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Star Trek Discovery – Part I: My View

By March 7, 2018 Axanar News

I am always asked what I think of Star Trek Discovery, because well, there is a lot of controversy over Discovery. Some fans like it, some hate it.   It has created a huge divide among Star Trek fans, many of whom say CBS doesn’t care about actual Star Trek fans.

Well, TV has changed over the years and so has the way that TV shows tell stories.  Everything is serialized now.  DS9 was the first truly serialized Star Trek, and it worked pretty well for them!  And I don’t think anyone thinks that Star Trek will ever be like it used to be. S0 Discovery being serialized is to have been expected. And I have no problem with that.

Also, Alex Kurtzman and his team decided to reboot the universe but claim they weren’t!  Unlike his mentor, JJ Abrams, who was very clear in the 2009 Star Trek, that the movie was an alternate timeline (preserving everything in Prime the timeline), Kurtzman is rebooting TOS, with a totally different look, different uniforms, different ships, totally different Klingons, etc. And the worse of it, is they are trying to tell us it is NOT a reboot!  And this is much of the problems fans have.  This is not the TOS fans want.  Just say it is a reboot and I think there would be a lot less blowback.  Heck, set it after Voyager!

But CBS is trying to get a whole new audience and catering to hard core fans won’t get them the audience they want.  (Though it seems doing it their way didn’t get them the audience they wanted either).  But I totally get the new look.  You want to reach an audience that has seen the Star Trek movies and who is not nostalgic for TOS.  You need to have a look and feel that a modern audience can relate to.  So it makes sense.

So now to my take.

Well, I actually don’t mind Discovery.  I am through episode 12, and about to watch the last episodes.

I have a very inclusive view of Star Trek.  I think Star Trek is a multi-verse, with alternate timelines for every incarnation.  You have Prime Timeline, the Mirror Universe,  the JJ Verse, the Animated Series, the books, the FASA timeline, Starfleet Battles.  Each one is worthy of inclusion in the Star Trek multi-verse.  And this is both how I look at Discovery and how CBS should too.

So other than that, what do I think?  Well, I actually think it is OK.  Yes, it tramples all over canon, and there are so many cute tricks the writers try to endear themselves to fans (Harry Mudd, Mirror Universe).  But I am not a hater.  I don’t reflexively dump on Discovery because it is not “Star Trek”.  It clearly is trying to be, and it is made from CBS, the current rights holder (Paramount owned Star Trek for its first 45 or so years).   The issue fans are upset about is that many feel that Star Trek Discovery doesn’t honor the soul of Star Trek.  Well, if you want that, there is this great show called The Orville

Star Trek Discovery is fine.  An interesting premise, with some excellent actors (we wanted to cast Jason Isaacs in Axanar), great VFX, nice sets and competent writing.  The problem is, that it is happening in a world where we have brilliant shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, Hannibal, American Gods, The Crown, The Walking Dead, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black and basically anything from Marvel (except Iron Fist).  So an average show that doesn’t rise above the rest of the streaming offerings, that splits your fan base, is basically weak tea in the current environment.  Discovery doesn’t make anyone’s top ten list and it should because it is STAR TREK.  But nothing was learned from the mostly unsuccessful JJ movies.  Discovery was wildly over budget, and Les Moonves fired the ONE GUY who could have pulled it off, Bryan Fuller.  I mean the guy does Hannibal and American Gods and you fire him?  Bad move. The guy is a winner. Hell, he walks on water in my book (and he is an Axanar fan).

So, I think everyone should watch Discovery, but certainly don’t subscribe to CBS All Access (at least for more than you have to to binge Discovery). Because I think we should always support the franchise.

So what do YOU think?

Alec

Join the discussion 46 Comments

  • john says:

    I think people are starting to come around. I think they’ll flip for it once they meet the new captain of USS Discovery. (A woman once nicknamed by Captain Christopher Pike: Number One.).

    Then we’ll talk canon.

  • Gary Jones says:

    I hated it at first, the Klingon speech was so slow I went and made a cup of tea. The look of the Shenzhou, the totally different interiors to any of the previous incarnations of Trek, Sarek, a daughter,sister for Spock never mentioned and so on, and on. Then I decided to just treat it as a space sci fi show. Still mildly annoying listening to Klingon, but as something not StarTrek, I got to enjoy most of it. It isn’t Star Trek in any fashion, just something else to enjoy on Netflix.

    As you mentioned The Orville, managed to watch that too. Far more like the idea of Trek, yes the ships and contents are different, but resonates so well with the ideals behind Roddenberrys creation, it is a worthy torch bearer for Star Trek, even if the humour is sometimes rather too silly.

  • Mark Payton says:

    I am on board with you Alec about STD. While I am conflicted about CBS claiming this is Cannon and it clearly is not. We all know that in Star Trek all you have to do is claim an alternate timeline or Universe and you are good to go with all the new looks and twists in tech and such. I choose to overlook the insistence on it being cannon and go with alternate universe for this show to work for me. As for paying CBS to watch – thank God I do not have to do that since my wife got it to watch her shows so I have the benefit of claiming the TV each Sunday night it was on to watch. All in all, as a alternate universe story line does work. There is some suspension of belief for me when comparing STD to any of the other series. It is the only way I can deal with this being Star Trek.

  • Matthew Pavletich says:

    I liked the show – but I didn’t love it. Some of the actors are outstanding; I single out Doug Jones and Michelle Yeoh for praise. Sonequa Martin-Green is certainly a more than adequate leading lady. The Spore Drive maguffin still has me scratching my head a bit. And stylistically? The thing that irks me the most are the HUGE, teardrop-shaped Klingon heads. I mean, seriously?! I can accept all their design changes, excepting that. And their over-the-top prosthetic teeth made them hard to understand speaking english, let alone Klingon. Anyone wanna take bets that most of their dialog was redubbed later? As a first season, it did okay. Most Trek shows take until their second season or thereabouts to really find their stride. TNG took three seasons to get really good. DS9? Two seasons. Voyager? About three. Enterprise? Probably the third – but some will argue against that.

  • j.b. diGriz says:

    The Orville’s ability to honor Star Trek is ultimately cut off from reaching Discovered Country by its addiction to dick and fart jokes. Way too much is made of Orville’s faithfulness to ST canon. I can appreciate its variable adherence to a code of ethics duped from ST, and the occasional earnestness from some of the characters towards those ethics. Suggesting to anyone to look to Orville as a first-principles reference honoring ‘the soul of Star Trek’ however is a bridge too far.

    I loved Prelude to Axanar, contributed, and look forward to seeing what’s produced. I also would have loved seeing the original movie intention, and think CBS/Paramount should roast for ruining the opportunity. But what’s weak tea is suggesting ST:D is not better than a mean-girls “it’s fine”, that it splits the fanbase, or mimicking landscape taken up by your list of shows. I don’t even know what that means, and you don’t go into any kind of detail supporting the assertion. You wrote whatever you were going to write to get to the sentence where you call it mediocre and claim it splits the fanbase, but didn’t offer anything about why you think that’s right.

