On Monday, Wizards of the Coast hit us with the banned and restricted announcement. Fires of Invention and Agent of Treachery have been banned in Standard, while the companions have been nerfed pretty heavily (you now have to pay 3 mana at sorcery speed to put one in your hand). So what do these changes mean? Well, for starters, the power level of the format will go down a lot. The undisputed best deck Lukka Fires has taken a big hit, basically becoming unplayable. Winota, possibly the second best deck, cant really function without Agent. Basically, things will come back to a pre-Ikoria state, which is pretty wild; its almost as if this set didnt exist for Standard purposes. Today, Im going to go over the 5 decks I believe will be at the top of the format moving forward. Ive ordered these from worst to best. Lets get started.

It feels like Temur Adventures always finds a way to be relevant in Standard. This deck didnt improve much with the new set, with its only new cards being Ketria Triome and Adventurous Impulse. After the bans, this might be a sleeper pick because the power level of the format will go down significantly, while Temur Adventures has been basically the same since the deck came into existence. Adventures has always been very solid against Teferi decks, while being playable against aggro thanks to Bonecrusher Giant. The bad matchups have always been decks with Mayhem Devil and Temur Reclamation. Devil took a backseat to Lurrus but, with the companions nerfs, it might be back on the menu. Only time will tell if Temur will end up tier 1, but it might be a good choice for another weekend, if Bant becomes prevalent.

This deck came to existence with Ikorias release, with all the nonland cards in the maindeck belonging to that set. The Lurrus nerf will hit this deck hard; its unclear to me if its supposed to be in the deck. There might be a different variant of this deck, with 3 mana cost cards, where you would omit it completely. Right now, I think Id start with it in my companion slot to see how much worse its gotten. Still, the plan of playing turn 1 Fox, make it a 5/5 and kill your opponent with it hasnt gotten worse. This was the best aggro deck pre-ban and that will probably still be the case in the new world. One interesting card Id like to try out is Reptilian Reflection; this could be a very resilient threat against Shatter the Sky, and it can also finish your opponent out of nowhere, because it has haste.

Good old Bant. We basically go to the version we played before Ikoria hit. Only upgrade is Shark Typhoon over Dream Trawler. In a direct fight of the Sphinx vs the Shark, the latter usually wins so therefore it makes sense to play the powerful enchantment. Other than that, this deck has a great sideboard, which can be adjusted for ones expected metagame. This deck still benefits from the powerhouse of Teferi + Elspeth Conquers Death, and Nissa might become a bit better too, because you will no longer fear it being stolen by Agent of Treachery. This might not be the best deck for week one, because its a reactive one; it might be better to wait before the meta settles a little bit to have a better sense of how to build it. Bant struggles a bit in game one against aggro so you should play carefully and safely, and devote a lot of cards in your sideboard against it.

I already mentioned Mayhem Devil coming back, and this is the shell Id start with. Crokeyz has been championing a similar list for a while, and I like it too. The combination of Citadel + Mayhem Devil can lead to wins out of nowhere. This deck grinds well with Trail, Citadel and Castle Locthwain, while also being strong against aggro thanks to Claim and Devil.

Similar to Bant, this deck has a pretty flexible sideboard with a plethora of options to choose from. There are a reasonable mix of cards, some of them even very dedicated against certain strategies. For example Soul-Guide Lantern is great against the Cycling deck to stop Zenith Flare, and Cindervines shines against Reclamation because of the namesake card. However, Im still a bit worried about the Reclamation matchup. Historically Reclamation has come up ahead against this deck, because your clock isnt super fast, and they will kill you with Explosion before you can grind them down. This might be a big problem, because, well, you probably already guessed that Reclamation is number one on my list.

