Star Trek: Discovery

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Watched it last night. Spoilers ahoy.

Pros:
  • Gorgeous visuals.
  • Stellar casting. Yeoh, Martin-Green, Jones are all great.
  • Good pacing.
  • Good space combat.
  • Motha fukken KLINGONS in all their barbaric splendor. Space orcs, you say? Fuck, I wish my orcs were this cool. I wish (hope?) T'Kuvma would be a recurring villain.
  • Good use of long-standing Trek canon.

Cons:
  • Burnham is kind of a Mary Sue but it's early on in the series, we know very little about her and it doesn't look like her shitting all over the chain of command is getting a free pass.
  • Why Sarek? Meaning, why the Spock connection?
  • 1000ly long-distance telepathic pep talk.
  • Jesus fuck, can the Shenzhou crew Starfleet get one thing right? "We're not soldiers" — nearly fooled me there with the ranks and orders and phasers and photon torpedoes.
  • Georgiou arrests Burnham for mutiny and a few hours later they're teaming up to board the Klingon flagship? WTF?
  • Like Abrams Trek, it's less of a SF morality play/quandary of the week and more of an action movie. But a good, attention-grabbing one so far.

My veredict. If the writers play this right they can have the best of classic Trek and the best of Abrams Trek. They have some intriguing plots and strong characters in place, but the writing has already faltered a couple of times; here's hoping it tightens up in the next episodes.
 
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Okay, watched the first two episodes. Looking forward to the rest. I didn't expect the format to turn out the way it appears to be, and that should be interesting.

Also, I like Sonequa Martin-Green from The Walking Dead.
 
According to After Trek (the Star Trek talk show... yes, that's a thing), the grimdark war will last only through the first season. Should there be a second season, they want to get Star Trek back to fun happy exploration.

Oh, and Amanda (Sarek's wife, and Spock's mother), will make an appearance this season.
 
According to After Trek (the Star Trek talk show... yes, that's a thing), the grimdark war will last only through the first season. Should there be a second season, they want to get Star Trek back to fun happy exploration.

Oh, and Amanda (Sarek's wife, and Spock's mother), will make an appearance this season.
That's a risky approach to take. Viewers often expect shows to get bigger and bigger with stakes. When Babylon 5 was forced to burn through its biggest conflicts in the fourth season due to fear of cancellation, there were a lot of complaints when the show went back to the more episodic format of early run of the show.

It's not impossible to do, but it will be tricky.
 
Space orcs, you say? Fuck, I wish my orcs were this cool.
Yep, Space Orcs I say. Gods who came up with that make-up and costume design? I swear to god they found a warehouse full of prosthetics left over from the LotR trilogy and decided to save some cash. o_O They're cool, but not Klingons.
It's a shame because the Klingon reboot itself is pretty awesome, they melded in a lot of stuff from the previous series and did a good job.
 
Yep, Space Orcs I say. Gods who came up with that make-up and costume design? I swear to god they found a warehouse full of prosthetics left over from the LotR trilogy and decided to save some cash. o_O They're cool, but not Klingons.
It's a shame because the Klingon reboot itself is pretty awesome, they melded in a lot of stuff from the previous series and did a good job.

Now I want a Klingons/Warhammer 40,000 Orks mash-up.
 
So, the third episode was pretty good. It was actually better than the first two, IMO. It effectively acted as a second pilot, and we actually got to see the U.S.S. Discovery and her captain and crew.

Warning though... there's a bit of gore towards the end of the episode. :sad:
 
Watching the first two episodes. Suffers from the typical Trek weaknesses (preachy talkiness) but I like the cast and look of the series.
 
Space horror? In my Trek? It's easier than you think.

Fuck yeah

Also I'm an immediate fan of Cap. Lorca. He comes across as a meaner, maverick Picard (plus fortune cookies but whatever).
 
The salt-vampire in TOS freaked me out when I was younger. As a kid the ear worms in Wrath of Khan permanently scarred me. Also the Next Generation episode in season 1 with those parasite monsters. The Borg doing forced surgery, removing limbs and turning people into zombies. Christ, plenty of horror in that mythos.
 
