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Star Trek Discovery is a Dumpster Fire


JohnRogers
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Straight out of the gate, the dialogue was overly expositional, with the characters spending more time dumbly spelling out exactly what they're doing, than saying anything meaningful. Why would a first officer be telling the captain what they're doing on a routine mission? Hell, why would the first officer and captain be on this routine mission, alone together, in the first place? Does the captain not know what they beamed down to this planet to do? They obviously didn't trust the audience to pay attention for themselves two minutes into the premier... It was an immediate signal of the hackneyed writing that filled the entire two hours.

 

The pacing of the show was awful too, tying into the complaint of expositional dialogue. The action would come in sporadic, bombastic bursts; with ships firing disruptor beams in a panicked frey suddenly stopping altogether so that a couple of characters could drop what they're doing to explain the plot to the audience again, with the nuance and subtlety of a frenzied giraffe.

 

Aside from maybe Captain Georgiou, the characters were totally unsympathetic and unrelatable. Their motivations were irrational, more aimed at amping up action than serving the soul of the series. The jump from argument to mutiny was done with all the thoughtfulness of a prison rioter, not a Starfleet office raised with the Vulcan philosophy. Let's set aside the very premise of "The Vulcan Hello", which is such a blatant disregard for the characterization of the peaceful and logical Vulcans that we've spend a half-century getting to know.

 

That disregard for canon is pervasive too. If you're not going to take advanatage of rich tapestry of canon that Star Trek brings for you to work with, why even make a Star Trek show? Klingons do not care to collect their dead, and this has been a well defined, thoroughly explained trait for them. Here, they throw out that trait, so that they can "Chekov's Gun" a warhead onto their ship in the episode's climax. They couldn't find a more creative way to do it? One that doesn't hold up the abandonment of canon with an almost sadistic betrayal of knowlegable fans? These gleeful little stabs at the core Star Trek community seemed quite intentional, an arrogance that will backfire on this production.

 

But beyond those finer details of canon, there's the more important "heart and soul" of Star Trek's style. The notion that you win by being better, that you succeed by exemplifying good- not by being devious, cynical and aggressive. Here, those notions are thrown out in favor of more conflict and drama. Even to the last moment of the show, with Burnham facing a shadowy, ominious court martial (not a well lit, transparent, fair and effective system of justice) and getting a LIFE SENTENCE for her failed attempt at mutiny?! I was expecting a demotion and maybe 30 days... but a life sentence for actions that ended up having no impact anyways!? When the HELL did Starfleet turn into such a draconian and unforgiving regime?!

 

Every note was a failure. Every step was a misstep. This disappointment, this hellish subversion of everything 'Trek' is such a tragic disservice to an art that has beautifully served generations prior. This makes the J.J. Abrams reboots look loyal to canon, makes the worst of Enterprise or Voyager look like masterpieces, and makes the best of TOS and TNG seem like a fading, forgotten dream.

 

Zero Stars. CBS can go fly a kite with a hole in it.

So you're saying you'll give it a chance?

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I have mixed feelings about what I saw last night. I did watch part two on CBS All Access. The aesthetics for the time period really don't look right, except for the phaser side arm. I agree with KJ and could on on for hour about the lousy court martial scene, garbage. A cheap gimmick, any doubt one of those poorly lit characters shows up soon? From the two episodes I watched and the season preview I get the sense we won't get "exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life...boldly going where no one has gone before". Which is unfortunate because that is what the core Trek fan is hungry for.

 

We might...I stress might, get a good telling of the early Klingon war. That could be interesting but again that isn't the story we've been asking for.

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I watched episodes 8 and 9 of Star Trek Continues Sunday as my kids were off at a friend's. Those were really excellent. Hard to believe its a fan production, apart from some of the wooden acting (the Bones character should just forget trying to mimic the original at all). Great writing, thoughtful sci-fi.

 

This Discovery business? If it were free I'd continue to watch it -- I kind of liked how it was darker than the "canonical" shows that followed TOS -- but I have no plans to pay even more money for things I mostly don't watch. As I've got the MLB app on my phone, and I can stream shows and movies onto my smart tv, I'd get rid of cable all together if it weren't for my kids. I guess this will be the last I see of Discovery until it shows up on Netflix.

Edited by Rutlefan
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Watched it for about 25 minutes. Women in total control, the male alien crewman comes across as a dumbass. You can expect a gay Vulcan and a transgender Klingon in future episodes. I can't believe they didn't clone Hillary to captain the ship. :P
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The critics like it (74 on metacritic) .

 

It didn't have the tone of Star Trek, and that's probably a good thing. I think the first 84 minutes was the intro-movie to get people hooked. I would expect that the show will get more Star Trek-y as it goes on.

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makes the worst of Enterprise or Voyager look like masterpieces, and makes the best of TOS and TNG seem like a fading, forgotten dream.

Ouch!
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Tonight's episode was much better, but still way off the mark of the necessary Star Trek themes and tones.

 

If this were some other franchise, tonight's episode would've been quite enjoyable.

Edited by KenJennings
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Tonight's episode was much better, but still way off the mark of the necessary Star Trek themes and tones.

 

If this were some other franchise, tonight's episode would've been quite enjoyable.

Yeah until the big prequel problem came along.

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In week three we are introduced to Discovery, Spore Drive and it appears Michelle Burnham becomes a permanent member of the Discovery crew.

