STD: Into The Forest I Go

[BunBun299]

Upon the first watch I didn't even notice what Lorca had done with the coordinates, honestly, so that never really bothered me.

I still remember when I first saw the "Obi Wan speaking about the Clone Wars with Luke scene" out of context, that was the first time I actually noticed the scene. And frankly, even looking for it when rewatching the movies I only "saw" it in the movies once. If the material doesn't really engage you, you are unlikely to pay close attention and are very likely to miss things... as Chuck so poignantly puts it at the end of his review.

Except... I AM engaged with it. I actually quite like Discovery, flaws and all (biggest being this should not have been a prequel).

That was strike one for me. Especially with them having to make everything look more advanced than it did in the TNG era, let alone before Kirk. If they'd just set it in the early 25th century, they could have had all these things, and not pissed off fans in the process.

Strike two for me was the KINOs. Even ignoring that Klingons of this time should all have smooth foreheads, these do not look or act like the species we've been watching for decades. Hence why they are Klingons In Name Only.

Strike three was shoehorning Michael in as Spock's adopted sister. Did they just go to fanfiction.net and assume this was some sort of model to base their heroine on, so take notes? I really cannot fathom why anyone thought this was a good idea, especially since Sarek isn't exactly close with his biological sons. Why would we buy that he'd be oh so close to his adopted daughter? If they wanted so badly to make her connected to prior Trek, they should have set this series in the 25th century, and made her Tuvok's adopted daughter. Same cultural background, Tim Russ is still alive, can't be too hard to get him to come back, and you don't anger the fan base with a prequel.

So this series had an uphill battle to fight for my attention from the start. And this review has cemented my decision not to watch it. Michael destroyed any sympathy I might have had for her in episode 1. Nothing she's done since convinces me she shouldn't be in prison for life. Or at the very least, she should never wear a Starfleet uniform again. And she continues to do dominate the series, the other characters barely get any chance to engage you.

I really don't think I can like this series.

[Fixer]

On the subject of small, hard to miss details in Discovery. I wonder if a lot of that is due to the internet forum analysis of shows we have today with HD streaming.

People analysed the code that flashed up on the screen briefly to find that it's Microsoft Windows. All of Georgio's books were TOS episode titles. So they add in other small details like this so people can feel clever about having found them.

Despite this of course, they can't spell the huge obvious words on screen.

[Starbug]

I can't help but think that the Mirror Universe arc reviews really should have a few The Death of Stalin clips in them.

[Riedquat]

Strike two for me was the KINOs. Even ignoring that Klingons of this time should all have smooth foreheads, these do not look or act like the species we've been watching for decades. Hence why they are Klingons In Name Only.

I know the smooth forehead thing has been dealt with, and the look of TOS been confirmed as canon, but the look - of the Klingons, of the technology, doesn't bother me too much, in the same way as I can accept films and TV of that time making historical works that still look dated to the time they were made. It's an interpretation within the limits of the possibility of showing them, and our own concepts of futuristic that inevitably get overtaken by changes in the real world sooner or later. I can handwave it away just as I can, for example, obvious bluescreen effects.

[TheLibrarian]

Except... I AM engaged with it. I actually quite like Discovery, flaws and all (biggest being this should not have been a prequel).

I wish a modern Trek would just have the guts to sever itself from original continuity and just try to be its own thing. Even when I don't like what Discovery's doing at the moment, if I pretend it's not actually beholden to the older material I can mostly enjoy it on its own terms. At least it's trying to do something new and modern with the Trek brand, instead of just remixing the mid-90s like The Orville. But when the bugbear of force-fitting continuity raises its ugly head...ugh.

[TGLS]

I don't know why Chuck is surprised that CBS is always going "Challenge Accepted" to his sarcasm. After all, it's the network where the phrase originated from.

[Madner Kami]

Except... I AM engaged with it. I actually quite like Discovery, flaws and all (biggest being this should not have been a prequel).