The salt-vampire in TOS freaked me out when I was younger. As a kid the ear worms in Wrath of Khan permanently scarred me. Also the Next Generation episode in season 1 with those parasite monsters. The Borg doing forced surgery, removing limbs and turning people into zombies. Christ, plenty of horror in that mythos.
I watched this when it first aired, and it was easily the goriest thing I had ever seen on commercial broadcast TV at that time.
 
The salt-vampire in TOS freaked me out when I was younger. As a kid the ear worms in Wrath of Khan permanently scarred me. Also the Next Generation episode in season 1 with those parasite monsters. The Borg doing forced surgery, removing limbs and turning people into zombies. Christ, plenty of horror in that mythos.

True! Been a while since I'd seen it front and center like this though. :smile:

And that salt vampire episode in TOS is easily one of my top 5. Maybe top 3.
 
On the topic of Star Trek horror, let's not forget Dr. Beverly Crusher and her ghost candle.

Actually, maybe we should forget that one.
 
The salt-vampire in TOS freaked me out when I was younger. As a kid the ear worms in Wrath of Khan permanently scarred me. Also the Next Generation episode in season 1 with those parasite monsters. The Borg doing forced surgery, removing limbs and turning people into zombies. Christ, plenty of horror in that mythos.

^ This.

The salt-vampire haunted my nightmares as a child.

IMO, Trek did horror better than B5 or Star Wars ever did.
 
IMO, Trek did horror better than B5 or Star Wars ever did.

Horror and Star Wars never crossed my mind at the same time. George Lucas' idea of horror is Anakin and the younglings scene in Revenge of the Sith. I have watched maybe two episodes of Star Trek my whole life and I happened to randomly land on an episode of the original series where the crew runs into some silicon creature that looked like a pizza blob. It crept up on one of the anonymous crew members from behind and then you get the turn around and a scream from the victim. Later Kirk and Spock find a pile of ashes that was once the crew member, wondering what happened. More horror than any Star Wars scene I can think of.
 
Horror and Star Wars never crossed my mind at the same time. George Lucas' idea of horror is Anakin and the younglings scene in Revenge of the Sith.

At the risk of taking this thread off-topic, I've come to see the prequels and originals as examples of personal horror. I mean, IMO, the whole story is really only about Anakin, and later Luke, seeking power, struggling to come to terms with the dark temptations that power brings, and the entire process of their corruption (successful and not), being played out through the process of empowerment, temptation, corruption, the death and despair that results in said corruption, and later, redemption. Vader was tested and failed, and Luke was tested and succeeded, but even Luke came damn close to failing himself.

I mean, it seems to me that you can substitute "Sith lord" with WOD vampire and get a similar story arc. The biggest danger in SW isn't so much being killed, as the franchise established an objective, universal morality system and actual life after death. The biggest danger is "turning to the Dark Side". The process of ethical corruption that leads to a once noble being degenerating into a hateful, inhuman asshole.

I have watched maybe two episodes of Star Trek my whole life and I happened to randomly land on an episode of the original series where the crew runs into some silicon creature that looked like a pizza blob. It crept up on one of the anonymous crew members from behind and then you get the turn around and a scream from the victim. Later Kirk and Spock find a pile of ashes that was once the crew member, wondering what happened. More horror than any Star Wars scene I can think of.

The silicon creature scared me. :smile:

This thread inspired me to go back and rewatch the OS. I have to say, I'm enjoying it quite a bit, despite its flaws.
 
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The Emperor zapping Luke used to frighten me too as a child. I hated that creepy old monster. Now he's my favourite part of the Saga. Hoping that SNOKE is any ounce as cool. </derail>

EDIT: I'm not alone in loving both Star Wars AND Star Trek, right? I know that some folks lean one way or the other (or neither, preferring Battlestar Gallactica or Doctor Who). Oh well.
 
The Emperor zapping Luke used to frighten me too as a child. I hated that creepy old monster. Now he's my favourite part of the Saga. Hoping that SNOKE is any ounce as cool. </derail>

EDIT: I'm not alone in loving both Star Wars AND Star Trek, right? I know that some folks lean one way or the other (or neither, preferring Battlestar Gallactica or Doctor Who). Oh well.

Sidious is my favorite character of the franchise. o_O

And no, you're not alone. I make a lot of complaints about SW and ST, but that's just me nit-picking. The truth is they're both good for what they are. All of the major sci-fi shows are, really. They're all good, like different flavors of ice cream. I've yet to discover a flavor of ice cream that's bad.

