Star Trek General

[Vic Boss 612]

Anyone still watching Discovery?

 

From an old-head Trekkie perspective, graphics are pretty and sometimes there's a good episode or good element (I really like the casting on Sarek and Spock tbh) and clever usage of concepts, but it's mostly bogged down by poor consistency (apparently there's a lot of backstage drama that's interfering with the original vision for the show), Michael being the most Mary-Sue character ever, continuity flaws (both in keeping with the universe and even in the story itself, like those times

 

 

 

That they couldn't break the Prime Directive with a lost settlement of humans dating from WWIII (even though the entire Khan storyline from TOS was built on the premise of reintegrating WWIII era humans and warp fight happened not long after WWIII) but they could completely change the evolutionary course of two entire species because they were being dicks to one of their crewmembers
 

 

)

 

and how silly Millennial-shit it gets sometimes (Discovery was attacked by giant space sawblades a few episodes ago, that's like TOS space-hippies level of injecting too much of our goofy modern world into this far-future world). I mostly keep up with it just to keep up with whatever Star Trek is up to these days, and also those pretty sfx.

 

(And ye, I've heard of The Orville, I'll probs try to watch eventually but I'm in no rush. I also still need to watch the third reboot movie at some point... and maybe all of Voyager eventually because that's the one I haven't seen all of ).

 

Also they're launching a Picard TV show at some point? TNG is now so old that Picard is retro the same way Kirk was retro when Picard first came onto the scene

[Lucy 108]

I've watched about 2/3rds of season 1 of Discovery so I'm not up to date, but I was enjoying it!  Some of it feels different to previous series but I'm easily pleased. Will hold off judgement til I'm caught up.

 

Other than that I've watched all the older series (except the animated series), currently a little stalled on finishing the last season of the Original Series.

 

 

[webhead 519]

I really loved season 1 of Discovery just because they fucking went for it big time. 

 

Spoiler

I could not believe they introduced the mirror/alt universe that soon into a show.  It is honestly so fucking cool just for that.  Totally hooked.  I am a total sucker for alternate universe stories.

 

I am also extremely excited for the new Picard show.  Please hurry up.

[Lucy 108]

YES, I need Jean-Luc back in my life

[Vic Boss 612]

I like the concept, but after seeing the crew of Discovery having a drunk-ass club party, I'm also waiting to be horrified

[Olly 39]

I'm watching! Sometimes it has bits I like a lot (most of them involve Tilly or Saru); sometimes I am amused by the classic-Trek-ness of the plots (interdimensional Tardigrades?? Oh, sure, of course), but mostly I do not think it is very good narratively or in characterizations.  

 

I've heard good things about "Orville" also - right now I'm kind of in "so many shows, so little time" mode, though. Mostly just watching Disco because M is into it, so we watch together.

[Vic Boss 612]

Saru is the best part of the show for me. Airiam could've been another but they didn't really focus all that much on her and then (Season 2 spoilers)

 

... they killed her off just as we found out what was actually up with her. Boooooo.

 

I also go halfsies on Tyler (S1 and beyond spoilers)

 

I don't really like Tyler as a character or a love interest, but I really like that Voq is in there and he can sort of turn it on and off. Not a big fan of shoehorning him into Section 31 just so they have an excuse for him to stay on the show, the wrote him out of the Klingon stuff way too cleanly

 

One thing I really, really liked

 

When they went back to Talos IV and used the TOS Pilot footage in the "Previously on." I loved the plot twist and cliffhanger as a Trek fan but though it was a little weak for non-Trek fans, but adding that little bit to it just to show how far back in the continuity they're reaching was a really nice touch.

[webhead 519]

I knew you'd like Saru.  Reminds me of Odo, another MaJr character.

[Olly 39]

Yeah one of the things I'm maddest about is the lack of ensemble development. (See especially that spoiler you mentioned  ) 
And yeah, I know original Trek was all about that holy Kirk-Spock-McCoy trinity, but I've tended to like Disco's non-Michael-focused episodes best. And now this whole s2 arc with Spock is pulling even more attention away from their *own* ensemble.

