All Things Star Trek

[Ordnael]

I am about to finish Picard season 3 and I just feel like Gordon Ramsay memefied phrase: "Finally some freaking good food!"
It's not perfect but after wasting my time watching sob trek season 2, season 3 feels perfect.
My wife noticed the Amazon logo before the other soapy seasons and CBS before this one, and I ask myself if that warrants the change in the direction, from watery soup to a thick delicious gravy.
I agree I was missing the carpets on the D too, that humongous bridge that felt more like stage then the helm of a starship. And what plays I watched going on that stage!
I now place season 1 above 2 and consider them both irrelevant to the wonder of 3, sure there would be some little plotholes without viewing them first but I would say they are not worth your time.

 

[Clubber Lang]

In season three, when we reconnect with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, still under the command of Captain Pike, they face the conclusion of season two’s harrowing encounter with the Gorn. But new life and civilizations await, including a villain that will test our characters’ grit and resolve. An exciting twist on classic Star Trek, season three takes characters both new and beloved to new heights, and dives into thrilling adventures of faith, duty, romance, comedy and mystery, with varying genres never before seen on any other Star Trek.Season 3 will premiere with two episodes on Thursday, July 17, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. The series will also stream on Paramount+ in international markets where the service is available. Following the premiere, new episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays, with the season finale on Thursday, September 11.

Season III players -

 

[Snowygerry]

So I accidentally watched all episodes of Start Trek Strange New Worlds - it started out as redo of the original series - standalone episodes, storylines very close to the original, where they encounter some strange phenomenon that is resolved in an hour or so,

but then 2 episodes stood out - The One where they are all cartoon characters and The One where they are all start singing, and the whole thing turns into a musical.

I kind of liked it, although it obviously breaks the supsension of disbelief. How do the experts here feel about that one ?

 

[Arakhor]

The cartoon one was a crossover with Lower Decks, in the grand tradition of DS9's Trials & Tribble-ations. I thought that the musical one was a little bit silly, but very much in the same vein as the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it's certainly not a bad episode.

What do you mean you accidentally watched every episode? Did you not intend to for some reason?

 

[Snowygerry]

Well I certainly did not intend to watch them all, I got drawn in so to say, a local commercial network ran them 3 at a time on Monday evenings, and it just so happened I had some time to spend,

reading the post above mine I only watched season 2 (?) apparently...

 

[Ordnael]

So I finished Discovery season 1 and I ended enjoying it a lot...way more than I expected. The drama is there but it's sprinkled accurately over the season and it's justified and not just feels for feels like soap opera Picard.
Burnham is truly captivating, interesting and the perfect character for a ST fan to fantasize about how he could exist in this universe.
Tilly is endearing. Saru grows from an alien of the week flavour to a pivot character. Stammets is madscientist fun. Sarek feels true to the original and that's great, like grounding the show to it's Star Trek origins. Lorca kept me guessing about his agenda the whole season. Terran Giorgiou was just as perverse and beautifully twisted as mirror Nerys and as such I love her.
Sure the Klingons are nonsense and that sure booted Discovery out the Prime Universe but they are interesting if you look at them from a what if prism. And that what if prism kinda permeates the whole show and it works for me. I just watched the 2nd season premiere and I am excited.

 

[Blake00]

Oh wow.. you actually liked the first season of Discovery of Infinite Melodrama. I remember liking the Sarek stuff, Lorca, and Saru... but god the rest of the characters & story annoyed me lol.

Season 2 of is probably the only season of that show I actually really enjoyed due to all the Pike/Spock/Enterprise stuff. Guess others felt the same hence why they got their own spinoff show heh.
.

 

[Arakhor]

They did the Mirror Universe arc way too early in my opinion - people who act out of character are much more noticeable if you're intimately familiar with how they act in character.

Michelle Yeoh is always a win, though.

 

[Ordnael]

They did the Mirror Universe arc way too early in my opinion - people who act out of character are much more noticeable if you're intimately familiar with how they act in character.

Michelle Yeoh is always a win, though.

