All Things Star Trek

[Sommerswerd]

Q: What must I do to convince you [that I'm mortal]?
Worf: Die.

I loved that response... perfect deadpan by Worf. One of my favs.

 

[warpus]

I have not been enjoying the last couple episodes of Star Trek: Discovery. The time travel one was my fav episode this season by far.

It just feels like a season of MacGuffin chasing sprinkled in with occasional fan service. The time travel episode felt more standalone and was more interesting as a result. The rest of the episodes have them going around the galaxy collecting clues, and it just seems like a lazy approach for a season. The whole premise involving the Progenitors was interesting at first, but then the whole thing devolved to MacGuffin chasing. I like some of what we're seeing, in the latest episode there's an interesting culture they interact with, but the overall story just isn't moving me much. I enjoyed the previous season more.

 

[Perfection]

I like 5th season of disco. It's good star trek.

Yeah the quest is a overused trope but like it's a better arc than 4th season. And that's not a total dig on the 4th season, i just felt it drag at times, there were some solid episodes for sure

 

[warpus]

Honestly, if all these episodes were standalones then I would have enjoyed them more. There is good Trek in there, I agree, but what ties the episodes together as a grand story arc feels lame to me, and not well thought out, and I've been focusing on that as a result. The time travel episode allowed me to mentally separate from the grander arc for whatever reason, and I ended up enjoying that one the most as a result.

The way I see it, if you're going to do a season-long story, make it compelling and interesting. This one just feels.. well.. you've heard my opinions on that already. This season would have been better served with a collection of standalone episodes, IMO. They had good ideas for most of the episodes. Did they really need to be a part of a larger arc? That's the thing to do these days I guess, but what Trek fan wouldn't appreciate a solid set of standalone episodes? The show's name implies the discovery of things, and that's what they've been doing in each episode, discovering new cultures and exploring planets, so maybe the focus should have been on that, and not on a larger arc that falls flat. Hey, maybe the conclusion to the grander story at the end of the season will tie it all together in a satisfying way that will justify this approach, but if we're going by past seasons then I'm not really that hopeful. It just seems like the writers for this show always try to come up with an epic and grand premise for each season, as a way to pull us in, but the way the grand story plays out is always lacking. Maybe the focus should have been on each individual episode instead, like in classic trek. The writers seem better equipped to handle these smaller non-epic non-grand in scale sort of stories.

This might be a tired line, but I feel like SNW really walks that line quite well. A lot of episodes are connected, but each episode has that standalone episode feel that feels so Trek. I wish Discovery and Picard had done more of that. Their grand ideas never really pan out or pay off in the end, but there's solid ideas in the episodes

 

[EgonSpengler]

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Series Casts Holly Hunter in Main Role (EXCLUSIVE)

The "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" series at Paramount+ has cast Holly Hunter in a lead role, Variety has learned.

variety.com

That's a pretty good get. I haven't seen her in anything in a while.

Hunter previously starred in and executive produced the TNT crime series “Saving Grace,” which aired for three seasons. She won Emmy awards for the made-for-television movies “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom” and “Roe vs. Wade.” Most recently, she starred opposite Ted Danson in the NBC comedy “Mr. Mayor.”

I thought Saving Grace was a good show. It was sorta your typical American crime procedural, but with a bit of Christian mythology over it - one of the characters was Hunter's guardian angel, played by Leon Rippy. It was kinda fun. It was also set in the Midwest - Oklahoma City - which you don't see on television much.

 

[Clubber Lang]

TJ Hooker wants back in -

Shatner, Pine, or a Kirk triple whammy: where should Star Trek boldly go next?​

With the fate of the next film up in the air, the original captain wants to get back on the Enterprise – it could be a genius feat of nostalgic casting or a desperate attempt to regain past glory



It probably says something about the gaping void where Star Trek movies ought to be sitting right now that even 93-year-old William Shatner reckons he might have a chance at getting back in the Enterprise command chair, albeit with a bit of futuristic de-ageing tech. Speaking to the Canadian Press a couple of weeks ago, the original Captain James Tiberius Kirk suggested he could easily play a younger version of the erstwhile Star Trek admiral, thanks to a company he’s working with that specialises in software that “takes years off your face, so that in a film you can look 10, 20, 30, 50 years younger than you are”.

