STD: Into The Forest I Go

[AlucardNoir]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/c109.php

Frustrated Enterprise never delivered the goods on T'Pol? Angry Voyager never showed us Seven of Nines numbers? Raging at Deeps Space Nine for not doing justice to Dax? Crying at The next generation's half-assed attempts at nudity with our second favored Betazoid? Foaming at the mouth for Uhura, Rand and Chapel? Never fear, STD is here!

And with that out of my system, on to the episode... I'm not going to lie, I almost believed Lorca was a good guy this episode, almost - that last scene kinda spoils it though. It was just too cookie-cutter evil for my taste. But then again, this is STD in a nutshell, good ideas ruined by horrendous execution.

Other than that, the clearing in the forest comments Stamets keep spouting are the main week point of the episode for me, then again, I do dislike the whole fungal/force thing STD has going on.

[Aotrs Commander]

I found Chuck's appraisal of this two-parter interesting, in that I am getting the same sort of vibes from the whole thing (albiet through Chuck's lens, since nothing I've seen of it engenders me to go watch it[1].) I watch these reviews and they (that is the episodes under scruteny, not the reviews themselves!) strike me as being, as Chuck says, just sort of... There? I dunno.

Oddly enough, the STD reviews are pretty much the only ones I have found I sometimes momentarily hestitate hovering the mouse over. I think the art style and general aethetics (and, I think, possibly and rather unusually for me, the cast) I find unappealing to the point I sort of find it hard to watch for the visuals, let alone the content. But that is definitely a personal bias, I think; I prefer my stuff to be brightly lit and visible, whether it be superheroes, giant transforming robots, coloured equines or starships.



[1]Though that's actually not uncommon with a lot of stuff people I watch do, since it watch more for the reviewer than the subject matter a lot of the time.

[Karha of Honor]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/c109.php

Frustrated Enterprise never delivered the goods on T'Pol? Angry Voyager never showed us Seven of Nines numbers? Raging at Deeps Space Nine for not doing justice to Dax? Crying at The next generation's half-assed attempts at nudity with our second favored Betazoid? Foaming at the mouth for Uhura, Rand and Chapel? Never fear, STD is here!

And with that out of my system, on to the episode... I'm not going to lie, I almost believed Lorca was a good guy this episode, almost - that last scene kinda spoils it though. It was just too cookie-cutter evil for my taste. But then again, this is STD in a nutshell, good ideas ruined by horrendous execution.

Other than that, the clearing in the forest comments Stamets keep spouting are the main week point of the episode for me, then again, I do dislike the whole fungal/force thing STD has going on.

I had seen way fucking worse execution.

[Darth Wedgius]

Memory Alpha also has a page on "Butt." There's a semi-NSWF image there (though safe enough for broadcast TV) so I won't link the page. I'd complain about someone having too much time on their hands, except I looked for a Star Trek page on butts. I really don't have the high ground here.

I did like the ensemble nature of the post-TOS, pre-STD shows, even if some characters inevitably shown brighter than others. Even TOS was helped that there was a half-alien first officer next to Kirk, and the audience thought he was "fascinating."

And I can only be glad I'm not smart and socially awkward. Just being socially awkward is hard enough.

[MixedDrops]

Surprised Chuck didn't have a go at the needlessly loud announcement from the tracking device since pretty much everyone made fun of that.

[Linkara]

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

[kaingerc]

To expand on Chuck's point, yeah, this show really fails to have the audience be engaged with its characters.
The ship constantly feels empty and even the recurring supporting characters barely register (I can't even remember the name of that redhead pilot with the cyborg eye that keeps showing up throughout the season, and she survived the battle of the binary stars along with Saru)
I think the episode that shows it the best was the one with the time loop.
Instead of focusing on Stamets (who was the only one who could actually remember each time reset) we focused on Michael and her relationship with Ash... even though she couldn't remember the progress she made with that after each reset (which means Stamets must have had a REALLY annoying time getting her through her emotional baggage after each reset)

[AlucardNoir]

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.

Frankly, if the TNG era shows and Ent hadn't been such big parts of my childhood I doubt I would have noticed that scene. But since they were, and since Lorca had rubbed me the wrong way I was really paying attention to what he was doing - no doubt my subconscious was waiting for him to make a mistake and prove he wasn't really Starfleet.

[CrypticMirror]

Edit: I kinda wrote this post while I was watching Chuck's review, so I've edited it a tonne of times to add in other thoughts.
-----
Are we near the end of STD's run yet? Are we nearly there yet?

By this point in this show's run, all I can think of is that so far the only one with a proper haircut is the obviously evil Captain Lorca. And why hasn't Saru's entire species either had a collective heart attack or learned to just be chill like normal people?

Also, once again the future of Star Trek was predicted by Chuck's sarcasm.

The serialisation has actually made me care less about these people. With old Trek I would watch an episode, and if it was a miss then I'd put the tape back on the shelf and that would be that, or if it was good then I'd watch some more but then go back and watch that episode again. Each viewing of that story made me feel warmer about the characters. Even with ENT and VOY (despite Beltran's best efforts on the latter) there was a warmth to the characters that drew me back (like a hostage in love with her kidnapper). With STD, the bad stuff is smeared all through what could theoretically be a good episode if there was no serialisation getting in the way. The characters too often seem to be like Beltran on mogadon, and just reciting lines at best. There is no warmth, and there is no break from the bad to just give me a couple of one of stories to get to know the characters.

[Linkara]

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).