During the Star Trek Universe panel at Comic-Con@Home, CBS revealed the opening scene of Star Trek: Lower Decks, the latest series in the franchise. This one’s pretty unique, though, as it’s an adult-oriented animated comedy, from the mind of showrunner Mike McMahan (Rick & Morty). The 90-second clip has now been officially released online and you can check it out in the player above.
As teased in the trailer, the first episode begins with an homage to the classic Captain’s log openings of Trek past. It soon turns out, though, that A) the U.S.S. Cerritos is not one of the most important ships in Starfleet’s armada, relegated to second contact with alien races, and B) that we’re not listening to the captain. This log is actually coming from Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), who’s soon discovered recording it in his off-time by rebellious colleague Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome).
The clip does a good job of establishing the tone of the show, teasing how it’ll have fun subverting the typical Trek tropes and being a little irreverent with them. There’s also easter eggs for fans to enjoy, including Romulan alcohol and a reference to “an old guy in an eyepatch.” Lastly, Mariner accidentally slicing into Boimler’s leg at the end tells us Lower Decks is going to be embracing a kind of cartoon reality.
Earlier today, a batch of new promo images for the show landed online, introducing us to the rest of the main cast. Alongside Mariner and Boimler, there’s fangirl Ensign Tendi (Noel Wells) and Ensign Rutherford (Eugene Codero), recognizable for his La Forge-like cybernetic implant. Speaking of which, McMahan previously told us his show was set during the same time as The Next Generation, so we can maybe expect some crossovers with 90s Trek at some point.
Don’t miss Star Trek: Lower Decks when it premieres on CBS All Access on August 6th.
