It's a funny, silly series, but it's Trek, the cool, the cheesy, the goofy, and the just plain weird. The stuff that it feels like Modern Trek is kind of embarrassed by.
Me on the Cerritos after first reveal: "Jesus christ that's an ugly ship" Me after the first season and the second season: "That's my ugly ship, my lovely ugly ship"
The California-class isn't the prettiest ship in Starfleet, but it could be SO much worse. I mean, the Cerritos could be a Freedom-class ship. Now THAT'S ugly.
As a fan of Classic Trek, specifically TOS and TNG, Lower Decks definitely FEELS like my kind of Trek! 😍😁 I love the references, including those of TAS and the feeling of the Lower Decks crew and Command Staff of the Cerritos really drawing closer together as one whole unit which makes them all feel like a crew worthy of TNG Trek. This is a crew as proud of their ship as Picard was of the Enterprise-D and I can't love it ENOUGH. They done good... can't wait for Season 3! 😁
@@christopheralthouse6378 No self respecting Trek fan agrees with you and no self respecting person that likes good tv agrees either. Lower Deck is made by idiots, for idiots and lacks any and all understanding of the base cores and principles that Roddenberry established by creating the series in the first place. EDIT* had I noticed your PFP as I posted my comment I would have just saved my breath, that definitely explains why you actually think these garbage Trek shows are good.
The spacedock scene with the officers coming onboard on a shuttle for no reason and doing endless turns around the ship among the nonsensical lens flares totally had me cracking up
Yeah, I have not been impressed by this show at all so far, but I have to admit that that was actually a really good joke. Exactly the kind of thing that Trekkies would "get" and be able to chuckle at.
I have to say, whoever composed the music for the episode was amazing! He/she was able to capture the exact "sound" of the James Horner theme for ST2:TWOK without outright copying it. Bravo!
You know the show is more than “haha funny farts in space” when even the soundtrack is this good We’re kinda spoiled considering we got *two* shows like this (lower decks and the Orville)
Well it's not that difficult - for a start use either an orchestra's horn section or a really good horn section sample pack, add some EQ, a touch of compression, and a bucket load of reverb and you're halfway there. Of course, it does help that Lower Decks theme is the best since TNG's.
The extremely long shuttle trip around the Ceretos with the James Hornereque score was one of my favourite bits of Lower Decks. The writers have to be pretty deep Star Trek nerds to be lampooning not very obvious bits from movies from forty years ago.
As a soundtrack nerd I was grinning when I heard that score. For a few seconds I thought they copied the score directly into the scene. Let's be real, James Horner was the best of the movie composers.
“Not very obvious bits” buddy, starship glory shots were, like a full 20 minutes of the first movie, practically. And appeared in every movie afterward.
I just finished Picard and there were lens flares. I thought, "Is J. J. Abrams here too? Or did they just pick it as their own thing, whole Star Trek?" Lower Decks is my second Star Trek series. Only seen the J J Abrams reboots beside these.
@@Bobsmith-xq2pr I don't think the Cerritos uses gravity plating. It would be a gravity generator. TOS used a generator to control gravity except in 2 places where the field doesn't reach.
Honestly, the crackle of energy between the nacelles is a pretty interesting touch, because that's something that Roddenberry had originally wanted with the refit enterprise, but was unable to add due to, well, budget.
I could be wrong but I think the section where the Ceritos was smashing over the snow filled mountains might also be referencing the Voyager episode Timeless.
I was just laughing the entire time of the Lower Decks spacedock scene - you could see they were just lampooning the entire movie franchise. The misty eyed admiration of the shiny new ship, its name gleaming below the lights and the lens flare - oh god the lens flare! How do you even animate lensflare?! And all that flying and the different camera angles ... and on and on ... great stuff!
You gotta remember, while it seems like a lost wheel circling the drain, really on closer inspection, as it descends, it punches through fucking mountains without stopping...Sooo that means the weapons that took it down are so powerful that literally mountains are marshmallows to the Enterprise.
It is actually a sign of respect when you're willing to laugh at yourself, taking the worst with the best, the most ridiculous to the sublime. Hey, wasn't there a scene in _ST:Enterprise_ where Archer and Trip are checking out the ship in a shuttle pod and Trip bumps the pod into it? TV series, not a movie, I know...
