Post your postmortem on Discovery

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CharlesPhipps
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Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by CharlesPhipps »

Exactly what it says on the tin.

What did you think of Discovery and its place in the Star Trek canon now that it's over?

For me?

Ehhh....it had its good points?

I feel DISCO never really found its footing. It came close in Season 3 but they didn't want to engage with rebuilding a galaxy and democracy. It was all magically solved by finding a planet sized ball of dilithium. It forwarded family as much as the Fast and the Furious movies but refused to give any development to the crew. It said that Burnham was a fantastic character but constantly tinkered with her so that we never got to know her. The constant "oh no, the universe is DOOMED" of every season stopped working after Season 2. It rarely introduced new elements and the few it did like the Kelpians and Ba'aul got overshadowed.

The show had its merits: no ST show has anywhere near the LGBTA representation and it blew them away all put together. It gave us a happily married couple in space, rare for any show. It never lost sight of Star Trek's "message" of peace and diplomacy. It was rarely boring. It gave us SNW. We had some admirals who weren't evil. Plus, Tilly, Book, Raynar, Stamets, Culper, and Saru were awesome. I still want a tardigrade plushie.

DISCO had a lot of flaws but it also had its merits.

B- overall.

I liked it more than ENTERPRISE but it put too much focus on spectacle and action when it could have functioned on its characters and setting(s).
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McAvoy
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by McAvoy »

Before I post at a later time on my views of Discovery I am going to say something that is controversial

I will state that I have absolutely no problem with diversity in shows or movies. I just don't care that much. Yeah I get it, makes no sense to have a black Dwarf in The Ring of Power where she spent majority of her life and presumably her family in a mine. But I don't care about that.

The lack of CIS straight white males who are not aliens, not an asshole in any kind of way. Just a guy doing his job on that starship. Take for example Season 5, how many white guys did you see that had a speaking role and was not an alien?

I get it, diversity. But where is the diversity when there is lack of a white male in any kind of role? This is just me, but just one character who is white, straight, CIS and male crew member would have been nice. Even if he spoke only a couple of lines in thd entire season. It's not like I am asking that Discovery should have included such a character to be the main focus of any scene or episode or season.

Just a guy doing his job, stating some techno babble, or whatever.

That is just me.
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CharlesPhipps
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by CharlesPhipps »

McAvoy wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2024 11:55 pm Before I post at a later time on my views of Discovery I am going to say something that is controversial

I will state that I have absolutely no problem with diversity in shows or movies. I just don't care that much. Yeah I get it, makes no sense to have a black Dwarf in The Ring of Power where she spent majority of her life and presumably her family in a mine. But I don't care about that.

The lack of CIS straight white males who are not aliens, not an asshole in any kind of way. Just a guy doing his job on that starship. Take for example Season 5, how many white guys did you see that had a speaking role and was not an alien?

I get it, diversity. But where is the diversity when there is lack of a white male in any kind of role? This is just me, but just one character who is white, straight, CIS and male crew member would have been nice. Even if he spoke only a couple of lines in thd entire season. It's not like I am asking that Discovery should have included such a character to be the main focus of any scene or episode or season.

Just a guy doing his job, stating some techno babble, or whatever.

That is just me.
I mean, there's Stamets. Yes, he's gay so it would have to be Cis White Het Males.

Pike

Sarek

Lorca for most of the series counts

Raynar is barely an alien. That's like complaining about Spock.

Oded Fehr is Jewish but he's from European Jewish descended Israelis.
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McAvoy
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by McAvoy »

CharlesPhipps wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2024 2:07 am
McAvoy wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2024 11:55 pm Snip
I mean, there's Stamets. Yes, he's gay so it would have to be Cis White Het Males

Pike

Sarek

Lorca for most of the series counts

Raynar is barely an alien. That's like complaining about Spock.

Oded Fehr is Jewish but he's from European Jewish descended Israelis.
Stamets: That is the point I am making. Straight white male. Not an asshole. Not an alien. Just average Joe Shmoe minding his own business.

Locra: Mirror universe counterpart. Counts as an asshole.

Pike sure. Got his own series with his crew and ship.

Sarek: Alien

Raynar: Still an alien despite his look. Though I guess that counts?

Oded Fehr: I get it. Yeah he an European Jew and this might be splitting hairs here, but can you say he looks like a white dude from London or a white dude from New York? Or a French dude. Or does his appearance as an 'acceptable' white guy checks that box?

