Star Trek Discovery ...review?

[airdave]

Well, I watched Episode 1 and 2 of the new Star Trek series Discovery last night.
Being a life long original Series fan, I can not ignore it.

On past Trek series:
I was thrilled to see Next Generation when it first appeared,
although I lost the Trek enthusiasm about 3 or 4 seasons in.
I never liked DS9 or Voyager, so I won't comment.
I did like Enterprise...but by that time, they had a tough audience to please.
And their theme song sucked.

But, I'm just not impressed with this new series.
yes, it has a good look...very much like a movie.
Its obvious they looked to the new Trek films for much inspiration.

I didn't like the current practice of going straight for battle.
Seems like we had no character or story development before getting to the fightin' action!
Yawn...I am tired of this approach.
Can't we calm down and learn more about the exploratory nature of the Federation?

My biggest issue is with the central character, Michael (female).
I didn't like this actress' character in The Walking Dead.
Too independant, too rash, too disagreeable, too annoying.
And her character in Discovery is exactly the same.
Either they wrote her the same way or the actress herself is the problem.
And thats no good for me or this show.

Michelle Yeoh, the Captain, was real good.
But I couldn't understand half of what she said.
I think the ship is named Shin Zen?, but thats about all I got.

And then, theres the Klingons.
I'm still not past the massive Klingon look change that came with Next Generation and the movies.
Okay, so the original series Klingons were apparently a mutation or looked they way they did as a result of some disease or something. LoL
So, the turtle heads are actually how they are supposed to look.
Or at least thats what I was told.

And now...they've changed again!
Now, they're all weirdly dark coloured...purple? (except for one albino),
with massive elongated skulls...
all covered in wrinkles and skin folds...
and weird devil eyes...
with teeth so ornery that they can barely speak without spitting...

and all bald...completely hairless! Where is Worf's ponytail?!

And their noses? like a nose on top of a nose thing makes no sense.
Its like you can see the wide real nose under a wider fake nose whenever theres a closeup!

Anyway...thats my take...I couldn't get past the main characters flaws,
and her attitude, and her aggressive behaviour...
how has she come so far?...been serving on this starship for 7 years?
and now she goes rogue and gets locked up for mutiny?

and I couldn't get past the new Klingon look.

And how is this set before Star Trek TOS?
It just doesn't look right.

I wanna like this show...I completely accept the new Abrams look rebooted Trek.
But I'm having a hard time.

What did you think?

[Vermin_King]

Haven't watched it yet. I did go back and re-watch the three episodes of The Orville. Not great, but not bad if you don't expect too much.

[murphyaa]

It didn't feel like Star Trek at all. I don't like JJ Abrams, or Alex Kurtzman because they prefer style and explosions over story. Hence why they jump straight into battle with barely any set up. "Nobody's seen a Klingon in 100 years. Let's blow them up". How long after Enterprise is this set? Enterprise was supposed to be around 100 years prior to the original series, and we know they saw Klingons.

[Vermin_King]

And it isn't on OnDemand, so I guess CBS doesn't care to have people pick it up that way

[Astroboy]

Airdave,
I completely agree with your assessment of the new series. I think the ship is the USS Shenzhou, named after the Chinese manned spacecraft.

[airdave]

This show is set in 2256...they actually give a date at one point.

I get to see it on Space Channel, so I get it with my basic cable package.
But I hear many Americans are unhappy that this is a exclusive pay show/pay channel thing?

I'll agree with the explosions over content assessment.
But I have to admit, other than the excessive use of lens flares (lol) I do like everything Abrams produces.
So, I did really like the first Trek movie reboot.
(second and third , not nearly as much)

The Orville could really be a good show without that moron as lead actor/character.
And the ex-wife is a bit of a dud too.
I'm getting a bit tired of all the snarky comments from the crew though.
And that whole man couple/laying an egg/sex change episode was kind of silly.

[spaceagent-9]

I like my idea on the tos Klingons, the Romulans and Klingons had children, some were more Romulan, some more Klingon. the Klingon ones were sent out to gain honor, and enhancements for their reward, the others died. that would explain the Romulans having generic D7's, no more dirty faced Klingons as they were either enhanced or died, and the ktingas having really powerful photorps instead of disruptors, in the first movie. as for discovery, I really not enthused at all.

