Star Trek Discovery: The Bryan Fuller TV reboot

An OK ending, but Book being returned was obvious. I even used the phrase "he'll come back a la Close Encounters" and there he was, being delivered in a big ball of light, silouhette wallking towards them.

The leap from "thats too nuanced a concept to convey" to "I am going to use full sentences with cultural concepts and you will totes understand it all" within the space of what had to be an hour bugged me quite a bit.

Also, why the eff didnt the NiVar president lady just use her telepathy hours earlier mightve saved loads of trouble?

OH and lol in the bit where Burnham describes to the 10C that she's sad cos one of the ones who died on that ship was her special one - it would have been a really good jape if they had space magicked Tarka back to life instead

I had the same thought! "...what, wrong guy?"

coked-up Season 2 Disco might’ve had the balls to do it - and then reveal that he’s mirror universe Burnham’s father and also half-Gorn and a fanatical disciple of Sybok

that would have been so good

feels like this season was the most conventionally Star Trekky? or at least aiming for that, pulling back on the head-spinning ultra-compressed narrative, plot jackknifes and weird stuff with mushrooms - i guess they started to change tack last season but the jump to a far future setting distracted from it maybe

anyway feel like it is in danger of settling down into a “mid-to-late Voyager” vibe - i mean for all i know that is now a prized aesthetic but it felt pretty boring at the time

or maybe i am just doing that fan thing of hating whatever is the current version of the show - i mean I don’t really identify as a Discovery Fan… but i guess i watch it

I'm glad it ditched the grimdark but I think the under defined characters with ad hoc development has been with the show from the start (Saru and Burnham going from antagonistic rivals to BFFs in basically 1 episode where he thinks he's dying). It's also really fine for the workplace as family thing except filtered through an embarrassing amount of sentimentality.

Voyager was boring and corny and I ended up giving up on that show too so maybe you're onto something, because Disco is imo a bad show full stop.

Really INTO, not fine for.

voyager at least had seven and the doctor, who (if occasionally put into cringy situations) were good characters

the tension that burnham's presence caused in s01 was legit good, and jason isaacs has ~presence~. but since then it's been all kumbaya sprinkled with detmer's ptsd (okay, but rote) and bryce and reese arguing about book (risible)

at this point i like owo, reno, grudge and kovach; don't care about the rest

i guess i complain about this a lot but keep watching! oh well

I quit after a few eps of season 3, guess I’m not missing much. At least there doesn’t seem like a legit reason to watch this rather than carry on my long slow trawl through ds9 (mid season 2 now…)

But generally I agree the show is bad. Even the worst TOS/TNG/DS9 episodes have their wonderful casts and groovy/haunting period aesthetics to fall back on; I don’t get much from the writing or the performances here (or in Picard). I liked the three leads from Strange New Worlds though, so… maybe

And the aesthetics are just too “streaming show shot in Canada”

Stamets and the Doctor were good characters and Book for most of his first season but they've dragged them down to wallow with the rest of the cast.

I've just picked back up on the back half of the most recent season because my mom needs someone to complain to about how bad it is, really really hate the Federation President. One off bad political bosses are fine in ST IMO but they don't need to show up and meddle in every episode.

i actually involuntarily groaned aloud in the finale when the doctor said 'i needed to be here with my family'

I had to really think back to even remember there'd been some good plotlines! The whole mirror universe arc/Bad Isaacs, even part of the earlier Ash/Burnham story (after the klingon bit mostly fucked off). The spore drive discovery, chasing the red stars... ok so everythign til they jumped 900 years effectively.

Bring on the Pike and Kirk show, please.

Remember when there's a huge battle going on and thousands of people are dying and Burnham and Spock take a time out to chat about their feelings instead of getting on with it?

This show did that a LOT and it was very baffling.

it's not as pithy, but "jump cut to the ready room where everything is soft focus and ferns and water features, and Michael and Saru gently touch each other's upper forearms and express their appreciation for togetherness at this difficult time" ranks beside "make it saab" in the canon of unforgettable ST summaries. It's taking me forever to get through this damn series.

First episode of S5, still not great. Less terrible therapy talk but the dialogue (and way they shot dialogue scenes) was stilted and awkward.

Oh wow, didn't even know it was back

First ep was ... so busy. I've been watching a lot ofold trek + lower decks lately, so going back to the shaky-cam and lens-flare CGI everything tone of DISC was a bit of whiplash.

But!