Kirk was, of course, killed off in 1994’s Star Trek: Generations. Yet given the propensity for alternate timelines in mainstream sci-fi fantasy these days (and the fact that one was already introduced in the 2009 JJ Abrams-directed reboot) it would be no surprise at all to see him back on the deck of the Enterprise, like some kind of AI-assisted, uncanny valley facsimile of his former self, grinning with lurid romance at Uhura while fiddling with his (rumoured) corset.

Meanwhile, Kirk 2.0, Chris Pine, is completely in the dark as to whether his version of the cocksure interstellar navigator will ever be back on the big screen, following recent suggestions that a new screenwriter is on board to pen the long-gestating sequel to 2016’s Star Trek: Beyond. “I honestly don’t know,” he told Business Insider when asked for an update on the long-mooted Star Trek 4. “There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it’s always been with Trek, I just wait and see.”

Given that yet another version of Kirk (played by Paul Wesley) now exists in the excellent, and rightly popular, TV show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Pine and Shatner can probably be forgiven for wondering if Paramount studio will ever get around to returning to their own timelines. And this week comes news suggesting that none of the Kirks are likely to be hitting the multiplex anytime soon: Andor director Toby Haynes is reportedly on board to oversee a new episode that will take place close to the present day, and is likely to focus on the creation of Starfleet and humankind’s first contact with alien life. It is expected to be the first in a new series of films overseen by super-producer Simon Kinberg, previously best known for the highly mercurial X-Men movies.

Doesn’t this all sound a little bit like Enterprise? Maybe Paramount should just bite the bullet instead and give us the triple-Kirk, multiple timeline movie that is probably the only way to rescue this aching franchise, before Shatner himself finally fuses with the Borg and is no longer available. Given 2009’s reboot made such capital out of featuring two Spocks, this is probably the only way to go one step further and deliver the Spider-Man: No Way Home of Star Trek movies, and surely Shatner deserves it in the week in which his valedictory documentary You Can Call Me Bill hits digital platforms. They could even throw in the actor who played young Kirk in Abrams’s first entry, along with Sandra Smith (who once portrayed Kirk trapped in the body of a woman in the infamous Original Series body swap episode Turnabout Intruder). It would be like those Doctor Who specials in which all the previous inhabitants of the Tardis turn up at once, except with a lot more American accents and Tribbles.

On the other hand, maybe it really is time to leave the Kirk era behind and see if Star Trek can flourish without constantly telling the same story over and over again like the filmic equivalent of a particularly wonky Möbius strip. It didn’t work with Enterprise, but hey-ho. Quentin Tarantino won’t be showing up any time soon to give us his mooted “hard R” take on Starfleet’s ongoing mission to seek out new life, so really where else is there left to go with this stuff?



My bet, and secret hope, is that Shatner somehow finds his way into at least one of these new Star Trek big screen concepts, even if the result is the modern-day, hi-tech equivalent of Game of Death’s foolish attempts to keep the splendour of Bruce Lee posthumously alive via the magic of mirrors and a bad cardboard cut out of the martial arts star’s face. There is simply no other Kirk like him. And while there are those who will tell you that the much-missed Leonard Nimoy’s wonderfully taciturn Spock was the real reason Star Trek is still going after the best part of seven decades, it is hard to imagine anyone who really loves this preposterously long-running space saga not doing so because of some kind of secret crush (guilty or not) on this most brilliantly pompous and swaggering of screen presences. He’s 93! And he still reckons he should be given another go in the hot seat – maybe we should just give him the chance?

 

[warpus]

I just finished watching the last 2 episodes of Discovery. Here are my thoughts about the season and show wrap-up.

Spoiler :

The good:

- I thought overall it was an engaging last 2 episodes. Nothing incredible but it kept my attention moreso than other episodes in the season (other than the time travel one, which I liked the most I think)
- I thought the characters got a good wrap-up and sendoff
- I liked how they handled the Progenitor tech, that made sense to me.
- I liked that Dr. Kovich was you know who, I liked that connection to an earlier Trek series. It also kind of makes sense.
- The Breen were cool overall and got more interesting in the last 2 episodes.
- I liked Saru's screen presence, the wedding, etc.
- I liked the way Adira and Tilly wrapped up their Discovery storylines, they were both confident and well rounded, it highlighted their growth as characters over the seasons.
- I also liked how they did go out of their way to connect this to older Trek series, from DS9, to Enterprise, to TNG, and likely others I've missed. It didn't feel forced either. Well done on that front.

