Ep:3 Feedback - Strong opening. Much stronger opening. NO FAKE LENS FLARES! My god, it's almost as if the producer(s) read(s) the Guru3D forums! Story has such obviousness. No 'war-room' scenes at Starfleet HQ, which would have made sense to see San Francisco and Admirals grumbling about the Klingon war and the 'discovery' that Klingons have cloaks and it's a problem, requiring a new direction for fighting the war. The new captain in the background, states he has an idea and recruits our main character, but not in some convoluted and unnecessary pre-text. Seriously. Having a recruitment montage showing all of the characters we are going to be spending time with over the course of the show, would have worked much better than what they did. And for what? A big scary dog? It was sooooo distracting to have this strong opening, and then I was watching "Prometheus" from nowhere. And at no point did they say "Screw this! Let's beam out of here". Yet, moments later, the Captain beams down 3 decks of the ship he is on! Why? In every Star Trek episode, they have always had this 'rage-quit-ALT-F4' option built into every dangerous away-mission. When things get tough, they beam the F outta there. And yes, shuttles do have teleporters. Frumpy Ginger-girl... Why? Why was she written and played like a neurotic, frumpy, boring and annoying character? What possible use did it have to the plot? There are many actresses out there they could have picked, why her? What specifically meant she had to be given the part? What was it about her the producers said "She's perfect for the role!" I can't understand why they picked her. It's NOT about whether she can act or not, because I think she can, but why was she written the way she was? Prissy blonde dude... Why? Why was he written and acted like (yet) another prissy, neurotic and irrational/illogical character? Again, what possible use did it have, or does it have; to the plot? The Klingon 'Sssssh'... One of the most offensive things I have ever seen. A Klingon would rather take their own life than not fight at the side of another Klingon. Yet, here is one who has been hiding??? A dishonourable death = Sto'Vo'Kor The Magical Teleporter... Just...no words to describe how dumb this contraption is, and how that none of the Episodes of Star Trek and none of the films ever mentioned this. Ever. Do you remember in Enterprise with the time-travelling Adobe PDF file, that allowed the Captain to look at time-travelling information? This 'Magical Teleporter' is now the new PDF, that will get used in Episodes where there is no other option, and our main character (surrounded by neurotic, prissy, frumpy, cowardly, irrational and illogical characters no less) will exclaim "Why don't we just use the Magical Teleporter to end the episode?". I will also guarantee that every other character will be running around and freaking out when this 'bold' and 'extreme' course of action is suggested. I might even venture that the Captain may say something along the lines of "Well, seeing how you know about it, I guess it's OK to use it...blah blah blah". New Bridge... Meh. Just a lot of noise, no clearly defined positions on the bridge. Every Star Trek bridge has logical positions on the bridge for everyone to see. Pilot sits there, science officer sits there, navigator sits there, first officer sits there. I have no problems with them switching up the layout, but can anyone here tell me who operates the guns and fires probes? Or, who scans the space around them? What about operations, y'know, the key position on the bridge what communicates with the operation of the ship? Lots of faces, no structure. Captains quarters... Felt like a big waste of space, and like I walked into a Covent Garden trendy wine bar, and the Captain was the barman. You could probably get 100 people in there at a push. Don't believe me? Go to Tokyo and get on a train. Cinematography... Top notch. Truly wonderful. We got lots of wide shots, no fake shaky-cam shots, whip-pans, anamorphic shots. Strong stuff and high praise from me. Very high. Some of those shots and scenes would have completely fallen apart or fallen flat on their faces if it wasn't for the Cinematography. Really nice use of colour, warm highlights and subtle rim-lighting. It really is a million light years away from TNG, where everything was super-bright all the time. TNG had an 'even' light everywhere (no shadows in sight) and had flat 50-70mm lens through a super-16mm camera. Money must have been spent on the lighting and cinematography. I mean lots of money. Tonnes. Sets... The nerd in me is happy with the sets. Very sci-fi, although I'm sure are just extrapolations of what we have all been drawing since going to school In general... Identity crisis, probably much like the writing staff. Characters need to have clear and understandable motives, with actions to define those motives. Starfleet appears to recruiting idiots and morons, which doesn't make me 'get on board' with the denizens of those working within it, or for it. It really does come across as a prank someone has made, by doing whatever they can to say that the people who work for The United Federation of Planets are idiots. It is almost as if they are saying the people who like Star Trek are idiots...
