Star Trek: Discovery

[Veho]

Trailer oop.

​

Set in the original series continuity, around 10 years before Kirk's adventures.

The main character is Sarek's adopted human daughter who also grew up on Vulcan. Yes, Spock's (adopted) sister. We will also find out why Spock never mentioned her. The creators promise they will find a way to cram her into the canon without any retconning of the previous series, but it all smells like a fanfiction Mary Sue to me. Like Harry Potter's hotter twin brother who was left with his other aunt.

And they've redesigned the Klingons again. The show will reveal how Klingons got their forehead ridges. And then lost them in TOS. Then regained them sometime before TNG.

And of course I'm gonna watch it because it's friggin Star Trek, okay? Don't judge me.

Anywhooo. Thoughts?

 

[Chary]

Seems yeah, a bit too mary sue for me. I'm so sure, Spock's adopted sister. Puh-lease. They didn't need to cram that in. Interesting that they're going before Kirk's era, though. I honestly just want more Star Trek movies with the alternate timeline cast, Chris Pine was really good as Kirk imo. I suppose I'll watch it just cuz like you said, it's friggin Star Trek.

 

[DinohScene]

I'd rather have it play out in the 29th century.
But yeh, I'll watch it tho.

 

[Sky_Execution]

I watched the first 2 episodes and didn't quite enjoy it.

 

[dimmidice]

Seems yeah, a bit too mary sue for me. I'm so sure, Spock's adopted sister. Puh-lease. They didn't need to cram that in. Interesting that they're going before Kirk's era, though. I honestly just want more Star Trek movies with the alternate timeline cast, Chris Pine was really good as Kirk imo. I suppose I'll watch it just cuz like you said, it's friggin Star Trek.

Man, you had it spot on, Michael is totally a mary sue. I'm a die hard trekkie, but i'm passing on this. Doesn't feel like trek to me, and i can't stand any of the characters. (other than Saru but he's inconsistent in how he's written though)

 

[Sky_Execution]

Someone told me that in this one the klingons now eat people...please tell me that isn't true.

 

[dimmidice]

Someone told me that in this one the klingons now eat people...please tell me that isn't true.

Yup. It's not shown though. But they technically always ate people. "Eat the heart" is often mentioned. The difference to me is old star trek was subtle about stuff like this. New trek draws attention to it. They're turning star trek into some dark and edgy show (old trek also had episodes like that, but it wasn't built on it) And i don't want that.

 

[Cyan]

it's a prequel ?
I never watched startrek, except the first episode of the very first series. (didn't age very well, )
There are too many episode if I want to catch up all the series, but maybe starting with this one is good if it's chronologically older?

 

[Sky_Execution]

I do agree the older series had alot of subtleties. This one feels out of place for me.

 

[Veho]

There are too many episode if I want to catch up all the series, but maybe starting with this one is good if it's chronologically older?

Absolutely and definitely not.
If you want to watch Star Trek, start with the second season of The Next Generation.

 

[dimmidice]

it's a prequel ?
I never watched startrek, except the first episode of the very first series. (didn't age very well, )
There are too many episode if I want to catch up all the series, but maybe starting with this one is good if it's chronologically older?

This one would be an awful one to start with. It doesn't feel like the other shows, It's premise is different, it's fully serialized, and they bend if not break canon. And this is only the first 6 episodes.

If you think TOS (The Original Series) is too old (I do too, only watched a handful of eps) Start with TNG (The Next Generation). Season 1 is a bit wonky but it gets better. If you don't like an episode you can just skip it.

If you don't like TNG (you can just start with DS9 (Deep Space 9). It's a bit different, it's partially serialized, it's a bit darker overall (though not as dark as DIS) and has less of a starfleet feel. Season 1 is again a bit wonky though. I wouldn't recommend skipping too many episodes of this one as each one has character development in the backstories and such. But if you can't stand one episode it's not the worst thing to skip it. Also skip S01E10. It's the worst.

Then there's VOY (Voyager) left. Voy is from the same time as TNG/DS9. And chronologically It's concurrent with DS9. It's the weakest of the TNG/DS9/VOY trio in my opinion. But it has its moments. It's also almost completely unserialized.

