TV/Film: So: Star Trek Discovery

[Sefiru]

I hear there's a new Star Trek show out!

I haven't been watching it myself as I have no TV, but I've heard a few people's thoughts on it and they are ... mixed.

Coworker: Thought it's too action-oriented and "more like Aliens than Star Trek"
Brother: Enjoyed it, does not consider quality important.
Internet reviewer (Cracked): too much action, major plot holes.

Anyone here watching? Thumbs up or down? Does the show live up to the Star Trek name?

[Morag]

Anyone here watching? Thumbs up or down? Does the show live up to the Star Trek name?

I honestly really dislike it and don't think it should be called Star Trek.

If it were an original sci-fi show then I'd probably enjoy it a lot more, but so far IMO they're just crapping all over canon for no reason & the writing is...ugh.

Main character is basically a Mary Sue; there IS a main character instead of having an ensemble cast of multiple "main" characters; instead of a good start with us getting to know said characters they start with OMG SUPER HIGH STAKES and I'm supposed to care that these people I met seconds ago are in danger...why?

I mean even Star Trek 2009 had a better lead-in towards the high-stakes than STD did. STD was like, IMMEDIATELY EVERYONE IS IN DANGER and I'm like "ok cool, I don't care." That type of immediate high stakes works much better for a movie than a TV show.

It's full of highly anvillicious political rhetoric (done BADLY) that is supposedly from the side I'm supposed to be on, but I absolutely hate feeling like I'm being punched in the face with a political paradigm no matter what side it's from. (This is actually why I hate a lot of the more liberal-leaning shows these days; it is constant in your face THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO BELIEVE & IF YOU DON'T YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PERSON plus about 10,000 dogwhistles a season. Instead of just focusing on, I don't know...story? Character?)

What they've done to Klingons is inexcusable and stupid, seeing as if they wanted to have an established Star Trek race of xenophobes they could have, idk, chosen the Romulans, who are already massive xenophobes. Even the Cardassians would have been a better choice.

Also... there is something supremely screwed up about

Spoiler:  

an albino Klingon being the allegorical white supremacist and showing his faith and adherence to the cause by holding his hand over what looks like a tiki torch.

The time it's set in is a bad choice; I have to assume they only did it to make the main character more "special" by having her foster-father be Sarek (which is the stupidest thing that adds NOTHING to the show except to make the character even more of a Mary Sue; oh yeah, here's Spock's foster sister that we've literally never heard of before).

They continually use tech that is WAY too advanced for the time it's set (10 years before TOS) -- if they wanted to use that tech, why not set it after DS9 and Voyager? Would have been a much better time, especially because there'd be so much room to explore more stuff with the Gamma and Delta quadrants. And you could use all the new tech you want! Instead of shoehorning IMPOSSIBLE HOLOGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION into a pre-TOS series. >:d

Also first two episodes had a TON of imagery that triggered my trypophobia so I spent them scratching at my skin and pulling at my hair to try to relieve it. Haven't seen 3rd ep yet, but have heard it's got shaky cam so likely it will make me throw up.


tl;dr it's awful and I'm so mad it exists & I could have ranted a lot more but my post is long enough already.

[ehbowen]

I honestly really dislike it and don't think it should be called Star Trek.


tl;dr it's awful and I'm so mad it exists & I could have ranted a lot more but my post is long enough already.

Don't mince words, Morag; tell us what you really think!

[ehbowen]

Don't mince words, Morag; tell us what you really think!

For the young whippersnappers who may not "get" the reference:

[MadZealot]

It's full of highly anvillicious political rhetoric (done BADLY) that is supposedly from the side I'm supposed to be on, but I absolutely hate feeling like I'm being punched in the face with a political paradigm no matter what side it's from. (This is actually why I hate a lot of the more liberal-leaning shows these days; it is constant in your face THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO BELIEVE & IF YOU DON'T YOU ARE A TERRIBLE PERSON plus about 10,000 dogwhistles a season. Instead of just focusing on, I don't know...story? Character?)

