TheNewNo2
Member
(note: the old thread was closed https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/star-trek-discovery.133202/)
The season finale of Star Trek: Discovery season 1 came out on Netflix today, so I thought I'd air my thoughts on it.
I came into the season with mixed feelings. I desperately wanted Discovery to be successful because I adore Star Trek as a universe for storytelling. But I was also worried it would be too JJ Abrams-ish - I mean, it's good that there are successful Trek movies, but Trek belongs on the TV where there's room for emotional subtlety, talking and small stakes. To some extent it was rather Abramsish, especially with the "oh it's the end of the universe" and "they're about to invade Earth" bits, but by and large I felt it didn't raise the stakes too high, or at least not in a way which had to be taken seriously.
The first half of the season was honestly rather lacklustre, although there was certainly some fun in seeing Captain Lorca be killed 60 times over. It was serious, but it knew that sometimes it should just give you a laugh (sidenote: Tilly is awesome). The best two episodes, to me, were (and yes, I love the return to Roddenberry-esque episode title pretentiousness) "What's Past is Prologue" and "The War Without, the War Within" - because they felt like Trek. There were bridge scenes, named subordinates being told to do stuff, solutions achieved by talking. And oh yes, Saru being captain.
In regards to aesthetic, the series sensibly accepted that our computer display tech is way beyond what was seen in The Original Series and didn't try to make everything big glowy lights and small 2D screens. The overall style is a bit too dark for my liking, but space is dark so I suppose it makes sense. The uniforms also looked quite practical, albeit without the pockets they had on Enterprise.
After one season, it's hard to know yet where to place Discovery, and it certainly isn't coming close to my beloved DS9 yet, but the quality of this season compared to the first seasons of any other Trek outing is frankly superb, so I have high hopes.
One to beam up.
The season finale of Star Trek: Discovery season 1 came out on Netflix today, so I thought I'd air my thoughts on it.
I came into the season with mixed feelings. I desperately wanted Discovery to be successful because I adore Star Trek as a universe for storytelling. But I was also worried it would be too JJ Abrams-ish - I mean, it's good that there are successful Trek movies, but Trek belongs on the TV where there's room for emotional subtlety, talking and small stakes. To some extent it was rather Abramsish, especially with the "oh it's the end of the universe" and "they're about to invade Earth" bits, but by and large I felt it didn't raise the stakes too high, or at least not in a way which had to be taken seriously.
The first half of the season was honestly rather lacklustre, although there was certainly some fun in seeing Captain Lorca be killed 60 times over. It was serious, but it knew that sometimes it should just give you a laugh (sidenote: Tilly is awesome). The best two episodes, to me, were (and yes, I love the return to Roddenberry-esque episode title pretentiousness) "What's Past is Prologue" and "The War Without, the War Within" - because they felt like Trek. There were bridge scenes, named subordinates being told to do stuff, solutions achieved by talking. And oh yes, Saru being captain.
In regards to aesthetic, the series sensibly accepted that our computer display tech is way beyond what was seen in The Original Series and didn't try to make everything big glowy lights and small 2D screens. The overall style is a bit too dark for my liking, but space is dark so I suppose it makes sense. The uniforms also looked quite practical, albeit without the pockets they had on Enterprise.
After one season, it's hard to know yet where to place Discovery, and it certainly isn't coming close to my beloved DS9 yet, but the quality of this season compared to the first seasons of any other Trek outing is frankly superb, so I have high hopes.
One to beam up.
) Interesting to read people's impressions of it though.
) and thought this was interesting. It was darker than other series, had very good effects, decent actors and some developing story lines. I liked Jason Isaacs and thought he was shaping up to be a really good character, ( shifty, driven, flawed & with issues - unlike say Kirk or Picard) then they decided he was from an alternative universe and killed him! Then they brought back a really strong female lead in Michelle Yeoh who they had previously killed off to give Michael some depth and then let her wander off!