Star Trek (DIS): The Wolf Inside

[Deledrius]

All media has pretty horrible science. So I guess it really doesn't even really register to me anymore.

There is a lot of bad science out there. It still manages to frustrate me. But not all is lost. Films like The Martian make a valiant effort to stay as far as they can on the realism side and still turn out an entertaining story, so I like to think the success of things like that send a good message to the studios that they can do better.

The fact that people are so inundated with junk science these days is precisely what makes me sad when something like Star Trek, which could be setting a positive example, instead resorts to basing their miracle transit/time-travel machine/resurrection device on the science equivalent of Jamake Highwater's consultations. They wrap it in the trapping and terminology of science, and that undermines things outside of just the show. There are real-world knock-on effects. Star Trek can and should be inspiring with a speculative future! Discovery is passing off real-world fringe ideas as actual science. There's a lot of nonsense out there, and it certainly doesn't need any additional help spreading.

I guess I hope that if we keep asking for better, then maybe it will get better. They won't do it if the audience just gives up or doesn't care.

[CharlesPhipps]

I'm kinda confused as to why people are all frustrated with the space mushroom / fungus business. Trek sciences has always been laughably bad and kinda silly. It's just a new kinda silly as opposed to a classic silly.

There's bad science and there's bad science.

In Star Trek, there's all sorts of crazy ridiculous stuff but you can usually handwave it to some extent. The stuff you can't (usually dealing with evolution) is the stuff which sticks with Star Trek fans years later.

However, the space mushrooms are confusing because it's seemingly bad science for the sake of bad science. There's no ecologies in space and they aren't covering ALL OF SPACE (which is famous for being a void). Weirdly, fungus which allows teleportation is the least objectionable part to me as that's not something blatantly stupid/confusing to common science.

It's the difference between a show about a submarine where they encounter an intelligent sea monster versus a show where they light fires underwater to time travel.

[DisgruntleFairy]

I'm kinda confused as to why people are all frustrated with the space mushroom / fungus business. Trek sciences has always been laughably bad and kinda silly. It's just a new kinda silly as opposed to a classic silly.

There's bad science and there's bad science.

In Star Trek, there's all sorts of crazy ridiculous stuff but you can usually handwave it to some extent. The stuff you can't (usually dealing with evolution) is the stuff which sticks with Star Trek fans years later.

However, the space mushrooms are confusing because it's seemingly bad science for the sake of bad science. There's no ecologies in space and they aren't covering ALL OF SPACE (which is famous for being a void). Weirdly, fungus which allows teleportation is the least objectionable part to me as that's not something blatantly stupid/confusing to common science.

It's the difference between a show about a submarine where they encounter an intelligent sea monster versus a show where they light fires underwater to time travel.

I've read your books. I really enjoyed them.

But I suppose I can see your point. But I'm more annoyed with the story issues of Discovery than the science bits. I mean there are some seriously story issues with the series.

Like Ash... He's an interesting character and its a good idea but its soo poorly executed.

[Jonathan101]

So, apparently, the whole Sporedrive thing and the Stamitz character etc were plagiarised from a 2014 video game and worse still CBS is considering blaming it all on Bryan Fuller when it was probably someone in their own company who is responsible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTfAb9Y ... gs=pl%2Cwn

[CharlesPhipps]

I feel like there's a much more interesting Discovery that wasn't obsessed with Game of Throne's plot twists.

Short version:

* The Jump Drive is actually just a very powerful jump drive that becomes "too dangerous and unpredictable to use."
* Captain Lorca is exactly who he appears to be.
* So is Ash
* Tone down the constant Michael-shilling and make her play off the other characters more.
* Use the original Klingons

[CharlesPhipps]

I've read your books. I really enjoyed them.

Aww, thank you!

But I suppose I can see your point. But I'm more annoyed with the story issues of Discovery than the science bits. I mean there are some seriously story issues with the series.

Like Ash... He's an interesting character and its a good idea but its soo poorly executed.

In retrospect, I think it's very clear this show's retooling left its marks. There's a real sense that probably up to the Mirror Universe part, the show was a very different beast.

[DisgruntleFairy]

I've read your books. I really enjoyed them.

Aww, thank you!

But I suppose I can see your point. But I'm more annoyed with the story issues of Discovery than the science bits. I mean there are some seriously story issues with the series.

Like Ash... He's an interesting character and its a good idea but its soo poorly executed.

In retrospect, I think it's very clear this show's retooling left its marks. There's a real sense that probably up to the Mirror Universe part, the show was a very different beast.