Fans of Ivan Floch rejoice! Ivan has dominated in the past couple months with this deck and we might well see that trend continue. With no nerfs to this archetype and a sweet addition in Shark Typhoon, this will be the deck to beat on the first week. Not much to talk about here in terms of card specifics. Ivan has already written about this deck, so I recommend checking out his piece (Ivan Flochs Temur Reclamation Deck Guide: Navigating Around Ikoria Standard). One new card Id like to try is Fire Prophecy. Scorching Dragonfire has been getting the nod over the Prophecy, but without Lurrus in the format and Anax no longer seeing much play, it might be better to improve your hand over exiling a creature. With Yorion decks being taken out of the format, I dont see a deck that beats Reclamation easily and Im honestly surprised that it wasnt hit by the banhammer as well. Maybe players can adapt to this deck, but its honestly super versatile with Shark Typhoon providing you an answer to the problematic planeswalkers.

Thats it from me today, do you think I missed anything? Are there any other decks you would deem to be tier 1 in the new format? Let me know in the comments.

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5 Decks to Beat in the New Post-Ban Standard MTG Arena Zone - MTG Arena Zone

What began as a source of transportation for Memphian Madison Harrison transformed into a passion project. Harrison launched MadAir Decks, a custom longboard and skateboard deck business that provides an avenue for Mid-South artists and skate culture to come together.

Anyone who is able to channel their vision and turn it into a reality, is a person to be admired. And thats just who Madison Harrison is. She is a hard-working, boss babe who has created a growing brand all while shes a full time student and worker.

Harrison saw a lack of community for skaters and wanted to change that. She launched MadAir Decks, and through designing decks and collaborating with local artists, she was able to provide an avenue for creatives and skaters alike. The mission now brings local creatives together through collaboration, individual expression, networking and profit.

MadAir Decks Founder, Madison Harrison

I started long boarding as my main source of transportation a few years back. I was surrounded by friends who were artists and thats when the idea came to me. I was long boarding and working so closely with artists already, that I wanted to combine both of those worlds. I wanted to support local artists and tie it together with skate culture.

Photo: @savibelle

MadAir supplies the blank decks and artists get them for free. Usually, the artists are given creative freedom as long as the board remains rideable. Then, the MadAir logo is placed on top and covered by a clear cover rather than a traditional black grip tape. Once they are finished, they are featured at events for a set rate.

The decks are unique canvases that can serve the skating community as well, because not only can they be used for skateboarding and long boarding, they are also pieces of art that can be displayed with a wall mount.

MadAir Decks currently does not have a brick and mortar location, but rather hosts events to promote and sell their decks. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has affected the small business ability to host events, but the decks and merch are still available on their website.

Harrison encourages people of any age to pick up a board and try cruising on a longboard or skateboard. The longboarding girl boss herself says no one is too old to pick up this hobby!

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MadAir Decks Ties Together Local Art and Skate Culture - choose901.com

Andy Cohen revisited the biggest moments of Season 1 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht when the whole Parsifal III crew reunited on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen: @ Home on June 1. The yachties looked back on the most-talked-about moments of the season, from Paget Berry and Georgia Grobler's flirting to Parker McCown's resignation to Adam Glick and Jenna MacGillivray's relationship.

However, the conflict reached new heights when it came time to break down all the drama in the interior this season, especially Jenna and Madison Stalker's working relationship. We caught up with Jenna via video chat on June 2, the day after the Below Deck Sailing Yacht reunion aired, and asked how she felt things went with Madison during the virtual sit-down.

"The same as they always do," Jenna said in our new video seriesThe Final Word, which you can view, above. "I think it's very clear that her and I are just fire and ice, and we're just not gonna be on the same page, and that's OK."

During the reunion, Madison confronted Jenna about how much she hurt her this season, expressing that she felt "excluded" by the chief stew and that she made her "life a living hell." "Well, to be honest, I'm not responsible for that. Tell me exactly how I bullied you to the extent that you felt that you needed to cry every night or that I excluded you," Jenna responded to the claims Madison made during the reunion. "Like I said, we were all joking and laughing together all the time, and literally everyone but Madison and Parker were on board with that. We'll continue joking around, and we weren't joking about them. To be honest, I never excluded her. I didn't have anything in common with her."

