Back in 2018, it was announced that Mike McMahan, a former writer on Rick and Morty, would be developing an animated sitcom set within the Star Trek universe called Star Trek: Lower Decks. Now, some new images of the show have been made available by Entertainment Weekly, and they should look pretty familiar to Rick and Morty fans.
According to McMahan, the plot of his new series will focus on a group of low-ranking officers on the USS Cerritos who handle jobs that are too unimportant for the main cast of the Star Trek franchise. These assignments, the writer explains, will include things like fixing turbolifts or serving food, both of which already promise comedy gold.
“The big stories are happening in the bridge crew and there’s more kind of social-emotional stories happening to the Lower Deckers…” McMahan explained. “So it’s like their job and the world they’re in get affected by these sci-fi stories. But the funny thing too is that whatever menial job you have to do in Star Trek, it might be something that they do every day, but it’s still sort of a fascinating look into stuff that happens onboard that haven’t been highlighted in another series.”
Fans of Rick and Morty owe McMahan some respect. When the guy originally joined the team, he was a mere writer’s assistant. However, through his natural talent and understandable enthusiasm for the story, he eventually worked his way up to become one of the show’s most prominent writers, second only to series creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.
Speaking of Roiland, McMahan recently co-created an animated show with him. Solar Opposites, which premiered on Hulu back in May, follows a ‘family’ of aliens who flee their destructed home planet only to crash land on ours. Stranded in the epicenter of American suburbia, they then disagree on whether their new home is awesome or awful.
Though slightly less dramatic than Rick and Morty has been in the past, the show still packs a punch. With memorable characters, a phenomenally original B-story, and a writers’ room that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Solar Opposites embodies in many ways the best elements of the first few Rick and Morty seasons. As such, whatever McMahan’s got planned for Star Trek: Lower Decks, we’re excited about it.