 

Doug Jones can do no wrong.

[Galeigh 308]

Anybody know a good place to watch Discovery that isn't Hulu?

[Vic Boss 612]

1 hour ago, Olly said:

Yeah one of the things I'm maddest about is the lack of ensemble development. (See especially that spoiler you mentioned  ) 
And yeah, I know original Trek was all about that holy Kirk-Spock-McCoy trinity, but I've tended to like Disco's non-Michael-focused episodes best. And now this whole s2 arc with Spock is pulling even more attention away from their *own* ensemble.

 

I think half of the problem is that the original showrunner foresaw it as an anthology series where each season had a different crew in a different era. Most of these characters were never meant to be anything more than vehicles to move the plot. Part of what I don't like about Season 2 is that it undid a decent amount of the events of Season 1 primarily because "Oh shit, we weren't expecting to use these characters anymore and now we have to figure out how to reroute them back into the plot."

 

Apparently we're getting another new showrunner for next season too, so who knows if any of this is even going to last

[Vic Boss 612]

Discovery S2 E13

 

The tactical display shows Discovery and Enterprised encircled by ships and they're like "WE'RE SURROUNDED" and I'm like "Just go up or down, guys."

[Vic Boss 612]

Mannnnn, that was some kind of CGI in the Discovery Season 2 finale. Who knew Federation Starships had the potential to have like 800 million starfighters in them and they just never used it before (or since...)

 

"We swore to never say a word about Discovery ever again" just like everyone who's watching it too

[Mera'din 307]

*blows dust off of topic*

 

IS ANYONE WATCHING PICARD!?

 

It's been fucking fantastic so far. Lots of solid nods and cameos to TNG (and eventually other series' ) without going overboard and is all around a solid story so far. 3rd episode came out today and this is probably the most interested I've been in Star Trek since I was like 15. 

 

They also very effectively make use of the normal timeline side of the event (Romulan Supernova) that caused the JJ Abrams movie timeline which I thought was a nice touch. 

[webhead 519]

Shit I didn't even know that had started.  Time to hop on that shit.  I wonder if I can convince Jovanna to watch TNG with me first.

[Vic Boss 612]

Just finished Episode 1 of Picard.

 

I'm offended as fuck tbh. Who's this sad old man in this sad old timeline with this sad old Starfleet where we pretend that JJ Abrams' Star Wars dress rehearsal is canon and actually happe- oh hey, that looks like a Borg Cube

 

On to Episode 2.

 

---

 

"And the replicator will ding like it was a microwave xD xD xD xD"

 

Nope, I'm not watching any more of this today

[Vic Boss 612]

 

---

 

Actually I just needed to eat lunch, back on it

[Vic Boss 612]

"This Facility has gone 5843 days without an assimilation." Okay I lol'ed

 

We kind of already did the "Vulcans are actually secret Romulans" thing in Enterprise tho

[Vic Boss 612]

EARTH DOESN'T USE MONEY

 

HOLY SHIT I'M MAD

 

Raffi's living in a hovel pretending like she's been banished to poor-land when EARTH DOESN'T USE MONEY SHE'S CHOOSING TO LIVE LIKE THIS and then pilot-guy is all "Hurr durrr I'm expensive" but he's operating on Earth which DOESN'T USE MONEY SO WHY WOULD A FOR-HIRE EVEN BE THERE. I literally turned my brain off so I'd stop comic-book guy'ing it but I can't stupid myself down enough to let slips in the basic setting like this go by.

 

I hate everything new and wish they'd stop injecting stupid young-people shit into. THEY TURNED ME INTO A FUCKING BOOMER

[Vic Boss 612]

Picard E4

 

The space battle CGI is spectacular. I'm always going to miss the practical effects models but god damn, Discovery had incredible space-battle CGI and it's made its way into Picard too.