[Darwin]

If I want to watch Game of Thrones (which the theme music resembles far more than it does Star Trek), I will watch Game of Thrones. A huge disappointment, and, frankly, a waste of the hour spent watching it.

[luke strawwalker]

The whole "only on CBS streaming" (in the US-- in other parts of the world it can be seen on Netflix, who is paying for about half the production in partnership with CBS) just killed the whole deal for me.

CBS has NOTHING I want to see on broadcast, WHY would I want to PAY for their lousy "streaming service" to see ONE show?? Answer: I don't and I won't. I bet that's the clincher for about probably 80% of the people who MIGHT actually watch it otherwise.

I've been following the development of this new series for awhile, and it's been one train wreck after another. I don't like the "Abrams-Drek" crapola AT ALL... that idiot turned Star Trek into "just another friggin comic book movie". Not that I particularly have anything against comic book movies; I will OCCASIONALLY go see one, if the mood strikes me, but it's just to waste 2 hours munching on popcorn, as those movies have NO MEANINGFUL STORY and are just designed to separate mall rats from $10 bucks of their parents' money. That's NOT why I watch Star Trek... that's not why I've seen every one of the original series episodes at least a dozen times... and every one of the original crew and TNG movies probably 2 dozen times or more (with the exception of "Nemesis" which just sucked). Why I've watched every TNG episode probably ten times... DS9 and Voyager sorta took a walk off the map and I quit watching them about halfway through and after the first year, respectively-- TNG was closer to "real Trek" than they would ever be. As it seemed Trek was wandering "further off the reservation" with every iteration, I didn't even watch "Enterprise" in it's first run... I was sorta "burned out" on Trek at that point. Later when I watched it in reruns, I was impressed-- took awhile to grow on me, but it had the same sort of "spirit" as the original Trek, and told some pretty good stories (except for that entire "temporal cold war" thing, though the Nazi lizards from outer space episodes were good). "Enterprise" was just hitting its stride when it was canceled IMHO.

Then JJ Abrams took the entire franchise and flushed it straight down the toilet... his "reboot" was a decent popcorn munching movie (despite the retarded "Thelma and Louise" moment with young Kirk and his uncle's car) but that's ALL it was... just meaningless, vapid action sequences-- Trek reduced to a vehicle to deliver mass quantities of CGI with absolutely NO story and NO MEANING WHATSOEVER. Basically, just taking a CRAP on the original. Same thing JJ Abrams has done with Star Wars now-- Episode 7 was just a CRUMMY remake of the original Star Wars episode 4 from 1977. I don't expect anything better with the new SW movie, or ANYTHING that JJ Abrams does...

Anyway, after "Discovery" having been reset a number of times, recast, restaffed, etc, I don't hold much hope for it. By all accounts, it's just another meaningless, empty means to deliver mass quantities of CGI, like that's all that matters...

Thing is, everybody thought that about the original Star Wars back in the day... As soon as Star Wars proved there was an audience for sci-fi "done right", everybody and their cousin in Hollywood tried to cash in on that... and cranked out a LOT of "crummy" sci-fi... Heck even the first Star Trek film, "The Motion Picture" fell victim to it-- nearly 3 hours of cutting-edge (for the time) special effects, but done on a basically rehashed version of an original series episode "the Changeling" (the Nomad probe story). It very nearly killed the Trek movies in the cradle, had they not turned to Nicolas Meyer, who realized that CHARACTER DRIVEN STORIES were what Trek was all about... without it, it's a comic book farce, just like the old "Batman" series from the 60's...

Heck I bet the occasional "POW!", "BAM!" or other such pop-ups would look right at home in "Discovery"; they certainly would in Abrams-Drek...

After his first two strike-outs, I wouldn't even waste my money on seeing the last Trek movie. Don't plan to either, not until they start making something worth seeing.

"Star Trek Continues" and "Axanar" was TEN TIMES better than anything the studios have put out for a LONG time now... and Discovery, sadly, looks NO different.

I'll content myself to watch anything made before "Nemesis" and enjoy it again, thoroughly, rather than watch some popcorn-munching nonsense.

Later! OL J R

[darter]

If Dr Beverly Crusher and Counselor Deanna Troi aren't in it, I aint watchin.