Except strawberry ice cream. That shit can go to hell. :mad:
 
EDIT: I'm not alone in loving both Star Wars AND Star Trek, right? I know that some folks lean one way or the other (or neither, preferring Battlestar Gallactica or Doctor Who). Oh well.

I am much more into Star Trek than Star Wars, but I do like the original Star Wars trilogy.
 
Horror and Star Wars never crossed my mind at the same time. George Lucas' idea of horror is Anakin and the younglings scene in Revenge of the Sith. I have watched maybe two episodes of Star Trek my whole life and I happened to randomly land on an episode of the original series where the crew runs into some silicon creature that looked like a pizza blob. It crept up on one of the anonymous crew members from behind and then you get the turn around and a scream from the victim. Later Kirk and Spock find a pile of ashes that was once the crew member, wondering what happened. More horror than any Star Wars scene I can think of.
I was going to mention this episode. Devil in the Dark, with the Horta. I think Diane Duane later had a Horta crew member in one or more of her Rihannsu novels.
 
I liked the third episode more than the previous two. Was surprised by the strong horror elements and Lorca is great, wonder if they named him after the great Spanish poet and playwright.
 
Netflix just announced another price increase to $14 per month before tax, starting next month. In Pennsylvania, that would bring it to $15.12 per month. That's after losing NBC's and FOX's television programming, and they're soon to lose Disney. Meanwhile, commercial-free CBS All Access is $10, with no tax in Pennsylvania. Considering Netflix's original programming is mostly crap, I'm actually glad that Discovery is on CBS All Access. Saves me over $5 per month.
 
10.99 for HD, 13.99 for UHD.

But yeah, Netflix's value constant drops while the prices increase.

Unfortunately for me CBS All Access is not a viable replacement because the only thing on it I want to watch is Discovery.
 
The only person in the house who watches Netflix is my daughter. I'm not sure how long I'll be willing to pay up if they keep jacking the price up for less and less content as the years roll on.
 
Same here. Once Disney launches their own streaming service, that means Star Wars and Marvel stuff will be leaving Netflix too.
 
I'm only keeping Netflix because my parents use my account to watch House of Cards. I cancelled it a few months ago, and they wondered what was going on. I renewed it for them. I use their cable TV password, so I am getting a really good deal even if I have no use for Netflix.

Amazon Prime is getting the most use from me lately.
 
I'm really liking the show so far. It looks like they're basically going the mid-seasons DS9 route - setting the Federation's idealism up against situations bad enough that that idealism is not 100% sustainable. I thought DS9 went a bit too far in that direction towards the end, to the point where it seemed to be saying that the Federation was just flat-out wrong, but I still like the style.

Some thoughts:

  1. The Klingons were a bit too flat-out villainous for my taste. Though in fairness, they were in fact the villains. Quite possibly we'll get a few sympathy-for-the-devil moments later on.
  2. Gazooks! It took them fifty years, but they finally looked up "logic" in the dictionary! :p I really like Sarek. He actually comes across as wise and rational as opposed to dogmatic. And the Vulcan approach to Klingons felt very natural, too - it's basically game theory, isn't it?
  3. Saru is my man. I love a shameless coward. :grin: And the actor manages to convey a surprising lot of emotional depth considering how much cosmetics he has to do it through.
  4. Not sure how I feel about Michael. It kind of depends on how unconditionally the show wants me to like her - and I'm honestly a bit confused about that right now. The sentiments expressed, by her and other characters, are that she did do something wrong and shameful, but it seems to be a bit vague about just what that was. Her mutiny, after all, was not what what started the war - the war was going to start regardless, and she didn't manage to go through with it anyway. It could be argued that she started the war by killing the big bad Klingon guy instead of taking him prisoner as planned, but that part was both understandable (it was in the heat of battle, and she was trying to save her Captain's life) and not what the show seems to focus on. The fact that her fellow crewmembers are mostly leery about the mutiny is understandable, since they might well feel that that was an act of personal betrayal by someone they knew and trusted, but everyone else seems to talk about "mutiny" and "the war you started" pretty much interchangeably, so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to think they're being unfair or not.
 
