conservative Trek fans

I loathe those people. To my mind they simply don't understand what Star Trek is truly about. It's not about space battles, or technobabble, or yelling in lieu of good writing, or labyrinthine plots with no conclusion. It's not even about space per se. It's about driving home the message of "If we could just stop brutalizing each other for the goal of acquiring each others' stuff, and just start cooperating in good faith and treating other people with respect, we can accomplish wonders together." Or maybe I'm just old-fashioned about that.

I think that's why I love Lower Decks. Deep down it has that core of optimism, that spark of hope. The LD characters have some real flaws, but they don't wallow in those flaws. They try to do good. In the very first episode, when we see Mariner planet-side, she's not doing some badass combat shit and trying to show off as some sort of hero. She's smuggling free farming equipment to the locals. Her first priority is making sure their giant-spider-cow-creature is happy and healthy and able to provide milk to those farmers. That was the moment that I realized that the LD writing room really understood Star Trek.