    I agree about Fuller, and that it was a big mistake to fire him. You’re probably better off being honest about how you really feel about all the actors involved, and either try to keep them separate from the content produced or be up front about how your feeling for such impacts your claims.

    • Alec Peters says:

      Stay tuned for the rest of the series. And I think I was pretty clear the acting is exceptional. No bad actors in the bunch and the ones you expect to be great are.

  • Rebecca says:

    I’m sorry, but I can not stand such superficiality in this “reboot”. Of material they would have had, the canon of Star Trek is immense. The decisions in technical and scientific situations are beyond the laughable and we know how much Star Trek has inspired in technology and not for nothing a genius like Hawkings wanted to be part of it. And I personally do not watch laughable science fiction. A human can not attend the Vulcan science academy, this is a fact for the fans of Star Trek and only this makes it clear how badly this show has been mistreated and made adolescent. From Italy-Rebecca

  • Kevin Clucas says:

    It’s really difficult. Star Trek means a lot to so many of us.

    This is Alec’s opinion and he is perfectly entitled to it. My opinion differs. I love Star Trek in all its forms and really loved Discovery. I can overlook the differences in design because Star Trek has always made changes like that. The Klingons changed between TOS and the movies, but because there wasn’t as much ST ‘history’ at that point we were all able to accept it. However, after 40 odd years of Klingon’s looking a particular way, I can understand that it can be difficult to accept a change. Just like the look of the ships, uniforms, all the design details.

    Nobody can deny that production values have changed over the years. Mainstream companies are simply not going to make a show that looks like it was made in the 60s. Yes, Axanar did a brilliant job of keeping the aesthetic of TOS whilst updating the story. I look forward to the completion of the Axanar story. But I totally understand why CBS might not want to be so strict with it in the age of reboots and remakes.

    I can suspend my disbelief and include Discovery in the Prime timelime. Just like I can include Axanar at the same time. I guess what I’m trying to say is that both of them gave me the feeling of Star Trek. You can disagree. This is just my opinion.

    Which is essenitially what Star Trek is about. If you don’t get IDIC then do you really get Star Trek?

  • Jim says:

    Abso-freaking-tively! 🙂

  • trevor says:

    I think they can make it fit nicely into Canon over time, for the most part. what drives me nuts is the changing of stuff for no reason, new klingons, the cool andorian antennae from.enterprise are gone, even the orion skin tone changed, uh why??? Also they needed a longer season… sooooo much for crammed into the show sooooo fast!

    But I will keep watching, and we will see what they do. Maybe they will convince the haters, maybe not. I will also keep watching the Orville. A very fun show that is.

  • Jayson says:

    I started out on the fence (initially due to the Axanar fiasco). Started watching STD to see where it would go. The first few half dozen episodes were not great (and I thought not Star Trek but a new Sci-fi series). The next few episodes started to draw me in, then got cold for a few more. The last 2 or 3 episodes brought me back with the cliffhangers (I presume). The finale was so-so, until the end. I am glad I watched the series (as new sci-fi on free TV in Canada). Am willing to catch back on this Autumn to see where it goes. Only one hour a week out of my time so worth partaking in this, and season II.

  • Stavros says:

    Trek is dead. I remember this episode of The Next Generation, it must have been the finale of the 1st season, where the Enterprise was about to drop some 21at century people off to the nearest station. I remember Riker commenting “…It’s a pity we can’t take them (to Earth) ourselves. Having them aboard is like a visit from the past” and Picard answering “That would take us to the wrong direction. Our mission is to go forward…”. And that was Trek’s mission as well from the very beginning… until it wasn’t. The nostalgia-drive is a distortion of the original premise. You cannot base a whole series on the past of the already established Universe. It is against its spirit. But you cannot go forward either. When you see a sci-fy series (ST, Stargate) resorting again and again to the time travel solution and the parallel Universes you know that it has run out of new ideas and it’s about to end. Maybe that’s because the scientific community has not come up with something equally spectacular, which Fantasy could draw inspiration from. Let’s face it, what could beat the string theory at this point? So Trek shouldn’t go backwards and cannot move forward since it has nowhere else to go. Maybe it’s time to let go… At least for now.

  • Martin Berggren says:

    Well, I respect canon, but I don’t care about it as much as some, star trek to me is the story telling, the universe itself doesn’t matter that much. I like Discovery, I mean, it’s not TNG, but it’s something.

    • Martin Berggren says:

      Although, I don’t care for how they portray the Klingons, I like my Klingons like they are in TNG, they have a deep rooted culture and are more than just monsters. I suppose Discovery does a better job than the JJ movies, but still.

  • Tony says:

    I loved the first season of Discovery. And I didn’t mind giving CBS a whole $1.50 an episode for something that is costing them 8 million an episode to produce. But then again DS9: The Dominion War is my favorite Star Trek. I’ve watched it all including the animated series. I guess I’m a bit of a different fan.

  • John Rippert says:

    I do not support CBS or Paramount with Star Trek. They burned their bridges with the way they handled Axanar and other fan films. Their lack of anything to do with the 50th anniversary of TOS was pitiful. I watched the bits and pieces of Discovery that were available without a subscription, and they did absolutely nothing for me. Yes, I am old school Star Trek. While I loved TOS, TNG was my Trek. I liked that early Trek was self contained stories each episode with a point to put forth. I also get that I am not their target audience, but as has been mentioned in many articles online, you do not alienate your core fans. It is bad for business. Ever since Roddenberry passed the holders of the IP have done more harm than good to Star Trek. It is time to get that property into the hands of someone who “gets” Star Trek and thinks of it as more than just a way to make money.

  • Jeffery C. says:

    I watched it, I enjoyed it. But it simply does not feel like Star Trek to me. Just how it goes down with me.

  • Chris says:

    I love it. No complaints. If I want TOS i watch new voyages and st continues. Std was awesome for me in every way. My favorite trek is what ever is on at the moment. Love it all.

  • Thomas E. says:

    Sorry for the long read… spoilers below as well…

    Klingons

    Pro: I actually like some of the prop work for the Klingons. Kol’s uniform, some of their ornamental weapons and the torchbearers armor.