I thought so too but I felt the way the season is written the mirror universe is fundamental to unravel the whole arc and not just some optional side quests. I liked it.
Michelle Yeoh is indeed a Big win.

 

[Patine]

They did the Mirror Universe arc way too early in my opinion - people who act out of character are much more noticeable if you're intimately familiar with how they act in character.

Michelle Yeoh is always a win, though.

I thought so too but I felt the way the season is written the mirror universe is fundamental to unravel the whole arc and not just some optional side quests. I liked it.
Michelle Yeoh is indeed a Big win.

Personally, I've always thought the Dark Mirror Universe, as a Star Trek lore aspect, was always laid on too thick.

 

[Ordnael]

Personally, I've always thought the Dark Mirror Universe, as a Star Trek lore aspect, was always laid on too thick.

You opinion is noted but I disagree with it
DS9's best contribution for the lore are, IMHO, the mirror universe episodes. They did them so well!

 

[Blake00]

I love old Trek mirror universe (as you say the DS9 eps were great and the 2 parter was probably my favourite episodes of Enterprise) but am not a fan of new Trek's one (feels over the top and trying too hard).

 

[Ordnael]

I like it over the top Star Trek when well done, "hey Spock let's go slingshot over the sun to bring back some whales from old earth" (as I mentioned before that's my favourite ST movie)!
Otoh the new Kirk movies sometimes go way over the top for me, the 3rd movie is too much, still enjoyable but as much as I like they blasted Sabotage to destroy enemy drones that is just plain silly!
...anything but kid Picard going through a dark cellar calling for maman and then repeating the same theme for almost the entirety of season 2... that's was not only way too much drama, but also exasperating

 

[Ordnael]

Just finished Discotek Season 2.
Still enjoying, not as good as 1st season overall. Pike is great; this Spock is, somewhat believable, I liked him...but the main story just kindda degrades for me towards the end.
Now, I know Disco really isn't near TOS levels of silliness (I remind myself always of Apolo's hand gripping the Enterprise in orbit) or Kirk's amusing shenanigans (short circuiting AI through paradoxes) but I find those endearing looking back at when these were made and what audiences generally expected about the complexity and sense of a plot.
The drama does increase by a factor of two compared to season 1 but it's still within tolerable levels although I do shake my head from time to time at the necessity of not the drama itself but the longer scenes to it.
Also big middle finger to the guy that came up with the roll camera movement (had to look it up)...they really go nuts with it, like almost minute long shots...my head was spinning and hurting

 

[Buster's Uncle]

You raise something important there, IRT a proper contextual view of original Star Trek and its quality compared to everything that went before - and indeed, its contemporary, Lost in Space. Earlier TV SF efforts like Captain Video and the Flash Gordon tv series were like 3 gibberish paragraphs of fanfic posted online to Star Trek's epically good production of Hamlet -or fill in whatever classic high-quality story you like- and Lost in Space was about the worst example of sucked-after-the-first-season ever, not that the first season was good. LiS was a lot more lavishly/expensively produced than the earlier shows I mention, and anything else I can think of, and was also an exemplar of nobody involved even trying to make something good, save the three principal actors, the boy, the cranky doctor and the robot - who, ironically, map exactly to be parallels of Kirk, McCoy and Spock.

-That was TV SF before Star Trek for you; nobody -save early Dr. Who in England- even trying to Do Good Work. Cheesy special effects? Baloney; that's a lack of knowledge of the time and place talking, everyone -and it is nearly everyone- who says it. Star Trek featured ground-breaking, state-of-the-art TV special effects, as a matter of fact. NBC treated the show as a loss-leader to help sell color TVs, and as much as Bob Justman and others involved complain about budgetary limitations, considerable money was indeed thrown at the problem.

I should talk about the writing, but I've already run long on a busy morning for me.

I hope, anyway, everyone will agree with -or at least take my word for it- my assertion that Star Trek still lives and is talked about all these decades later because of what a monolithic quantum leap forward it was as a THE pioneer in quality TV SF.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

-Yes; I left out The Twilight Zone, for at least the quality of the writing and the bothering to try.