This is the main criticism I've heard, mostly in along the lines of "Discovery was written by 'SJWs' for 'SJWs'." I get it, scifi is a great venue to comment on current, topical issues; TOS did that brilliantly (I'm thinking here of that interracial kiss.)
But there's a way to make a statement with your art, and it need not require preaching from the blunt end of an anvil. (I'm stealing 'anvillicious', btw. Brilliant.)
Alas, that's the state of US political dialog these days. Hyperbole, histrionics, and triggered harpies. Hell, a Congresscritter just read Articles of Impeachment on our House floor. The reason? Trump is a big ol' meanie pants. At least that's what I got out of listening to the dude kvetch for 5 minutes.

I've also read it's too Abrams-y, but that's really a matter of taste. I dug the '09 film. (Admittedly, I'm a Trek fan, but only casually. I'd lose my arse in a trivia match. Quickly.) The '13 film has the bones of a great movie; it's just cluttered with shit that really didn't need to be there. 

[MadZealot]

----

Ooops. Meant to edit, wound up quoting. Sorry.

[Altair]

I honestly really dislike it and don't think it should be called Star Trek.

I'll largely take the opposite viewpoint. (For the record, I'm a longtime Trekker...as in watched the original series as a kid with my entire sci-fi addict family when it originally aired, or shortly thereafter.)

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

I'm enjoying it. It's not perfect, but the production values are great, and I like the approach so far of following a single character--yes, it's slightly different from the usual crew approach, but not really, since they're settling into following a crew (that of the Discovery), albeit with a focus on the one character. I think that slight difference is part of why I'm enjoying it.

The story generally so far has been intriguing, though the last part of the second episode fell apart on a number of levels (plotwise, stupid hackneyed stylistic choices). I'm not bothered by the too-advanced tech, because Trek tech *must* be reinterpreted to some extent, or the show will be ridiculous--*current* technology has outstripped some of the things seen in the original series. Similarly, I'm not bothered by the reinterpretation of the Klingons (they did it with the first motion picture, and that worked out fine)...though the albino thing is weird.

Re: fostered by Sarek--I'm not surprised we haven't heard about her. How long had Spock served with Kirk, yet Kirk had no idea Spock's dad was the Vulcan ambassador to the Federation until he was standing in front of him...and this was after Kirk had been to Vulcan for Spock's koon-ut khalifee. There's clearly a backstory here (parents killed by Kingons when, how, and why? Why'd she end up on Vulcan? What was that bombing of the learning center all about?), and I'm looking forward to seeing it teased out. But I'm enjoying the tension in her character between her human nature and her Vulcan upbringing, and I'll admit I enjoy seeing a black woman kick ass mentally and physically with Vulcan discipline.

[Sefiru]

Also first two episodes had a TON of imagery that triggered my trypophobia so I spent them scratching at my skin and pulling at my hair to try to relieve it. Haven't seen 3rd ep yet, but have heard it's got shaky cam so likely it will make me throw up.

the 3rd episode was what prompted my coworker's comparison to Aliens, so yeah, maybe give that one a pass if that sort of thing disturbs you.

[Sefiru]

I'm not bothered by the too-advanced tech, because Trek tech *must* be reinterpreted to some extent, or the show will be ridiculous--*current* technology has outstripped some of the things seen in the original series.

Very true  (cough)flip phones(cough).

[Morag]

This is the main criticism I've heard, mostly in along the lines of "Discovery was written by 'SJWs' for 'SJWs'." I get it, scifi is a great venue to comment on current, topical issues; TOS did that brilliantly (I'm thinking here of that interracial kiss.)
But there's a way to make a statement with your art, and it need not require preaching from the blunt end of an anvil. (I'm stealing 'anvillicious', btw. Brilliant.)

Basically. Which is why it pisses me off so much; it would have been totally possible to build on Star Trek's progressive legacy without going fully off the deep end in order to make a statement.

I mean, I guess I can say this about it: it's not as bad with the anvils and dogwhistles as Supergirl is. Supergirl is really terrible, though.

Alas, that's the state of US political dialog these days. Hyperbole, histrionics, and triggered harpies.