The point I am making is the show makes alot of effort for diversity. Which is fine. I still would like to know more about those characters on that bridge.

But but, all I would want to see is just white dude minding his own business off to the side doing his job, say 'Hey something is wrong here.' Nothing extra, he is not an alien, he is not an asshole, he is straight, nothing extra added to him. Joe Shmoe married or dating Jane Shmoe or single. Hey Joe likes that black chick from biology department. Hey Joe likes that half Andorian half Vulcan from the mess hall. Go him.

Think about when is the last time you saw a white male (with no indication if he likes girls of boys or both) in Discovery.
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

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I see it as retribution for Enterprise, the WHITEST show ever made. Every episode of season 1 and 2 just screamed 'white guy' to me, and T'Pol and Archer are the worst two. Absolute fap material, and daddy got me the job strong energy. Mayweather and Hoshi make it worse, coming off not as characters but 'token black' and 'token other woman' or worse, 'token asian'. These two got the shaft HARD, and while the mirror universe two parter was good revenge, this is better revenge.
Science Fiction is a genre where anything can happen. Just make sure what happens is enjoyable for yourself and your audience.
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McAvoy
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by McAvoy »

Nobody700 wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2024 2:47 am I see it as retribution for Enterprise, the WHITEST show ever made. Every episode of season 1 and 2 just screamed 'white guy' to me, and T'Pol and Archer are the worst two. Absolute fap material, and daddy got me the job strong energy. Mayweather and Hoshi make it :roll: worse, coming off not as characters but 'token black' and 'token other woman' or worse, 'token asian'. These two got the shaft HARD, and while the mirror universe two parter was good revenge, this is better revenge.
Fair enough. You do what you want to do. By all means fap what you want to do. Go for that exaggerating post. I am sure that makes your point.
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hammerofglass
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by hammerofglass »

McAvoy take that feeling and imagine it's unusual to have characters who are white or straight or cis and treated as unremarkable AT ALL much less in the exact combination of straight white cis man.

That's what the state of representation on TV is to most people ALL THE TIME.
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Riedquat
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by Riedquat »

Nobody700 wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2024 2:47 am I see it as retribution for Enterprise, the WHITEST show ever made. Every episode of season 1 and 2 just screamed 'white guy' to me, and T'Pol and Archer are the worst two. Absolute fap material, and daddy got me the job strong energy. Mayweather and Hoshi make it worse, coming off not as characters but 'token black' and 'token other woman' or worse, 'token asian'. These two got the shaft HARD, and while the mirror universe two parter was good revenge, this is better revenge.
Two wrongs don't make a right.

Generally speaking I don't have a problem with any show that looks like the cast are largely from wherever it's made, unless that's completely out of place for its setting. I do have an issue with pushing agendas though, unless that's a fundamental part of the show.
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

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McAvoy wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2024 11:55 pm Yeah I get it, makes no sense to have a black Dwarf in The Ring of Power where she spent majority of her life and presumably her family in a mine. But I don't care about that.
Unrelated to the point of the post, and indeed Discovery in general which I'm happy to keep on ignoring, but I do want to add that she was one of the very few characters who were worth watching in that show. She sold the hell out of a relatively small role.
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Re: Post your postmortem on Discovery

Post by BridgeConsoleMasher »

I'm impressed that this show ran its course for 5 seasons. I have a much more fond familiarity with the show, having watched it for a third time (up to its latest episode), and this season in particular verges on feeling a bit like the Rise of Skywalker in that the meat of the story is somewhat inconsequential to the overarching resolutive narrative for the show at large. And that takes into account that I found the meat of RoS to be rather enjoyable as I did the action in season 5.

The action in this season is very intuitively done. I didn't feel it overwhelmed any other aspects of what should be Star Trek, and perhaps that's considering how much people have lamented how frustrating the varying speed of the show gets. I think it seems finely tuned here, and the Breen as the center antagonists was a nice touch.

All being said, I enjoyed this show much more than the first and even second time I saw it. The concept is very nuanced as a contemporary metaphor for what's going on today, and I think they had fitted the show very nicely by the 4th season.

The 3rd season is probably the least memorable for me, but their venture into the future was a very bold move for the show to take it into original territory, and I just wish they spent more time with the breakdown of the federation. Kovix was great.
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