STILL...

 

[Ordnael]

You raise something important there, IRT a proper contextual view of original Star Trek and its quality compared to everything that went before - and indeed, its contemporary, Lost in Space. Earlier TV SF efforts like Captain Video and the Flash Gordon tv series were like 3 gibberish paragraphs of fanfic posted online to Star Trek's epically good production of Hamlet -or fill in whatever classic high-quality story you like- and Lost in Space was about the worst example of sucked-after-the-first-season ever, not that the first season was good. LiS was a lot more lavishly/expensively produced than the earlier shows I mention, and anything else I can think of, and was also an exemplar of nobody involved even trying to make something good, save the three principal actors, the boy, the cranky doctor and the robot - who, ironically, map exactly to be parallels of Kirk, McCoy and Spock.

-That was TV SF before Star Trek for you; nobody -save early Dr. Who in England- even trying to Do Good Work. Cheesy special effects? Baloney; that's a lack of knowledge of the time and place talking, everyone -and it is nearly everyone- who says it. Star Trek featured ground-breaking, state-of-the-art TV special effects, as a matter of fact. NBC treated the show as a loss-leader to help sell color TVs, and as much as Bob Justman and others involved complain about budgetary limitations, considerable money was indeed thrown at the problem.

I should talk about the writing, but I've already run long on a busy morning for me.

I hope, anyway, everyone will agree with -or at least take my word for it- my assertion that Star Trek still lives and is talked about all these decades later because of what a monolithic quantum leap forward it was as a THE pioneer in quality TV SF.

Great insight
Had to look up what Lost in Space is...thank you Wikipedia

Lost in Space - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The cast photo tells I shouldn’t invest time in it.
But yeah money does not define quality, and from your observation Star Trek got some money, but maybe still not enough and so the writing and more importantly the acting shines through. Kirk, McCoy and Spock have a great dynamic even when Mcoy is being unfair assessing about Spock's "flaws" there's still a good dialogue going in! I do notice when episodes have a happy laugh, cheesy family romcon ending, and I don't like it, although I smile anyway and I understand there was some pressure for this stuff and still these horrible cinematic events don't take away from the polish of 60's Star Trek. As I write these lines I am suddenly reminded of The Ultimate Computer episode https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer_(episode)
And let's not forget the almost perfection of Star Trek TAS specially if you look at it from the context of that time!
I like to compare my "perception" of Star Trek TOS under budget to another great sci-fi show: Space 1999.

Space: 1999 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Here in Portugal Space 1999 had way more viewers than Star Trek, it came at the right time for audiences here at the second half of the 70's and we were fresh out of dictatorship and TV sets were starting to get around. I can literally see the money spend on sets and props and although the acting is good on the other hand the stories are, overall, abysmal compared to TOS. But boy even a moonstation alpha private quarters looks better then the Enterprise's engineering!
We can further discuss Space 1999 if anyone's interested. I like it and I recommend it

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Oooh - lets. I talked about Space 1999 a few years ago -probably in this thread, maybe another pop-culture SF-ish topic in this folder- at CFC, but didn't get any nibbles. I would actually want to quote extensively from where I covered it pretty well at AC2 a long time ago. Maybe it derails enough to require its own thread - but I doubt there's enough to say about two dicey season for it to go on forever - and frankly, it's for all the same people who like versions of Star Trek, only just the ones old enough to remember. -Arakhor?

 

[Ordnael]

Just a warning, whereas I watched Star Trek, TOS and TAS plus first 6 movies and TNG twice
I only watched Space 1999 once, although not more than 3 years ago. So I might not be able to keep up with all conversation topics

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I haven't seen the second season of 1999 since it aired in the US in about 1975 - the (crappy) first season only about 13 years ago. I'm the one who couldn't keep up with specifics, though I have plenty to say about the premise, all the ways it's impossible, and how much sense it made when I realized the producers were the Thunderbirds Are Go! people. -All the time spent on those loving model shots of the Eagle taking off, flying and landing.

I did love that dumb show as a kid, and I did know it was impossible when I was 11...