Post by goldensandslash on Nov 14, 2017 0:15:53 GMT
"Space... The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."
This quote describes Star Trek perfectly. It is the story of a ship going out and exploring new worlds and studying the life that lives there. The Original Series, The Animated Series, and The Next Generation all feature this quote in their opening sequences, and, for the most part, that's what these shows were about.
Voyager and Enterprise also featured heavily here, as each was exploring new territory previously unseen by humans. In the case of Voyager, it was a distant area of space, and in the case of Enterprise, it was before any of this ever happened.
Deep Space Nine was a little different. Rather than going places and finding new life, new life instead came out and found them, due to their positioning next to a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. Over time, of course, Deep Space Nine would gain a war storyline and develop it on their own, leaving the Gamma Quadrant behind (in fact, with the exception of the scene when Odo re-joins the Great Link at the end of the series, the Gamma Quadrant never appears after Season 5). But early episodes still focused on this aspect of exploration. They were constantly finding new exotic stuff in the Gamma Quadrant, prior to the war breaking out.
I mention this because it seems like Discovery is decidedly not doing this. By the end of the second episode, the war with the Klingons has ALREADY broken out, and exploration must be cast aside. If you enjoy exploring new worlds, well, then Discovery isn't for you. It takes until episode 8 before we even see a planet. Most of the action takes place on the ship.
Additionally, Star Trek Discovery has about as much continuity as, say, Avatar the Last Airbender. This isn't the type of show where you can just flip through channels and see an episode. Deep Space Nine and Enterprise also had overarching story arcs, but individual episodes were still self-contained. If this were being written like an existing Star Trek show, and you wanted to do the Klingon War storyline, fine. Each episode would be about the heroes trying to find some way to get an advantage over the Klingons and, eventually, succeeding. Then on to the next episode where they try to find another advantage. And another, and another, and so on.
Star Trek Discovery, however, doesn't do this. It just keeps going with its storyline and doesn't have anything episodic in it at all. With the exception of Episode 7. If you haven't heard, Star Trek Discovery's first season was initially 16 episodes, before getting randomly extended to 18 out of nowhere. They inserted one episode into the first half of the season and one into the second half. While not confirmed, I would be shocked if the newly added episode was anything other than Episode 7. For one thing, episode 8 seems to pick up off of episode 6's ending. For another, episode 7 is light-hearted compared to the rest of Discovery, it tells a self-contained story, it abandons the overarching plot temporarily, it's very hilarious (when the bad guy takes over the ship and refers to the random communications officer man as "Random Communications Officer Man", I was on the floor dying of laughter), and it, well, feels like Star Trek (albeit a plot that TNG did better).
But with that one exception, Discovery honestly feels like you're watching a single Star Trek film, except that it takes a lot longer than two hours. And, of course, with CBS All Access, you have to pay for it constantly rather than just once!
Okay, yeah, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room: this show is not airing on television.
A lot of people who haven't seen the show seem to think that if CBS All Access flops, as is likely, then Discovery will be forced to move to television. This isn't the case, because Star Trek Discovery cannot legally air on television. They have shown some... er... stuff.... that you can't legally show on television. If you're a fan of previous incarnations of Star Trek, you may notice that the previous shows never use any swear words, with the exception of Enterprise occasionally using the word "bitch". Star Trek has used more colorful swear words in the past, but always in film, never on television (and even there, the worst they've ever gone is "bullshit"). For this reason. Well, Discovery, not airing on TV, gets to get away with a lot more, and by episode 5, you already have two usages of the word "fucking".
Another thing that we need to address is the special effects. They're... really not Star Trek-y. Like, when someone fires a phaser, it makes the "sci-fi bullet" noise similar to the phasers from the JJ Abrams films. It doesn't make the traditional "pew pew" sound that we're used to from Star Trek shows.
Lastly, this show takes place before TOS. This is a poor choice for two reasons. One, it limits the number of aliens that they can use. You want to see the Cardassians, the Ferengi, the Romulans, the Breen, etc.? Too bad! In fact, with the exception of one character being a new race (Kelpien), you're going to have to wait until episode 8 before meeting a non-Human, non-Vulcan, non-Klingon character (Pahvan) that is capable of intelligent thought (though there are animals that appear earlier than that).
Secondly, it limits the number of call backs to previous Trek shows. Yes, both Sarek and Mudd are main characters. But they don't reference anything that happened to them in TOS because, well, that hasn't happened yet. Just about the only call back that they've done is when one character looks up a list of famous captains. One of them is Jonathan Archer. But, by comparison, if they had put this in a post-Voyager setting, we could have seen all five previous captains.