The bad:

- The last triangle puzzle was way too obvious. I knew what the solution was as soon as they stared down at the triangles and Michael repeated the phrase. This disappointed me, as the last puzzle should have been a challenge and not something super easy.
- Culbert knowing the right frequency was dumb, him saying: "I can just feel it" was dumb, the justification that "we don't really have to know the answer" was dumb. Sorry but that was a bit of deus ex machina kind of writing and I dislike those. Unless I missed something in the dialogue and there was a good reason for all this, in which case, please let me know.
- Some of those characters that barely got any character development got to hug Michael & others at the end.. but it just highlighted how little character development they got overall, and that makes me a sad panda. I love secondary characters getting their fair share of proper character development, that's what made older Trek shows so good, IMO. It's not only the main cast that shine, those secondary characters fill in those little voids in the stories. But on Discovery those secondary characters might as well have been cardboard cutouts.
- I disliked how throughout the season they kept trusting Mal and she just kept breaking that trust. They should have clued in way too earlier. Then later I realized why they didn't just get rid of her - she will continue on on one of the new shows... Fine, but they should have written her better, she was actually a good character and antagonist, most of the time. It made Michael & the federation seem super naive at multiple parts of the story.
- The Breen accepted Mal a bit too easily. They are supposed to be super suspicious of other races and all that..

The neutral:

- I felt that Stamets should have gotten a bit more a substantial ending, given that he was the character was at the heart of the spore drive storyline early on in the show. He helped out with stuff during the last 2 episodes, but I feel that he didn't really get a solid sendoff.
- I always thought that Booker was an underutilized character overall. His psychic abilities and that part of him was not really touched up on much at all. It was like a gimmick that popped up a handful of times when the plot demanded it. He always sort of felt like being there just as a part of Michael's character really, as opposed to being his own character. Having said that, I liked his story arch and character progression from his planet blowing up to him having to deal with that and growing as a result. Still feel that they could have done way more with him, which is why this is in the neutral section.
- As for gimmicky character traits, I also found Saru's species' ability to detect death.. lacking? It was a big deal when it came up in the first season and they barely made use of it. He was one of my fav. characters, but that one thing should have been expanded on more. Perhaps the writers realized that this ability was a bit too overpowered? Even so, once they locked it in it should have come up way more than it did.

As for the series as a whole:

The good:

- I liked the general diversity on the show, from all the alien races, human backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities presented. Star Trek is supposed to inspire the next generation of humans here in the present, to show them that your racial, religious, sexual, gender or whatever background can't be a limit to what you can achieve. So showing all that, and having all those characters in prominent positions was great, and a great example of the "essence of Trek".
- This series lead to the launch of Strange New Worlds, which is IMO the best Trek since the 90s. So that's a definite plus.
- I am also looking forward to the 2 new shows that Discovery helped launch. Instead of being excited by them or being critical of the premise, I am going to go in with a blank slate, and give these shows a fair chance, the same I did with SNW and Lower Decks. (and Discovery).. oh yeah and Prodigy, although that one was too easy to dismiss at first as a kids show. I had to give it another shot and try to ignore that aspect of it in some way, and the show ended surprising me in the end. Either way, looking forward to 2 new Trek shows.

The bad:
- Discovery never really figured out what it's supposed to be about. It jumped about way too much, it's like they kept trying new storylines and ideas to see what would stick.. and in the end none of the ideas really stuck around for too long. In season 5 it almost felt like the show found a bit of its footing.. but.. now it's over. I wish they started off going off into the future at the beginning of season 1, so that the show had a proper theme and direction and so that it could get grounded early on, instead of jumping all over the place like a madman.
- All the "oh no the end of the universe as we know it" storylines also got really tiring.
- The severely underdeveloped secondary characters.. is a big no for me. I want to know more about the Geordis, the Dukats, the ensign Kims, the O'Briens.. I want to know who these people are so I can put myself in their shoes. I do not only want to learn about Picard, Janeway, Sisko, and Data.
- The way too easy redemption of a genocidal murdering dictator. That should have never happened, and yet the crew ended up accepting her easily enough. Not good.

