Star Trek Discovery: The Bryan Fuller TV reboot

As it's on Netflix elsewhere in the world, I'm not sure the success (or not*) of CBS All Access is a dealbreaker.

One bad episode in 4 is not a bad strike rate for Trek. Though I'm gonna hold on watching it for a few weeks in the hope things get better.

* definitely not

spore travel would have negated most of TOS, TNG, and all of DS9, VOYAGER -- so it looks like the trajectory points to season finale timeline reset?

I think we're going to end up with another Star Trek directive against a particular technology after this goes horribly awry

like, no genetic enhancement technology (KHAAAAAAN!), no time travel (temporal prime directive), no biophysics-based travel

i would imagine if she were aware that the tech existed at some point, janeway would've considered breaking whatever directive against its use. i think maybe discovery and its tech were ultra-top-secret and it wouldn't have been something future starfleet officers would know about

I'd imagine creating a spore drive is not exactly trivial

you'd have to first turn the saucer section into a turntable.
then you need a DJ.

well yeah but it's something i'm sure they'd brainstorm. and since voyager takes place like 100 years later, they might have the technology to make a spore drive in less than 75 years

they did get mad at that other federation ship that was using hyper-dimensional aliens as super jet fuel.

it's just a really big water bear

i'm hoping that the series ends in a humanist "humans, vulcans, klingons, we're all just really big water bears, maaaaaaaaaan"

you'd have to first turn the saucer section into a turntable.

This really didn't help me get over my thinking of a pizza slicer every time the ship appeared on screen (and I really like the ship) - I have no idea why revolving is necessary

As to the severe canon violation of this spore thing, I guess at some point all of these spore lifeforms are going to get wiped out, or it'll be mandated that using them as a propulsion system is unethical, or the spores will just turn on people and teleport them into the middle of a star every time they're forced to take anyone anywhere. But before that happens we have to have a character made of spores so it can have awkward conversations with people a la Persis Khambatta in Trek the Motion Picture

the entire cast of TNG is actually spores who have taken new forms

"You humans ... cannot be everywhere at once? It must be so ... limiting"

x mh bwahhhhh hah ha, solves that canon problem then

more like star trek human after all amirite

The tardigrade breakdown just to let them go all Minority Report with their screen technology was seriously eye-roll inducing, still not as bad as the Clockwork Orange scene.

I'm watching CBS's new Navy SEAL show (as long as I'm borrowing a CBS All Access login...) and Discovery feels more similar to that than it does any prior Star Trek.

tardigrade warp "able to materialize anywhere in the universe" = warp 10, making this the second time warp 10 has been connected to animals

In the new episode I counted them saying "DNA" 6 times which is voyager levels of technobabble. still, best episode yet.

The spore drive tech is very Dune like. Spores = spice?

This show is officially bad, quantitatively speaking.

I ... like this show.

Quantitatively speaking == there aren't enough episodes? But qualitatively it's fine?

The thing that I found most unbelievable in this one (out of a lot of generally unbelievable things) is that Starfleet would allow their one-of-a-kind, most-top-secret weapon-to-end-wars ship to take what could easily have been a one-way trip behind enemy lines to rescue Captain Ends J. Means

I kept hoping the admiral would say 'yep, consider him dead, we're not endangering the entire course of this war to to save one guy. In fact, if you do come across him, kill him yourself if he can't be extracted'

The mirror sting was pretty boss though

Quantitatively speaking == there aren't enough episodes? But qualitatively it's fine?

Qualitatively this thing has been abysmal since the third episode, we've just got a majority of bad episodes now.

it's good enough that we're still watching it which is really the only relevant criteria for whether a show is good or bad

idk, I'm on the verge of hatewatching / praying to Q that it stops being repugnant.

I do a see a lot of fan productions being on the dark/militaristic end of the spectrum, to the point that maybe this is what ST's fanbase wants now, and I'd point the finger at DS9 being the turning point.

Love this more than any Trek since I camped out at the St. Paul campus commons to watch Next Gen in the '90s.

