THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020 N C7es In/ Not Seeing Things But/ Seeing Through Things.”
s, ad hoc journalists, digital sources and the legacy
On Spring Street in Manhattan, this anonymous artist reminds us
of the deeply problematic inequities between police officers and
civilians. I think of the similar cases from several years ago: John
Crawford III, Tamir Rice, Stephon Clark and, of course, Breonna
Taylor, who was only 26 when she was killed by the police in her
own home in March.reet in Manhattan made me both happy and sad. The Brooklyn-basednderstood that using aliens to make the point of the simultaneous
ck lives would be an effective strategy. Seeing aliens supporting the
makes the point that even extraterrestrial observers can see our
On Union Street in Brooklyn, I found a mural with the characters
from the Peanuts comic strip carrying Black Lives Matter signs.
It lifted me to see Franklin Armstrong, Charlie Brown and Snoopy
joyously and resolutely marching together, as if the movement
were the most normative reason to take to the streets. Peanuts,
while a cartoon, is also a measure of the degree to which B.L.M.
has become an American cause rather than a minority issue.On the Lower East Side, I found a mural by Conor Harrington that
both intrigued and flummoxed me. There is a figure that I take to
be a man, in Colonial-era clothing (the red coat of what would
have, in 1776, been the British faction) twirling a flag that seems
to be changing from a blue and white striped field to a red and
white scheme — as if the figure’s touch has sparked a revolution.
This is perhaps a version of the received, hackneyed idea of the
lone hero who can change the course of human history (the 19th-
century “great man” theory of leadership promulgated by Thomas
Carlyle, among others). Or perhaps it’s an attempt to demonstrate
how quickly the flame of revolution can spark a fire that spreads
everywhere.There is a bifurcated mural, “Sad Contrast,” on Mercer Street
in SoHo that depicts a tearful Statue of Liberty. In the portrait,
executed in a colorful expressionistic style, one side of the face
is painted by Calicho Arevalo and the other by Jeff Rose King.
Mr. King’s side suggests an Indigenous woman in a headdress,
composed to mirror the crowned Roman goddess. Both figures
look steadily at the viewer, essentially asking: How will you see
us, and what will we mean to you?COMEDY.The final frontier.
“Star Trek: Lower Decks,” the latest
“Trek” extension from CBS All Access (fol-
lowing “Discovery” and “Picard”), goes
where no series in the franchise has gone
before, at least not intentionally: full-time
laughs. The “Trek” shows have had their
playful elements from the start. But when
your primary source of humor over the
years has been making fun of Vulcans or an-
droids who have no sense of humor — well,
you see the issue.
“Lower Decks,” whose 10 episodes began
on Thursday and appear weekly, also
stands out for being animated, but that’s not
a first. The earliest “Star Trek” spinoff, back
in 1973, was “Star Trek: The Animated Se-
ries,” a straightforward continuation of the
original for which most of its cast supplied
voices. (Its two seasons are also available
from All Access.)
The new show goes its own way, in keep-
ing with the somewhat freewheeling vibe
the television side of the franchise has ex-
hibited under the supervision of Alex Kurtz-
man. Developed by Mike McMahan, a spe-
cialist in animated, adult-oriented science-
fiction comedy — he was a creator of Hulu’s
“Solar Opposites” and an executive
producer of the category’s ne plus ultra,
“Rick and Morty” — it’s about half “Star
Trek” fan service and half smutty work-
place sitcom.
Apparently, that’s not an easy formula.
Through four episodes, “Lower Decks”
feels caught in between. It’s a smooth andzippy package, but it doesn’t register very
strongly as either a geekfest or a transgres-
sive satire. Which is another way of saying
it’s not all that funny. Wherever it’s going,
it’s not doing it very boldly.
Its premise, stated in the title, is a bit ob-
vious but certainly workable: After six dec-
ades of series and movies celebrating the
heroic officers on the bridge, “Lower
Decks” focuses on the phaser fodder, the
people we usually see in the background
running through the corridors or being
sucked into space through a hull breach.
The heroes, all ensigns, include Boimler
(Jack Quaid), a Starfleet true believer who
records his own mock captain’s log each
day, and Mariner (Tawny Newsome), an in-
subordinate badass whose millennial self-
absorption may have something to do with
her mother’s being the ship’s captain. The
ship, like the ensigns, has an inferiority
complex: Given the less than heroic name
Cerritos, it’s a “second contact” vessel, trav-
eling to planets to handle the paperwork af-
ter someone else has sought out a new civi-
lization.
Plots abide by “Star Trek” norms as mis-
understandings with funny-looking aliens
or viruses picked up on-planet lead to
pitched battles that look catastrophic until
suddenly everything’s OK again. Boimler
gets to spend a lot of time screeching about
the rules, much in the style of the touchy
teenager Morty on “Rick and Morty.”
As background music, there’s a continual
hum of “Trek” nostalgia and gentle mock-
ery, for which viewers’ appetites will vary.
Much of this comes in enthusiastic out-
bursts from Mariner, a Starfleet history
buff, though her facts are shaky. (The leg-
endary Spock “fought Khan and some
space whales.”) Reference is made to the
“most important person in Starfleet his-
tory,” an in-joke that will delight fans of
“The Next Generation” and “Deep Space
Nine.”
In counterpoint, the show tweaks the
franchise’s tradition of hyper-virility, with a
Kirk- and Riker-like first officer, Ransom
(Jerry O’Connell), who can dispatch green
giants in hand-to-hand combat and is given
to pronouncements like “Nothing compares
to the firm, hot pulse of a joystick in your
hand.” The determination to take the
“adult” in adult animation seriously can
take even less subtle directions, as when a
crew member mistakenly offers a token of
timber, rather than crystal, to an alien
leader and the dignitary recoils and cries,
“He’s got wood!” There are several Prime
Directives being violated there, one having
to do with lazy joke writing.Even in Space,
Paperwork
Is Inescapable
An animated comedy set in
the ‘Star Trek’ universe focuses
on overlooked crew members.
An image from “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” a comedy series that
is based on the science-fiction franchise, on CBS All Access.CBS ALL ACCESSStar Trek: Lower Decks
Streaming on CBS All Access.MIKE HALE
TELEVISION REVIEW