely popular Rick and Morty, Star Trek: Lower Decks will introduce audiences to a class of ensigns rarely seen in any Star Trek medium – the unremarkable. Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman recalls McMahan’s series pitch: “I want to do a show about the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end.” Boldly going where no Star Trek has gone before? Sounds like it.

 

We’ve seen the main cast before, but CBS revealed the U.S.S. Cerritos for the first time today. For the curious (and obsessive), “Cerritos” means “small hills” in Spanish and is also the name of a smaller town about 20 miles outside of Los Angeles… what bearing this has on the show (if any) remains to be seen. In the release, CBS describes Cerritos as “one of Starfleet’s least important ships” operating in 2380.

The year 2380 means the antics of the Lower Decks home team take place just after the events seen in The Next Generation movie Nemesis, and about two decades before Star Trek: Picard. However, the constant timeline-shifting shenanigans in all recent Star Trek media makes the show’s exact placement in canon a bit moot.

Lower Decks hopes to please old and new fans alike. Kurtzman describes it as a “love letter” to the fans, much like the 1973 Star Trek The Animated Series, but may “skew slightly more adult”.

The series will focus on a diverse cast of four leading characters:

Beckett Mariner, voiced by comedienne/musician Tawny Newsome. At the 2019 SDCC, Newsome described Mariner as “very good at all things Starfleet, she just doesn’t care” and “just wants to ride her skateboard and eat her piece of pizza in peace, man”.

Brad Boimler, voiced by actor Jack Quaid. Quaid described Boimler as a stickler for the rules who “would nail the written portion of the driving test with flying colors but once it actually got to him being in the car, it would be a complete and total disaster.”

Tendi, voiced by actor/director/musician Noël Wells. Wells describes Tendi as the audience point of view character, as she is newly stationed aboard the Cerritos in the medical bay.

Rutherford, voiced by actor/writer Eugene Cordero. Rutherford bears some intentional similarities to The Next Generation character Geordi LaForge - both have “new” cybernetic parts and both serve in Engineering. Rutherford, however, is still learning his ways around the LCARS.

Lower Decks will feature a bridge crew, but McMahan promised they are not the stars of the show. If anything, they will be doing the cool stuff the star ensigns wish they were doing.

The bridge staff includes: Captain Carol Freeman, voiced by Dawnn Lewis; Commander Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell; Lieutenant Shaxs, voiced by Fred Tatasciore; Doctor T’Ana, voiced by Gillian Vigman.

The show breaks ground as CBS All Access’s first animated program, but this is the second one for Star Trek. In 1973, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry partnered with animation studio Filmation; the result was a series of 30-minute animated episodes featuring the cast and characters of the live-action show, receiving an Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment – Children’s Series. Other attempts at animated Star Trek projects have been floated in the past, but Lower Decks will be the first to successfully launch. Meanwhile, a separate children’s Star Trek series is in development at Nickelodeon. You can bet we’ll will toon in on August 6th.

Source: CBS

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