    Cons: The rest of them. I don’t like the Klingon’s unnecessary redesign, nor do I like the monotone way they sound when they talk. The show’s Klingon plot has also been incredibly stupid. They introduced this Klingon cloaking device in a thousand or so year old Klingon ship and never bothered to explain where it actually came from. Was it stolen from the Romulans or the Suliban? Did T’Kuvma’s dad invent it before he was lost and therefor unable to share it with the Empire? Apparently details like that aren’t important because the cloak’s only purpose is to serve the plot. Then of course the ship is damaged in the first episode, but for six whole months nobody from Starfleet or the Empire tried to retrieve the ship to get their hands on the cloak. If the cloak was that big of a deal, then certainly someone would have been interested in getting their hands on it. They sent Kirk and crew on a dangerous mission to retrieve a Romulan cloak for study, but they let this one just sit there in a debris field without even trying to collect it? Sheesh.

    Kol eventually wants it and shows up to take it for himself. Of course Voq doesn’t like him because he doesn’t believe in T’Kuvma, but at least Kol actually uses the cloak to benefit the rest of the Empire. Voq and company were slowly starving to death for six months, but Kol is a dick because he actually did something beneficial with it? Yeah ok. So L’Rell decides that in order to honor T’Kuvma’s “remain Klingon” teachings, she must turn Voq human… wait what? You’re remaining Klingon by turning human? That doesn’t make much sense.

    Of course we eventually learn that it apparently involves infiltrating Starfleet and stealing secrets from them, whatever, but at what point does Tyler/Voq do this? During his time aboard Discovery he acted like a normal Starfleet officer. If he was going to steal secrets, then shouldn’t he have stolen secrets? At no point does his time aboard Discovery actually help to push L’Rell’s plan forward. If anything he was detrimental to that plan because as a Starfleet officer he helped fight the Klingons. He even helps board the Sarcophagus ship and learns to penetrate the cloak before destroying the ship! How the hell does helping the Federation negate your one tactical advantage over them help unite the Empire?

    Well at least it allowed them to get revenge on Kol, right? Oh, no it didn’t. L’Rell swore vengeance on Kol, but in the end it was Starfleet who killed him. L’Rell was completely useless because she was locked in the brig the whole time. Kol had murdered every one of her friends because they didn’t swear allegiance to him, but after he tells L’Rell straight to her face that he knows what she’s planning, he locks her in the brig… instead of killing her like the others. Because, you know, plot armor. She’s apparently a main character so she gets spared for no other reason than that.

    Well at least Kol is dead now, which means she can seize control of the Empire and unite them like she wanted right? Nope. She’s captured by Starfleet now, which means she’s moved from one brig to another. She had formed a small bond with Admiral Cornwell earlier, but once Cornwell is brought aboard Discovery she’s sent away without L’Rell. I’m sure people will say it’s because it was a medical shuttle and it was an emergency, but that just opens up a whole new can of worms.

    Why did they send Cornwell away via shuttle? If it was such an emergency why not just use the spore drive? It’s obviously a lot faster than a shuttlecraft and they were going to a Starbase to give Starfleet the cloaking secrets anyway. They could have brought her with them to Starbase 1 or they could have spore drived to Starbase 88 where they sent her in the shuttle. Why not go there, drop the Admiral and L’Rell off and give them the cloaking secrets? It just comes off as a poor excuse to remove Cornwell since they decided to keep her alive, but she wasn’t needed for the Mirror Universe story that was coming up.

    So L’Rell stays aboard the ship so she can be ignored for a few episodes until Tyler freaks out after seeing his Mirror Universe counterpart. She then uses her magic gloves to save him or something like that. Honestly L’Rell is just one big failure who deters from the story more than she contributes anything meaningful to it. It even turns out that everything she did was useless anyway because when the Discovery gets home she learns that the leaderless Houses were more than capable of defeating the Federation without her.

    She and Voq failed to unite them or give them Starfleet secrets, but they didn’t need them. The cloak was apparently more than all they needed and it wasn’t even L’Rell or Voq who gave it to them. It was Kol who supplied the cloaks to the rest of the Empire. Why do they even keep these two around?

    Then of course at the end of the show, they just hand L’Rell the key to the Empire and she stops the war against the Federation… for no real reason. She spent the entire show preaching about T’Kuvma’s teachings and she wanted to unite the Empire against the Federation like T’Kuvma wanted… but then in the last five minutes she does a complete reversal… Seriously?! The whole bomb excuse was terrible as well. It sort of made sense that they were holding Qo’noS hostage in order to save Earth, but then they handed her the key to the bomb. Why exactly did she have some stupid change of heart? They literally handed her the only thing that could keep the Empire at bay. Why didn’t she just let the Klingons conquer Earth and then use the bomb to seize control of the Empire afterwards? Then she could have ruled over the Federation’s defeat. Instead she has a change of heart and gives up. Sigh.

    How I’d Fix It: Their redesign was unnecessary, but they’re here now so we might as well embrace them. Personally I think they should call Discovery an Alternate or Parallel Universe, then you wouldn’t have to worry about the way they look. However, they could be treated like the Aenar from Star Trek: Enterprise and made into a variation of Klingon who exist side by side the other Klingons from the various series. When Klingons appear in Season 2 of Discovery, there should be TMP, TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT Klingons living side by side their new Discovery cousins. Let’s not forget the Klingons who suffer from the augment virus as well. I don’t have a problem with diversity among the Klingons, as long as they show it.

    They could even use Tyler as a catalyst to reintroduce the augment virus Klingons. They could establish that those Klingons are outcasts, just as Doctor Antaak was afraid of. Tyler, who is also treated with contempt by the other Klingons, feels for them and attempts to bring about social change on Qo’noS. We know in lore that Klingons like Kor, Kang and Koloth are renowned warriors both feared and honored by the other Klingons in the Empire. I would like to see how they’d go from outcast to legends of the Empire.

    As cool as that would be, I honestly wish they would just call Discovery an alternate universe At this time they’ve made the Klingons and the Federation so uninteresting and inept that I find it hard to believe these are the same organizations from TOS and onward. They’re just so freakin’ different that it doesn’t add up with the rest of the franchise. I find it hard to believe these radical, leaderless Klingons are the same Soviet like Klingons from TOS and it’s extremely hard to believe that this whimpering Federation which pulled it’s fleet back to make a final stand at Earth is the same Federation James T. Kirk proudly serves 10 years from now. They’re just too different.

    Star Trek canon establishes that the Klingons of the 23rd Century were like the Soviets. The Federation-Klingon Cold War was always supposed to be analogous to the US-Soviet Union Cold War. If the writers weren’t interested in a Soviet like enemy, then why did they bother setting their show during the Cold War? It’s like setting a series in the 1940s but having no interest in fighting Nazis. The retcons made to the Klingons in order to make it work with their story ruined the whole damn thing. A post-Voyager setting would have been far more logical.

    Making Discovery an alternate universe is the easiest solution. It wouldn’t fix other problems with the show, like poor writing, but it would be a start.

    Combat or “The War”

    Pros: I got nothing.