 

Oh fucking fine, if we're gonna get to see Locutus of Borg and Seven of Nine swap assimilation-trauma notes, I guess I can watch one or two more. BUT I'M NOT GONNA LIKE IT

 

[Vic Boss 612]

Picard E5

 

Torture porn doesn't belong in Star Trek, thanks.

 

I did love the flamboyant disguises and especially Picard hamming it up with his french roguishness

 

Something about the setting I'm really missing here and I don't remember if it was mentioned earlier (Serious, not babby-whining that this isn't muh Trek)

 

So if I'm following, JJ Abrams blew up the core of the sun that Romulus circled and thus ended the Romulan Star Empire. The Neutral Zone collapses and some of the cool kids decide to LARP as The Fellowship of the Ring to be a kind of roving vigilante frontier justice force in the ensuing power vacuum.

 

I'm missing a key point here: why did this happen at all? The Neutral Zone was established because the Romulan Star Empire and Earth and the Federation got into a shooting war between Enterprise and Discovery/TOS, the Neutral Zone was the space between the two galactic powers that served as a buffer. If anyone's caught inside it, the shooting war is back on. It was a frontier because it was tricky to establish law and order in a region where the forces that can establish that law and order can't openly do anything.

 

KABOOM. The Romulan Star Empire collapses. There is no more Neutral Zone because the Romulans aren't in any position to be in a shooting war because they will lose and likely lose badly. The show says it devolved into lawlessness, but it's not a real far-flung frontier, the Federation can easily start moving in because there's no borders to worry about anymore.

 

"But they said that a decent chunk of the Federation membership would pull out if they helped the Romulans." Very true. The Neutral Zone might be full of Romulans now, but it's not Romulan territory, theoretically those anti-Romulan Federation members would be gung-ho about moving in so that the Romulans can never again threaten them. The hawks who still remember the darkest days of the Dominion War would've had their day especially after the Mars incident, and the Federation would be cold enough to leave the Romulans to die would also be cold-blooded enough to move in. It's the west after the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO rolls up as close as they can to contain their former enemy.

 

(Also like... the Klingons share a border with the Romulans too, they would've rolled in immediately)

 

I'm probably thinking too much about this

[Vic Boss 612]

Episode 6

 

A strung-out women who's been drinking ruins a long-term friendship of hers just to get diplomatic credentials for the Scooby Gang for 24 hours... and Picard gives her standing applause. Like this woman is in a personal spiral and ruining more of her life and Picard's like "HELL YEAH, YOU JUST HELPED OUR MISSION OUT."

 

What the fuck.

[Vic Boss 612]

Took me about Partway through Episode 7 into Episode 8 to be properly stockholm syndrome'd into the fanfiction handling of the setting the overall storyline

 

Really nice moment where Picard is talking about Data to Dr Soji too ;_;

[Vic Boss 612]

Finished Picard

 

I saw someone else on the internet say some of this, but it's like if you took the worst sensibilities of Voyager and Nemesis, used the JJ Abrams Star Wars dress rehearsal Star Trek as a base, sprinkled in the goofier elements and tip-top-notch CGI of Discovery (holy SHIT, some of that Episode 10 CGI, those space lotuses are what I want my shitflowers to look like), and then you don't actually like TNG but they made you use the TNG stuff so you went "UGH, fine" and out popped Star Trek: Picard.

 

If you excised all the TNG elements, then it's dumb but it's fine in the same way Discovery is dumb but it's fine. They're trying to pull Millennial dorks back in and dangle something Zoomers might get into (which apparently means dumbing it down and having a lot of bare-basic inter-cast drama), but you can't mix Boomer, Gen X, Millennial and Zoomer all together and then shit on the Boomer elements of it (we can forget about Gen X because everyone does anyways )

 

So my final rating on a 10 scale is a Watch-The-Expanse-Instead/10