How is that respect? Laughing doesn’t has to be a negative thing. It can be made respectfully. But it doesn’t become a sign of respect itself. also no. For being respectful you have to keep smiths core idea intact. If I laugh at myself it’s only positive if people notice that I actually respect myself for something. Else it’s actual self-hate and no one likes that about someone
@@squattingheads I was thinking about it from the standpoint of understanding that nothing is perfect, but that shouldn't stop us from being happy with the product. It's kind of like being able to look back at something stupid you did when you were young, but fondly; should you have done it? Probably not, but it's part of who you are today. Being able to laugh at yourself means understanding yourself as a whole. There's a big difference between a good-natured laugh and trying to ridicule something or someone. I'm not sure how we got to the point of others viewing a humorous viewpoint as possibly being self-hate.
Yup there's a nice scratch on the nx until they end up at an automated space station that repairs the ship technically for free (minor supply trade and stealing a crew member)
I don't care what anyone thinks, the "reveal" of the Enterprise refit in STTMP is still one of my favorite extended scenes ever. I was in High School and when STTMP first came out, and ended up seeing it in the theater about a week after it opened. The refit is my favorite Star Trek vessel of all time.
Agreed. Imagine that you are about to command 1 million metric tons of space power projection, and as the flagship, no less, Im pretty sure anyone would want to take the scenic route.
People nowadays don't realize we had 10 years with almost no Star Trek when STTMP came out. We were eating it up. And then it came out on Showtime and then VHS and we ate it up even more.
You just literally took the words out of my mouth. Lol. Even now the U.S.S. Discovery has crashed on a planet in this week's episode. They're sure obsessed with Starfleet ships crashing on planets but I still enjoy them doing it. Lol
@@sandytentaclez1051 Well, they did have several scenes of repairs, but it seems they managed to land a bit softer (also Discovery still was in one piece when going down, the Enterprises were missing their stardrive sections and warp cores - don't know about Voyager as I haven't seen that specific episode).
@@tomf3150 even jarjar Abrams tried to make the ship a character a little. Unfortunately he had no time for any plot outside of weapons fire to let it breathe. Remember the first time Kirk sees the enterprise? Your 90% right but atleast as much as he could he understood it.
@@crimsoncrusader4829 didn’t see the movie. Gave up on those ones, but it seemed liked it from the clips on RU-vid. And I liked the taking the ship in the new direction, they just didn’t write it with any reverence. It’s a long way from Horatio Hornblower.
It`s simultaneously hilarous and understandable. We laugh because we can relate, can`t we? I would sure have some wet eyes when approaching a f***ing spaceship in real life haha
Discovery: Has a protagonist with plot armor forged from the tears of everyone who grew up watching Star Trek Picard: Shits on the most beloved character in the canon in order to validate characters who REALLY want to feel as important as he was Lower Decks: Has a male character that makes Jerry Sanchez look like Rambo
Being a tribute/send up to the films plus actually delving into character and managing to strike a balance of humor perhaps why Crisis Point is my favorite episode of Lower Decks Season 1.
Crisis Point was Lower Decks going: "Guess what, fuckers? We're gonna grow the GODDAMN BEARD!" Season 3 and 4 is when they made good on the promise of Crisis Point.
There's an actual difference between the two crashes, though. In Generations, the entire crew (minus Picard) was aboard the saucer section, with Data and Troi working hard to reestablish helm control. Data does so, which allowed them to adjust the decent and course of the saucer a little bit to minimize damage and casualties. Star Trek Beyond, the saucer was a dead brick and abandoned. Does this mean the saucer, out of control, is going to behave the way it does when, say, running into mountains? Dunno. It's a pretty massive object with a lot of velocity, but those mountains are, y'know... pretty massive objects in their own right. The way it crashed may or may not have been physically possible... I just don't know enough to say. As far as the shots on their cinematic effect... of course Generations was definitely done better. Practical effects will always beat out CGI when it's not a moment they'll spend most of the budget on.
My two cents: I think the Generations crash has more impact. I don't mean narratively - it literally feels like a harder crash. Maybe it's because of the landmass getting scooped up or maybe it's the fact we keep cutting back to the crew *inside* the saucer, but it really does *hit* harder than Beyond. I may be biased - the Enterprise-D was the one I grew up with and is my favourite, so seeing it get destroyed was always going to have more impact for me.
