Star Trek: Lower Decks has the honor of going where no Star Trek show has ever gone before. According to creator Mike McMahan, as the first comedic series in the long-running franchise, Lower Decks has had a difficult time walking the line between what’s appropriate to include in the franchise and what might be perceived as going too far for the traditionalist fanbase.
Star Trek: Lower Decks actually has another distinction under its belt: it’s the first Star Trek animated series since the original cartoon aired way back in the '70s. Starring talent such as Jack Quaid, Tawny Newsome, Noel Wells, and Eugene Cordero, the series’ conceit is that it follows the lower decks crew of a Starfleet ship. Previous entries of the franchise focused on dramatic adventures of the bridge crews; senior officers in control of important flagships in Starfleet.
There have been challenges in adapting Star Trek as a modern, adult animated show. Sitting down with The Hollywood Reporter, McMahan acknowledged that he and the writers walk a fine line when it comes to raunchy humor. Referring to one memorable scene in particular where Mariner walks into an orgy, McMahan says, “The comedy has to be unexpected and has to be funny, right? I’m very often being like, ‘OK, if we’re going to do a raunchy joke, it has to be a raunchy joke that has its origins in Star Trek.’” It was important that the raunchy jokes fit within the Star Trek universe, which takes place in a future where humanity is more socially liberated, female empowerment is common, racism does not exist, and society is not quite as shocked by sex and nudity. So, McMahan says that they decided to make a joke of Mariner being particularly uncomfortable because of Boimler's involvement, rather than just because of the sexual content in the scene. McMahan says, “I literally was like, 'Put Boimler on the countertop spread eagle.' Of course, that’s the thing that everybody lost their minds over, but narratively, it made sense. That’s probably where it got away from me slightly. I just got too in the weeds on what we needed structurally to have happen there.”
Still, McMahan argues that sex is “part of the DNA of Star Trek” and always has been, saying, “But you know, there are TNG episodes of a whole orgy of frozen naked dead people, you know what I mean? It’s not something that hasn’t been in Star Trek before. It’s funny, the sex stuff — even if we’re being very careful about it — tends to ping people as not feeling like Star Trek, which I find to be crazy, because everybody was f****** on Star Trek.” He particularly takes issue with fans placing older characters on a pedestal and making them appear as chaste, adding, “That’s not what any of these characters were. They were human. They were characters, they had heart, they had problems. They were the best of us, they were ethical and moral, but at the same time, they had feelings and they felt like real people to us.” He references Captain Kirk (Star Trek icon William Shatner), who has had a reputation for bedding alien women, even if, due to the constraints of the time, this was only ever by implication. He also referenced later Star Trek shows, once standards eased, being more upfront about the topic, and recalled Star Trek: The Next Generation android, Data, calling himself “fully functional.”
McMahan's concerns are understandable. Star Trek: Lower Decks is canon to the wider Star Trek universe, which fans are very protective of. In fact, the characters will be making their live-action debut in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where their voice actors will be portraying them. In that light, McMahan would want to maintain fidelity with other projects in the franchise.
Star Trek: Lower Decks pokes fun at the franchise affectionately, and the writers clearly show care in making it so that the humor makes sense in the context of a wider universe. The issue of sex as comedy is just a microcosm of that. These characters would have a very liberated attitude toward sex, and their comedic perception of it may be quite different from a modern viewer’s. In acknowledging this, McMahan and his writer’s team show that they are approaching the material as fans themselves.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is now available on Paramount Plus.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter