5 Ups And 2 Downs From Star Trek: Lower Decks

UPS

5. The Opening

Cold openings on TV shows are a lot harder to get right than their current popularity would suggest. Comedies especially have a tough time of it because you're essentially giving yourself the challenge of nailing a one-off, disconnected sketch, which needs to peak with the laughs right at the very end.

Futurama was very, very good at this, but last week's effort - where a mysterious ball of light claims that it can magic things out of thin air but, for some reason opts to create a tricorder instead of a functional punchline - maybe hinted that this wouldn't be one of Lower Decks' big strengths.

This week though we open in the bar with the sort of music recital that Freud would deem "a bit much, tbh mate" and a Klingon commander beside himself at just how sick some guitar licks are. The jokes lads hard, fast, and peak with Shaxs mistakenly snapping a violin in half for being too loud. A hearty belly laugh from me, and exactly how shows like this need to kick off.