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Star Trek Discovery (No Spoilers)

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It seems to me like it's another victim of the "let's remake something that's been done before, milk the franchise....but make it dark gritty and edgy!" mindset that we've been suffering through since about 1990.

Also if you changed the names there would be no hint it was Star Trek. If it was Space Force not Star Fleet, and the Klingons were 'The House of Blades' or something you'd never pick it as a Star Trek series. Star Trek was about optimism, humans striving to reach their potential not just technologically but ideologically too...then going off into space and facing challenges and moral dilemmas, and sticking to your principles in the face of adversity was actually a good thing. This current one is just 'Jerks In Spaaaace', and there is no hint of principles or ideals...and the moment a virtue dares to pop its head up "we're at war" is trotted out to flush it back into hiding. Not to mention that the 'honorable Klingons' don't behave honorably, it's like they going through a Game of Thrones style system of government and just giving lip service to the ideal of honor (but at least they give lip service to an ideal, unlike Star Fleet in Discovery). And every character must be dark, flawed, and broken...and this is always the character's defining traits, not one part of a complete individual.

Having said all that, I do not dislike the series but I do watch it as "Jerks In Spaaace" not as Star Trek.

Viewed:	21 times
Added:	6 years, 6 months ago 23 Oct 2017 21:59 CEST

11 Comments on this Journal

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Stumpycoon

6 years, 6 months ago

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That started as a journal reply but looked good enough to post as a stand alone.

Furlips

6 years, 6 months ago

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Hollywood: "What made money that we can fuck up?"

Bunners

Stumpycoon

6 years, 6 months ago

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@ Furlips

If you can find them there are some fan made Star Trek series which I find really good. Star Trek Continues and Star trek Farragut spring to mind.

MadDog

6 years, 6 months ago

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I can't stand the wrinkled grapes known as Klingons, Burnham is almost completely unlikable... the only bright spot has been Saru. All in all it's not Star Trek. It has the name but it's Abrams trying to wrangle a show that's action oriented. There's no philosophy involved that I've seen in the least, nor is it faithful to other shows, which, it should be given it's earlier in the timeline (if it's the same timeline... still won't explain away the very different-looking Klingons).

Musuko42

6 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 6 years, 6 months ago by Owner

Personally, I liked it. I liked all the small details; the Klingon roar to mark the passing of another Klingon, the various TOS-era sound effects, the attention paid to the Klingon language, the tribble in the captain's office, the appearances of Sarek. These things tell me that the various changes the writers have made are not out of ignorance or disrespect of the source material. I don't like all of the avenues they've taken with their creativity, but I can see that they've taken care with it.

I also liked the attention to using real scientific terms and concepts; they say "acute radiation syndrome" in the first episode, rather than just "radiation sickness". There's use of the terms "lumens" and "AUs". It's nice to see Star Trek not play fast and loose with the real scientific elements of their universe for a change.

Being a gritty grimdark take on Star Trek; I can see how that's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But I think that it's good that they're attempting it. The franchise won't go anywhere if they don't experiment. After all, we wouldn't have had TNG if they hadn't done that (it's very different from TOS, after all). And I like the single-protagonist approach, rather than the usual ensemble cast, and the fact that it's one over-arching story, rather than being episodic. That's not been done before in Trek (at least, to this extent), and it's quite refreshing.

So, I like what I've seen so far. But I have a major reservation; American TV series like to drag out and milk their stories when they know they've got something successful (I'm looking at you, Lost, Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones). The first handful of episodes of Discovery had a rapid pace to the story. The latest few...seem to be slowing down. Hopefully, that trend won't continue.

As for the optimism of Star Trek; yeah, that is lacking here so far. But maybe we'll see that appear as a function of the story, rather than a given? Maybe Michael's misgivings about the Tardigrade, and the general nefariousness of the ship's project, will come to a head with her championing the ideals of the Federation? It's certainly a potential and interesting conflict, and we've already seen her be confrontational. I'm hoping we'll see her come to blows with her captain in a big way.

One thing to also keep in mind: Star Trek (at least since TNG) was never about a perfect society; it was about showing the flaws that still remained in that perfection, and how we overcame them, and how we balanced our principles with other concerns (see every episode where the Prime Directive got a little bent). In that respect, Discovery's big question about whether we abandon our principles in the name of survival is VERY Star Trek.

Musuko42

6 years, 6 months ago

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@ Musuko42

But yeah...the Klingons do look like bum.

Meowz

6 years, 6 months ago

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Edited 6 years, 6 months ago by Owner

Nice effects. Klingons look cool, nice costumes, sets, nice everything as far as looks go. Minus the ever cool dark and gritty, because who wants light bulbs anyway? They can't afford them in deep space. Experimentation good and well, but we've seen the results. We've seen Stargate Universe, we've seen BSG. This is a different universe. Get with the times, but get a clue.

Anyway, I only like very few of the characters (science officer alien, roommate, chief engineer/scientist). Man has reinvented bickering, sexism, classim and racism, and they have 10 years until Kirk hits, and it's all been overcome. Better hurry. The new klingons have not only changed in looks .... again, but in ideology, too. They've become completely interchangable. In 40 years, we'll have Klingons complaining about sunscreen, looking like albinos. Their new costumes really make it difficult to read any emotions in them, and they have an insufferable written political twist in the story.

The story so far, would fit into one episode of classic Trek. The first episode would make a fine opener. It's like we've got Star Trek in slow-mo now, but the action is faster paced than Fast and The Furious. We need no stinkin' Space exploration, or marvel at the wonders of the universe. We gotta waaaaaaaaaar to fight. Yawn.

Will keep watching, but you know where I currently get my Star Trek fix? I watch The Orville.

Musuko42

6 years, 5 months ago

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@ Meowz

I must admit, The Orville is scratching a classic Trek itch that Discovery isn't. ^_^

joelfeila

6 years, 5 months ago

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if you want start trek try The Orville. Same great taste as star trek new shiny name.

Altage

6 years, 5 months ago

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It has some interesting ideas, but the tone is all wrong and it has about as much charm as a car wreck. Everyone's watching it, though, so they'll just keep making it. It's the Doctor Who revival all over again.

Stumpycoon

6 years, 5 months ago

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@ Altage

Discovery have at least made it new characters in the existing setting (which they got the tone of totally wrong) as opposed to the new star trek reboot movies that pantomime the characters too and get them wrong while also getting the tone of star trek totally wrong.

I can watch Star Trek Discovery as a show worth watching once i have mentally uncoupled it from Star Trek, but I find the star trek movies unwatchable. It would be like going to watch a Sherlock Holmes movie and discovering some weird western with Sherlock Holmes, famous British detective yet also wild west gunslinger. I look at it thinking "yes you've hijacked the name but the characterization could not be more wrong" (except for McCoy, he is spot on). The movies make so little effort to be Star Trek like that I wonder why they didn't just make the movies "Spacship-Quest, an action movie, IN SPACE" and use a random name generator to pick names for the characters.

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