‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Gets Romulan Drunk: Watch the Premiere’s Opening Scene

In case it wasn’t clear that CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Lower Decks wouldn’t be your typical Star Trek series, the opening scene from the premiere episode just shown off at Comic-Con@Home features, in no particular order: an ensign getting drunk on Romulan whiskey; a fight in the hallways; and one member of the crew getting their leg graphically sliced open.

[puts on baseball cap backwards] Oh yeah, this isn’t your grandpa’s Star Trek [starts rapping, everyone boos]

Anyway, the series doesn’t debut until August 6, but in case the animation style didn’t tip you off, it comes from Mike McMahan, a veteran of Adult Swim’s Rick & Morty, and co-creator of Hulu’s Solar Opposites. Though Lower Decks won’t get nearly as raunchy as those previous two programs, it does focus on a very different side of the Trek universe. Specifically, the crew that works cleaning up the messes left by the action-heavy crew on the bridge of the U.S.S. Cerritos. And in fact, the Cerritos isn’t all that great, either: unlike the Enterprise, the Cerritos deals with second contact; meaning while Kirk and crew tackle finding strange, new worlds, the Lower Decks people follow up with the paperwork.

The scene (which you can watch above) features Jack Quaid as Ensign Beckett Mariner, a command hopeful who plays things by the book; and Tawny Newsome as Ensign Brad Boimler, clearly the rule-breaking half of the duo. Other members of the cast include Ensign Tendi, voiced by Noël Wells, Ensign Rutherford, voiced by Eugene Cordero, Captain Carol Freeman, voiced by Dawnn Lewis, Commander Jack Ransom, voiced by Jerry O’Connell, Lieutenant Shaxs, voiced by Fred Tatasciore, and Doctor T’Ana, voiced by Gillian Vigman.

To get nerdy — and why not, this is Star Trek after all — Lower Decks takes place in a very different era than the other CBS All Access series (plural). While Discovery is set pre-Original Series, and Picard is set well after Next Generation, Lower Decks is set between the two, right after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, the last film set in the pre-2009 movie timeline. So, say, around 2380 — and yes, I did have to check Memory Alpha for that timeline, I’m not a total nerd.

Lower Decks won’t be the only animated series from Star Trek, though. As officially announced earlier in the Star Trek Universe block of panels, Nickelodeon will be launching Star Trek: Prodigy in 2021. A more serious take than Lower Decks, Prodigy will focus on a group of teens who discover an abandoned Starfleet ship, and decide to use it to go on adventures around the galaxy. Start your Prodigy/Lower Decks crossover fanfic now.

Along with the aforementioned series, CBS Television Studios also has a few other Star Trek series in the works, including Strange New Worlds, focusing on Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew; and the long-gestating Section 31 series starring Michelle Yeoh. Episodes of Lower Decks will stream weekly on CBS All Access, starting with the premiere, titled “Second Contact.”