Now, let's talk about the characters. There are 14+7 characters in the show so far. That's it. Aside from minor characters in the background who don't have any lines, there are just the 14 important characters and 7 others. That's it. That's all there is. Here, I can even make a list.
Important Characters:
FEDERATION TEAM
Captain Gabriel Lorca [Human]
Captain Philippa Georgiou [Human]
Science Officer Michael Burnham [Human]
First Officer Commander Saru [Kelpien]
Chief of Security Commander Ellen Landry [Human]
Lieutenant Ash Tyler [Human]
Lieutenant Paul Stamets [Human]
Doctor Hugh Culber [Human]
Cadet Sylvia Tilly [Human]
KLINGON TEAM
T'Kuvma [Klingon]
Voq [Klingon]
L'Rell [Klingon]
OTHER
Sarek [Vulcan]
Harry Mudd [Human]
Other Characters:
FEDERATION TEAM
Admiral Katrina Cornwell [Human]
Admiral Brett Anderson [Human]
Ensign Danby Connor [Human]
KLINGON TEAM
Kol [Klingon]
Ujilli [Klingon]
Dennas [Klingon]
OTHER
Amanda Grayson [Human]
This is literally EVERY single character that has appeared in the show so far. So if you like the huge cast of recurring characters on DS9 or TNG, then you're going to be out of luck here. Also note the huge bias here: 13 Humans, 6 Klingons, 1 Vulcan, and 1 Kelpien. Star Trek has a number of great alien designs, and Discovery... well... doesn't.
Now, let's talk about continuity. Oh boy. So, Discovery has a lot of continuity errors. This takes place 10 years before the events of TOS, so that puts it roughly parallel with TOS: "The Cage". And yet, that's so clearly not where it is. Uniforms are a completely different style than in "The Cage", their technology is more advanced here than in "The Cage", and of course, we have Klingons that seemed to have escaped from the augment virus, but also look completely different from TNG-era Klingons.
So yeah, if you view Star Trek continuity as a sacred cow, this isn't the show for you.
Heck, the main character, Michael Burnham, was raised alongside Spock. Her birth-parents ended up dying while she was young, and she was adopted by Spock's parents. This creates a whole slew of continuity problems with the 2009 Star Trek film and with TAS: "Yesteryear", which showed aspects of Spock's childhood, where he clearly did not have a foster sister. But if you ignore that, then it's fine. Burnham really does give off the feel of a human who went through a tragedy and then was raised by Vulcans. She approaches all of her problems with a Vulcan mindset, yet still enjoys the nonsense contained within her favorite childhood book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. As such, this continuity error greatly helps Burnham's character. And given a plot twist that happens in episode 6, it really couldn't have worked if she were raised by any Vulcan other than Sarek. So given that this isn't shattering continuity for no reason and instead has a purpose behind it, I can accept it.
The Klingons looking different is a bit of a difficult pill to swallow, but aside from the first two episodes, they don't have too much screen time, and when they do, you get used to it. I don't think it would have been a good idea to use TOS-era Klingons, cause they'd be too easily confused for Humans by a casual audience who doesn't understand the intricacies of Star Trek lore, but I do think that TNG-era Klingons would have looked better than... well, this.
So, given all of this information, Star Trek Discovery seems like it's a bad show. Is it? Not really. It does not feel like Star Trek at all, but I consider that to be a good thing overall. Star Trek, quite frankly, sucks. There's a lot of good episodes of Star Trek, but you know what they all have in common? Being unlike the rest of Star Trek! That's why my favorite series is Deep Space Nine, because prior to Discovery, this was the least Trek-like series that was still a Trek series.
So where would I rank Discovery compared to the other six shows? It's difficult to say, because Discovery just feels so different than the others. I'm basically comparing apples to oranges. But overall, I'd say it's about on par with Deep Space Nine. I will say that Discovery's quality is more consistent, though. It doesn't hit the highs of DS9's "Far Beyond the Stars" or "The Visitor", but it also doesn't hit the lows of "Move Along Home" or "Profit and Lace". Bear in mind that this is over the course of just a few episodes, though. Maybe seven seasons down the line, we will see these highs and lows. Who knows?
