It is not my intention to ignite an EMACS/vim war; I will say that I find it baffling that Lower Decks is ending while Strange New Worlds is being continued. I like Strange New Worlds, despite disagreeing with some of the artistic licenses being taken. But if I had to choose between the two shows, itโd be no contest. Not only as a viewer do I prefer LD, but it has to be the cheaper show to produce. The fact that next season is the last (both by design, it only being contracted for 5 years; and announcement) is sad and incomprehensible in the same way the cancelation of Firefly was - except LD is popular and successful, whereas Firefly merely had a fanatical (๐๏ธ) fan base.
I donโt understand it. Yes, you want to end on a high note. Maybe the writers are running out of plot ideas. Perhaps, given an initial life span of 5 years, the actors have all made other arrangements and arenโt available. But I just canโt believe the One Big Plot Arc thatโs been building would necessitate ending the series by its resolution.
LD is a strong show. Itโs lighthearted. Itโs a breath of fresh air after the more decidedly darker, ethically challenging, and emotionally straining runs of TNG, Voyager, DS9. And Strange New Worldsโฆ the Gorn are basically Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise.Who, despite being the existential threat of the show, somehow get entirely forgotten about by the time in TOS.
But I digress. Iโm going to miss Lower Decks, badly. How can this happen? And why?
While I understand and can appreciate your thought, I do admire shows who end on a high, instead of withering and ruining themselves from trying too hard. I think the show will go out on a high and will remembered and appreciated for a very long time.
It is sad though.
EMACS/vim war
Nano gang rise up!
i feel that way about the it crowd
i desperately wanted more content, but realize how that would just tarnish the run. its still so re-watchable
I bet they could have made like three more seasons. There is no shortage of nerd topics, stories from IT adminsโฆ I used to read those stories. And there are a lot of them thatโd make it for a nice story arc for a 25min episode. And I mean there are also some american series depicting silicon valley programmers and stuff. I feel finding good content isnโt an issue. But things also get lame for other reasons. And British TV series always end a few seasons too soon. They seem to do it differently than the Americans. Bediedict Cumberbatch also didnโt return as Sherlock. And I would have definitely liked more The IT Crowd, Dirk Gentlyโs, โฆ
I agree with you. People need to remember that TOS had a terrible third season, ending with a bad final episode and TNGโs final season had a lot of clunkers. And then there were the final episodes of Enterprise and Voyager.
Game of Thrones would have gone down in history as one of the greatest shows in history. Then the last season happened, and itโs an almost forgotten show.
It will be forever hilarious to me just how the end of GoT wiped it from our collective consciousness. There were so many memes and references for years- Hodor, MUH KWEEN, Da king in da norf, R+L=J, โWinter is coming!โ- and the second the last episode aired it just fucking vanished.
To your point though, I would argue that had the last season not happened, we would think of GoT as a great show that ended poorly due to the decline in quality for the last couple of seasons.
You may be thinking of TNGโs second season, which ended with the abysmal โShades of Greyโ. The third season ended with โThe Best of Both Worlds, Part 1โ
While I agree with your logic, I donโt think thatโs the reason theyโre canceling it before the โtraditionalโ seven seasons. I am betting that itโs because the Paramount beancounters are so far up their own ass about streaming metrics that they are unable to see that itโs built a cult following, which can be a very powerful tool if you use it the right way.
streaming networks pay close attention to how many hours shows are streamed, and the short runtime ofย Lower Decksย may have sealed its fate.
Funny enough, I think I liked LD because it felt closer in tone to 90s trek than modern trek. Like sure, those were serious shows, but in between the drama there was some pretty natural feeling levity based on character interactions, slice of life stuff, etc. Stuff that doesnโt take you out of the story, but gives you a breather and makes you care more about the characters when serious stuff does happen. Most of modern Trek feels like Marvel movies: End of the world level stakes and melodrama all the time, but constantly undercut with self-aware quips to keep things from ever being too sincere.
LD feels like a return to what I liked about those earlier shows: See the lives of some interesting characters in an interesting setting going on adventures. Itโs not perfect and itโs not what Iโd want to see entirely replace those old kinds of shows, but it stands in pretty stark contrast to the other new stuff.
100%. And the funny episodes feel forced. Like, everyone remembers the Trouble with Tribbles episode for the Tribbles, but they were almost a side story; there was an entire main plot revolving around the Klingons.
I agree. Maybe itโs the audiences, maybe itโs the studios, but your Marvel simile is apt.
I think Lower Decks was always limited in how long it could run. They couldnโt all be Harry Kim. They eventually will rank up. I think spin offs are the natural next step, so I really hope Paramount is onboard.
I agree. LD is great, but itโs also feeling like the story is nearing a logical endpoint. The main cast has already ranked up and learned to deal with their issues. Itโs only a matter of time before theyโre split up and Iโd rather have the show deal with that directly and end conclusively while itโs still a great show, than to last another 10 seasons.
What I read is that the writers are sad itโs ending so soon, they wanted to go for longer, but they are setting things up to be open for possible spin-offs, so maybe weโll get something new in the future in the same vein.
I agree that its wild paramount is canceling a successful, and very cheap to produce show, their entire business model as of late seems to be shooting themselves in the foot and then wondering why they keep losing blood.
Edit: clearly vim.
whereas Firefly merely had a fanatical (๐๏ธ) fan base
Whereas if Fox hadnโt royally screwed up Fireflyโs production and release, it would easily have been โpopular and successfulโ. Feels like apples and oranges to me.
However, I do agree that Lower Decks is a great show and cancellation makes little sense to me as well. But Strange New Worlds also is a great show, including the artistic license (which Iโll be the one to say โSubspace Rhapsodyโ was amazing, I donโt care what anyone says) and Iโm happy it is continuing.
I just thought Subspace Rhapsody was a bit boring, with too much โLook, itโs this character, but singing!โ and not enough actual Star Trek plot. When we only get 10 episodes a season, the plot of each one is very important, imo.
Other than that, Iโve mostly loved Strange New Worlds. The Lower Decks crossover especially. I love grapplers.
I havenโt seen strange new worlds, but thereโs an entire episode in voyager dedicated to the doctor singing. Not my favorite episode, but I didnโt hate it either.
