Star Trek: Lower Decks Creator Says The TNG Era Is A “Playground,” Plus New Images And More – TrekMovie

The countdown to Thursday’s series premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks continues and we have a few more updates from Monday to keep you going.

New images

Last week CBS released 16 images from the first four episodes of Lower Decks. Today five more arrived from this Thursday’s episode “Second Contact.”

“Second Contact” — Pictured (L-R) Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler, Nol Wells as Ensign Tendi and Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner

“Second Contact” — Pictured (L-R) Ben Rodgers as Lt. Commander Stevens and Jerry O’Connell as Commander Jack Ransom

“Second Contact” — Pictured (L-R) Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler

“Second Contact” — Pictured (L-R) Nol Wells as Ensign Tendi, Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler

They also released another image from episode two, “Envoys.”

“Envoys” — Pictured Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler

McMahan on why the TNG era

As the author of Warped: An Engaging Guide to the Never-Aired 8th Season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it wasn’t a big surprise when it was revealed that Lower Decks creator and showrunner Mike McMahan set the show just one year after the last TNG film, Star Trek: Nemesis. But in a new interview with CNET, McMahan expands on his choice of era:

When he had the opportunity to pitch a Star Trek show, McMahan immediately opted for the Next Generation era familiar from his youth. “I remember watching Data and Geordi,” he remembers, “like, these are my guys.” As much as he loves the characters and campiness of The Original Series, the ’90s era of Trek shows felt like home — and also proved it was possible to tell stories beyond the Enterprise. “With Voyager and Deep Space Nine, it became like a genre,” says McMahan. “The TNG era is kind of a genre of Star Trek, and [for creators] it’s just a playground.”

And yesterday after our last update, McMahan shared some of his enthusiasm on Twitter for the coming premiere, touting the years of work that has gone into the show.

I can’t believe Lower Decks will be out in 4 days. Years of work and love from an army of wildly talented artists!

— Mike McMahan (@MikeMcMahanTM) August 3, 2020

Another character promo

Yesterday we shared two character promo animations. Today CBS All Access released another, this time for Ensign Brad Boimler.

The by-the-books dynamo that never breaks a rule. @JackQuaid92 is Ensign Boimler. #StarTrekLowerDecks pic.twitter.com/jLiLjgNcR7

— Star Trek on CBS All Access (@startrekcbs) August 3, 2020

Fans making their own Lower Decks art

A bit of a Trek on Trek Twitter over the last few weeks is some creative fans creating Lower Decks versions of some of their favorite Trek characters. An example of this can be seen below with fan Jemina Malkki’s version of “Disco Decks.”

“Disco Decks” – Excited for the upcoming #StarTrek #LowerDecks, inspiration decided #StarTrekDiscovery family needed a quick treatment: https://t.co/PxrOsW4BUN #StarTrekUniverse pic.twitter.com/6Rh44M8Ucx

— JMalkki @🏡 (@Jemppu) July 30, 2020

Artist J.J. Lendl decided to turn this idea around and created a poster for what Lower Decks might look like IRL. And Tawny Newsome (aka Ensign Mariner) loves it.