Star Trek: Discovery

[trabuquera]

Didn't rate last ep that highly, but overall I thought this managed to go in interesting new directions, though it's infuriatingly ragged & bumpy in parts - the pacing is completely out of whack. Love the cast diversity, and I think the actors are doing really well (even if their characters annoy me to distraction *talking to you Capt Tilly*) ... but I wish there had been more sophistication in the scriptwriting to go with it - visually it is great but imo the storytelling is weak.

Still not sure about the overall tone: I like it fine for myself as an adult viewer who prefers cyberpunk cynicism/nihilism to universal-liberal-Starfleetism, but it is so very very much darker (and a bit more leery-exploitative) than the ST norm. Not sure I would feel happy about younger kids watching the agonizers / the Klingon-to-human surgery / basal ganglia banquet stuff.
And I'm too stupid to really follow mirror-universe scenarios with much consistency..

 

[krtek a houby]

I cant see how they are going to get around the internals of the enterprise and its cassette player push buttons. I reckon they will have pike beam aboard Discovery rather than show the enterprise bridge.

Well, you have the USS Defiant which went missing in the original series (Tholian Web) and crops up in the Enterprise series (In a Mirror, Darkly)when Archer and co find themselves in the Mirror Universe. The ship is/was from their future and iirc; the Defiant look is old school. This is the Defiant that Emperor Philippa refers to.

And just looking for it now, yeah. Old school with very subtle upgrades.

 

[krtek a houby]

TNG did the retro bridge thing too. IIrc, it was a hologram for Scotty.

 

[Crispy]

This is a really nice subtle upgrade of the Enterprise bridge consoles:

 

[donkyboy]

i do think sometime maybe we are too worried about continuity...maybe we should just simply accept that TOS was hampered by technology of its time. the klingon make-up is also a prime example. I seem to recall reading roddenbery was in favour of just ignoring the klingon change and forget about trying to explain. This was ignored so we have this daft idea of a virus bullshit to explain it.

 

[Crispy]

I agree. "Lore" is a chain around writers' necks. It should be like Batman: We know who he is, where he lives, who he fights etc. and it doesn't matter one bit which actor is in the suit, or what happened in previous installments.

Star Trek is about the peaceful Federation exploring a galaxy full of other civilisations, phasers, warp drive, transporters and WW2 naval battles. Everything else is just fluff.

 

[agricola]

i do think sometime maybe we are too worried about continuity...maybe we should just simply accept that TOS was hampered by technology of its time. the klingon make-up is also a prime example. I seem to recall reading roddenbery was in favour of just ignoring the klingon change and forget about trying to explain. This was ignored so we have this daft idea of a virus bullshit to explain it.

Before that episode of Enterprise (which was absolute bobbins) I always liked the idea that the change in Klingon appearance was down to members of a warrior culture seeking to physically emulate foes that it considered worthy.

I agree. "Lore" is a chain around writers' necks. It should be like Batman: We know who he is, where he lives, who he fights etc. and it doesn't matter one bit which actor is in the suit, or what happened in previous installments.

Star Trek is about the peaceful Federation exploring a galaxy full of other civilisations, phasers, warp drive, transporters and WW2 naval battles. Everything else is just fluff.

True - though Star Trek has spent everything up to this point tying each series into that lore; putting Discovery both in and outside it (which they've done with Mudd, the Mirror Universe and now the Enterprise) will just look daft. Also I am not sure that watching the Federation, in the aftermath of a horrific war, change / revert to the standards of Kirk or Picard's day wouldn't in and of itself be entertaining; most of my favourite bits of this season were when various characters (Lorca mainly, but Burnham and mirror Georgiou as well) dropped the happy-clappy crap and behaved like human beings.

 

[MickiQ]

I enjoyed about on a par with the original series, which means I thought it wasn't as good as DS9, TNG Seasons 3-6 or Enterprise Season 4 but much better than Voyager, I was OK with the fact that the Discovery looked more advanced than the Enterprise-D never mind the original, special effects move on and you have to suspend belief, Babylon 5 effects were fairly ropey but a brilliant storyline offset it.
Didn't really buy the Klingon redesign though, the Worf model Klingons are convincing enough and they didn't redesign the Andorians, Vulcans or Orions so why the Klingons?

 

[Cloo]

I quite liked the last episode... agreed the speech seemed a little bombastic, but I like the way we finally saw a real, full-on smile from Burnham.

Definitely looking forward to seeing more from Discovery. I agree with Crispy that never mind about precise continuity and canon and all that, it's about the idea of the Federation. I guess it's a myth and you can embellish it and play it in a number of ways.

 

[Vintage Paw]

I enjoyed about on a par with the original series, which means I thought it wasn't as good as DS9, TNG Seasons 3-6 or Enterprise Season 4 but much better than Voyager, I was OK with the fact that the Discovery looked more advanced than the Enterprise-D never mind the original, special effects move on and you have to suspend belief, Babylon 5 effects were fairly ropey but a brilliant storyline offset it.
Didn't really buy the Klingon redesign though, the Worf model Klingons are convincing enough and they didn't redesign the Andorians, Vulcans or Orions so why the Klingons?

