Star Trek Discovery: The Bryan Fuller TV reboot

Think the 2nd episode might have been one of the best so far? It’s the first time I’ve felt like all the crew clicked, I wanted to be in their company, and find out more about the background characters. Also Michael wasn’t in it much.

There are still some annoying bits of faux-adultness (the OTT sexual threats from the baddie, the unnecessary gore) that put me in mind of bad Torchwood episodes and seem tonally off-the-mark for Trek. And the fannish veneration for the Federation (last week they literally finished by saluting a flag, which was gross) is shading a bit Robert Heinlein for me.

BUT! Otherwise this was a fun hang-out episode with some cool sci-fi and zings and mild threat, which is totally my fave kind of Trek.

Hopefully Michael’s new hair signals a Rikers-third-season-beard-style change in fortune

Plus the third episode is directed by Frakes

Much as I love him I’m not sure he is a... good director? A little overfond of studenty Dutch angles

I forgot to mention that Detmer is dollars to warp bubbles infected by a Control remnant.

Very promising episode!

So, I assume Stamets is named after renowned mycologist Paul Stamets, as featured in this cool-looking documentary about fungi?

Yes. He was a consultant for the show too.

That viola refrain is godspeed you black emperor, right?

episode 4, wow, what hack writing. both plots have a good idea behind them but the writing is entirely THIS IS THE STEP BACKWARD SCENE, THIS IS THE STEP FORWARD SCENE, do a first draft, repeat, never revise in character details or anything else of interest.

love a good hamfisted Trill episode. occasional Akiva Goldsman-style emotional manipulation but I don’t mind being a sap sometimes

yeah i thought this was kinda sweet
and i am biased for trill episodes <3

I loved how genderqueer both of those characters were, it was a little sappy but a good trad-Trek episode too.

B and I were loling at the pool scene saying "just hang on while we finish cleaning it before you get in" when they got those big sticks out.

Agreed that this was super sentimental, which sometimes works in the show's favor (this week, yes), sometimes not (last week). I've kind of given up on nu Trek writing approaching the sophistication of DS9 (with the possible exception of Lower Decks).

One thing that did bug was Adira saying Senna's full, joined name all the time. You wouldn't hear Jadzia or Ezri saying "Curzon Dax this, Curzon Dax that."

i was hoping Michael would call Adira “old man” lol

Episode 5 was... too much stuff. The only part that worked was the stuff on the seed ship.

The song mystery box that they stole from BSG is such a waste of time. At least it wasn't from the 1960s.

iirc ST: TNG had an episode about how a progenitor race/outside force had seeded a bunch of planets in the galaxy with life, hence the large number of humanoids that showed up. unsurprisingly, it was a story co-written by Ron Moore

here we go:
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ancient_humanoid

so, the “common ancestral ties” thing was in BSG by way of ST, c/o Ron

i liked this episode also BONUS CRONENBERG

I liked it too, but god, Burnham, can you not URGENTLY WHISPER all the time as a way of communicating? I have had to restort to putting CC on this show because with the LOUD DYNAMIC RANGE and mumbled speaking ive no fricking idea whats going on.

(Could I have sounded any older then I think not)

<3

feel like there is a lot of discrimination against people with less than surround setups or people who don’t listen to shows at full volume these days

the “reduce loud sounds” settings on some streaming boxes is nice to crank it up but avoid maximum blast, and I listen on headphones a fair bit (streaming during the workday from my tablet while working because lol new show) but the full dynamic range of audio isn’t great with tv

Kind of amused but mostly exasperated by Michael's insubordination. I know it's her thing but still.

I'm tired of antagonistic debriefs, though the back and forth between Georgiou and her interrogator was good, mostly because he wasn't stupid.

I thought that I'd acclimated to the sentimentality of the series but it continues to plumb new depths of sappiness, and this time of was too gooey for me.

I was annoyed with the Georgiou blinking thing. You would think that holograms would know when someone was trying to disrupt their integrity and could do something about it, even if that something is to call security. Like, if the blinking thing has been around for hundreds of years, you'd think they'd have copped on to it by now.

Yeah, that was such a silly and pointless way of emphasizing what a badass Georgiou is supposed to be.

I find Georgiou a little tiresome, but I liked her and Cronenberg(!) together

When someone blinks that much next to Cronenberg,
there is an implicit contract with the audience that someone’s head will explode.

lol otm

ugh what a tedious episode.

wonder if detmer's going to get herself checked out or wait until she loses it during a critical mission.

this was so low stakes and low interest that i didn't notice any mention of music until burnham brought it up at the end.

no mention of giotto in the long wikipedia entry on perspective. i could crack open gombrich's history of art, otoh it was someone from another planet 200 years in the future so i could cut them some slack.

Giotto advanced the development of perspective, but not quite how Saru described.

OK I completely missed that that was Cronenberg lol. BTW what was his deal? He seemed more... across things other people did not know? How'd he know about the terrans and the mirror universe? How was that a casual "oh yeah ppl stopped coming across from there 500 years back"? I felt like i missed something.

cronenberg knows all and sees all

lol

"why the glasses?"
"I dunno I thought they made me look smart..."

I assume that DS9's mirror universe stuff made it into Starfleet reports, so the paper trail is there.

Ah now this may be where I'm at a disadvantage. If there's any assumed knowledge of other series, I'm gonna miss things, Ive not seem more than S1 of DS9.

DS9 hardly ever gets referenced by the other series -- the Alpha Quadrant fights a war that requires a combined alliance among THREE major powers, and Voyager and the movies act like that never happened -- but the real reason to watch DS9 is because it's the best Trek.

otm

I dont mind what I have seen but I get so put off by Quark/ferengis in general.

imo for DS9 you can watch the debut then skip to s03

you'll miss some largely unimportant character development and a few cool episodes but it's fine

also yes, you *can* skip *almost* all of the ferengi episodes, although i wouldn't recommend it -- they become much much better and even vital as the series progresses

e6: another mess. planet situation unexplained until around halfway through the episode. The character vignettes don't work when I have no idea what is happening.

i thought it was good! also i feel like we are maybe watching different shows lol

i am liking it, although i have to say the vulcans did a pretty shitty job of raising burnham to be logical/non-emotional

also she obviously is no longer meant for starfleet, so kick her out already

can someone remind me why georgiou loves burnham? i mean, i like it, but iirc mirror burnham fucked her over and she doesn't really seem like the type to be sentimental about it

anyway she continues to be the most intersting character, goofy blinking shit aside

no explanation has been given.

the entire arc of starlet captains (insubordinates, etc) is "is this person REALLY up to starfleet?" and burnham is on that

the mirror universe was 100% drama and really the more burnham pulls from georgiou the more she loves her

starlet = starfleet lol

geoegiou/michelle yeoh is fantastic

i also liked the stuff between the trill girl and the spore guy (so bad with the names of characters in this show)

wondered what that final confrontation would have been like if Pike was captain

would he have yelled?

i feel like maybe. she reaaaaaaally fucked up