Star Trek Discovery - How bad was it? ... or was it?

[RGMage2]

 

Yup, I just want entertainment. Any show that tries to preach to me gets turned off. I keep thinking there is going to be a backlash against all the attempts at social engineering the State and the Media are pushing at us, but I could be wrong. I'm viewing it from the eyes of an older generation, and there is no way I can know how heavily invested a younger generation will be with PC. Will they reach a certain age and open their eyes to the brainwashing and throw it off, or will they carry it with them to the grave?

 

Anyway I'm hoping Discovery tones down the messaging and focuses on making good television, because as much as I love Star Trek I will tune them out and turn them off.

It's not age, it's laziness. Some people want their vision of utopia handed them because it takes far less effort to set in front of a TV set and gorge themselves on good feelings than it would to go down to the homeless shelters,or volunteer at Habitat for Humanity for a couple of days and bring a little of that utopia to today's world. There are armchair activists all over the place preaching how the world would be such a great place, if others would just make it so. These message flick s are ego fluffers for hereditary hypocritical. People will march around, shaking their fists at others all day long, but doing dishes at a soup kitchen is somehow demeaning. Go figure.

 

I think we as a species have a tendency to to choose the easy fights, and maybe in some ways that can be a smart decision, but when it comes to self improvement and making the world a better place it leads to us trying to change everyone else while avoiding the much tougher fight within ourselves. My opinion: if we want to fix the world we need to do it within ourselves on an individual level. There is no macro solution, we're not going to correct the flaws of our human nature in a single generation. It's taken us thousands of years to get to where we are, hopefully we still have enough time ahead of us as a species to get to where we want to go.

 

I think your criticisms are on point. For me, even the opening credit scenes were poorly done. Regarding Michelle Yeoh as Captain, it reminded me of something I saw on YouTube recently: a scene from the first episode of Voyager done with the woman they originally wanted as captain: Geneviève Bujold. Though a great actress, Bujold seemed way too low energy for the role of starship captain. They then showed the same scene with Kate Mulgrew and you could see that she was definitely right for the role! On Voyager, they didn't have to make the male characters weak in order to make Captain Janeway look tough.

 

âIn general, I think they put this show too close to the time of the original series and connecting Michael Burnham to Spock's family was a silly mistake as well. And as for the Klingons...the less said the better. All that said, I do remember the first episode of TNG being a bit awkward. Perhaps they need a few episodes to work out the kinks. We'll see...

 

Agree about the opening credits, and Kate Mulgrew was perfect in that role. The Star Trek franchise actually has a well established record of putting woman in strong and unconventional roles, Tasha Yar, B'elanna Torres, Seven of Nine, T'Pol, and they did it without neutering a single male.

 

I do remember watching the first episode of TNG and not being sold on the Data character, and boy was I wrong about that. So I think I will just give them time to tell the story they want to tell.

 

I think the third one was an improvement, enough to make me want to see the forth, the only thing that's spoiling it for me is the Burnham character, the more I see her the more I dislike her, the way she treated the nervous girl whose name escapes me made me hate her, she came across as plain nasty.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to episode 4. With the Burnham character I'm starting to think that they want us to dislike her. Think of it this way, she grew up on Vulcan and everything she knows about being a human she learned from Vulcans, in other words she is totally messed up. She has no empathy for others, can't read the simplest signs, doesn't understand that there is so much more to leadership than simply making a logically correct decision. So maybe her story line will be her personal quest to find her own humanity. I'm probably wrong and they are just screwing up with that character, but as much as I can't stand her I'm trying to keep an open mind.

[Dazaster]

I too thought Micheal's character was deliberately made hard to like from the off, maybe that's why there's going to be a break mid season so we forget just how annoying she is, then they start changing her.

