Just a couple of days ago, the cast and animation style of
Star Trek: Lower Decks was
officially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con. The show is an upcoming, animated comedy series by one of the executive producers and key writers of Adult Swim's popular
Rick and Morty show.
Mike McMahan recently participated in an interview with
Comicbook.com in which he discussed how Star Trek: Lower Decks is both similar to and unlike his aformentioned previous work — apparently, it's moreso the latter.
"It is very dissimilar to Rick and Morty," according to the upcoming show's creator.
I'd say that the only thing that it has a similarity to of Rick and Morty's writing style is that the characters we're allowed to be funny people. I love how many jokes are in Rick and Morty per minute. Some people on the Internet try to count them. We're trying to fit a whole Star Trek episode into a 20-to-23-minute format that involves a whole macro sci-fi story and two emotional stories that we're tracking with our leads all throughout. So we do have the accelerated pace of a Rick and Morty. I'd say that Star Trek: Lower Decks is going to feel like the one act of another Star Trek show where everything is happening, and stuff is really moving. That's like us from the first scene until the last scene.
McMahan went on to explain that one of the most disparate things between the two shows is their atmosphere. While Rick and Morty is pretty nihilistic, Star Trek: Lower Decks is quite the opposite — featuring the classic optimism of its source material. “We're kind of going to be a little bit more of like an accelerated kind of chaotic, fun version of a Star Trek show,” McMahan continues.
When it comes to the existential kind of, the universe is chaotic and dark, sort of nihilistic vibe of Rick and Morty, that is not in the DNA of Lower Decks at all. A big reason for that is that Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Rick and Morty's really their voice. The characters of Rick and Morty are so specific to that show. There is no Rick and there's no Morty in Star Trek: Lower Decks. Not only would they not work in Starfleet, but I just wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't be able to, nor would I be interested in writing those characters without Dan and Justin. My whole job on that show was trying to fulfill their voice as close as possible so that they could then write the characters even better than I ever could.
Similarly, while Rick and Morty mostly deals with the multiverse and alternate dimensions, Star Trek: Lower Decks instead focuses on the outer reaches of space. According to McMahan, the characters and themes of the two shows couldn't be more different — the only real similarities being the comedy and art style.
On Lower Decks, it's more about that optimistic Starfleet kind of emotional intelligence. Where Rick and Morty is fun and dark and nihilistic and it's about the multiverse, Star Trek is really about exploring our galaxy and where does humanity aspire to be, both, you know, technologically, which is the easy thing, but also socially and with our politics and how we're treating the other out in space. We're not really dealing with any of the same themes, and our characters are totally different. You're not really getting the same type of Rick and Morty jokes because we're really writing towards our characters and our characters are Starfleet. There aren't any Starfleet characters in Rick and Morty. It's kind of hard to describe. I think once people see it, the tone will immediately so clearly be a loving part of Starfleet, and not making fun of Star Trek, but being about characters who are funny, who happen to also be in Starfleet. It's sort of a needle thread, but it's a really exciting thing to write. It's really fun.
Star Trek: Lower Decks is set to arrive on CBS All Access at some point next year.