Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan muses on how information gets shared in his Starfleet

Pictured: Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Kurtwood Smith as Clar of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS. Photo Cr: Best Possible Screen Grab CBS 2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

OCTOBER 20, 2020 - Information is everywhere. But if you happen to be a “lowly ensign” on the U.S.S. Cerritos, you might not always be allowed to know exactly what’s going on. And that’s if you’re allowed to know anything at all. In a recent interview with Gizmodo’s io9, Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan discussed the concept of information in Starfleet, and what the stories we see on Star Trek can tell us about humanity.

Lower Decks may well be a raucous and sometimes over-the-top animated comedy, but the creative team behind it is committed to bringing stories that represent humanity with a degree of authenticity. “We’re constantly examining this concept of Starfleet,” McMahan told io9, “and everything has to be moral and ethical, and Prime Directive-y. But at the same time they’re also human, you know?” McMahan went on to say that while Star Trek is about the future, it is also about the human condition. “There’s aspects of humanity,” he said, “that just feel like...Star Trek has humans in it. It’s not a perfect, ideal, robotic future for us.”

McMahan admitted his fascination for the way information is passed along, telling io9, “Humans are a species that gab. We process and we share information that is interesting to us. Part of the humanity on the Cerritos is they’re talking about [...] the things that are interesting to them.” McMahan went on to note this allows the audience to experience the “examination of context in Starfleet” as well as exploring how people interact and exchange information.

“One of the subtle things that I think people get about Lower Decks is seeing that this kind of vibe is what we were going for,” McMahan said: “putting those conversations into [a Star Trek show] through the lens of our lower decks officers.”

The first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks is available to stream now on CBS All Access.