    Cons: The whole thing. I don’t have a problem with war in Star Trek. Deep Space Nine is actually my favorite series and the Dominion War is partly responsible for that. DS9 didn’t start with the Dominion War, however. The Dominion was a huge part of the show from Season 2 and onward, but the actual war didn’t start until the finale of Season 5. It then went on for two seasons before it ended with the show.

    Discovery jumped right into the war by Episode 2 and now they ended the war at Episode 15. That’s not nearly enough time to develop the story in any meaningful way. 99% of this “war” has been dialog. People constantly talked about how bad it was and how they needed to stop it before it was too late. I’m sorry, but actions speak louder than words. There were no major military engagements shown against the Federation and Klingons in this show. Not once! We got one colony being pecked to death by Birds-of-Prey until Discovery blew them away in 10 seconds and vanished into the night and then we got one Starfleet ship destroyed on screen as the Discovery was unable to save them. I’m sorry, but this does not make for exciting television. It’s extremely hard to take this war seriously when dialog makes it sound like an epic intergalactic war , but the visuals make it look like a minor boarder skirmish.

    How I’d Fix It: Well in retrospect this show shouldn’t have jumped into the war from the start. The tension that existed between the Federation and Klingon Empire at the start of the show should have been stretched out over the whole first season. It could have then concentrated on character development and set up a more well thought out conflict in a later season.

    It would have been nice if they had given us a battle or two in which the Federation actually pushed back against the Klingons. Sure, we see Discovery fight the Klingons from time to time, but no major military engagements of any kind. It’s one of the contributing factors in making the Federation look pathetic. It felt like the Discovery was the only ship defending the Federation. I just don’t like what they did to them on this show.

    What’s done is done now though so I’d suggest we just move as far away from it as possible. Find another story to tell and let TOS handle the Federation-Klingon conflict ten years from now. That doesn’t mean we can’t return to Tyler and L’Rell from time to time though. I’d like to see a story involving them on Qo’noS and the augment virus Klingons. Remember that even those Klingons will be ready to fight the Federation in a few more years.

    The “war” itself might have been crap this season, but they can potentially do a better Cold War story next season if told right.

    Discovery Crew

    Pros: I actually really like the Discovery’s crew. Burnham grew on me after a few episodes and I love Saru’s character. I may be biased though because I really like Doug Jones. Tilly was awkward, but ended up being really great. She sort of reminds me of the character Jerry Epsenson from Boston Legal. Someone with a social disorder who doesn’t let it get in the way of their ambitions. I really like Stamets’ point of view in this show. His attitude towards the military reminded me of David Marcus in Star Trek II. Culbar was a good character as well, but it’s a shame he wasn’t chief medal officer and I’m not sure why he wasn’t, but it doesn’t really matter now since they killed him off. The rest of the bridge crew were really good as well…

    Cons: Sadly they don’t all get a lot of character development. This is a real problem I have with the show. They insist on making everything so fast paced that they don’t take the time to really develop all of their characters. I can’t even remember the names of most of the bridge crew. The show cares so little for them, that they might as well have been red shirts. This is why the episode “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” is the only episode that stands out to me as good in the first half of the season. It was nice to see the crew hang out and handle a situation that wasn’t “OMG Klingons!”

    Of course we got to see them all shine near the end of the show. “What’s Past Is Prologue” stands out as a great episode featuring the Discovery’s crew because everyone had something to do, the crew was focused and professional. They proved in that episode that all of them have what it takes to be a great Star Trek crew. But that’s one episode out of fifteen, which is unacceptable.

    How I’d Fix It: This one is easy. They already have the actors and the characters, all they need to do is slow the show down, stop trying to be edgy all the time, (knock it off with all those damned twists), and actually explore these characters. I personally don’t think Discovery’s choice to only focus on a handful of characters, instead of the whole command crew like traditional shows, worked. Season 2 needs to correct this and start giving all these other characters some interesting things to do. Develop them into a real Star Trek crew.

    Oh and going to Vulcan to pick up a new Captain? No. Surely Saru proved he was worthy enough to captain the Discovery. Right?

    Captain Lorca and Mirror Universe

    Pros: It was a welcomed distraction from the terrible Klingon plot that hampered the first half of the season. I really like Lorca as a Captain and Jason Isaacs was pretty terrific in the role. It was interesting when it turned out he was from the Mirror Universe, which made for a really fun ride. By this point in the season I was actually enjoying myself I actually and genuinely looked forward to what happened next…

    Cons: …although it wasn’t perfect. It’s a shame that after all the mystery and build up, Lorca ended up becoming a fairly one dimensional villain. After his reveal it simply turned into a “I will rule the Empire!” plot, which was a wasted opportunity, IMO. I also didn’t buy his sudden romantic interest in Burnham.

    How I’d Fix It: It would have been more interesting if he was one of the rebels. That at least would have added some depth to his desire to overthrow the ruthless Emperor, other than him simply wanting to take over. They could have toyed with his desire to want to be good, but he’s still a Terran who can’t break old habits when it comes to his methods. That’s why he comes off as overly aggressive. Of course at this time Starfleet could afford to be a little more aggressive in their conflict with the Klingons, so Lorca and Burnham have to learn from each other.

    Burnham could have learned to embrace a little bit of her dark side and be ruthless enough to safeguard the Federation, but also understand where the line should be drawn. It would take us back to the first episode when Captain Georgiou let her ethics prevent her from doing what needed to be done in regards to the Klingons. The Federation has gotten a little naive over the years and needs to realize that not every situation can be resolved with peaceful talking.

    Likewise, Lorca would learn from his time in the Federation that ruling with absolute fear isn’t a particularly great way to rule either. If he is to end the rebellion and reunite the Empire, he will have to show a little compassion. From Lorca’s perspective he would have grown up in a hellish dictatorship, but he got to a potential world where things could truly be better, so it motivates him to want his world to be better too. From Burnhams perspective she had grown up in the idyllic Federation, but Starfleet’s inability to act leaves them vulnerable to enemies who will do whatever horrific things necessary to destroy them. No one can be good all the time and sometimes you need to fight in order to survive, but at they same time you should forget your principles. You have to find a good balance between them.

    Maybe it’s just me, but I think that would have been a lot more interesting.

    Harry Mudd

    Pros: Everything. I wasn’t really a fan of “Choose Your Pain”, but I did like Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd. “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” was one of the few standout episodes to me and he was terrific in that.

    Cons: Nothing really, except we only got to see him twice.

    How I’d Fix It: Nothing to fix either. Although now that Emperor Georgiou is still out there, maybe she can bump into Harry Mudd and then two of them can get into some shenanigans? That could be fun.

    Romance or Relationships

    Pros: Stamets and Culber. I was afraid that they would beat you over the head with the fact they are the first openly gay couple of Star Trek, but they didn’t. Instead they chose to let the characters develop on their own for several episodes before they acknowledged they were a couple. I liked that and I think they did work really well as a couple. It’s a shame they killed Culber though.