I wish a modern Trek would just have the guts to sever itself from original continuity and just try to be its own thing. Even when I don't like what Discovery's doing at the moment, if I pretend it's not actually beholden to the older material I can mostly enjoy it on its own terms. At least it's trying to do something new and modern with the Trek brand, instead of just remixing the mid-90s like The Orville. But when the bugbear of force-fitting continuity raises its ugly head...ugh.

If you don't want to watch Star Trek, the don't watch Star Trek. If you don't want to work with what was established before, then don't do a series in an established canon. It's really not rocket science.

[Yukaphile]

Wait, there was a butt shot? From a woman? Naked...? IN TREK? Wow! Can someone find it for me, please? Not even joking. I'm serious.

That aside, I can't enjoy STD, for the same reasons that BunBun299 and CrypticMirror mentioned.

That the Klingons are just KINOs. As bad as Enterprise was, it gave an actually good explanation for its own continuity error, that their head ridges melted away from genetic disease. Then they bring it back to Kirk's era, in the Prime Timeline, when they should have smooth heads, and they're just... gone. Not even having Klingons from "different houses" as the creators have noted can change this. Then there's the shoehorning in of Burnham as a half-sister to Spock. Horrible. Didn't these idiots learn their lesson with Sybok?! And yeah, STD is just too advanced to consider a true addition to Kirk's era. I also dislike the shoving aside of TOS to throw in TOS elements here that are just easter eggs, imo. The Mirror Universe. Don't do a Mirror Universe arc if you're just going to erase it from the records. It makes the original discovery by Kirk meaningless. And don't wipe Burnham's mutiny off the record, again, just to maintain continuity. SERIOUSLY!

But again, all this would be justifiable... if they had good actors. TOS, TNG, DS9, and Voyager, yes, had good actors. Even Enterprise once they grew into their roles had good actors. STD is just... not that. It's bland because you can't sell it on the strength of characters like Trek usually does, so it makes the glaring flaws all the more obvious, continuity errors, bad decisions, and the disregarding of TOS. All these neat little shout-outs to the rest of Star Trek don't matter if you're not going to sort of get into the spirit of Trek, adhere more strongly to a tight focus on central continuity, and sell it like hell to the audience. This is just a blatant cash-grab by ruthlessly appealing to nostalgia, and it shows.

[cloudkitt]

Except... I AM engaged with it. I actually quite like Discovery, flaws and all (biggest being this should not have been a prequel).

I wish a modern Trek would just have the guts to sever itself from original continuity and just try to be its own thing. Even when I don't like what Discovery's doing at the moment, if I pretend it's not actually beholden to the older material I can mostly enjoy it on its own terms. At least it's trying to do something new and modern with the Trek brand, instead of just remixing the mid-90s like The Orville. But when the bugbear of force-fitting continuity raises its ugly head...ugh.

I disagree on effectively a reboot. If you don't want it to be connected to Star Trek, then don't make a Star Trek. Reboots are lazy, even if they can turn out well. Now, leaning real hard on nostalgia is lazy too, to be sure. Which is why, as was said, what was stupid was placing Discovery where they did. Why not just make the Next Next Generation? 80 years after Voyager? Now, you can make things look as super futuristic as you want, you have enough time for there to have been significant changes to the Klingon culture (and the Federation's, for that matter). And yeah, I like the idea stated above, if you really needed to do the human-raised-by-a-Vulcan-we-recognize thing, well Tuvok is right there, and would now be Vulcan-old and match Time Russ' appearance as Nimoy did in TNG.

That incredibly obvious potential so utterly wasted so they could dangle the OG Enterprise in front of us is something that is ALWAYS going to be working against this show for me. Even if it becomes amazing. They could have so easily just completely avoided all those problems and just tried to get the writing/storytelling up to snuff. Again, like TNG/DS9/VOY, you can occasionally have some nostalgic fun like with Scotty, Tribbles, or Sulu, but you're free to just tell stories without constantly having to dodge (or in this case, barreling straight through) continuity snags.