I mostly use Netflix to watch standup comedy specials.

Any word if STD is coming to US Netflix in the future? Or just remain with CBS Access?

There was a guy selling bootleg DVDs in Chinatown last week. He was hawking both GoT and STD.

EDIT: I'm not alone in loving both Star Wars AND Star Trek, right?

Yes you're alone! Everyone knows you must only choose one Star series and mate for life!
 
I think that part of growing up is realizing that the things that I liked are over and won't come back. I have to let go and acknowledge that future generations just won't like them as much. I have to move on. It isn't easy.

My favorite Trek are the movies with the original cast. I would love to see more in that world: that aesthetic, that music, that setup. It won't happen; the world has moved on and I will never see:
  • an awesome female captain wearing that red naval-inspired outfit
  • Star Trek: Excelsior or "The Adventures of Captain Sulu"
  • Klingons who look like the ones in Search for Spock and Undiscovered Country. I loved those guys.
  • The refit-era of ships. The Reliant and the Klingon Bird of Prey are probably my favorite Star Trek ships ever.
  • Grandiose music full of romantic awe and wonder (with a dash of ocean adventure). Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner will never make Trek music again :sad:
Ah well. Let those go and I can love Star Trek again more fully. Not bitter, just nostalgic.
 
I mostly use Netflix to watch standup comedy specials.

Any word if STD is coming to US Netflix in the future? Or just remain with CBS Access?

The show will remain a CBS All Access exclusive, at least until the last episode of the series premieres.
 
I think that part of growing up is realizing that the things that I liked are over and won't come back. I have to let go and acknowledge that future generations just won't like them as much.

I thought like that about Link to the Past, but then I got lucky and Link Between Worlds managed to not only recreate its magic, but expand on it without distortion.

Sure its not exactly the same, but sometimes the past does come back when you least expect it and nostalgia doesn't have to be a dirty word. Hell, who would have imagined that the OSR would be a successful thing one day?
 
My best friend in high school and college was a huge Star Wars nerd, and I am a huge Star Trek nerd. We had Star Trek vs. Star Wars arguments all the time, albeit mostly jokingly. Sadly, I lost touch with him by the time The Phantom Menace rolled around, or I could have had laughs for months...
 
For the most part, I have enjoyed watching all of the different Trek series over the years, except I missed most of DS9. I'd say I caught about 25% of that series. I had a similar problem with them being on a space station making it not Trek for me. I will likely watch the whole series one of these days. I've also enjoyed watching the movies, but as others have said, there are issues with them. The ones I've liked least are the new Kelvin Timeline movies. I had similar problems with the first movie in with the destruction of Vulcan being seen from a nearby planet.

Also, the time and distance issues have bothered me, at least they could have done some kind of hand wave, N time has passed as a caption at the bottom of the screen, but I didn't make the film so those are just my thoughts. The two biggest problems I had with the new tech of the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise were all the star burst effects on the bridge. I know the idea was to make the bridge all nice and flashy, but if you had to work in that environment, you'd go blind pretty quickly or at the vary least, miss an important message being displayed on your screen. I also hated the engineering section! This is supposed to be a high tech star ship, why are all these pipes all over the place? Looked more like a refinery to me, well a very clean refinery but still...

Now as far as Discovery is concerned, I did watch the first episode on TV and did like it, but not enough to purchase yet another streaming service. Maybe if I win the lottery and end up with millions of dollars, I might own all of these different streaming services, but I don't see the logic behind each of these companies going with their own service! To me, that is going to hurt all of their business models as consumers only have so much money to spend.

I do have a Netflix account, but that's really as far as I'm going to go.

On a side note, I did like B5, the Star Gate shows and Dark Matter. But eventually there will be something else that comes along to garner my interest.
 
Any word if STD is coming to US Netflix in the future? Or just remain with CBS Access?

In benighted South America, where we know not what is this see-bee-ess you speak of, we get our STD (hehehehehe) from Netflix.

There was a guy selling bootleg DVDs in Chinatown last week. He was hawking both GoT and STD.

Entrepreneurship, the soul of prosperity!

A med school colleague of mine got beer money from selling bootleg CDs with pirated medical textbooks, twenty years ago. Coincidence or not, he's a tenured professor there now...
 
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