    Cons: Burnham and Tyler. Now this isn’t a con by itself, because it didn’t bother me that these two became a couple. What bothered me was how freakin’ fast their relationship was. Tyler joined the crew in Episode 6 and after knowing him for five whole minutes, Burnham was ready to admit she had feelings for him in Episode 7. Really? Then they’re both madly in love by Episode 10, but their relationship is destroyed in Episode 11. I just don’t buy it. This show’s incessant need to rapid fire the plot at you really bothers me.

    How I’d Fix It: Slow it the hell down! This show needs more character development. Lots more. If we see another significant relationship between main characters in the future, I hope they actually develop that relationship over a more believable amount of time.

    Technology or “Technobabble”

    Pros: I actually don’t hate the more advanced technology in Discovery. It was ok to up the level of technology because the 60s show could only do so much with their own technology and budgetary limitations.

    Cons: But I don’t believe they had to abandon the TOS aesthetic in order to make things look more advanced. They could have found a balance between the 60s aesthetic and the more futuristic technology they wanted to give them. The appearance of the Enterprise at the end of the show demonstrates how they can be faithful to the 60s design while still modernizing the ship a bit. I’m not 100 percent a fan of the Enterprise’s update, but she is certainly more faithful to the original Enterprise than the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise. She appeared in the last few seconds of the show, so hopefully that’s an indication that they know to make the show more like that going forward.

    Often at times on this show it appeared the writers don’t know jack about Star Trek, which means we occasionally got poor attempts at technobabble or misuses of technology for the sake of “drama”. For example, in “Choose Your Pain” they couldn’t get the dialog for the enemy ship correct. The shuttlecraft identified the Klingon ship as a Battlecruiser, then they would later call it a Bird-of-Prey. Those are two completely different types of ships, but they kept jumping back and forth between them, occasionally calling it a prison ship as well. In one scene Saru is told by the bridge that they identified the the Battlecruiser that took the Captain. Minutes later he walks onto the bridge and asks about the Bird-of-Prey. What?! You were just told it was a Battlecruiser! Then in the next episode, “Lethe”, Tilly says Tyler was rescued from a Bird-of-Prey. Ugh. Figure out your terminology, please!

    It’s not the first time the wrong term was applied to an enemy ship. In TNG they’ve called Romulan Warbirds “Battlecruisers” and in Star Trek 2009 they called Klingon Battlecruisers “Warbirds”. At least they stuck to that name throughout the episode/movie though. When they called the Warbirds “Battlecruisers” they at least called them Battlecruisers throughout the whole episode. They didn’t keep jumping back and forth between the different names. That would have been annoying.

    What is up with all of this intra-ship beaming? It’s technically doable in this era, but TOS makes it pretty clear that it’s rarely been done because of the danger involved in doing it. And yet we have scenes where Lorca casually beams himself and Burnham from his ready room to engineering. Saru orders the Emperor beamed from the transporter room to the brig and before that he beamed Tyler from sickbay to the brig like it was no big deal. That scene was particularly lame because he only did that to be overly dramatic. He’s trying to plead with L’Rell to help save Tyler so he beams him into her arms while she screams in shock. Ugh. DUMB! I guess they’re just going to retcon this technological limitation because it’s convenient for them?

    And how about this infallible cloaking device? I don’t buy it, because we know from other series and movies that 23rd century cloaking tech wasn’t that impregnable. In “Balance of Terror” the Enterprise was able to track the cloaked Romulan ship and they had made a big deal about that generation of cloaking device. We’re supposed to believe that the Klingons had a better cloak 10 years before this? It doesn’t make much sense. We even learn from Star Trek III that even if you can’t detect a cloaked ship with sensors, the cloak itself doesn’t make you 100% invisible. Kirk and Sulu could see the ripple in the stars with their own eyes as the cloaked Bird-of-Prey moved into position. Sulu was able to accurately predict where they’d be and hit them with torpedoes when she decloaked. And yet decades before this Starfleet couldn’t see Klingon ships entering their own Starbases? Give me a break. Star Trek VI would also acknowledge that Klingon cloaks couldn’t mask the neutron radiation produced by their ship’s warp core and could be detected while in close proximity to another Starship. And yet Klingon ships decades before this were flying in close to Federation ships and following them into Starbases?

    I’m sorry, but that’s just total crap.

    I also don’t like how they handled the spore drive. It obviously doesn’t exist in the rest of the Star Trek franchise and I was hoping they would find a logical way of getting rid of it. They had the opportunity when they had shown the damaged spore network as a result of Mirror Stamet’s tampering, but then they saved it. Even though they had one spore left they decided they could grow an entire planet’s worth in 30 seconds because plot reasons. Now they’re just not going to use it because they don’t want to keep using a person? That seemed rather lame, but I suppose they’ll attempt to explain it later on.

    It’s just that with the existence of the spore network, you have to wonder why someone like the USS Voyager crew didn’t think to use it when they were lost in the Delta Quadrant? If the network was destroyed, then that would make sense, but if it does still exist then why not use it? By Voyager’s era, they even use Bi-Neural circuitry throughout the ship and it would seem like a good piece of technology to adapt for spore network use.

    Of course the real world reason is simply that the spore network wasn’t thought of at the time Voyager was on TV, but that’s the problem with prequels. You come up with this super advanced tech when it’s not supposed to exist and now you have to explain why no one uses it in the other shows. They keep writing themselves into corners like this.

    How I’d Fix It: Get a writer who knows a thing or two about Star Trek. Let the lead writers focus on the drama and let the Trek expert make sure the show makes sense. Spend more time researching Memory Alpha or sit down and watch some episodes of Star Trek.

    Special Effects and Sound Effects

    Pros: Transporter effects are nice. Some of the ground phaser fights have been exciting.

    Cons: People praise the special effects of this show, but I’m not really impressed by any of it. Everything is incredibly dark and they don’t like to let us look at anything for too long. It makes it incredibly hard to make out the details most of the time. Some defend the idea that it’s dark in space. That’s true it is, but I find that argument incredibly weak. There are no explosions or sound in space either, but they still show us ships exploding dramatically in very loud explosions. If they’re going to be unrealistic there, then they might as well turn up the brightness as well.

    I’m also not a fan of the lens flare in this show. Star Trek 2009 often gets made fun of because of the constant lens flare, but for some reason they thought it was ok to overly use it here too. Why? And why is space always so busy? Flying around a nebula or something is nice when you’re near one, but I don’t believe there is a single shot of normal black space in any scene on this show. Every space scene has something in the background and the predominate color is blue. This show is SUPER blue. It’s distracting.

