Star Trek

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm not sure if it was a good idea to make everybody's first impression of Michael be that of a trigger-happy officer who attacks her own Captain, attempts a mutiny, and tries to strike a Klingon ship that hadn't actually threatened them by that point. For people who aren't going to use CBS All Access, that's going to be their main idea of who she is.

[Foggle]

Yeah, for all their talk about returning to the roots of Star Trek's cerebral and optimistic nature, having the first episode be about the protagonist finding an alien race unseen by humans for a century and then immediately attempting a mutiny so she can kill them certainly didn't inspire confidence. Also, I haven't seen the second episode yet, but the premiere did a piss-poor job of establishing the characters. We don't know anything about any of them except that Michael is half-Vulcan and the Klingons probably(?) killed her parents. No one has an actual personality to speak of, except for that alien whose name I've forgotten, and even then his defining trait/motivation is little more than "cowardly."

[Dr. Insomniac]

Michael's not half-Vulcan. She's a human who got adopted by Sarek. Speaking of, I'm confused as to why he treats Michael better than he did his actual children. It's weird to see him acting supportive and mentoring to her compared to the way he treats Spock. "Spock's never-before-seen stepsister who plays a big role in a Klingon war" already sounds like fanfiction, so moments like that aren't helping.

As for the rest of the cast, I couldn't get a read on Michelle Yeoh's character beyond "generic Starfleet captain". I guess Paramount wanted to trick us into thinking she would be a main character so her death would be shocking, but even without all the announcements half a year ago spoiling who the actual captain was, it was hard to care about her. Only other crewmembers I can remember are the Doug Jones character, the Daft Punk one, and that guy who played the Blue Ranger in Power Rangers SPD.

[Foggle]

Michael's not half-Vulcan. She's a human who got adopted by Sarek.

Oh. My dad and I assumed she was. Huh.

As for the rest of the cast, I couldn't get a read on Michelle Yeoh's character beyond "generic Starfleet captain". I guess Paramount wanted to trick us into thinking she would be a main character so her death would be shocking, but even without all the announcements half a year ago spoiling who the actual captain was, it was hard to care about her.

As soon as I saw "Special Guest Star" in the opening credits I knew she wouldn't last long!

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm not sure what's with Star Trek and not having great or even good series premieres. Other spaceship shows like The Expanse, BSG, and Firefly hit it out of the park by episode one. I hope Discovery doesn't go the same path as other Star Trek series where there's a couple lukewarm or shitty seasons before it actually becomes a good show. That's what fucked over Enterprise. They thought they could have a slow burn show and eventually grow their beard just like TNG did, only to screw up so hard that by the time they actually made watchable and even good episodes, nobody was tuning in.

[Lord Dalek]

Apparently Season 2 might not drop until 2019. Now admittedly that would give Kurtzman some time to actually...you know...figure what the fuck this show is supposed to be about again. Because interstellar mindmelds ain't gonna do it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

RedLetterMedia reviewed the first two episodes of Discovery, and one thing that got my attention was Mike talking about how you couldn't make shows like TNG or VOY these days because of television changing, while Rich argued that stuff like Orville proved there were still people who wanted a TNG-style Trek.

For what it's worth, Mike really liked STD while Rich hated it.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So based on the season finale's cliffhanger, we're either getting Zachary Quinto or a CGI Leonard Nimoy.

[Daikun]

It's coming to Nickelodeon.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Saw some of Picard, and while it's an improvement on Discovery, the whole show's a mixed bag. It's definitely not Picard's worst outing, anyone who thinks this is worse than Nemesis or Generations is out of their mind, but the entire season's so uneven for what seems to be Star Trek's attempt to follow the Expanse. A little bit like when Enterprise saw what 24 was doing and said "Let's do that!" to mixed results.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, when I first started Picard, I was warmer towards it, but the show did lose me after a bit. One of its big problems is that it never seems to figure out if it wants to be serialized like a lot of current TV, episodic like most Star Trek series, or the happy medium that Buffy and The Mandalorian hit. The last is the best way to go imo, but it skirts all over the place and never finds the right tone.

I also only like, don't love, the majority of the cast. It's not surprising that the best moments tend to let Patrick Stewart outclass everyone, or the little moments we get when we see Riker and Troi again, but while the new characters each have their moments, no one really stands out or has their own consistent personalities. Seven of Nine was also a mess, but there was nothing consistent about Voyager to begin with.

I'll probably give the next season a shot, but I hope they figure their shit out when it hits.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Seven of Nine was also a mess, but there was nothing consistent about Voyager to begin with.

Speaking of Voyager, it's a little crazy Trekkies are retroactively treating Voyager and Enterprise like good shows just because Discovery and Picard have issues. Nostalgia bias is always a bitch, but just because Discovery's second season was stupid doesn't suddenly improve all the stupid Janeway and Archer bits.

I'll probably give the next season a shot, but I hope they figure their shit out when it hits.

Why's it so hard for a Star Trek to start out with a strong first season? TOS is the only one where the first season's good TV in its own right.

[Avaitor]

Seven of Nine was also a mess, but there was nothing consistent about Voyager to begin with.

Speaking of Voyager, it's a little crazy Trekkies are retroactively treating Voyager and Enterprise like good shows just because Discovery and Picard have issues. Nostalgia bias is always a bitch, but just because Discovery's second season was stupid doesn't suddenly improve all the stupid Janeway and Archer bits.

Yeah, no. Voyager had some good episodes, but it had no real structure to speak of. Kate Mulgrew has even commented that Janeway's character would change from episode to episode and had almost no basis.

I'll probably give the next season a shot, but I hope they figure their shit out when it hits.

Why's it so hard for a Star Trek to start out with a strong first season? TOS is the only one where the first season's good TV in its own right.

TOS had the benefit of a clear vision of what it wanted to do and a dedicate showrunner who made it happen. I don't think that's been true of any Star Trek series from the get-go. It is funny that TNG became better the further removed Roddenberry was, but he also disliked Wrath of Khan, so he probably lost the plot somewhere between TOS' cancellation and the movies.

Part of the problem is that it's not the 90's anymore. Star Trek isn't as hot of a commodity as it used to be, and there is far more genre television to watch instead than ever before. These shows can't afford to be so weak so early on. Discovery could get a pass because the interest in a new ST series was strong enough, and Picard similarly can due to its TNG connections, but if they don't get better, they're going to go the way of Enterprise.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Discovery could get a pass because the interest in a new ST series was strong enough,

And not just that, but it was going to be a Bryan Fuller project too. But then he left, yet the Discovery crew were stuck with his self-imposed challenge of making a prequel series featuring Spock's unmentioned until now stepsister. As American Gods and Heroes can attest, replacing Bryan Fuller is a task doomed to fail.

[Avaitor]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. While I do like Fuller, I'm surprised that he hasn't been blackballed from the industry yet. His budget requests seem pretty out there from what I gather.