I think the utopian radicalism is still there, just pressed against hard times and reluctant to speechify, which feels appropriate on both counts. The direction/action/FX make the battles as scary as they are striking, and I think the romantic plot and Elephant Man voices of the Klingons oddly give them more humanity than previous incarnations—they're still camp, just more enjoyably so. I love the silent shots, how each show starts with what feels like a cold open that just keeps going, the tense dialogue in suspenseful situations that packs as much evocative meaning as the original series but without underlining itself (sometimes orders must be disobeyed, sometimes monsters aren't, sometimes shame interferes with repair), and stays with me after the plot particulars fade. I like that the show includes a character with autism, but love the suggestion that she still has trouble fitting into this flawed utopia, and that the moral standard of the 23rd Century—and the leading role—may be held by someone other than the Captain.

appreciate the enthusiasm, Peter

Girlfriend (not a natural trekkie) loved Voyager and is loving this and so am I.

i can understand the reluctance of a star trek show being produced today to fully embrace the series' 'utopian radicalism' (great phrase btw peter) in favour of darker moral shades but i just don't understand why you'd choose to set it within a few years of the original series' swashbuckling optimism, where the clash of tones is going to be the most jarring

like, wouldn't it make more sense, and have more potential for drama, to set it years past tng/ds9/voyager? if you wanted to push past roddenberry's 'no personal conflict' rule like this show does, there's a million interesting stories you could tell. like, every human organisation in history has faltered and fallen eventually - wouldn't it be interesting to ask what would make a future starfleet wobble on its axis and threaten to collapse? what would save it?

anyway, enough fan fiction - it just really bugs me that they're trying to squeeze a morally-compromised star trek story into a place where it doesn't quite fit imo

we find out why they have all these rules and directives: the federation of the original series was built on top of a stack of dead bodies

bizzaro, I think that, from a studio's perspective, a post-TNG/DS9/Voyager show wouldn't be able draw in the civilian/non-Trekkie viewership. Kirk/Spock are so much well-established in American pop culture, Picard memes aside.

i thought one of the seasons was intended to take place in that era?

I counted them saying "DNA" 6 times which is voyager levels of technobabble

at least they didn't bother trying to explain how they tracked down the kidnapped lorca

i thought one of the seasons was intended to take place in that era?

they dropped the anthology conceit. One of the reasons Fuller left

bizarro otm, this feels more like dark timeline DS9 than post-Kirk

i think the timeline setting is the biggest mis-step. this would work better in a later period.
with all the egos & sarcasm & unpleasantness it’d work better not being Star Trek at all imo
but that’s just me.

super interested in space toothbrushes tho

I can see an artistic argument for going a different, new direction... but I dunno, that's not the appeal of Trek TV to me.

super interested in space toothbrushes tho

― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 19 October 2017 3:49 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was wondering what they were doing with those prostate massagers.

super interested in space toothbrushes tho

you should check out this show called battlestar galactica

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s77l5ti2ATk

Simultaneously impressed and repelled.

wish they'd gone with my title, star trek: tardigrading on a curve

lol mookie

xp

This last episode is so much better! I still have a lot reservations about how badly amateurish SF seems to be right now, but I'm *hoping* that now that Michael's gotten back onto the bridge, that we'll avoid the relentless grimness. Her mentoring Tilly is a refreshing development.

Obviously the show is pushing Michael and Ash into a relationship, which is going to be a source of consternation once Ash is exposed to Lorca's tribble.

Klingons continue to be one-dimensional -- so far I hate them. (They were at least TWO-dimensional on TOS, TNG, and DS9.)

I think the utopian radicalism is still there, just pressed against hard times and reluctant to speechify, which feels appropriate on both counts. The direction/action/FX make the battles as scary as they are striking, and I think the romantic plot and Elephant Man voices of the Klingons oddly give them more humanity than previous incarnations—they're still camp, just more enjoyably so. I love the silent shots, how each show starts with what feels like a cold open that just keeps going, the tense dialogue in suspenseful situations that packs as much evocative meaning as the original series but without underlining itself (sometimes orders must be disobeyed, sometimes monsters aren't, sometimes shame interferes with repair), and stays with me after the plot particulars fade. I like that the show includes a character with autism, but love the suggestion that she still has trouble fitting into this flawed utopia, and that the moral standard of the 23rd Century—and the leading role—may be held by someone other than the Captain.

Lots of interesting points -- I disagree with how you characterize the Klingons, they're drained of camp IMO as they've been painted as the abject Other (eating Georgiou (my god) sort of changes the stakes). I do like your suggestion that Discovery isn't centering its morality around the Captain, but Lorca has been terrible simply as a character.

I don't like this show when it's trying to be the Marily Manson of Trek.

I wonder who came up with the DISCO shirts?