There is one more thing that I need to bring up, though. This wasn't a part of my main review, because, well, you'll see. There is a major problem that I have with Star Trek Discovery, and that's a huge issue, but at the same time, it's a very personal issue and one that not a lot of people would have with it. I am asexual. Asexuals are probably the least represented group in all of media. There are characters that we speculate as being asexual, but it very rarely is openly stated. In fact, Todd from Bojack Horseman is the only confirmed-asexual character in anything that I can think of. I have heard some Harry Potter fans (note: I have not read/seen Harry Potter past Goblet of Fire) claim that Luna is asexual, but I honestly question the asexuality of anyone when their last name is literally "love good". On top of that, whenever asexuality is shown in media, it is frequently seen as a condition to be treated. See also: The Olivia Experiment (2012 film), "Better Half" (House Season 8 Episode 9), and Sirens (TV series) that all feature this. I admit that I don't care too much about media representation. I get that asexuality is not normal. I also get that it is not entertaining to show to viewers. So I don't need an asexual character. I was honestly not expecting Star Trek Discovery to have an asexual character. But then... it surprised me... and then it didn't.
Michael Burnham gave off all the standard signs of being asexual. She constantly showed no interest in any kind of love, and always seemed to prefer platonic relationships over romantic and sexual ones. It made sense, given her Vulcan upbringing, and I was very happy to see it. And then out of nowhere, she fell in love with Lieutenant Tyler. Now, to explain this. We don't actually see Tyler until episode 5. You know, despite his actor appearing in the opening credits. And he doesn't meet up with Burnham until episode 7, which may not even count, due to most of the events of that episode being erased by a temporal anomaly. They officially don't meet until episode 8. And yet, they're already more-or-less in a relationship. And because I was so used to viewing Michael Burnham as asexual, I find this relationship to be gross and I have to look away every time they kiss.
Again, though, this is just me. I imagine that most of the allosexual people in the audience will find it to be romantic and charming and all that good stuff.
Also, it's like... this wouldn't bother me if Burnham was presented from the beginning (or close to the beginning) as being allosexual. But she really didn't seem like it, and this relationship really did seem to come out of nowhere. Again, I wasn't really bothered by the lack of asexual representation. I was more so bothered by the fact that the show tricked me into thinking that I *would* have asexual representation, and then I didn't.
Okay, so that's all for the spoiler-free review. Spoiler version will be posted... at some point.
This quote describes Star Trek perfectly. It is the story of a ship going out and exploring new worlds and studying the life that lives there. The Original Series, The Animated Series, and The Next Generation all feature this quote in their opening sequences, and, for the most part, that's what these shows were about.
Voyager and Enterprise also featured heavily here, as each was exploring new territory previously unseen by humans. In the case of Voyager, it was a distant area of space, and in the case of Enterprise, it was before any of this ever happened.
Deep Space Nine was a little different. Rather than going places and finding new life, new life instead came out and found them, due to their positioning next to a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant. Over time, of course, Deep Space Nine would gain a war storyline and develop it on their own, leaving the Gamma Quadrant behind (in fact, with the exception of the scene when Odo re-joins the Great Link at the end of the series, the Gamma Quadrant never appears after Season 5). But early episodes still focused on this aspect of exploration. They were constantly finding new exotic stuff in the Gamma Quadrant, prior to the war breaking out.
I mention this because it seems like Discovery is decidedly not doing this. By the end of the second episode, the war with the Klingons has ALREADY broken out, and exploration must be cast aside. If you enjoy exploring new worlds, well, then Discovery isn't for you. It takes until episode 8 before we even see a planet. Most of the action takes place on the ship.
Additionally, Star Trek Discovery has about as much continuity as, say, Avatar the Last Airbender. This isn't the type of show where you can just flip through channels and see an episode. Deep Space Nine and Enterprise also had overarching story arcs, but individual episodes were still self-contained. If this were being written like an existing Star Trek show, and you wanted to do the Klingon War storyline, fine. Each episode would be about the heroes trying to find some way to get an advantage over the Klingons and, eventually, succeeding. Then on to the next episode where they try to find another advantage. And another, and another, and so on.
Star Trek Discovery, however, doesn't do this. It just keeps going with its storyline and doesn't have anything episodic in it at all. With the exception of Episode 7. If you haven't heard, Star Trek Discovery's first season was initially 16 episodes, before getting randomly extended to 18 out of nowhere. They inserted one episode into the first half of the season and one into the second half. While not confirmed, I would be shocked if the newly added episode was anything other than Episode 7. For one thing, episode 8 seems to pick up off of episode 6's ending. For another, episode 7 is light-hearted compared to the rest of Discovery, it tells a self-contained story, it abandons the overarching plot temporarily, it's very hilarious (when the bad guy takes over the ship and refers to the random communications officer man as "Random Communications Officer Man", I was on the floor dying of laughter), and it, well, feels like Star Trek (albeit a plot that TNG did better).