ENT (Enterprise) is a prequel (Before any other show) and is the second newest show (Since DIS is here now) I quite like it, others do not. But it's definitely worth a try.


Also check out Babylon 5. It's not a star trek show, but it's goddamn excellent. the CGI sadly hasn't aged well but writing wise and such it's just brilliant.


The intro alone gives me bloody goosebumps. It also has a kind of weak season 1 though.

 

[Sky_Execution]

DS9 was ok. TNG was good. And I honestly havent watched Babylon 5 so I might check it out.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I didn't think much of the first episode however after that I really got in to it. It's different but in a good way I think, i've been enjoying the story line too.

The main thing that annoys me is the klingon's actually speak klingon quite a bit. I find having to read subtitles a lot less immersive when watching something, so it gets annoying when it's a scene that goes on for a couple of minutes.

I'm not a hardcore trekkie, Voyager is my favorite series which a lot more of the hardcore fans hate from what I gather. I did really enjoy The Next Generation also.

 

[FAST6191]

Watched all of them thus far and ruminated on the matter for a few days.
Oddly compelling but incredibly soft sci fi with most things being more "that's a cool thing, let's include it" than any kind of real exploration. It then makes for something with no real stakes, and while that does not always bother me it does not do well here.

I imagine if you cared about canon and such it could annoy but I don't. I am quite OK with shared quasi background history (see also things like all the gangs and such that Fox and FX share between many of their shows) rather than suffering another origin story.

Guess I have been too spoiled by the expanse, and even Dark Matter and Killjoys I find rather more enjoyable. Don't mind the grim und gritty thing at all. Battlestar reboot proved it could work, all the others mentioned followed that line, and clean space adventure does seem to have fallen somewhat by the wayside.

If it lumbers on then it will be because Star Trek, standing on its own merits I don't know. I would not be surprised to see budget cuts (as it stands it is quite high at around 8 million per episode, lot of very good TV gets made for half that and this is set to be 15 episodes for the first series) and then it fading quietly.

Some said Mary Sue and while I don't know about that, or at least is stops a bit short of that, I could see this being the fan fiction of characters from a better show or writers saw plot devices in other shows and clumsily inserted them*. That or "designed for binge watching but could still be self contained" and as such still suffers quickly resolving arcs.

*

Spoiler: really a minor spoiler

The death of the head of security in whatever episode that was. While I appreciated the attempt to give her a bit of character beforehand it still did nothing when it hit.

 

[Cyan]

Thanks for explaining the series order, and saying I could skip some.
I like to watch in order, but release order is probably the best choice. I'll give another try but I might skip TOS

I liked The expanse and Dark matter. I didn't watch killjoys yet.
I never had the chance to watch battlestar either. I hope to fix that one day.

(but this weekend, I'll watch something else, something more strange )

 

[FAST6191]

I once saw a discussion about when TV shows and film franchises, the basis of which was when they have a plot arc featuring amnesia that they have run out of ideas. I think I shall have to amend that for sci fi/fantasy to include time loops (or a functional equivalent) where such things are not the central theme under exploration. Most seem to wait at least a couple of series before it happens though.

and so as to at least have something amusing going on in this post

 

[FAST6191]

Was the mid series finale today/last night.

As before I find it to be a zero stakes show (any one in which problems get handwaved can not really be anything else) with some soft sci fi themed episodes. Makes for an amusing enough light show though.

 

[Proust]

 

[FAST6191]

Anybody been watching it since it came back?

Spoiler

So they are in a parallel universe, here star fleet is a xenophobic(?) empire and they are trying to pass on their ship and another Mary Sue happens to be captain of. She claims it is hard but "show, don't tell" was all that went through my head there. If I was being a complete nerd I would contemplate quantum randomness as well -- they have a necessarily paranoid authoritarian government and no impersonator/ID protocols based on some prebaked randomness list? Also a surprising amount of stuff that would be solved with security cameras and life sign monitors, maybe that is still too futuristic.

 

[LightyKD]

Three more episodes to go this season and it has been one hell of a ride! It starts off as a slow burn then halfway through we just get this explosion of awesome! BTW if you haven't watched it yet, the little things matter. You will be happy to have watch through the parts that seem not as important.