Is it poking fun at old trek...or pointing out how in the new shows that the ships are just a space vehicle? The ships in star trek used to feel huge, majestic...and were almost treated as characters. Now they are just CGI vehicles that fly around like star Wars craft so that the space battles can be flashy.
Funny how much more realistic that Generations crash looks compared to that more modern Trek crash, can't remember the name of that movie. It looks so CGI that it might as well be a cartoon itself! That Generations crash is great. All these nods to Trek history do is just make me miss good Trek even more. 😟
In reference to ST:FC, SirPat said in an interview "Our sets were THERE, they were built!!!", because real sets, real models and real effects always beat CGI, no matter how advanced it is, cos the crash landing of the D's saucer was real, on a scale set built for that purpose...
@@ZeroB4NG They did build actual scale models of that and crashed them into each other, I think it was part of the "Making of" extras on at least the DVD I have of the film, quite spectacular to see in action the speed at which they rammed the models together...
It's a little of both: having the big ship montage end with intense spinning is pretty obvious parody, but It works its way to the joke through homage. The punchline needs the setup.
It's like mariner said... "Yeah, I read it, only so I could make fun of it." to truly parody something it is best made out of love and knowledge of the original... While still having orginal ideas (seltzer I'm looking at you)
This would have made sense for the start of season 3. I can easily seeing the ship being in drydock to replace the outer hull panels that they removed.
I was hating Nutrek (discover and Picard 1-2). However I gave SNW a chance, and I’m so glad I did, it’s fantastic. This lead to me giving Picard 3 a shot. To my surprise Terry Matalas cleaned up the mess and gave us one of the best Legacy send offs. Now I’m watching lower decks and it’s pretty dang funny and I love how it pays homage to all things trek. Not since I was a kid in the 90s has Star Trek been more alive. Good on them for fixing Nutrek from being a weird bleak dystopian future, to being to hopefully future we all love about trek.
self satire is weak. "haha ST has gratuitous ship-reveal sequences! 'member??" the other series were trying to create a sense of majesty & wonder for the revealed ship. this makes it a joke that anyone could be moved emotionally seeing a new vessel. it's not a bad joke. it was executed well enough. they shouldn't undermine their own franchise though... but that's most of what LD does. smh
@@PyrokineticFire1 affectionately poking fun at it is not "undermining" it. The fact that it's not aiming for the same sense of majesty or cerebral concepts does not make it lesser, it just makes it different. And that should be celebrated, the franchise's official motto IS "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations".
And im missing the Point on where the Satire tells us what’s good about the actual spirit of the show. since it doesn’t do it, it feels like they are actually laughing about it, not with it
@@squattingheads Star Trek has always has a very flexible tone across all shows. DS9 is probably the most extreme example, going from very dark stories about the ravages of war to straight up hijinks comedy episodes (particularly Ferengi episodes). It helps not to approach Trek as something like a documentary where everything is tonally consistent. It’s a richer tapestry than that.
Comments about satire being out of canon, and the show seems to be more laughing "at" than "with" are spot on. I see some in the show to ... "like" but elements of it don't click with me and the overall heart of the show doesn't seem to be "there" with what I view Trek to be and it just really does seem like absurd satire.
We’ve had our... bumps in the road. (Queue all the bad episodes of the golden age of Trek, Enterprise seasons 1-2, Discovery seasons 1-2, and Picard season 1) But we’re getting through the dark tunnel at last
Winni, how does a scene that is about another Trek show fit a list about MOVIES? This is a list of LD making fun of the movies, not merely referencing another Trek show.
2:54 Funny thing is in the old technical writings from the original Trek the reason the nacelles were out away from the ship was because they were going to have an energy beam between them when at warp. That is a nice nod to that.
The problem with watching the "circle around" from the first ST film is that it's kinda like watching someone else's birthday party video. You'll never get it unless you were there - that means, you'd have to be an absolute diehard fan since the original broadcast of the television series, waited for 10 years for the film's release, then waited 3 hours to see the 7pm film on opening night. TBH... the only people who loved that over-the-top exhibition were the people in the audience with me at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood on opening night. I showed this film to my kids - big 50" flatscreen with ultra-whoop digi - and my son (about 16 at the time) said, "Dad. Can we watch something else?" Ah yeah...the party balloons have long since gone away. Good fodder for great joke scenes tho.
