2D TO BEAM UP

BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO FUN HAS GONE BEFORE, THE LATEST STAR TREK SERIES IS NOT ONLY ANIMATED, BUT A COMEDY SHOW AS WELL. WE SPEAK TO SHOWRUNNER MIKE MCMAHAN ABOUT IT

- TARA BENNETT

GIVEN THAT THE FRANCHISE has birthed eight television series and 13 films, it’s perhaps surprising that (barring a couple of recent shorts) Star Trek has only boldly gone into the world of animation once – way back in 1973 with Star Trek: The Animated Series. But since we’re experiencing quite the creative Treknaissance of late, it was only a matter of time before a course was charted back to the drawing board.

At the helm of new 2D animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks is executive producer (and unabashed Trekkie) Mike McMahan. An Emmy-winner, he’s made a name for himself in animation as a showrunner for Rick And Morty and co-creator of Solar Opposites. But charting new Trek adventures is where McMahan always hoped to be. After all, as he tells SFX, “I work in comedy. I love animation, and I also love Star Trek.”

Serendipitously, when Lower Decks was in development at production company Secret Hideout with executive producers Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin and Aaron Baiers, McMahan was asked to come in pitch his vision for a contemporary animated take on Star Trek storytelling. “It was my opportunity to say, ‘This is a show for me’, primarily,” he laughs. “It’s one that is purely Star Trek, that has all of these great The Next Generation elements to it, but then really takes the comedy elements in Star Trek and heightens them. And then it enhances them, so that you get this vibrant, fun, love letter to Star Trek that always feels like Trek. But it’s also doing something you’ve never seen take flight in Star Trek.”