Welcome aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos, ya goofballs. Hope you like second contact?
Star Trek: Lower Decks beamed into the franchise’s San Diego Comic-Con @ Home panel, not with a trailer ” we just got one of those! ” but with a full scene from the very first episode of the series. In it, we’re introduced to two of our main group of Ensign heroes: Mariner (voiced by Tawny Newsome) and Boimler (Jack Quaid), as the latter adorkable-ly files his own faux-Captain’s log in… what basically looks like the Starfleet equivalent of a broom cupboard.
Starfleet Order 8620: Bat’leths are not toys. Check out a scene from the first episode of #StarTrekLowerDecks now! pic.twitter.com/dSQJE4VSlG
— Star Trek on CBS All Access (@startrekcbs) July 23, 2020
As Boimler explains, the Cerritos‘ mission is not the heroic exploratory ideal that Starfleet prides itself on, first contact with new alien races, but the much more boringly administrative second contact ” paperwork, planetary spellchecks, restaurant recommendations, all the vital things you need to know about strange new worlds, new life and new civilizations. But before he can tell us, and his log, more, he’s interrupted by a very drunk Mariner, who, unlike him, is using her shore leave during Cerritos resupply to get her hands on illicit Romulan liquors… and Klingon Bat’leth. Naturally, they don’t mix.
Unlike Boimler’s bat’leth boo-boo, the clip itself is pretty cute ” it’s a good mix of some knowing Trek humour, goofy charm, and yet also a bit of that earnest wanderlust that makes Star Trek‘s exploration of the far frontier so admirable in the first place. If this is what we can expect from the rest of Lower Decks, then we’re in for a treat.
The cast didn’t get to tell us too much more during the panel as it was pre-taped and edited (complete with bleeps for spoilers!) but Star Trek: Lower Decks begins on CBS All Access August 6 in the U.S. It does not currently have an Australian premiere date. Stay tuned to Gizmodo for more from SDCC 2020!