‘Star Trek’ Is Boldly Going Where ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks and Rec’ Have Gone Before

For a long time, the world of Star Trek simply wasn’t that funny. Sure, there were the occasional moments of humor; the Enterprise becoming overrun with furry alien balls, Checkov asking about “Nuclear Wessels,” Dr. Crusher being brought to climax by the green Irish cloud monster that used to date her grandmother.

But then came Star Trek: Lower Decks, from Rick and Morty producer Mike McMahan, which, somewhat unusually, poked fun at Star Trek from within the Star Trek franchise itself. 

Clearly the pivot to comedy was a successful one, because now the Star Trek franchise is apparently going to give us a straight-up sitcom.

During the weekend’s Star Trek Universe panel at San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Justin Simien, of Dear White People fame, and comedian Tawny Newsome, who voices Lower Decks’ Ensign Mariner, are currently developing a “new live-action Star Trek series for Paramount+.” “Tawny and I are pregnant… with a Star Trek show,” Simien told the crowd. 

According to the studio, the show will be about “Federation outsiders who are serving on a gleaming resort planet. Not only that, their day-to-day exploits are being broadcast to the entire quadrant.” So it’s a workplace comedy, and it’s basically the sci-fi equivalent of a mockumentary. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that it’s going to have similar tones to The Office and Parks and Recreation. 

While the idea of doing The Office set in the fictional universe where Holodecks and Klingon mating rituals exist may sound potentially terrible, the fact that Simien and Newsome are behind the project makes it seem promising. And Lower Decks, which begins its final season later this year, certainly proved that the Star Trek universe has room for overtly comedic stories. 

But this won’t be the first time that creatives have tried to crack the “Star Trek sitcom” nut. It’s happened before, albeit in an unofficial capacity. Take Buck Henry’s Quark, which had nothing to do with Deep Space Nine’s Ferengi bartender of the same name, but was a ‘70s sitcom about the commander of an Enterprise-like “sanitation” ship, tasked with cleaning up the galaxy’s garbage. It only lasted for eight episodes.

More recently, Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville, seemingly tried to be a dramatic, yet legally-dissimilar, remake of Star Trek: The Next Generation, while also throwing in wacky characters like the Norm Macdonald-voiced green goo alien Yaphit, presumably for viewers who were expecting something more in line with Family Guy or American Dad.

The best evidence in favor of mashing up the world of Star Trek with the world of sitcoms just might be the time the cast of Frasier took over the bridge of the U.S.S. Voyager for five glorious minutes during Star Trek’s 30th anniversary special.  

As long as we’re making Star Trek comedies, maybe the cast of Frasier would reunite for a sci-fi spin-off that in no way involves having to deal with Kelsey Grammer?

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