As the Below Deck Sailing Yacht reunion came to a close, Jenna delivered a tearful apology to Madison for her behavior this season. But, as Jenna mentioned during the reunion, this wasn't the first time she had shown remorse for how things went down with the second stew. "With Adam, when we left the season, and we were doing our road trip, I would constantly talk about this feeling like, 'Oh, I'm really frustrated that Madison still thinks I'm this a--hole, and it's really bothersome to me.' He's like, 'Well, maybe you should contact her.' And I waslike, 'Yeah, I will,'" Jenna said. "So I sent her an apology, and it was like, again, nothing I ever did or said would just be resolved. [Madison] at first wrote, 'OK, yeah, there shouldn't be bad blood.' And then it was like, as soon as thathappened, 'Well, why did you want to fire me? Why did this happen?' I could never just have a conversation with Madison. I tried, I really did."

Madison said that she accepted Jenna's apology during the reunion and that she had moved on from their drama. The two even talked after the reunion, according to Jenna. "We had a phone call after the reunion, and she seemed to accept my apology, but now is still posting negative stuff about me on social media. She is liking the comments of trolls. She is reposting things that speak negatively about me," Jenna said. "I've never said anything about her on social media. She has done that from the start about me. So it's like, that's not a good person to me."

When asked if there was anything she could have done differently in orderto have a smoother time working with Madison this season, Jenna said that she "would've suggested firing Madison." "She should've been let go," Jenna said.

Jenna added that Madison "equally" didn't like her this season and that they would both probably agree that they would never want to work with each other again. The chief stew alsosaid she doesn't see them having much of a personal relationship in the future. "We go nowhere. I live my life, and she lives her life," Jenna shared. "Hopefully, she's happy. I wish nothing but happiness for anyone. I wouldn't have ill wishes for her. I hope that she does well in life, and that's all."

The Daily Dish is your source for all things Bravo, from behind-the-scenes scoop to breaking news, exclusive interviews, photos, original videos, and, oh, so much more. Subscribe to The Daily Dish podcast, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagramfor the latest news hot off the presses. Sign up to become a Bravo Insider and be the first to get exclusive extras.

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Here's What Happened Between Jenna and Madison After the Below Deck Sailing Yacht Reunion - Bravo

Star Trekis expanding on TV in new and exciting ways. For one, the franchise is getting some new animated shows, for the first time since the original Trekanimated series aired back in the 1960s. As well as a kid-friendly Nickelodeon venture, theresStar Trek: Lower Decks,an adult-oriented show coming to CBS All Access from Rick & Mortywriter Mike McMahan. ATrekanimated workplace comedy is a unique twist for the brand, and were being promised big laughs from it.

While speaking to Collider, producer Akiva Goldsman stated that its a seriously funny show, describing McMahan himself as a genius.

[Lower Decks] literally couldnt seem funnier to me, Goldsman said. There was a test reel going around the office and I didnt see it and that sucks. But Ive seen the still frames, and the pitches for it are funny. Like literally the pitch for it is the funniest thing youve ever heard. Second Contact? I mean, its the greatest thing ever I think Mike McMahan is actually a genius.

McMahan recently opened up about the approach hes taking toTrekcontinuity inLower Decks.Hes confirmed that it will take place around the same time asThe Next Generation, featuring connections and references that fans can pick up on that will firmly root it in established canon. At the same time, though, McMahan wanted to be careful to make the series accessible to newbies and those just looking for a fun animated sitcom.

Lower Decks is set on the lower levels of the U.S.S. Cerritos, a not-so-important ship in Starfleets armada. The quirky cast of Ensign protagonists includes the irreverent Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), stickler for the rules Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Starfleet fangirl Tendi (Noel Wells).

Production has managed to avoid being delayed by the pandemic, with work continuing during lockdown, so we should be able to see Star Trek: Lower Decks on CBS All Access sometime later this year. The same goes forDiscoveryseason 3.Picardseason 2, meanwhile, which has been held up, is likely due sometime in 2021.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks EP Says The Show Will Be Seriously Funny - We Got This Covered

Players have watched Hearthstone slowly evolvesometimes glacially sosince it launched in 2014. We've had endless expansions, new modes like Battlegrounds and Tavern Brawl, and most recently a whole new class. We've also received very gradual quality of life improvements. It infamously took years for Blizzard to have more deck slots (didn't have the technology, too confusing for players) and then more time to be able to copy and share deck codes.