    I don’t like the pew, pew, pew pulse phasers either. They sound weak and fairly generic. I know pulse phasers are a thing in Star Trek, but EVERY ship uses them. They need to break it up by throwing in a beam weapon from time to time. The same is said for the ground battles. Some of them are actually really fun to watch, but sometimes if feels way too Star Wars-y.

    Another thing that bothers me about the sound effects are the constant use of TNG era sounds. Sometimes they’ll combine sound effects, like when hailing someone or answering a hail. Do you really need a classic TOS sound effect and a TNG sound effect at the same time? If they want to borrow sound effects from other Star Treks, then they should borrow from the TMP era films.

    How I’d Fix It: Turn down the lens flare, brighten up the ships, go back to black space unless the scene specifically calls for a nebula or spacial phenomenon, and stop with the Star Wars-y lasers effects. Again, pulse phasers are ok but I would include beam weapons along with them. They should also increase the sound and make them sound like they actually pack a punch.

    When it comes to other sounds like hailing sound effects, I would borrow from the TMP film era. Specifically I would borrow the ones from Star Trek VI. I always liked the sound effects from that film. Sadly it was the last of the TMP era, but I always thought that movie nailed everything that was good about that era. The Undiscovered Country is my favorite of the Star Trek films.

  • Shane Freund says:

    Alec you’re breaking my heart.????

    Discovery was a steaming pile of inconsistent inconsiderate bullshit. The only thing that could have redeemed it was taking everything Star Trek out of it and making it generic sci-fi.

    The regular universe of Discovery is like Mirror Universe light compared to Gene’s vision. Even JJ Abrams movies were better (well the first two anyway). Everyone fights no one likes each other. The only characters with any positive attributes are the gay Doctor and the cadet and they kill the Doctor.

    Hell the gay couple was something needed on Star Trek for years. And what do they do. They dangle it in front of us for a few episodes and kill the better of the two. Screw that.

  • Derek Allen says:

    I think you are a good man with a huge and generous heart. I haven’t seen Discovery yet, but I will give it a chance. I like what you said about the franchise being like a multiverse. You make the points that seem reasonable and I will take your suggestions because I love the franchise more than anything so I’m glad this generation gets their own Trek as well.

  • Claude says:

    Discovery for me has been badly positioned in the timeline. The uniforms, sets, special effects nothing to say all very nice even if I do not agree with the design but it is my personal opinion. For the actors, well this is linked to the script, which I found a little deep.The target on a younger audience is justified by the market but we do not make fun of the historical Star Trek fans with trivial and obvious effects. For the rest CBS defends its franchise is right, but I do not agree with the whole project. I do not want to be anchored to a look of the past but to a vision of Star Trek by Roddenberry that I do not find in Discovery. Certainly the market is much more demanding today and the offer is certainly more diversified, Discovery will not have an easy life. The Orville is a positive exampl, you can do a good show with less special effects but with deeper stories. This means that high quality sets, top special effects, big cast does not mean success if the stories are poor or few deep. I find that today’s audience has given a good signal to the great producers.

  • MstrMayo says:

    Stranger Things,one season would have done it.But succes made them rewrite this series to drag it into several seasons with nothingness.A really overrated ,not worthy of watching, series.
    How you bring it in as if it’s something to compare with, i have no clue.

    Discovery

    I waited till i could see all episodes.The full season.If i liked it,i would watch all at one weekend.But after the first ‘holiday’,of the first season i already started watching and i liked it very very much.So,pretty fast i ended up waiting for the next episode.Time really does fly .One week isn’t that long.

    Downside..
    And i find this with a lot of series these days.The other ST series? I’m used to receive 24 episodes in one season.Why did they break with this rule?!
    Almost all series these days only have about a 14 of them.That’s not a season.14 episodes.

    The last episode of Discovery first season.That was something they should have done differently.But having only 14 episodes it made them decide to end all with a silly solution.While we could see development after development during the first 13 episodes ,it all had to end with..I got a bomb and if you don’t do as i want i kill you all…Okay,the enemy said..We give up…And that’s it..Sorry about that spoiler but really? What a joke,that way of ending all..

    A thing to remember..
    If you want Star Trek to continue,keep on watching.Without people who want to watch a series? They just kill it.Giving the order to wrap it up.No money is coming in ,they just end it..It’s what happened with all ST series..Going from 40 million viewers from the start towards 10 , 15 million because for some it was too complicated.Wanting more of seeing couples falling in love,break ups and more of that kind of human behaviour. Many and many more are into those kind of story lines..They can add it,i do not care ,as i can skip those parts , i will keep on watching to stay one of the 40 million who are watching ST.
    Withous us all, they never ever will start something new again.

    Another thing to remember.
    Why would they try to satisfy the very first ST lovers..Ask yourself such a question.You could be dead after one dull season.That kind of age they all have already.
    They need fresh, brandnew fans.Like writers needs them,Like musicians do..And with slowing things down ,they will not succeed.Too me,they can speed things up a little bit more with more story-lines.If you rewatch this first season you will notice that it wasn’t that hard to follow..

    Downside
    Not all are great actors. In the next season we will hopefully see some better acting.Maybe some had troubles with the green screen or they did not prepare their role ,or they had no time to prepare,i don’ t know.A few where like if they didn’t believe they had to be this character for many many years.(With that you can compare Stranger things with some of those new ST actors)..Filming,camerawork,sound,nothing wrong in it.It’s the actors ,who have to gear things up into a higher level.

    I liked this first new ST series.Hopefully it will bring in enough money to let us enjoy another 10 seasons.It’s up to us to satisfy investors.Keep on watching.I am certain that all who are involved with ST will give us all they can.Sometimes it will crinch a little, but most of the time… we will love it.

  • Mike says:

    Well, there are so many pills to swallow in STD. And the actors are great. What is not so great in the show are the stories. The klingon/federation conflict was solved in one episode. In the dumbest way possible, i think. they have literelly jump the shark in that last Episode of the first season. I mean first seasons in the Star Trek Universe have often a bad start. TNG my alltime favorite, what a first season. WTF was that! Have the makers learned from their mistakes? Clearly not in STD. With an est. Budget of 8M it should be a great show almost for everyone.
    For me it is in most cases hard to watch. And i am not alone. I hope the second season become better. Because when it is not going to get better, i am done with the official Franchise. Not with your take of Star Trek Alec or from other fans.
    I think Paramount/CBS should reconsider their Guidelines on Fanfilm and Fanfiction. To give the Fans, who are pissed off, an olive branch. Time will tell
    Greetings from Germany and good luck with AXANAR
    Mike

  • James says:

    Hey, I like Iron Fist. 😛

    • Alec Peters says:

      I SO wanted to like it, as I remember buying Iron Fist # 1 as a kid. But Danny Rand just comes off as a whiney bitch in the series. Even in Defenders! Doesn’t mean I won’t watch it and hope he gets some, well, whatever it is so he isn’t such a wimp.