I can agree with that. The retooling left some marks and rough spots. I think the war arc in itself isn't bad and the Mirror Universe part is pretty good I think. But the weird hybridization of them this season is rough.

I kinda wish they had left Ash more ambiguous and drawn out his reveal.

I'm also really sad about the death of Culber.

[CharlesPhipps]

The show feels like they really wanted to double and triple down on Michael.

The thing is that they have a decent ensemble cast and Michael is a naturally emotionally distant shy and awkward young woman even without the treason.

Kind of an odd choice.

[Worffan101]

I feel like there's a much more interesting Discovery that wasn't obsessed with Game of Throne's plot twists.

Short version:

* The Jump Drive is actually just a very powerful jump drive that becomes "too dangerous and unpredictable to use."
* Captain Lorca is exactly who he appears to be.
* So is Ash
* Tone down the constant Michael-shilling and make her play off the other characters more.
* Use the original Klingons

I would keep Mirror!Lorca, but instead of being a cartoon villain, he's a refugee who hates the constant atrocities and cartoonish evil of the MU, has come to love the Federation and will do ANYTHING to see it preserved. Basically, as close as the MU gets to an actual good guy.

The Jump Drive is a prototype Transwarp and is ALWAYS on the fritz as the plot demands.

Ash Tyler I'd axe entirely. He's incredibly boring and his only purpose is to further two plot tumors that I hate.

Burnham I would have make an honest mistake rather than be a racist Trump-lite in the pilot. Instead of hating Klingons and saying they're all evil because "that's their culture", she's in command when a Klingon ship drops out of nowhere after T'Kuvma's beacon thing fries Shenzhou's systems and injures Georigou. Split-second decision, she shoots the Klingon, turns out it was some really important Klingon who T'Kuvma lured there as part of a convoluted scheme to start the war.

Use the TNG Klingon makeup and say "We're using Gene Roddenberry's explanation, and ignoring Enterprise because Berman and Braga couldn't write for shit".

Flesh out the supporting cast, include a trans character because Trek should always push the limits and give the bridge crew some life; we have a streaming format so there's no reason each episode shouldn't take an hour of screentime, and if CBS wants commercials in there we can say "fuck it, guys, it's streaming, we can still make each episode a full hour of screentime".

Burnham basically spends the whole season trying to make amends for her fuckup. Lorca, the secret Mirror refugee, is the only one who doesn't care about it. Redheaded helm lady hates Burnham because her wife was badly injured in the battle sparked by Burnham's fuckup. Saru thinks that Burnham shouldn't be trusted with command but is less fond of her being used as a scapegoat by Starfleet Command.

Lorca still gets captured and locked up with PsychoMudd, but PsychoMudd is wearing a goatee and is actually Mirror Mudd. The heroes later encounter Real Mudd after killing PsychoMudd and he's more like the guy from TOS.

The kicker turns out to be that T'Kuvma was working with Empress Georgiou, who was deposed and fled the MU with a few loyalists, to destroy the Federation; Georgiou plans to kill T'Kuvma and rule the Empire with an elaborate disguise ploy once the Federation is dust, and if the Federation starts winning she'll infiltrate them and start encouraging fascist sentiments to take over and make a new Terran Empire to rule. She crazy. Lorca is scared shitless of her, but his arc reaches its climax when he works up the courage to turn himself over to her as part of an elaborate ploy for the heroes to ambush Mirror Georgiou and capture her to hand over to the Klingons along with evidence that Mudd found that implicates T'Kuvma in the death of the important Klingon in Burnham's initial fuckup, and by publicizing this to the quadrant the heroes hope to force the High Council to negotiate a truce to save face. This means that Burnham has to fence Empress Georgiou as Michelle Yeoh hams it up with lines like "You can't beat me, Michael! I AM THE EMPRESS OF TERRA!" and grand sweeping gestures and other crap.

At the end, as Burnham negotiates a truce with the Klingons, status quo ante bellum, the Klingons begin to plan a return to the war, once they've enforced a little more unity and clamped down on some border problems. After all...they may have had to back down to save face, but the Federation is clearly a worthy opponent. And as young Captain Kor, an heir of Councillor Rynar, says...it will be glorious!. Meanwhile, Empress Georgiou is taken away to be executed, but escapes the holding cell, vowing revenge to become a recurring villain.

You don't even need to do that much but I feel like the more you tweak the better with this show.

[CharlesPhipps]

I'd just use an original character than Mudd.

He's perfectly fine as a character, just not as Mudd.

Trader Dan or something.

Say there's a lot of con men and smugglers in this period.