The audience scores for CBS All Access’ latest animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks are in and they aren’t pretty.
Rotten Tomato Critic Scores
On Rotten Tomatoes the Tomatometer Score is currently at 61% from 31 critic ratings. It has 19 fresh ratings and 12 rotten ratings with an average score of 6.75 out of 10.
However, if you look at their Top Critics the score radically changes to a mere 27% from 11 critics with 3 giving it a fresh score and 8 giving it a rotten score. It has an average rating of 5.75 out of 10.
Here’s what some of the critics are saying.
Roxana Hadadi at RogerEbert.com gives the show a rotten score. She writes, “Lower Decks is amusing but slight, and needs a clearer course forward to demonstrate whether the angle it brings to Star Trek has singularity or longevity.”
Glen Weldon at NPR gives the show a fresh score. He writes, “The show’s at its strongest when it sticks most closely to its premise: background Trek characters going about their days, intersecting with the glamorous bridge crew only glancingly, if at all.”
Mike Hale at The New York Times gives the show a rotten score. He writes, “It’s a smooth and zippy package, but it doesn’t register very strongly as either a geekfest or a transgressive satire. Which is another way of saying it’s not all that funny. Wherever it’s going, it’s not doing it very boldly.”
Angelica Jade Bastién at Vulture gives the show a rotten score. She writes, “When I watch Star Trek I always hope for awe… Lower Decks is a lot of things: fun, raucous, adult in language but not in emotional landscape. But it’s also too cool to aim for awe.”
Swapna Krishna, also at Vulture, gives the show a 4 out of 5. She writes, “Lower Decks feels like the natural outgrowth of these two interests, animated comedy and science fiction, which leads to an interesting, sometimes chaotic and messy, but altogether engaging result.”
Diana Keng at TV Fanatic gives the show a 3.5 out of 5. She writes, “Although Star Trek: Lower Decks isn’t about to break any new ground in ethical and philosophical discourse, it has a good time and presents a fresh take on the world of Trek.”
Matt Roush at TV Insider gives the show a fresh score. He writes, “Series creator Mike McMahan clearly loves this world he’s satirizing with such spot-on and in-joke detail.”
Brian Tallerico at The Playlist gives the show a C-. He writes, “Maybe it could serve that purpose for the children that parents are hoping will follow the philosophies of Roddenberry, but kids may wonder why mom and dad ever liked “Star Trek” in the first place.”
Rob Owen at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gives the show a rotten score. He writes, “”Lower Decks” has its occasional chuckle-worthy moments, but too often the show opts for wild chaos as a substitute for actual comedy.”
Josh Jackson at Paste Magazine gives the show an 8.3 out of 10. He writes, “Lower Decks finds a lot about the long-running sci-fi franchise worthy of lampooning, but mostly it’s a fun, imaginative and clever look at this beloved universe from a very different perspective.”
Ryan Britt at Den of Geek gives the show a 4 out of 5. He writes, “The first episode of Lower Decks isn’t perfect… But, because “Second Contact” has narrowed the focus of Star Trek, it’s actually made the stories less about those space zombies and more about the characters.”
Joshua Rivera at The Verge gives the show a rotten score. He writes, “As a result, the show fails to distinguish itself, even as it is well-animated and performed… In most cases, that’s fine. But there are moments when Lower Decks, entirely in passing, makes jokes that suggest an altogether more interesting show.”
Rotten Tomato Audience Score
The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is currently sitting at a rotten 33% with an average rating of 2.17 stars from 43 reviews.
Here’s what some of the audience members are saying.
Taco M gives the show .5 stars. They write, “Does anyone actually think this is funny? I think I chuckled once the whole episode and it was because of dumb this show is. Who is the target audience for this show? I honestly don’t know of anyone who would like this. All the Star Trek reference feel forced maybe this show woild be better not in the Trek universe? If I wanted to watch a Star Trek parody I’d stick to The Orville.”
Steve P gives the show 1.5 stars. He writes, “I didn’t have high hopes, but still this managed to disappoint. The critics “Fresh” rating is somewhat misleading. If you look at the “Top Critics'” score, the reviews are only 29% positive, which probably is a better reflection on the quality of the show. I’ve enjoyed Discovery and Picard, but this one definitely fell flat with me.”
Jakub J gave the show 4.5 stars. He wrote, “Better than expected.”
Steve C gave it 1 star. He wrote, “Lame. Please let it end.”
Rebecca S gave the show 1 star. She wrote, “I miss when Star Trek was actually Star Trek.”
Gary B gave the show 1 star. He wrote, “Star Trek Lower Deck’s first episode fails to bring a single laugh, but it has made Star Trek a joke.”