Yeah and TBH as a Canadian I am so sick of it. Esp as it's invaded up here; if I wanted to actually cleanse my social media feeds of mentions of US politics I'd have to unfollow all my Canadian friends as well, because it's all they post about. (Because why would we care about our own country's politics? Trudeau is PM now, so everything is perfect! Our job is over, go home, we don't need to hold him accountable for his lies or pinkwashing, just titter over his Star Wars socks and sexually objectify him, because that's totally appropriate.)

You can't have a nuanced conversation about anything anymore because the second you say anything that's not OMG TRUMP IS A LITERAL NAZI then you're the literal Nazi and you support him. Apparently.

I've been accused of being a Trump supporter and Nazi so many times in the past year simply because I tried to have conversations about things instead of screaming meaningless sound bites to show that I'm a ~*~good person~*~. I'm just done.

Conversation is over; you are either with us or against us, and if you don't like STD well then you're a Nazi, sorry. Also if you speak Klingon or have ever cosplayed a Klingon or empathized with them you're a Nazi, because they're Nazis in STD and that is the truth now, we have always been at war with Eastasia.

(Note: I haven't actually seen anyone make the above argument, but I'm pretty sure that's because we're only a few episodes in. I have no doubt that soon people who dislike STD will be "Nazis" along with anyone who has ever liked the Klingons.)

I've also read it's too Abrams-y, but that's really a matter of taste. I dug the '09 film. (Admittedly, I'm a Trek fan, but only casually. I'd lose my arse in a trivia match. Quickly.) The '13 film has the bones of a great movie; it's just cluttered with shit that really didn't need to be there.

I liked the '09 film and Beyond (Into Darkness was awful and never happened IMO), but I don't think they would have made good TV shows. So yeah, I think it's "too Abrams-y" in that it feels more like a movie with the insanely high stakes at the beginning, instead of a slow burn, and I think that doesn't translate well into series arcs.

[Morag]

the 3rd episode was what prompted my coworker's comparison to Aliens, so yeah, maybe give that one a pass if that sort of thing disturbs you.

I'm actually okay with the Aliens films and the shaky cam used in there, so it might be fine.

I'm just trying to convince myself it's worth the risk.

[Altair]

...and sexually objectify [Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau], because that's totally appropriate.)

Yes. Oh, yes. It's not only appropriate; it's necessary.

I liked the '09 film and Beyond (Into Darkness was awful and never happened IMO)

That's not an opinion; that's a god-given FACT. Into Darkness was an abomination.

[Darkhawk]

I liked the '09 film and Beyond (Into Darkness was awful and never happened IMO), but I don't think they would have made good TV shows. So yeah, I think it's "too Abrams-y" in that it feels more like a movie with the insanely high stakes at the beginning, instead of a slow burn, and I think that doesn't translate well into series arcs.

I felt the '09 film was reconcilable with original series canon without excessive effort (which of course I put in) though the way it completely overwrote the Kobayashi Maru enraged me.  (Seriously, the original Kobayashi Maru scenario was utterly brilliant in its revelations about Kirk's character and they replaced it with crap that didn't even take less time?)  I didn't bother with either of the others, partly because I never make it out of the house to movies and partly because I am not a Cucumberpatch fan.

(Um.  Sorry to tangent, but I don't have anything to say about Discovery 'cos I'm not going to sign up for a subscription service for it.  I just wanna point at my fanfic. ;P )

[RandallS]

Sorry to tangent, but I don't have anything to say about Discovery 'cos I'm not going to sign up for a subscription service for it.

This. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.  If it doesn't show up there, I don't need to see it. That's all the money I'm willing to spend on subscription video services -- especially when Lyric and I watch a total of 30-45 minutes of video most days. We watch video while we eat supper.

[Owl]

This. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.  If it doesn't show up there, I don't need to see it. That's all the money I'm willing to spend on subscription video services -- especially when Lyric and I watch a total of 30-45 minutes of video most days. We watch video while we eat supper.

Exactly. I am not signing up for umpteen different subscriptions to watch a show or 2 on each.  So, i have not seen game of thrones either.


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