As of this year, we can finally reorder decksa small adjustment, but one that alleviates the need many of us feel to line the hero portraits up neatly. Overall, progress is slow and steady, but six years into the life of the game it baffles me that we still don't have in-game deck tracking.

The function of a deck tracker is to, well, track your deck. Letting you know what cards remain and what your opponent has played so far, as well as all sorts of additional info captured from the client. Some might argue that the mental gymnastery of having to remember everything youself is part of the game's skill, but those people clearly never alt+tab out to catch up on their YouTube backlog while an opponent is using the rope to decide whether to play a one-drop on turn one.

What's puzzling is that Blizzard isn't against players tracking cards, as was made clear early in Hearthstone's life. Six months after release, game director Ben Brode replied to a tweet (above) to reassure players that "any app that duplicates what you can do with a pencil and paper already is fine". Even players competing in the Grandmasters tournament are using deck trackers, as they're participating from their home setups. If these add-ons are acceptable at tournament-level then it's strange to see no sign of them becoming an official feature.

It looked as though things were ripe for change in 2018, which saw the launch of an official deck tracking app for PC that could also record and share replays. Unfortunately, the Official Companion App is not actually made by Blizzard and is only available on Hearthstone's China servers. This means that players on the remaining three servers have had to find other means of tracking their matches.

My go-to deck tracker is the HSReplay.net Companion App. It has a simple overlay that I can adjust to display which cards have been played in the match so far, when cards were drawn, and which secrets I may have to play around. I can also dig into my win rates for specific decks and arena run stats. Open a Hearthstone Twitch stream and you'll see the top streamers using similar software. Seemingly everyone agrees that deck trackers are a helpful addition, yet the community has to download an add-on to solve the problem.

The natural downside of a Blizzard-made deck tracker is that it could put these websites in a spot of trouble. Data collected through HSReplay's companion app fuels their website with valuable data on the current meta and trending decks. The introduction of official support would likely push third parties that have built their entire business models off this omission out of the picture.

While deck trackers are fine to use in Hearthstone, they can suck the fun out of some of the modes if you get too bogged down in their features. For example, in Hearthstone's Battlegrounds mode, stats outlining the odds of you winning or losing versus each opponent can feel like they remove the fun. I'm not much of a Battlegrounds player myself, but community responses to deck tracker overlays in this mode have been very positive, overall. Notable additions let you see your opponent's last known board, and display a full list of the minions in each tavern tier to help you make selections that synergise well with your build.

Hearthstone would benefit from official deck tracker support now more than ever due to the contents of its Standard sets. Rogue's Shadowjeweler Hanar adds secrets from four different classes into a match. That's 22 secrets in the pool, with a 'Christmas tree' of up to five active at a time. Highlander decks also feature 30 different cards, making it tricky to remember what's still lurking in the latter half of your deck, particularly during marathon sessions.

If both the community and the developer are already in agreement that deck trackers are just the digital equivalent of scribbling down match progress on a piece of paper, why are we still waiting for official support? Even Android phones feature third-party deck tracker apps, so we know it's possible to implement on the mobile version without it having a negative effect on the experience. There's an established list of changes that Hearthstone players continue to push for, but official deck tracker support is at the top of mine.

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Hearthstone is over six years old and we're still waiting for an official deck tracker - PC Gamer

In 2015, Atlassian was preparing to go public, but it was not your typical company in so many ways. For starters, it was founded in Australia, it had two co-founder co-CEOs, and it offered collaboration tools centered on software development.

That meant that the company leaders really needed to work hard to help investors understand the true value proposition that it had to offer, and it made the roadshow deck production process even more critical than perhaps it normally would have been.

