Star Trek: Lower Deck Trailer, Star Wars: The Bad Batch Revealed

It's the ultimate question for sci-fi geeks- Star Wars or Star Trek? While the George Lucas created franchise has definitely has more mainstream success of late, Trek will always have its devotees. And of course despite their different approaches, many sci-fi fans enjoy them both. If you're one of them it's a good day for you- as both of these pillars of science fiction have animation news to share.

Star Trek is boldly going somewhere it's never gone before... comedy. The franchise first got animated early in its life, with Star Trek: The Animated Series, which was essentially a way to resurrect the Original Series with a lower budget. Star Trek: Lower Decks, is a very different kettle of fish- it's basically a workplace sitcom set on a Federation starship.

The twist is that the focus isn't on the captain and high-ranking crew. The people who would normally be the main characters of any other Trek incarnation are just side-characters here- our heroes are the low ranking, overlooked crew members in the Lower Decks. The new series comes from Mike McMahan, one of the top writers on Rick and Morty, who recently had a hit on Hulu with Solar Opposites, co-created with Justin Roiland.

Don't expect anything as adult as McMahan's past work with Lower Decks, which based on the first trailer is going for a wider audience. Still, it promises to show a side of the Trek universe we've never seen before. The art and animation looks more functional than anything else (it's much cleaner looking than R&M), but the possibilities of a comedy playing around with this universe are certainly enticing.

Star Trek: Lower Decks premieres exclusively in the US on CBS All Access from August 6. International release information is unknown, but past All Access Trek shows have ended up on Netflix or Amazon outside the US.


Meanwhile, in a Galaxy Far Away,  the next Star Wars animated series has been revealed. Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a spin-off of the recently concluded Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  The new series is executive produced by Dave Filoni along with  Athena Portillo, Brad Rau, Jennifer Corbett and Carrie Beck- all alumni from previous Star Wars animated series. Rau is also serving as supervising director, with Corbett as head writer.

The Bad Batch will premiere on Disney+ in 2021.  LucasFilm have released a synopsis:

The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch — a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill, which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.