Not necessarily! I was young when TNG, DS9, and Voyager were around and I thought they were all boring. Just character stuff. They never left the ship. I barely knew the characters because I never watched the shows. But my friend had tapes of TOS and we watched them all the time. I learned about Trek like all the kids in the 60s and 70s: basically at random with just the original series and the animated series. Then, one day, I saw on the TV guide that The Motion Picture was going to be on TV and I watched it. I absolutely loved that opening sequence. I found the movie unbelievably boring, but I loved the special effects. I still kinda don't really like the other Trek series. They're fine I guess, but TOS and SNW are the winners for me.
I started watching TOS in the 80s before TNG started and had no idea there were movies as I was 6. When I finally watched TMP it was on a VCR hooked up to a monitor for a commodore 64 which was as could get to HD back then. I was gobsmacked at the reveal. I must have hit rewind 4 or 5 times and rewatched the scene.
@@fryfry377 don't Miranda class ships get destroyed like all the time? it's like flying in the gunship next to the gunship your Jedi protagonist is in.
@@fryfry377 I'm with you on the Miranda (I was very reluctant to swap up on STO). It wouldn't be a bad gig; little backwater corner of the Federation, chasing pirates and smugglers, running science experiments, helping colonists.
On this video the effect of the joke is lessened because it's intercut with footage from the movies. The uncut scene goes on for way too long, much like the opening shot of space balls; that's the joke. Though it does poke fun a lot, basically all of lower decks is a love letter to TOS and TNG so you are right
I disagree. The creators of all the modern Trek series have shown that they only want to destroy the franchise and urinate on Gene's grave. Granted, some of the jokes might have been funny if this wasn't an official Star Trek show. But Star Trek doesn't parody _itself_ like this. Trek takes its universe very seriously. The whole tone is wrong here.
@@Scripture-Man >Trek takes its universe very seriously. Hmm, please elaborate on that. But give me a moment to change into a nice suit and grab a tommy gun so that I can look like a 1920s gangster. We can settle down for a game of Fizzbin. Don't mind the tribbles, they're harmless. Unless we're on shore leave, in which case don't follow any white rabbits you see no matter how late they say they are. They're real Practical Jokers. Up the Long Ladder. Q-Pid. Rascals. Data's Day. A Fistful of Datas. Trials and Tribble-Ations. House of Quark. Little Green Men. The Magnificent Ferengi. One Little Ship. Take Me Out to the Holosuite. Bride of Chaotica. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Star Trek used to make jokes and be funny all the damn time. It never took its universe particularly seriously - perhaps not to the extent of "Lower Decks", but given how utterly dour recent Trek has been, I welcome Trek being funny again. Or as Picard once phrased it, "sometimes, Number One, you just have to...bow to the absurd."
@@Vipre- Allamaraine, count to four, Allamaraine, then three more, Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you'll come with me! And also there was that TOS episode where the crew literally saved the day from androids by being as utterly ridiculous and nonsensical as possible.
@@RogueShadows I never said Star Trek lacked humor, I said Star Trek takes its universe very seriously. It never winks at the camera and breaks the 4th wall, or sends itself up. Any humorous situations were always grounded in a firm sense of reality. But above all, it's about the _tone_ of the humor. The humor in Trek was always gentle, wholesome and good-natured. But Lower Decks serves up the lowest, crassest form of humor, of a kind never seen before on Star Trek: Idiotic, foolish, irreverent, crude, odd, manic, juvenile, grotesque. It's a dark show with a dark world, just like STD and STP. And that's really what it boils down to. Gene Roddenberry's world was a bright, utopian future where people were polite, respectful, wholesome, sincere, noble, with high moral standards - the kind of folks you could aspire to be. Heroes, in other words. In contrast, Lower Decks (and the other new series) betray this with unpleasant characters who act like hyperactive children and drunken fools. Indeed, it seems like the show is aimed towards the 'drunken' mentality, the kind of folks who delight in foulness, with minds in the gutter. Star Trek was not like that, Star Trek looked upwards. There's one young female officer who always looks so arrogant and smug and seems like a really unpleasant bossy girl with an attitude problem. Real Star Trek had absolutely no trace of characters with that kind of 'attitude'. All the characters were good and respectful. Captain