A major factor in its favor was that Atlassian didnt just suddenly decide to go public. Founded in 2002, it waited until 2010 to accept outside investment. After 10 straight years of free cash flow, when it took its second tranche of investment in 2014, it selected T. Rowe Price, perhaps to prepare for working with institutional investors before it went public the next year.

We sat down with company president Jay Simons to discuss what it was like, and how his team produced the document that would help define them for investors and analysts.

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Pitch deck teardown: The making of Atlassians 2015 roadshow presentation - TechCrunch

An Italian-style villa on the Strand in Hermosa Beach has hit the market for $18.995 million, making it the most expensive single-family home listed there.

The three-story, 6,857-square-foot house with six bedrooms, a Boston-inspired bar with tap and an expansive rooftop deck sits on an oversized lot with front-row ocean views.

Its got the second-largest rooftop deck on the Strand, which is something you can only do in Hermosa Beach, said Bryn Stroyke of Stroyke Properties Group at Bayside Real Estate Partners, the listing agent who has been selling Strand properties for 30 years.

As he explained, these on-top-of-the-world decks where you have the most amazing views anywhere are not allowed in neighboring Manhattan Beach.

Local architect Edward C. Beall designed the house in collaboration with the original owners to capture those views and ensure privacy from foot and bike traffic along this quieter stretch of beach.

The house was also fitted with design elements inspired by the owners travels through Italy. There are mosaic floors, radial-cut slab marble stairway wainscotting, gold leaf baroque ceiling detail in the entryway, intricate, curved wrought-iron staircase railings, and Roman columns.

An imported Roman marble tub outfits the master bathroom, one of five bathrooms and five powder rooms in all.

The attention to detail on this property is extraordinary, Stroyke said. Every single level was really thought out by the owners, and there was literally no budget on building it.

Built in 2012, the homes levels are accessed by staircase or elevator.

A retractable 16-foot skylight opens on the rooftop deck engineered to structurally accommodate a future swimming pool.Theres already an outdoor shower.Other details include a dumbwaiter service, a laundry chute and a full Viking outdoor kitchen, one of two on the property.

A second Viking kitchen outfits the spacious beachfront patio.

From the beachfront patio, glass doors open to a below-grade family room fronted by the Strand. Nearby is the bar. A wine closet, 800-gallon saltwater aquarium and an eight-seat movie theater, as well as a bonus room that doubles as a gym, also occupy this lower level.

The homes second floor sits slightly above the Strand with a great room warmed by a fireplace, a formal dining area and an eat-in gourmet kitchen equipped with a 5-foot La Cornue range, copper sinks and a built-in Miele espresso machine.

A tiled terrace extends the adjoining den outdoors.

On the top floor of the house are most of the bedrooms, including a private master apartment.

Among its highlights is an expansive dressing closet. The wood-paneled room has his and hers dressers, shoe display shelves and a handbag display cabinet.Another cabinet was designed to hold suits.

The second and third floors also boast ocean views.

Although the property is new on the market, Stroyke has already had interest from locals and those outside the beach area and not surprisingly.

If you want the small beach town with that sense of community and the walk to the village, its not Malibu, its not Venice, its not Santa Monica, its not (Pacific) Palisades, its not Redondo Beach, its not Long Beach, he said. In L.A. County, thats Manhattan and Hermosa Beach.

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Hermosa Beach home with 'on-top-of-the-world deck' tops asking price at $19 million - Beach Reporter

As the Below Deck series and spin-offs continue to multiply, its only natural to contrast the differing crew, boats, and captains. Turnover in yachting seems quite high among the crew, but the captains have been pretty consistent throughout the seasons.

Captain Lee Rosbach is our OG from the pilot episode, while Captain Sandy Yawn replaced Captain Mark Howard after one season and has been on Below Deck Mediterranean ever since. Captain Glenn Shephard is the newcomer at the helm of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. And while he seemed to have a firm and steady hand in terms of dealing with crew issues, his handling of a suspected charter guest with drugs did not go over so well in the season finale.