- This is not about the show at all, but about Trek in general. It took Trek sooo long to show a homosexual character? Come on.. This took way too long. It's not a big deal nowadays to show a gay character on TV. Trek should have been at the forefront of this, the same way they had the first ever interracial kiss on TV (or second or whatever it was). They need to be at the forefront of this stuff and not jump in when it's safe to do so.

- Having said that, they handled the non-heterosexual relationships on the show well, it all felt natural and well introduced and handled. They didn't make a point to point to it and say that it is different. It was just.. normal. I'm straight myself so I suppose I can't really comment on how it was handled, but from my pov at least, it seemed to have been handled well.

Overall Discovery was a decent show, but jumped around too much. It's good we have multiple Trek shows on TV now though. Hopefully that continues. And hopefully the writers have learned some lessons from some of the negatives as well as the positives on Discovery, going forward. The way SNW has been going, it seems that they have. But we'll see what these 2 new shows are going to be like.

If any of this needs to be behind spoiler tags, please let me know.

 

[Arakhor]

Personally, I'd stick the good, the bad and the neutral behind spoilers. They're not particularly spoilery, but you never know.

 

[warpus]

Personally, I'd stick the good, the bad and the neutral behind spoilers. They're not particularly spoilery, but you never know.

Yeah, good idea.

Spoiler :

Another thing I didn't really like is how they left Zora out to dry for who knows how long with a "uhh we can't tell you" reason. That was kind of lame.

 

[Synobun]

Yeah, good idea.

Spoiler :

Another thing I didn't really like is how they left Zora out to dry for who knows how long with a "uhh we can't tell you" reason. That was kind of lame.

The reason was in one of the Short Treks years ago. It's fairly egregiously anti-Trek in its moral message.

Spoiler :

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarTrekDiscovery/comments/1d4mn98/i_hated_the_end_of_discovery_zora_got_done_so/

 

[warpus]

The reason was in one of the Short Treks years ago. It's fairly egregiously anti-Trek in its moral message.

Spoiler :

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarTrekDiscovery/comments/1d4mn98/i_hated_the_end_of_discovery_zora_got_done_so/

I've read through several threads discussing this, or I guess skimmed through them. I didn't see the actual reason? Other than this

Spoiler :

Just cause the Calypso short Trek ep. had her in the future

which is a lame explanation that doesn't explain anything. But maybe I'm missing something

 

[Synobun]

I've read through several threads discussing this, or I guess skimmed through them. I didn't see the actual reason? Other than this

Spoiler :

Just cause the Calypso short Trek ep. had her in the future

which is a lame explanation that doesn't explain anything. But maybe I'm missing something

In a Short Trek years ago, during the AI/Control plotline, they had it so that Zora was alone for a thousand years with the pre-retrofit design.

Calypso (episode)

A Human soldier wakes up aboard the Discovery centuries after the ship has been abandoned, and develops a close relationship with the AI interface that saved him. Alone in a V'draysh escape pod, a man known as Craft spends his time watching Betty Boop cartoons as he drifts. He loses...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

If you read that and go, "That's stupid," you'd be absolutely right. It's a pointless attempt at forcing continuity.

 

[warpus]

In a Short Trek years ago, during the AI/Control plotline, they had it so that Zora was alone for a thousand years with the pre-retrofit design.

Calypso (episode)

A Human soldier wakes up aboard the Discovery centuries after the ship has been abandoned, and develops a close relationship with the AI interface that saved him. Alone in a V'draysh escape pod, a man known as Craft spends his time watching Betty Boop cartoons as he drifts. He loses...

memory-alpha.fandom.com

If you read that and go, "That's stupid," you'd be absolutely right. It's a pointless attempt at forcing continuity.

Yeah, but why was it important that she was drifting alone for a thousand years? That's what I mean, that part wasn't explained. They just said: "We can't tell you, but it has to happen". That was stupid, yeah. They should have not even went there. I don't get why they were so obsessed to connecting the end of the final episode with that short inconsequential short trek ep.