Janeway was a beloved character and leader, and she never once spoke disrespectfully towards any man. And then there's vocabulary. The characters in Lower Decks speak using 21st century slang, coming across like the worst the 21st century has to offer. This is supposed to be in the 24th century when people speak in a dignified and refined manner! The most obvious example is that people in Star Trek do not cuss! Star Trek was always a show that the whole family could watch together. But Lower Decks is only aimed at adults, continuing the offensive language of STD and STP. For that detail alone, I could never watch a show like that. The fact that this is a cartoon makes it all the worse: some families may assume it's just a nice family show and let their children watch it! Even when the Enterprise D was crashing, and Data's emotion chip malfunctioning, his use of the 's' word was borderline objectionable and I hated it, but it was a feature film so I give it a little leeway. But the idea of Trek characters casually cussing is absolutely unthinkable and never going to be a part of REAL Trek canon. Now it seems that Lower Decks is a little more popular with fans than the other recent series. And if they can enjoy it, then that's great, I'm happy for them. But it's not "Star Trek" and does not belong in the Star Trek franchise. If they'd called it "Space Trek" and it wasn't an official part of the Trek universe/canon, I would have no problem at all. I might even have watched it. I watched the Family Guy Star Wars parodies and can enjoy them knowing that they're not actually a part of Star Wars. But as it is, Lower Decks totally undermines the franchise. I'm sorry, people in the 24th century just do not speak and behave that way!
@@ZeroB4NGactually in the original star trek TOS pilot "the cage" captain pike said "punch it",the cage was filmed in 1965, star wars was filmed in 1970. (might of got the dates wrong)
@@jeremy__hopkins I think Lower Decks was always going to have a rough start, given the pre-formed perception of it being “Rick & Morty playing Trek”. Luckily the show proved pretty fast that the creators are serious Trek nerds, and ones who can write for television at that. Also broke the traditional “first season sucks” curse, and with the shortest season one of any Trek show. Credit where it’s due, eh?
As a trekkie I say hell no. Sadly its rick and morty with a star trek re-skin. Garbage is still garbage no matter the bag its in. Call me a hater..I don't care.. but I'm not giving cbs a pass.
The one thing I really wished is that Marriner could have made an amazing nod to DS9 in the episode where Q showed up, right in the closing scene when they walk off stage left, Q follows them in his chair. Marriner makes a crack about Picard quoting Shakespeare at him. I think she should have said something about taking a page from Sisko's logs, followed by a rather loud offscreen SMACK!, followed by Q shooting from stage left to stage Right with a black eye.
@@pdehoff1 Guess there's only so much time in an episode but I agree, that would've been fun. John deLancie's voice being a mock indignant Q is always worth it! 👍 Stay Safe!
I don't know why they needed to make a Star Trek "comedy", Trek always had a great sense of humour. I'm watching DS9 for the first time and Quark and Odo are hilarious together.
The Ascent (S5E9) is a personal favourite of mine. Watching two "mostly enemies, sort've friends-ish" struggle to survive always makes for an entertaining watch. :)
That would be the difference between people who know how to have comedy in a star trek universe vs people who constantly toss it in your face and wonder why you're not laughing.
@@alexlemonds2838 I watched that episode a few days ago, and yeah, the relationship between Quark and Odo is comedy gold. My personal favourite is from Bar Association (S4E16) where Quark and Brunt are talking about how to deal with the strike, and in the background you just see 2 Nausicaans just throwing darts at each other, like one throws the dart and the other’s chest, then the second one just pulls the dart out and throws it back at the first guys chest, and so on. It’s very understated yet hilarious in context with the seriousness of the Quark/Brunt conversation in the foreground.
what i love the most on this episode is how they make the lowerdecks theme really theatrical style and giving hommage to Jerry Gold Smith , James Horner etc... id actually want to see a Lowerdecks Movie now :)
Alex Kurtzman and JJ Abrams saw the parody and got really mad. However, then 500 simultaneous lens flares blinded them, left them helpless, and then calmed down and laughed at it. True Story.
OMG ... The all shiny bridge is even reflected in the animated version ... Is that part of the 25% of changes? Because then I could just apply a filter to any scifi looking like Star Trek and say it is NOT trek.