But with that one exception, Discovery honestly feels like you're watching a single Star Trek film, except that it takes a lot longer than two hours. And, of course, with CBS All Access, you have to pay for it constantly rather than just once!
Okay, yeah, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room: this show is not airing on television.
A lot of people who haven't seen the show seem to think that if CBS All Access flops, as is likely, then Discovery will be forced to move to television. This isn't the case, because Star Trek Discovery cannot legally air on television. They have shown some... er... stuff.... that you can't legally show on television. If you're a fan of previous incarnations of Star Trek, you may notice that the previous shows never use any swear words, with the exception of Enterprise occasionally using the word "bitch". Star Trek has used more colorful swear words in the past, but always in film, never on television (and even there, the worst they've ever gone is "bullshit"). For this reason. Well, Discovery, not airing on TV, gets to get away with a lot more, and by episode 5, you already have two usages of the word "fucking".
Another thing that we need to address is the special effects. They're... really not Star Trek-y. Like, when someone fires a phaser, it makes the "sci-fi bullet" noise similar to the phasers from the JJ Abrams films. It doesn't make the traditional "pew pew" sound that we're used to from Star Trek shows.
Lastly, this show takes place before TOS. This is a poor choice for two reasons. One, it limits the number of aliens that they can use. You want to see the Cardassians, the Ferengi, the Romulans, the Breen, etc.? Too bad! In fact, with the exception of one character being a new race (Kelpien), you're going to have to wait until episode 8 before meeting a non-Human, non-Vulcan, non-Klingon character (Pahvan) that is capable of intelligent thought (though there are animals that appear earlier than that).
Secondly, it limits the number of call backs to previous Trek shows. Yes, both Sarek and Mudd are main characters. But they don't reference anything that happened to them in TOS because, well, that hasn't happened yet. Just about the only call back that they've done is when one character looks up a list of famous captains. One of them is Jonathan Archer. But, by comparison, if they had put this in a post-Voyager setting, we could have seen all five previous captains.
Now, let's talk about the characters. There are 14+7 characters in the show so far. That's it. Aside from minor characters in the background who don't have any lines, there are just the 14 important characters and 7 others. That's it. That's all there is. Here, I can even make a list.
Important Characters:
FEDERATION TEAM
Captain Gabriel Lorca [Human]
Captain Philippa Georgiou [Human]
Science Officer Michael Burnham [Human]
First Officer Commander Saru [Kelpien]
Chief of Security Commander Ellen Landry [Human]
Lieutenant Ash Tyler [Human]
Lieutenant Paul Stamets [Human]
Doctor Hugh Culber [Human]
Cadet Sylvia Tilly [Human]
KLINGON TEAM
T'Kuvma [Klingon]
Voq [Klingon]
L'Rell [Klingon]
OTHER
Sarek [Vulcan]
Harry Mudd [Human]
Other Characters:
FEDERATION TEAM
Admiral Katrina Cornwell [Human]
Admiral Brett Anderson [Human]
Ensign Danby Connor [Human]
KLINGON TEAM
Kol [Klingon]
Ujilli [Klingon]
Dennas [Klingon]
OTHER
Amanda Grayson [Human]
This is literally EVERY single character that has appeared in the show so far. So if you like the huge cast of recurring characters on DS9 or TNG, then you're going to be out of luck here. Also note the huge bias here: 13 Humans, 6 Klingons, 1 Vulcan, and 1 Kelpien. Star Trek has a number of great alien designs, and Discovery... well... doesn't.
Now, let's talk about continuity. Oh boy. So, Discovery has a lot of continuity errors. This takes place 10 years before the events of TOS, so that puts it roughly parallel with TOS: "The Cage". And yet, that's so clearly not where it is. Uniforms are a completely different style than in "The Cage", their technology is more advanced here than in "The Cage", and of course, we have Klingons that seemed to have escaped from the augment virus, but also look completely different from TNG-era Klingons.
So yeah, if you view Star Trek continuity as a sacred cow, this isn't the show for you.