Tony M gives the show 1.5 stars, He writes, “I cracked a smile maybe once or twice in the first episode, but all of the jokes fell flat. Most of the characters do something that incredibly annoys me. What is the target demographic for this show? Not certain who this is supposed to appeal to.”
Sean M gives the show 1.5 stars. He writes, “I’m beyond the point of thinking CBS has no idea what Star Trek actually is, and am now at the point where I think they’re actively trying to destroy the franchise for some nefarious reason. It’s like every new show they produce is trying to one-up the last show on how much they can dumb down the storytelling, ramp up the pointless violence, and introduce new story elements that break continuity. It’s garbage TV for small-minded people who are easily placated with token diversity (instead of real diverse characters) and soap opera storylines.”
IMDB Audience Score
On IMDB, the show currently has a weighted average score of 5.5 out of 10 from 564 IMDB users.
132 people gave the show a perfect 10 rating while 152 gave it the lowest possible score of 1. The arithmetic mean is 5.7 with a median vote of 7.
As for who the show is more popular with, females over 45 gave it the highest average score with an 8.5. In fact, females over the age of 17 gave it higher scores overall compared to males in the same age bracket.
The show appeared to fall flat with males under the age of 18 as they gave the show an average score of 1.5 albeit the sample size is quite small at 4.
Metacritic Critic Scores
On Metacritic the show currently has a 57 Metascore from 14 critics. There are 5 positive reviews and 9 mixed reviews. There are 0 negative reviews.
Here’s what some of the critics are saying.
Liz Shannon Miller at Collider gives the show a 91. She writes, “Not every joke lands perfectly, but so much of Lower Decks‘ humor is impressively well-calibrated to celebrate this franchise for its quirks, while also poking fun at concepts that are relatable no matter the century, like boring business meetings, professional jealousies, and awkward first dates. It’s not easy, trying to find a new way to sing Star Trek‘s song, but so far Lower Decks has found a way to nimbly balance some tricky concepts and look good doing it.”
Joel Keller at Decider gives the show an 80. He writes, “Star Trek: Lower Decks is a hilarious look at the people who make Starfleet run and never get credit. And it’s the first Trek product since The Voyage Home to really do a good job skewering the franchise’s self-important streak.”
Keith Phipps at TV Guide gives the show a 70. He writes, “Lower Decks requires a careful balancing act. Lean too hard toward silliness and it stops seeming like Star Trek. But play it too straight and the comedy starts to feel like an afterthought. In the four episodes provided to critics, McMahan and his team consistently get the balance right.”
Zack Handen at AV Club gives the show a 67. He writes, “The result is something that’s neither hilariously cynical nor meaningfully sincere—it’s functional, and rarely outright bad, but fundamentally unmemorable. … There is potential here. A few of the individual storylines show sparks of life, and if the characters ever calm down, they might turn out to be endearing.”
Brian Lowry at CNN gives the show a 60. He writes,” Star Trek continues to be the big gun in CBS All Access’ streaming arsenal, which has been steady if not particularly inventive. Star Trek: Lower Decks somewhat rectifies the second part of that with an irreverent, Adult Swim-type animated series that likely won’t beam up many new subscribers but should mildly amuse a quadrant of the more committed ones.”
Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone gives the show a 50. He writes, “The entire show seems to be caught in between extremes. It’s just over the edge of being too adult for kids to watch — Mariner complains that a yeti she once met was “being a dick,” and in one episode gets a punishment detail to clean the holodeck of what’s implied to be semen — but never really delves into truly R-rated Trek content.”
Dan Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter gives the show a 50. He writes, ” It’s all packaged in bland-but-amiable fashion with colorful, detail-lite animation from Titmouse and energetic voice work across the board. It’s hard to latch onto any of the characters.”
Daniel D’Addario at Variety gives the show a 50. He writes, “In tossing aside the “Trek” earnestness, does somewhat torch that which makes the franchise special in the first place. Its first four episodes contain some laughs and some elegantly done character work. But if the joke of “Lower Decks” is that its characters, on a random ship doing clean-up work somewhere in the galaxy, fall short of demanding a show about their adventures, it’s not hard to agree.”
Finally, Noah Gittel at The Guardian gives the show a 40. He writes, “The problem is it’s not really interested in anything. It’s a comedy show without gags or setpieces. The voice actors – most of whom are members of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy improv family – do their best to imbue the dialogue with real comic timing.”
Metacritic User Score
The Metacritic User score currently sits at a 3.2 from 6 reviews with 1 positive review, 1 mixed review, and 4 negative reviews.
What do you make of these user and critic scores? More importantly, what did you think of the show if you watched it?