      Alec

  • mark rowley says:

    Sorry Alec, while I have nothing against a Star Trek multiverse, I guess I am less tolerant of CBS’s CEO Les Moonves incompetence and the new JJ verse. I didn’t care for any of the new movies and quite watching the last movie after the first 40 minutes. For me, Star Trek ended with Enterprise. I will always have DVD’s and eventually Axanar to fall back on. That’s enough for me. If someone feeds me slop, I am going to call it slop.

  • Azurian says:

    In general, I really enjoyed Discovery. The thing that keeps me from fully enjoying the series is what they did with the Klingons. Considering they said this is indeed the Prime Universe, why are the Klingons different as well as their aesthetics with their ship designs?

    When we were getting the tidbits of Discovery, I assumed the “different” Klingons were ancient Klingons that were asleep on board that Sarcophagus Ship, (similar to the I.K.S. T’Ong in TNG: The Emissary). But they ended up Klingons of modern times, to much dismay. Granted the story just begun, but it just doesn’t fit how they looked from Enterprise (TNG Klingons) to Discovery to TOS Augmented Klingons. That lack of explanation in Season 1 kept me from fully enjoying the series. (BTW Pale Green Orions? Just hope it’s like Star Trek Online that there are various skin tones).

    I hope they do give logical explanations why this era is drastically different, especially with Klingon ships. Even JJ kept the Klingon Warbird looking more like a D7. So they got a lot of explaining to do. At least the Enterprise looked like her classic self, just looking more like the Refit.

  • Darren Means says:

    I am going to say this at great risk of being refered to by a number of names here that I have already been called elseware. I like Discovery. Not enough to pay the 7 bucks a month to watch limited commercial interuption, which by my calculations were not limited in the least (especially if you paused the stream to go heat up dinner then came back for it it start in with the commercials again). I will argue that this is not Trek, in order for it to be Trek IMO, it needs to hold in some semblance to the ideals of the ideals of Roddenberry. Even the Kelvin timeline tried to some degree, this doesnt even try. Prelude to Axanar actually bridged the gap, and gave me new hope for a dying franchise in a way that Star Trek Enterprise and The Kelvin timeline wasnt able, and I enjoyed both. Axanar became a threat, something I pointed out as a warning years ago when the idea of Star Trek Discovery was first bantered around.

    Aaaand, Last but not least, I was offended for the Klingons by the fact that they were given the same stilted speech and vocal cadence that movies tend to give Native Americans… only to find out that this was intentional, and added to mimic the speech of natives. WE DONT TALK LIKE THAT IN OUR NATIVE TONGUES! Yes, I am Native (enrolled), and this truely offends me. I have heard the arguments, but they have all come from non natives who actually believe they are honoring the first nations (this is as bad in my book as The Paradise Syndrome, and this is the 2010’s).

    The show is very good by itself and if it were under a different label it would be very good science fiction, but in my mind… It just isn’t Star Trek

  • Frank Miller says:

    I will probably binge watch Discovery, when I get a chance. I just appreciate it being behind a paywall. Now granted I have Amazon Prime, and although I watch only The Grand Tour on it, at least I get free 2 day shipping!!!

  • Frank Miller says:

    * Make that DON’T APPRECIATE IT. OOPS!!!!

  • Mark Mazz says:

    A few random thoughts here…

    A key issue is the odd reimagining of a race of warriors, the Klingons. In ST: Discovery they appear as a bulky, hairless, and oddly slow-moving race. The reliance on sub-titles to show their “alien language” works horribly against the show as all the other alien races speak english. The subtitles slow down every scene they are in, drivers from the actual cinematography and story-telling. I find it very difficult to reconcile these bulky forms and savage battle, reminding me of the Gorn and not previously well-thought through Klingon battle aesthetic. I feel that an 11 year old Alexander could best T’Kuvma in the pilot. The battle scenes with the Klingons are a far cry from the Abramsverse, the NextGen-verse or the Prime-verse. No, the CBS-verse is slow and clunky. Maybe they need a new stunt director, or some mixed martial arts advisors on set.

    I’m not against a redesign of uniforms and technology based on the time period being a bridge between ST: Enterprise (my daughters’ love that show) and Star Trek: TOS. Obviously, as Alec says budgets and television have changed so dramatically that a newer overall environmental design helps keep up the pretense of a forward-looking future. The costumes are fine, but I have issues with cannon in the insignia used in each vessel’s crew. Oddly, the decision was made against cannon and against the ability to use distinct insignia and its merchandising potential! Another one of these environmental design decisions is the rather dark, poorly lit sets…to the point of making them depressing! It’s understandable to do this with Captain Lorca’s quarters, but certainly not throughout every scene in every ship. For 8 million dollars an episode, they can turn up the lights… the budget is there.

    On the writing end, the 2-part series pilot was particularly bad. The actual scene that sets the entire Discovery series in motion (the space encounter death of the torch-bearer by Michael Burnham) is so horribly filmed and the lighting so poor that I didn’t catch what had happened. It utterly destroyed my sense of disbelief. That’s a monumental mistake to make in a pilot for a new series. Frankly, I feel many watched that and “disengaged”. We wanted and waited for this show, framed against CBS’ lawyers declarations that “unauthorized web-series could never live up to the franchise”, which proved that the pot was calling the kettle black. It’s my opinion that any single member of the filming crew of Axanar would never have approved the final cut of that scene! Alec’s ability as a visual storyteller is pretty far up that mountain-top, and in MY opinion CBS should offer him a consultancy position.

    But hey, that’s just me.

  • Mark Mazz says:

    Oh, lest I forget… I do appreciate that CBS has given us this new show.
    I just wish they had kept Fuller, and barring that found their groove with dynamic storytellers that love the franchise as much as the loveable horde of fans do.

  • DONALD F CARLSON says:

    Judging from the good reaction Trek fans had to the Orville, it’s obvious that had Axanar not been harpooned by CBS’s lawsuit, it would have had a huge positive fan reaction as well. I can completely understand why CBS was so afraid – they would have been in the unenviable position of having dropped major amounts of money on a project that was outshone by The Orville and Axanar and still unloved by a lot of fans. Looking at some old Youtube features on the making of Enterprise, the producers again and again stressed the importance of keeping the connection between each series intact (i.e. respecting canon). Discovery’s production team has written them into some corners that will make it hard if not impossible to match the series up to the rest of the Trek universes (JJ Verse excluded). It’s be interesting, and I expect to shout expletives like did during this season. I like to think in the Mirror Universe their version of CBS was run by savvy executives that recognized the gift that the Mirror Alec Peters had given them, and they went on to have a 10 year run of a highly popular series that all the young and old Terran science fiction fans loved.