 

In week four we’ll learn more about Discovery’s clandestine military research, more about why Captain Lorca brought the dangerous alien lion thing aboard?

 

What are you looking for next based on what we’ve seen thus far?

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In week three we are introduced to Discovery, Spore Drive and it appears Michelle Burnham becomes a permanent member of the Discovery crew.

 

In week four we’ll learn more about Discovery’s clandestine military research, more about why Captain Lorca brought the dangerous alien lion thing aboard?

 

What are you looking for next based on what we’ve seen thus far?

Honestly my theory is that I hope the Discovery is some sort of time ship that's come back from the future to retrieve Burnham and then go back to a post DS9 / VOY era. When you think about it, it sort of makes sense. You have tons of secrecy, way too many science officers, the ship is basically brand new-looking, they have some sort of mushroom drive tech that works like the Iconian gateways, etc etc.That's what I hope this all amounts to.

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I am having a hard time with the Klingons. Changing them so drastically makes no sense whatsoever. It's not a simple cosmetic change, it's a total redefining move. Plus the tone is all wrong. Call it what it is but it's not Star Trek.
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I am having a hard time with the Klingons. Changing them so drastically makes no sense whatsoever. It's not a simple cosmetic change, it's a total redefining move. Plus the tone is all wrong. Call it what it is but it's not Star Trek.

 

it makes sense if you understand the background of lisciencing. It's been a problem throughout star trek. everything from The Motion Picture to the last episode of Voyager belongs to Paramount. That includes the klingon look. The old look belongs to DesiLou productions. But roddenberry owned the word. the name and the language. So in order to make the klingons look like TNG/DS9, it would cost CBS. Theyed have to pay paramount. Which doesn't seem like a big deal because both are owned by viavcom, but thats where it comes from. Thats why starting with the reboot movies the klingons were changed as well as the uniforms. In the reboot movies, although they use the gold/blue/red scheme, if you look at the uniforms they are different. same goes for the bridge layout and the technology. CBS can't make Discovery tech look like TOS because that belongs to desilou.

 

So, since they had to change the look of everything, they went back to the begining. Roddenberry wanted the klingons to look the way they do in Discovery. He wanted the romulans to look like the way the remans ended up looking. But the low budget of TOS ended up having the klingons with bushy eyebrows, shoepolish on the face, and foomanchu's. And the romuland looked vulcan because they already had ears made. The blue uniforms are meant to look like an evolution from ST:ENT -> Garth of Izar's uniform -> Discovery.

 

I don't mind the changes. And i am somewhat enjoying Discovery. Certainly better than that first season of Enterprise.

But this in not prime universe. It's a reboot regardless of what they say.

Edited by furie
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I'll say episode 4 gave us the first moment that resembled anything "Star Trek", with Burnham campaigning for the Tardigrade's innocence before Security Officer Dumbass went and got herself killed.

 

tumblr_oxje8goJK81rwo3plo1_540.png

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I am having a hard time with the Klingons. Changing them so drastically makes no sense whatsoever. It's not a simple cosmetic change, it's a total redefining move. Plus the tone is all wrong. Call it what it is but it's not Star Trek.

 

it makes sense if you understand the background of lisciencing. It's been a problem throughout star trek. everything from The Motion Picture to the last episode of Voyager belongs to Paramount. That includes the klingon look. The old look belongs to DesiLou productions. But roddenberry owned the word. the name and the language. So in order to make the klingons look like TNG/DS9, it would cost CBS. Theyed have to pay paramount. Which doesn't seem like a big deal because both are owned by viavcom, but thats where it comes from. Thats why starting with the reboot movies the klingons were changed as well as the uniforms. In the reboot movies, although they use the gold/blue/red scheme, if you look at the uniforms they are different. same goes for the bridge layout and the technology. CBS can't make Discovery tech look like TOS because that belongs to desilou.

 

So, since they had to change the look of everything, they went back to the begining. Roddenberry wanted the klingons to look the way they do in Discovery. He wanted the romulans to look like the way the remans ended up looking. But the low budget of TOS ended up having the klingons with bushy eyebrows, shoepolish on the face, and foomanchu's. And the romuland looked vulcan because they already had ears made. The blue uniforms are meant to look like an evolution from ST:ENT -> Garth of Izar's uniform -> Discovery.

 

I don't mind the changes. And i am somewhat enjoying Discovery. Certainly better than that first season of Enterprise.

But this in not prime universe. It's a reboot regardless of what they say.

My understanding is CBS owns everything Desilou and that Paramount is no longer part of Viacom. Hence the “rights” dance that Discovery is doing.

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Have you read or heard rumors of this show potentially being a disaster??? Let's discuss it.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Km5qVwZvjm8

 

 

I remain cautiously optimistic. I want this new Trek to be really good.

 

I wouldn't waste a second of time on this.

 

I'm having a hard enough time after watching the Episode VIII trailer.

 

Science Fiction is dead.

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Have you read or heard rumors of this show potentially being a disaster??? Let's discuss it.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Km5qVwZvjm8

 

 

I remain cautiously optimistic. I want this new Trek to be really good.

 

I wouldn't waste a second of time on this.

 

I'm having a hard enough time after watching the Episode VIII trailer.

 

Science Fiction is dead.

 

go see the new Bladerunner

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