Captain Sandy had a lot to say about how Captain Glenn dealt with a charter guest who supposedly brought drugs on board the boat. The primary and the guest in question were confronted, and bags were searched. Captain Glenn did not find anything incriminating, and the charter guests tipped generously despite the uncomfortable situation. But what do you do when two crew members report seeing the charter guest behaving erratically with a white powder under his nose?

According to Captain Sandy, it should have been handled differently. Ive had lots of experience dealing with clients and drugs, she told In Touch Weekly. And while its hard to judge as each situation could be different, Sandy would not have gone through a clients luggage.

Sandy recalled one instance when a charter guest brazenly let her know that he had illegal substances on his person. I had one guy come up to me once and he goes, Can I smoke pot on the bow? I go, Did you ask me that question because you think I want to join you? Why [did] you ask me that? Sandy said, seriously, right now. You are on an international vessel. That word is a big, no. And if you have marijuana on board, I suggest you get it off now.

Sandysstrategy isto have the guest dispose of their own stash. She explained, I prefer to go to the primary client and say, Its been brought to my attention that theres maybe drugs on board. I need you to handle this and handle it now. I need them off the vessel.

If a client chooses not to cooperate, Sandy relies on administrative channels to deal with the issue. If they refuse to take their drugs off, she said, I then call the charter broker, first their broker, and I say, Im going to remove your client off the vessel because theyre refusing to take their drugs off.

Captain Glenn had other options, and Sandy suggested that searching luggage is not the best tact. I actually work within the confines. I dont ever go through their stuff, she concluded, thats not my job. Im not a cop.

TELL US- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF CAPTAIN GLENNS APPROACH? WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN THIS SITUATION? IS SANDY RIGHT?

[Photo Credit: Bravo]

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Below Deck Mediterranean Star Captain Sandy Yawn Says She Would Never Go Through A Guests Belongings If She Suspected They Brought Drugs On The Boat...

There's nothing like relaxing by your very own swimming pool on a hot summer's day. But to really enjoy the experience, you'll need the right setup, and that could mean installing a deck around your pool. That deck could run the entire length of your pool or just run adjacent to part of it, and there are different pool decking materials you can work with. Here are some options to consider.

The cost of a pool deck will depend on its size and the materials involved, but as a general rule, concrete is probably the most affordable option to use for a pool deck. You may assume that concrete can't look attractive, but that isn't the case. In the context of pool decking, it comes in a number of finishes, including stamped concrete, which can mimic the look of stone or tile. That said, concrete isn't the best choice for parts of the country that see extreme winters, as too much freezing could cause the concrete to crack.

Wood is another common choice when it comes to pool decking due to its affordability and classic look. But regular wood requires its share of maintenance, especially since it will be exposed to a fair amount of water sloshing out of the pool. You'll need to be prepared to stain and seal it regularly -- usually at least once a year.

Composite decking is designed to mimic the look of wood without all of the maintenance involved. The upside of composite is that it won't warp, splinter, or fade like natural wood will over time, and the upkeep involved is minimal. The downside is that composite costs a lot more than regular wood up front.

Nothing screams elegance like a pool deck made out of stone, and it's a material that's suitable for all types of climates. The benefit of stone, aesthetics aside, is that it's durable and requires little maintenance over time. The downside is that it can be expensive. If you're going to opt for stone decking, consider going with travertine, which is naturally slip-resistant and therefore appropriate for an area that's apt to see lots of wet feet.

Though more commonly found inside homes -- namely, in kitchens and bathrooms -- tile is another material to consider for a pool deck. The upside is that it's easy to install and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. It's also fairly affordable; generally, you'll spend less on tile than you will on stone. With tile, you can also choose from a number of design options, though keep in mind that you'll need to stick to unglazed tiles; the glazed type you'd typically find indoors is too slippery to be suitable for a pool deck.

If you're looking at having a pool deck constructed, you have plenty of options to choose from. To narrow things down, first ask yourself:

No matter what type of pool deck you land on, be sure to get quotes from different contractors before moving forward with one. The more research you do ahead of time, the more likely you are to pull off that project at a price point you're comfortable with.