  • Tim says:

    The problem with DIS is that they still really haven’t done their own thing. They rely on the crutch of past series and storylines. The only thing remotely original about DIS is the spore drive and we all know that ultimately that’s a non starter.

    Every previous series has done their own thing. DS9 even had their iconic “I’m not Picard” moment. Even Voyager had it’s own premise.

    But DIS just jumps from one ‘member this? to another. Hey remember Sarek? Hey remember that time we name-dropped a bunch of captains from previous shows? Hey remember Harry Mudd? Remember the Terran Empire? Remember the Enterprise 1701?

    Think the actors themselves are doing a great job, but the stories are just retreads of past stories and it’s just so tiresome.

  • Kendall Gray says:

    Star Trek has never been an example of hard fidelity to precedent over dramatic need.

    Mr. Spock, hail the landing party.

    They are not responding.

    Can’t we locate them by where the communicators are?

    I beg your pardon?

    Use sensors to locate them? Vital signs? By the material in their clothing?

    I’m sorry…

    Subcutaneous transponders?

    …?

    Okay. We know where they landed and where they were headed. Get two landing parties, start at each location and…

    Transporter not functioning.

    I thought we had more than one?

    That’s… Not certain…

    Shuttles!

    Too early in the production order.

    Point being, it seems disingenuous to hold Discovery up to the fire for changing canon when the various series themselves frequently ignore it.

    TOS klingons, from the first appearance to the next, are different. Fred Phillips didn’t quite remember what he came up with for John Colicos. Roddenberry okayed a significant change for the movies, they changed the look every appearance after that. And TNG changed it again.

    I don’t see that it matters.

    Are the stories interesting? Entertaining?

  • […] Please read Part I of my full review here. […]

  • Aemielius says:

    I have said this a few times; Discovery, the reboot movies, every fan film made should be considered a quantum reality.
    As in the TNG episode “Parallels”, the farther one travels from one’s own quantum reality, the more noticeable the differences in technology and personalities.
    Discovery is nearly as far removed from the Prime reality as are the reboot movies in terms of technology and ship design. The exception being its rendition of the Constitution class.

  • Kevin Karr says:

    Hi Alec!

    I’ve been away from Axanar for a while but started reading again today.

    Is Axanar still in production ? Did CBS ever give you a deal?

    Now that Discovery is out, i understand why CBS came down hard, I think it was wrong of them however..

    I’m a huge fan of yours due to the many issues you have had with Axanar over the years and your personal battle with CBS execs. Prelude to Axanar lit my mind on fire and was so excited to actually have something to look forward to in Star Trek once again. Are still shooting the feature now ?

    I was devastated to hear of Richard’s passing! Another fact I was unaware of until today.

    Discovery:

    I’ll say it, I don’t like Discovery and that is a huge thing for me to admit and indeed hurts as I am a hard core Trek fan at heart (but prime timeline). Discovery doesn’t spark my imagination or capture my soul like the other Star Treks did (and all of them had an element or two of that – STTNG being the most). Discovery has broken the cardinal rules of Trek. I say don’t mess with Canon but if you are going to, do it gently. They didn’t. I also think they seriously messed up the first season by taking on too much and not telling it well. I mean a Klingon war that wasn’t Epic, and then they call a klingon D7 battle cruiser a D7 when it clearly isn’t anything like one. Also a main character not many people could relate to and having the mirror universe be a prime story line in the first season without a good solid foundation. Too much is wrong and for the wrong reasons.

    The rule is that you do not change things dramatically when you have a universe that is as rich as Trek. New things are okay but they have to be new. We need to stop rebooting things when they they don’t need to be otherwise you ruin the formula.

    Some examples here: The uniforms are fantastic in Discovery. Change was good. Klingons looking like a new species, no. Not unless you created a completely new way of telling that story. The ship designs are way too radical a change. You can’t have iconic ships looking like something form the movie aliens.

    however Discovery isn’t all bad… Great Cast! Great Acting and The Sets are really well done (albeit the bridge layouts are not functional like a real trek bridge on the shenzhou) however I am a firm true believer of the Okuda’s and Gene Roddenberry’s vision of how trek is presented and the stories told. I don’t mind that things are more serialized now but I may have prefered a more hybrid approach, with serialized and episodic combined.

    The one thing about Trek thats missing from Discovery is hope, exploration and that humans will prevail and the process of figuring that out. Discovery has some but it doesn’t live up to its title .. yet.

    Also, I feel that not offering Discovery online on the web and paying directly is a big problem for most of us who do not subscribe to regular television. in Canada, you can’t watch it on netflix which limits our viewing of it.

    MGM and Stargate is now offering online viewing, i don’t see why CBS can’t do the same from a computer to reach viewers for a low cost alternative.

    Axanar i felt was going to be terrific, and i hope somehow it gets made still.

    I would really be interested in reading about your experiences with production and writing as well as how one breaks into the star trek writing club! also how the current climate is for new writers to pitch star trek series to CBS. I’ve always wanted to write something like that.

    Cheers!

  • Enterprise-H says:

    Discovery felt more like a post-Nemesis Section 31 series dealing with Reman terrorists to me. Even the technology we see looks awfully similar to the holocommunicator Shinzon used in that movie. On the other hand, I fully expect Lorca to be revealed to be Garth of Izar.

    P.S.: There are ways of having “holocommunicators” while still feeling pre-TOS.

  • Let me start by saying that with regards the the worthiness of Discovery I am VERY biased because of CBS/Paramount.

    I watched the first (free) episode of CBS, and I thought it sucked, stank, was abysmal, utterly worthless on more levels than I can count. Feel free to add any adjective or pejorative of your own to express a profound lack of worthiness to exist for longer than the half life of an anti-proton swimming in the Pacific. I was more entertained by the brief Vulcan Axanar scene the the entire Discovery episode.

    The only way I will ever watch the series (which seems unlikely) is if it is made available on physical optical disc, and I can buy a used copy, thus ensuring the CBS/Paramount do not profit from me whatsoever.

    With regard to my feelings toward CBS/Paramount, it is difficult to fully convey the depth and breadth of my contempt, lack of respect, distaste, even hatred for both organizations. I have always despised bully’s, and people in positions of authority or power who abuse their power or position capriciously. Especially when they do it in a way that essentially stabs someone in the back.

    Alec went to CBS/Paramount on multiple occasions asking for some guidance on what they were okay with him doing, to no avail. Then they sued. They venally, viciously, needlessly screwed Axanar productions, and a great many fans (who contributed their own money to Axanar) just because Alec made BETTER TREK THAN THEY COULD.

    If I could snap my fingers and burn every building, tape, server, optical drive, paper copy, or any other asset belonging to CBS/Paramount to the ground they would be ash.

    I hope they go bankrupt in a manner that lands every single executive in a Turkish Prison with a tattoo on their back that mocks the Koran.

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