SDCC: Rick & Morty Writer's Star Trek Animated Show, Lower Decks, Detailed

One of the most exciting new Star Treks shows on the horizon is called Lower Decks and it's an animated series from Mike McMahon, a writer on Rick & Morty. During San Diego Comic-Con 2019 attendees of the Star Trek panel were given a little more information about the show. A trailer was also shown during the panel, and you can watch it below.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a show about what happens on the Lower Decks of the ship. According to McMahon, each episode will be 30-minutes and focuses on four Ensign rank officers on a not very important Starfleet ship. It aims to deliver a mixture of emotional and sci-fi stories.

"It’s all about families. There’s a lot of familiar Star Trek in it. Even though we’re a comedy, it doesn’t make fun of Trek. We focus on people in the ship who are funny."

Lower Decks is set in 2380, right after Star Trek: Nemesis. The Ensign offers mentioned earlier are Tendi (Noel Wells), who is described as having her mind blown every day she's on the ship. She works in the medical bay and there’s no gross illness that she’s not thrilled to be dealing with. All in all, she's "a source of joy."

Another of the Ensigns is Rutherford (Eugene Cordero). "He’s our engineer," McMahon said. "But unlike Geordi he does not solve the problems by the end of the episode. Has a cyborg implant that he just got and is figuring it out."

According to Alex Kurtzman, who created Star Trek: Discovery and is spearheading many of the upcoming big Star Trek projects, the decision to go with an animated show was inspired by the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“Some of the best stories that are being told are being told in the animated space," he said. "Between Spider-Verse and Rick and Morty. Star Trek is limited in what it can be--it has to be more, it can expand."

As for who the show is aimed at, the Lower Decks team said it's for "anyone that wants to explore Star Trek and wants more of it." It has "characters that care about each other and love and grow and change. If you’ve never seen Star Trek before, this could be your first Star Trek."