I mean it's pretty obvious the whole Tyler story line wouldn't have worked if they looked like Worf.

 

[strung out]

I mean it's pretty obvious the whole Tyler story line wouldn't have worked if they looked like Worf.

Why not? It was blatantly obvious that Ash Tyler was Voq to the audience from pretty much his first appearance. Plus Worf looks sufficiently different from Michael Dorn that it would have worked just fine story wise

 

[MickiQ]

What exactly was Voq/Tyler? Was he Tyler with a copy of Voq's memories and personality planted on top?,Voq surgically altered to look like Tyler and a copy of Tyler's memories (the real Tyler presumably being dead) or did L'Rell cut them both up and sew the bits together like Frankensteins Monster?

 

[Lord Camomile]

Voq surgically altered to look like Tyler and a copy of Tyler's memories (the real Tyler presumably being dead)

My, very possibly incorrect, understanding was that it was this.

Couldn't have described it using my own words though, so could very possibly have got that wrong.

 

[sleaterkinney]

A bit let down by that final episode, it just felt implausible, and the cringe-worthy We are starfleet bit. Hope they don't mess up this series also.

 

[Lord Camomile]

I loved the We are Starfleet bit. But I always love the righteous do-gooders everyone else hates

 

[krtek a houby]

"Jim - this man's a klingon!"

Another surgically altered klingon, sniffed out by a tribble, no less.

 

[teuchter]

Looks more like a hedgehog to me.

 

[MickiQ]

Considering that McCoy found him with a quick once over of the tricorder and Culber couldn't detect one with an entire sickbay a dozen years earlier, Starfleet must have ploughed some serious money into R&D in the meantime

 

[Steel Icarus]

Finally got the TV fixed so have halved the remaining episodes from 4 to 2...I'm finding it a struggle to get through tbh. Mrs SI is well into it but I don't know what's going on half the time, not least because I find the main plot devices (altered Klingon, mirror everyone and everything, the magic fungal highway) quite shit. It might well be a "brave" departure to have Trek go bloody and have it be basically one person's tale with supporting cast of varying interest/actual character but it just hasn't felt like Trek to me at any point other than the titles. And I kinda want Trek to feel like Trek. There's other sci-fi if I want blood and widespread ambiguity.

 

[cybershot]

Finally got the TV fixed so have halved the remaining episodes from 4 to 2...I'm finding it a struggle to get through tbh. Mrs SI is well into it but I don't know what's going on half the time, not least because I find the main plot devices (altered Klingon, mirror everyone and everything, the magic fungal highway) quite shit. It might well be a "brave" departure to have Trek go bloody and have it be basically one person's tale with supporting cast of varying interest/actual character but it just hasn't felt like Trek to me at any point other than the titles. And I kinda want Trek to feel like Trek. There's other sci-fi if I want blood and widespread ambiguity.

Stick it out, you'll like the ending, and the prospect of where it 'might go'

 

[krtek a houby]

Best series since DS9. IMHO.

 

[DotCommunist]

tyler's chinlessness really annoyed me by the end. No chin.

 

[krtek a houby]

tyler's chinlessness really annoyed me by the end. No chin.

Big impressive heads, mind.The STD klingons.

 

[maomao]

tyler's chinlessness really annoyed me by the end. No chin.

Pretty impressive to noticably have no chin even when one has a beard. But yeah, same here. We don't need our heroes to all be beautiful but there are certain minimum requirements.

 

[krtek a houby]

Pretty impressive to noticably have no chin even when one has a beard. But yeah, same here. We don't need our heroes to all be beautiful but there are certain minimum requirements.

I've just figured out where latter day US prog band "Spock's Beard" got their name from. 15 years later...

 

[SpookyFrank]

tyler's chinlessness really annoyed me by the end. No chin.

The actor's Scottish, so possibly a distant relative of the famously chiness John Hannah.

 

[MickiQ]

Stick it out, you'll like the ending, and the prospect of where it 'might go'

Season 1-2 of TNG were pretty much a case of meh! but Season 3 it seemed to hit its stride and there was no stopping it. Same with Enterprise, Pilot was good and then it seemed to flounder up until Season 3 which was good, Season 4 was great and then it got cancelled. Only DS9 has been good from the very start.
I'll give Netflix their due, they seem willing to take a chance on shows that need time to build a following and don't cancel too soon.
I'm prepared to give them the chance to see where things go with it.

 

[Crispy]

I'll give Netflix their due, they seem willing to take a chance on shows that need time to build a following and don't cancel too soon.

It's made by CBS. Netflix have distribution outside US & CAnada.

 

[maomao]

The actor's Scottish, so possibly a distant relative of the famously chiness John Hannah.

John Hannah has a pointy little chin. Shazad Latif actually lacks a lower mandible.

 

[mwgdrwg]

The real problem with Tyler is that he's Clem Fandango.










Yes I can fucking year you, Clem Fandango!