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Everything You Need to Know About Pool Decks - Motley Fool

Star Trek: Lower Decks explores two fronts the franchise is seldom known for comedy and animation. Series creator Mike McMahan, whose credits include Adult Swim's Rick & Morty and co-creator of Solar Opposites, spoke to Collider about the balance between looking at Star Trek in a new light while also paying respect to the franchise. The series focuses the members of the lower decks of a starship crew instead of the senior officers and remaining bridge crew. "I'm a huge fan," McMahan said. "Nobody needs a Star Trek comedy that makes fun of [the franchise] or punches down, nor was I interested in doing that. I was interested in writing a Star Trek that could be canon. That follows the rules of other [previous] shows that I loved, and has everything that you love about [the franchise], including the way you tell stories. But I'm a comedy writer."

Despite the different formats, he didn't want to deviate from what already worked for the franchise as a template. "I'm never gonna write a serious Star Trek, so the way that we handled it's not on a capital ship. It's not about the bridge crew. It's about the lowest officers on that ship. But when we're breaking stories for the lower decks, every episode also has a proper Star Trek episode that's happening to the bridge crew, and our lower deckers aren't involved in it." McMahan explained the viewer will get the same elements they're used to but through a different perspective. "However, you can't have a big sci-fi thing happening on a starship and not have it affect them because that's their whole world," he said. "So if you're watching Lower Decks, you're getting a full Star Trek episode from the perspective of people who are having their own social and emotional stories and their own sci-fi stories, but they just aren't on the bridge. They don't have the information the bridge is getting, and they don't have the responsibility."

McMahon explained the importance of having characters that make sense within the realm of the franchise. "A big thing that was important to me was figuring out how do we comedically access these characters," he said. "How can these characters be funny and not break Star Trek? You can't have a Morty [from Rick and Morty] in Star Trek. You can't just have a stupid person in Starfleet, otherwise, it breaks the aspirational paradigm of what humanity is like in Starfleet. So our leads are foils for each other, but they're very much ingrained in Star Trek." The characters McMahan created drew inspiration from the existing canon.

"You have Ensign Beckett Mariner, who is sort of like our Tom Cruise/Maverick," he said. "Where she's amazing at Starfleet stuff, and she's incredibly knowledgeable, but she just hates following the rules and she bristles at the military structure. She wants to do whatever she wants. She's kind of like Captain Kirk if Kirk wasn't a captain and didn't have the power. Kirk would follow his gut, and she followers her gut. Then, Ensign Brad Boimler also knows everything about sci-fi stuff and is also an amazing Starfleet crew member, but he's so by-the-book and so burdened by following the rules that he can't follow his gut. So the comedic friction there is that they both want the same thing, they're both good at this stuff, but emotionally and from a human level, they're completely different about how they do it."

With the exception of an episode of Futurama and the short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series, Gene Roddenberry's vision of the utopian future on the screen was a predominantly a live-action affair. Currently the franchise is seeing a renaissance not seen before since Roddenberry introduced The Next Generation in 1987. With TNG and The Original Series' films' success came TV spinoffs in Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. Following the cancellation of Enterprise in 2005, Star Trek's future became uncertain.

Despite J.J. Abrams' Kelvin Universe reboot in 2009, it wouldn't be until 2017 when the next series Discovery premiered not on The CW or in syndication, but on the streaming CBS All Access. As the flagship for the ViacomCBS SVOD service, the series generated renewed interest in the franchise unlike any before from audiences to the network itself. The success of Discovery led to expanded projects for executive producer Alex Kurtzman. Among them included the immensely popular Picard, Lower Decks, and now, Strange Worlds as the first direct spinoff of Discovery. Star Trek: Lower Decks premieres on CBS All Access in 2020.

I'm a follower of pop culture from gaming, comics, sci-fi, fantasy, film, and TV for over 30 years. I grew up reading magazines like Starlog, Mad, and Fangora. As a professional writer for over 10 years, Star Wars was the first sci-fi franchise I fell in love with. I'm a nerd-of-all-trades.

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Lower Decks: Mike McMahan On Why You Can't Have Morty in Star Trek - Bleeding Cool News