 

Also, you can't argue with the fact that this is the bestest ever ever live action Star Trek TV show since Enterprise. Probably. :tongue:

[Tragthemercenary]

Although I naturally love the original series (after all, it started the series), I will take a pass on this show, without watching it. The best show of the series, in my estimation, was Deep Space Nine. it was gritty and realistic, without being overly preachy or politically-correct. Indeed, DS9 confirms the fact that the universe, if populated by multiple intelligent lifeforms, is an incredibly violent place. The movie Battle: Los Angeles, starring Aaron Eckhart, indicates what would happen if we actually were visited by intelligent aliens. Nice guys not only finish last, they finish dead ...

 

Reviews I've read on Discovery confirm my worst fears about the series, and Star Trek's decline. Wagon Train to the Stars has morphed into The Incredible and Unbelievable Matriarchy of the Future. I'll pass ...

[RGMage2]

I've been reading a lot of comments on the Trekbbs for some interesting perspectives on the show. I'm going to quote the beginning of one post that I thought was really good, it's a long post and if you want to read it all just click on it.

 

This guy really said it well - all the things I would have liked to say but didn't know how.

 

***Caution Spoilers***

 

 

After last week's complete turd I was expecting the show to pick up and be a bit better for me. Sadly not. In fact, I feel flat out pissed off after this entry. Apologies in advance for this rant of a post.

Last week on here I spoke about how I felt the show was generic sci-fi masquerading as Star Trek. Never have I felt that more than tonight.

I have said in my reviews all season that the show was showing hints here and there that it could go in the right direction in terms of retaining the spirit and intelligence of Trek, but that it was also showing signs that it could equally go the other way. I saw glimmers of hope, especially during the tardigrade episodes, and based my reviews on that. But the past two weeks have felt like an utter slap in the face. They have confirmed all my worst fears about the show and what it would be if it didn't go in the right direction.

If they had just called the show Discovery and removed all references to Star Trek I would probably have liked it and thought it an OK Sci-Fi.

 

I will watch the final two episodes of the season, but only because I've invested this much time in it, other than that I have given up on it.

 

Next season I think I will make a point of not watching it because this show really needs to die... for the future good of the franchise.

[Perraine]

I've been reading a lot of comments on the Trekbbs for some interesting perspectives on the show. I'm going to quote the beginning of one post that I thought was really good, it's a long post and if you want to read it all just click on it.

 

This guy really said it well - all the things I would have liked to say but didn't know how.

 

***Caution Spoilers***

 

 

After last week's complete turd I was expecting the show to pick up and be a bit better for me. Sadly not. In fact, I feel flat out pissed off after this entry. Apologies in advance for this rant of a post.

 

Last week on here I spoke about how I felt the show was generic sci-fi masquerading as Star Trek. Never have I felt that more than tonight.

 

I have said in my reviews all season that the show was showing hints here and there that it could go in the right direction in terms of retaining the spirit and intelligence of Trek, but that it was also showing signs that it could equally go the other way. I saw glimmers of hope, especially during the tardigrade episodes, and based my reviews on that. But the past two weeks have felt like an utter slap in the face. They have confirmed all my worst fears about the show and what it would be if it didn't go in the right direction.

If they had just called the show Discovery and removed all references to Star Trek I would probably have liked it and thought it an OK Sci-Fi.

 

I will watch the final two episodes of the season, but only because I've invested this much time in it, other than that I have given up on it.

 

Next season I think I will make a point of not watching it because this show really needs to die... for the future good of the franchise.

Lol,

This was my thoughts on the show almost word for word. They have unnervingly, almost aggressively, (purposely?) shat upon everything "Star Trek". The only thing "Trek" about it, is the title and the badges.

 

I actually started watching "The Orville" and damn me if that wasn't actually more "Trek" than Discovery. Like or hate Seth McFarlane, he is quite obviously a HUGE Star Trek fan, and although the first episode did stumble a little bit, not knowing what it wanted be, the follwoing episodes got better and better, and it actually "feels" like a modern made Star Trek.

[JimboUK]

I gave up after the fourth episode of Discovery, it doesn't feel like Trek, The Orville on the other hand does and stands head and shoulders above Discovery.