Monday, October 2nd, 2017
So people keep asking me about Discovery, and what I think. And as fans can be very passionate, it seems if I like it I am selling out to a company that ripped me off, and if I don’t, I am bitter. Sometimes you just can’t win!
But after one episode, there is just not too much to say. Yeah, I hate everything about the Klingons. Bad make-up, awful costumes, hideous ships inside and out, and they talk as if they had marbles in their mouths. Episode 3 wasn’t a winner in my book, but 3 episodes in I will wait and see.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have issues. In episode two Saru can’t beam the captain’s body out because he needs a life sign? You didn’t seem to have a problem with that photo torpedo warhead you beamed out a few scenes earlier!
And does anyone really think we will be coding a program the same way we do today 250 years from now? Seriously?
It would be easy to hate on Discovery. I mean it is CBS’ first attempt at Star Trek, and since inheriting the franchise in the Viacom split, CBS pretty much has done nothing with the franchise except screw up the 50th anniversary of Star Trek by not doing anything of note and instead suing their fans that entire year. But as I said before, I separate CBS from Star Trek. CBS just happens to own the IP at the moment. CBS may get sold, Star Trek may get sold, new management will come in, who knows. So I am not going to let CBS spoil my love for Star Trek. Nor will I hate on Discovery.
But I am never going to just be a Star Trek fan boy who will salivate over any Star Trek CBS sends our way. Star Trek NEEDS To be great. It is a legendary TV franchise, and anything less than great is a disappointment. So pardon me if I don’t roll over and smile just because CBS produced Star Trek. You have an obligation to make GREAT Star Trek. And I think I am someone who taken that requirement seriously.
So, I am waiting to see the entire series before really digging into a critique of Discovery. As I have here and elsewhere, I can give you my first thoughts: I have major issues with the production design of the Klingons. I like the Federation production design generally, though the uniforms lack imagination and make no sense in Star Trek. Love the Phaser and communicator. I love John Eaves Federation ships, which look great, (other than that dount around the saucer on Discovery). They also look like they belong after Voyager in the timeline. Which gets back to this is NOT Prime Timeline. My other big issue.
But as to the STORY and CHARACTERS, which are what is REALLY important, let’s wait and see. This show will rise or fall on story and characters, just like every other show. So we really need to see all of it to make a proper critique. That doesn’t mean we don’t point out the problems along the way!
Alec
Thank you for all you have done Alec. Thank you for not giving up. Someday Star Trek will be free from it’s prison.
You know, I just can’t help but see Star Trek as a poor lady who was once a beautiful woman, classy, proud and strong, who, through a bad twist of fate, now a shell of her former self and is forced to be ’employed’ a greedy pimp, riding her past fame, doing whatever it can do to her to make a buck. Some how, someday we will find find a way to free her.
I have a dream, one day, Star Trek will be free from being held hostage by CBS. I envision our beloved series being rescued from it’s ‘Cage’….some how… I see it being entrusted to a ‘collective’. A collective of respected fans, writers, actors. The Collective is set up so that GR’s ideal of IDIC can be fulfilled. Prime canon, Kelvin canon, Axanar’s canon, Renegade canon, Star Trek Online canon, Billybob’s canon, my semi-inebriated ST/Hitchhiker’s guide headcanon…whatever…to paraphrase Douglas Adams, ‘the universe is big…mindbogglingly big’…there is room for it all. That was always the beauty of the Star Trek universe, there is something for everybody. Let the ST Collective guide and promote aspiring writers. actors, directors. Let ST once again inspire scientists, engineers, doctors, philosophers, and minds young and old. Let’s explore all areas of the ST Universe. Let it be free to grow an become something greater than the sum of it’s parts.
*and then I woke up. sigh…someday.
Anyway, thanks for all the fish,
TJ
Thus far I’m not impressed with any of the characters, the tone (including the lighting, the ships or the costuming), or the “universe” of Discovery. This is NOT Gene’s Star Trek, his vision of the hope for humanity in the future. The bigotry already shown in just these few episodes; the reference to Vulcans and Tellerites; is discontinuous with the Star Trek of TOS. To think that drastic changes in humanity’s outlook towards other species would occur in a mere decade is hard to believe. I almost accepted this type of species bigotry towards Vulcans in Enterprise, but to see it still present in Discovery and “know” that it doesn’t exist in TOS; sorry, doesn’t it fit, logically.
The Klingons are, as virtually everyone has mentioned, wrong and their “story” (which is only just beginning, I suppose) is weak. That these warring houses could simply become one due to the (initial) death of one, I guess you could call, religious zealot makes no sense — it is NEVER that simple to get warring factions to come together. Other reasons for not being impressed with this re-imaging of the Klingons have been mentioned by others, including Alec in this post.
As to how Starfleet has been represented, I definitely have issues regarding this portrayal; issues that I think Gene would be going nuts over! These are in no way the Starfleet officers that exist in Gene’s Star Trek. None of them are! And if these officers are the best that the Federation can offer, then the Federation isn’t the same one that Gene represented.
I have always thought that the writers who complained that Gene’s vision of the future was too bright, too “goody two shoes” (on the Federation side) that it became nigh impossible to write a could episode lacked the imagination to manage conflict from sources external to Starfleet. Instead of the now darker vision of what Starfleet, and by association the Federation, that is presented with Discovery, there can be internal struggle between characters within Starfleet that occur because of external pressures, without going to the same extent that occurred in the first two episodes of Discovery.
As to the captain of Discovery, his character verges (if not is completely) on being a criminal in Gene’s vision for Star Trek and humanity. He is motivated in a manner very much like a military zealot here in the 21st (and 20th, and onward back into history…). Definitely NOT the Federation that has existed in Starfleet [Gene would not have approved of the addition of “Section 31” either, and I’m not someone that believes it was necessary to Star Trek either].
So, I watch (for the moment) in hopes that Gene’s vision of our future will appear in Discovery, and because in Canada we don’t have to pay to watch (if we had to, I would have stopped after the initial two episodes). And, if it does start to peak through, then I will not be able to reconcile Discovery and Gene’s vision and what he set about doing with Star Trek.
… I subscribe in full, and I’m not the only one. I do not consider myself a purist or an integralist of Star Trek but also wanting to give time to the series to develop I do not see where it can go lacking the respect of the timeline, the work carried out for years by the writers who have strived to create a link in the Timeline… Historical references and recalls to the characters are purely random and lacking in structure, there is no more likelihood in scientific references… and the crazy idea of a new propulsion seen in the second episode seems So much “The Force ” of Star Wars…. horrible.
LONG LIVE to AXANAR
Absolutely hate the new Star Trek Discovery, it’s horrible! This is not Gene Roddenberry’s vision of Star Trek, and after 4 episodes I refuse to ever watch anymore of Discovery 🙁