I was pleased to see a lot more Trek fanservice in ep 2. Self sealing stem bolts! Picard! Mentions of the Breen! A Soongian android! (he was great - wish they hadnt killed him off) The progenitors! If that/they will be the main storyline btw I am all for it. Now, I guess I need to rewatch "The Chase" to get it in my head again.

In summary, I feel like the showrunners may have actually learned something from the reception SNW and LD has had, and started applying it here too?

How did I miss this was back? They must’ve done zero promo… I bought pizza last night and actively wished that I could eat it watching a schlocky ep of Disco (ended up watching Repo Man fyi)

i like the story but same w trayce the style felt jarrong this time. and the action sequences especially all felt like sooo stupid! it was like they were going for starwars pod race vibes. super dumb

space surfing? please fuck off.

*jarring

Yeah Burnham riding the outside of a ship in warp? GTFO with that. And yeah I had Star Wars vibes all thru this ep as well!

OH. And reading a recap just now, reminds me of the scene where the new cap'n on the Antares exclaims "70% for the win!" which REALLY clanged. That stupid phrase is dated NOW, let alone 100s of years from now, ugh.

lame

still LOVING cronenburg tho
he is a delight

I tuned out during the desert speed racer seen. You’re not just ripping off Star Wars, you’re ripping off the WORST Star Wars.

After Strange New Worlds, it’s jarring how little anyone outside of Michael and maybe 2-3 other people matter.

Ive been reflecting more on it ,having just watched a few STNG eps. One was basically a whole-episode meditation on Worf dealing with being a single dad (shittily, natch). But it made me think: with 25+ eps a season, you had *time* to spend a whole ep on one character's arc, story, persona. This has prob been said loads I'm sure but the streaming era sucks in that they have to cram everything in with only 8-10 eps per season and insisting on season-long story arcs. Its hard to feel any connection to anyone when we're busy watching them just react to the situation all the time and not stopping to just exist once in a while. I'd argue even SNW/LD have this problem!

TL;DR: old crone yells at cloud, no one takes the time anymore, yadda yadda.

no that’s just it
strange new worlds can give a whole episode to a story, and yes maybe thats a function of it being a throwback but disco feels like it’s always running 4 plots every episode and doing all of them half justice. it makes me not care abt any of it!

Strange New Worlds was worse on the fun episodic content in the second season (still loads better than Discovery, of course).

I mean it had the LD crossover and the musical episode alone!

yeah idk milo maybe you forgot more of s2 than u remembered

The musical episode was the opposite of fun (though episodic). They did way more Discovery feelings talk this season.

this show can be pretty dumb but I still feel a sneaking fondness towards it

first two episodes were fine but I did have a sinking feeling when the segments of the season-long story arc started clunking into place

like another mcguffiny quest and at the end we will for sure be staring in awe at a cgi aurora borealis contemplating the wonder of creation in a canonically non-conclusive way

and saru will be back just to up the hugs and feelings quotient

I mean probably that is just Star Trek and I should relax into it

lol otm no lies told

briefly wondered, in the finale, if tilly and vance were gonna bang

― mookieproof, Thursday, March 17, 2022 8:13 PM (two years ago)

this should have happened imo

another map with x locations they need to visit to uncover a secret, just like the red angel in season 2. hopefully no time travel this time.

also has the star trek v problem in that there is no way the progenitors stuff has a satisfying payoff.

ep2 had some breathing room for banter with saru. i liked that. is saru gone now?

I liked the first two seasons well enough but tapped out a few episodes into the third season because Michael was so boring without a Spock/Jason Isaacs/Michelle Yeoh to play off.

I think I’ll skip 3&4 and watch this last season though. Did I miss anything? Why is David Cronenberg wearing a 20th century suit? Did Michael and Book ever threaten to become interesting?

I hope the reveal is that the Cronenberg character is actually David Cronenberg...

There's something super-Canadian about latter day Trek (not that Trek was ever lacking Canadian-ness via Shatner) that gives it an off-brand forgettableness. I think Callum Rennie was even in ExistenZ(!)

Yeah Red Angel all over again was what came immediately to mind for me too xps

Also stunned that the first clue points to Trill, just after Adira says she's happier separated from Gray

i torrented the first two episodes but in the highlights from last season someone 'felt seen' and then in the first scene all the annoying characters (i.e. *not* owosekun or at least detmer) are being sad/bitchy and you know what? fuck that, i'm out

*almost* want to keep watching just for cronenberg but it's not enough

I watched S05 E03 but have no real memory of it