Heck, the main character, Michael Burnham, was raised alongside Spock. Her birth-parents ended up dying while she was young, and she was adopted by Spock's parents. This creates a whole slew of continuity problems with the 2009 Star Trek film and with TAS: "Yesteryear", which showed aspects of Spock's childhood, where he clearly did not have a foster sister. But if you ignore that, then it's fine. Burnham really does give off the feel of a human who went through a tragedy and then was raised by Vulcans. She approaches all of her problems with a Vulcan mindset, yet still enjoys the nonsense contained within her favorite childhood book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. As such, this continuity error greatly helps Burnham's character. And given a plot twist that happens in episode 6, it really couldn't have worked if she were raised by any Vulcan other than Sarek. So given that this isn't shattering continuity for no reason and instead has a purpose behind it, I can accept it.
The Klingons looking different is a bit of a difficult pill to swallow, but aside from the first two episodes, they don't have too much screen time, and when they do, you get used to it. I don't think it would have been a good idea to use TOS-era Klingons, cause they'd be too easily confused for Humans by a casual audience who doesn't understand the intricacies of Star Trek lore, but I do think that TNG-era Klingons would have looked better than... well, this.
So, given all of this information, Star Trek Discovery seems like it's a bad show. Is it? Not really. It does not feel like Star Trek at all, but I consider that to be a good thing overall. Star Trek, quite frankly, sucks. There's a lot of good episodes of Star Trek, but you know what they all have in common? Being unlike the rest of Star Trek! That's why my favorite series is Deep Space Nine, because prior to Discovery, this was the least Trek-like series that was still a Trek series.
So where would I rank Discovery compared to the other six shows? It's difficult to say, because Discovery just feels so different than the others. I'm basically comparing apples to oranges. But overall, I'd say it's about on par with Deep Space Nine. I will say that Discovery's quality is more consistent, though. It doesn't hit the highs of DS9's "Far Beyond the Stars" or "The Visitor", but it also doesn't hit the lows of "Move Along Home" or "Profit and Lace". Bear in mind that this is over the course of just a few episodes, though. Maybe seven seasons down the line, we will see these highs and lows. Who knows?
There is one more thing that I need to bring up, though. This wasn't a part of my main review, because, well, you'll see. There is a major problem that I have with Star Trek Discovery, and that's a huge issue, but at the same time, it's a very personal issue and one that not a lot of people would have with it. I am asexual. Asexuals are probably the least represented group in all of media. There are characters that we speculate as being asexual, but it very rarely is openly stated. In fact, Todd from Bojack Horseman is the only confirmed-asexual character in anything that I can think of. I have heard some Harry Potter fans (note: I have not read/seen Harry Potter past Goblet of Fire) claim that Luna is asexual, but I honestly question the asexuality of anyone when their last name is literally "love good". On top of that, whenever asexuality is shown in media, it is frequently seen as a condition to be treated. See also: The Olivia Experiment (2012 film), "Better Half" (House Season 8 Episode 9), and Sirens (TV series) that all feature this. I admit that I don't care too much about media representation. I get that asexuality is not normal. I also get that it is not entertaining to show to viewers. So I don't need an asexual character. I was honestly not expecting Star Trek Discovery to have an asexual character. But then... it surprised me... and then it didn't.
Michael Burnham gave off all the standard signs of being asexual. She constantly showed no interest in any kind of love, and always seemed to prefer platonic relationships over romantic and sexual ones. It made sense, given her Vulcan upbringing, and I was very happy to see it. And then out of nowhere, she fell in love with Lieutenant Tyler. Now, to explain this. We don't actually see Tyler until episode 5. You know, despite his actor appearing in the opening credits. And he doesn't meet up with Burnham until episode 7, which may not even count, due to most of the events of that episode being erased by a temporal anomaly. They officially don't meet until episode 8. And yet, they're already more-or-less in a relationship. And because I was so used to viewing Michael Burnham as asexual, I find this relationship to be gross and I have to look away every time they kiss.
Again, though, this is just me. I imagine that most of the allosexual people in the audience will find it to be romantic and charming and all that good stuff.
Also, it's like... this wouldn't bother me if Burnham was presented from the beginning (or close to the beginning) as being allosexual. But she really didn't seem like it, and this relationship really did seem to come out of nowhere. Again, I wasn't really bothered by the lack of asexual representation. I was more so bothered by the fact that the show tricked me into thinking that I *would* have asexual representation, and then I didn't.
Okay, so that's all for the spoiler-free review. Spoiler version will be posted... at some point.