Did you notice that the hallway battle between the crew- led by Mariner and her contraband weapons vs the Pakleds has the exact SAME orchestral score from the Wrath of Khan during the first engagment of the Battle of the Mutara Nebula ( where Kirk uses the prefix code?) cue up both scenes . same music! LOL
The tear in the eye while gazing out with window with admiration should be a tradition in every show now haha Lower Decks is great! But why such short seasons (assuming the next will be just as frustratingly short)? Give me 24 episodes.
Okay, something I don't think has been mentioned; that SCORE. If you listen, it's just the LD intro theme, but given a full orchestration and slowed down slightly, giving it that grand, sweeping feeling evocative of Jerry Goldsmith's TMP theme.
I loved the epicness of the reveal of the Cerritos in 109. the music was just perfect, the lens flares seemed overdone (yes, i get it was a spoof of the Kelvin-verse films) and Billups tearing up when the shuttle is looking at the ship is exactly how I react in moments like that (for example, when the Helicarrier rises out of the water in the first Avengers film, I teared up). I reckon Episode 9 is my favorite episode of LD S1. they need to revisit Vindicta again, it was just awesome seeing Mariner acting as a villain on the same level as Khan was just perfect.
Oh my god I forgot about the guy crying tears of joy at the sight of the Ceretos, what a legend. This show doesn't get enough credit for how funny it is
Laugh if you will, but I remember in 1979 seeing The Enterprise close up, in glorious detail for the first time. I didn't breathe the entire "Captain's Tour" sequence. Seen on the big screen, that was literally breathtaking for me. Billup's reaction hits home.
The Enterprise was treated as a character in its own right. Ever since Star Trek 3, the Enterprise has been blown up so many times that the ship has just become an expendable ship. Enterprise was blown up in Star Trek 3, Star Trek Generations, Star Trek Nemesis, Star Trek Beyond.
All those scenes pay homage to some of the iconic scenes in star trek, and they do it in a way that doesn't feel cliche. I've seen an attempt at a reboot from the 80's and it didn't work because every other line felt ripped from the original. But this is just so beautifully done. If I had to give Lower Decks a rating, it would have to be a high 9 out of 10.
Upon seeing the first looks at this show, o assumed it would be as bad as the other new trek shows. But I gotta say, it really grew on me in the late first and second seasons. My favorite of modern trek by a mile.
The 'Lower Decks' folks had entirely TOO much fun mocking the 'Trek' films. This is the sort of thing that only Ascended Fanboys and Fangirls can do - and thank the Great Bird of the Galaxy for them!
I think at this point even the most hardcore star trek fans can agree that the kelvin timeline at least respected and wanted to be star trek vs this lower decks crap
@@madmettlepants7454 I love TOS incl. Movies, TNG incl. Movies, VOY, DS9, LD and i can life with DIS and PIC (with PIC more than with DIS) ... but Kelvin Timeline is realy crap ...
Say what you will about Lower Decks but at least it has a sense of levity. Maybe my standards are just lowered by DISCO and PICARD but this show's paying off after a rough start.
ST:D is Star Trek in name only. Picard tried to ride off of nostalgia but it was really flat. Lower Decks, much like The Orville, actually did a better job of capturing the vibe of Star Trek, even if they both added more comedic spins to it.
The shot at 1:27 with the camera passing over the rim of the saucer is a direct reference to a similar shot in Beyond when the Enterprise docks at Yorktown.
It's meant to be similar to a lot of those kitbashed designs that usually hide in the background of TNG/DS9, the ships that the studio jusy cobbled together but look wonky.
The destruction of the refit Enterprise in the Search for Spock will always be the one that had the biggest emotional impact. All others did not have near the same impact as losing NCC-1701. Maybe it is because the original Enterprise was more like one of the characters as well as the refit arguably being the best version of the Enterprise.
@@technounionrepresentative4274 Charles' quote is from TNG's pilot episode, where Data is talking to "the admiral" - they never actually call McCoy by his name.
there is one thing i want to know, what happens to all the stuff that gets "dropped" when working on the ships, i mean, they can't keep track of EVERY SINGLE nut, bolt, sonic screwdriver that floats away from a person, if they just let it float around it could cause damage , so how do they get all the stuff that could clog up engines and other things.
My headcanon is that they have weak gravity generation in all directions in the spacedock. Not only would it help with keeping the ship in place, it could be used to gently guide the occasional stray tool to a collection surface.