You literally answered the point against what you are trying to say there with 'A dishonourable death'. Even for a Klingon committing suicide is a dishonourable death unless there is a reason for it. In some ways it was introducing the Klingon as smarter. The Klingon was still there to kill that thing, it's not very smart to go into battle without tactics. That was a discontinuity of nature in the older series, having cloak you are being stealthy, but you think he should be loud and tell the enemy 'come kill me'? Anyways, as I said before if you appeased literally all Star Trek fans, the series would still fail because there simply wouldn't be enough viewership. They have to appeal to new audiences, and I can assure you some of the lame stuff in the original series would instantly turn off basically every viewer out there. Oh look, this planet has an identical American flag to us, the United States Ship (USS) despite being in a federation of planets, and because they have an identical flag their constitution must be verbatim to ours (not mine, American centric BS) as well, and sure enough it was. FFS, you really thing cheese at that level will go down well in 2017? Especially since there's more to the world than just the US? No doubt I offended two groups of people there. Americans, who often thing they're the centre of the universe, and Star Trek fans, who cannot except that the shows can't be the same and need to reflect the era that it is in. Have you noticed that people are just trying to find faults in it, and not just watch it as a show in it's own right? It has been rumoured the show has been cancelled anyway, and what didn't help was the rumour that there will be another Star Trek replacing it... there won't be. The willingness to take on any other Star Trek will be directly dependant on the success of this show. If this show fails the risk would be considered too great to go beyond the pilot. If it is taken up, they will most likely have much less of a budget to work with.
Read between the lines of what I said about the Klingon. A pointless death is equivalent to a dishonourable death, yet if at the side of another Klingon in battle, it negates the other and makes it honourable. Klingons spend their youth imagining what death will be like, and how they will die and how they would like to be remembered and honoured. Heck, go watch the episode 'Sins of the Father' TNG if you want long monologues on this. Even Piccard knew when to back off and not do 'the long speech' when it came to Worf and Klingon tradition. Piccard even allowed Worf to commit murder of the one who killed the mother of his child...
I think the trouble with most sci-fi TV series is that the producers tend to be too ambitious and their shows end up costing too much to produce, and therefore always end up being cancelled early. Dark matter being a prime example, even though it had decent ratings. After the sci-fi channel cancelled it, it was offered to other networks including Netflix, but they all declined because of the cost of each episode, and the owners/producers weren't willing to compromise, so it's now unfortunately officially dead. I'm looking forward to Star Trek Discovery, I just hope it's doesn't end up getting cancelled early like Star Trek Enterprise.
Good analysis though a slightly on the neurotic side, something you would only get from a true Star Trek fan! Thought I'd chime in on a few of your points. Initially I thought "what the hell is the purpose of this character" but then I thought it might be the "Daniel Jackson of Stargate"-type if you will, slightly geeky, comedic sidekick sort and I gotta confess, at the end of the episode she really started to grow on me. Its one of those characters that will probably see most development in the context of the shows storyline and she'll probably have her own ship by season 4 or 5 ( this being a modern TV show we're probably talking season 2 but you get the idea ) if this ever gets that far and that'll make her an asset for the story I should imagine. Yeah this guy I just wanted to see waltz out of the airlock, his "great moment" was explaining how him and his buddy had some research going on but for the life of me I just couldn't connect with the guy and found him more and more annoying and what makes him even more annoying is the fact that I can't quite put my finger on what it is about him that annoys me. Overall this episode felt a bit like the usual filler to let people catch their breath after an explosive pilot, a lot of shows do this so in that sense I guess it was a bit "by-the-numbers" and followed the usual formula but I still enjoyed it overall. I'm looking forward to episodes 5-7 which is where these sort of shows usually start to flex their muscles and show promise.
Ye, pretty much agree with Looby. The writers need to get it together. This should be the Klingon wars prior to Kirk and could be good if the writing allows good character development. P.S. Damn it Superman, the ginger girl is just acting that way because she has to! Nobody could be that bad in real life...
Do they but? This is pre TOS, I would have to check but did they ever show a transport to a shuttle in TOS, I know that TNG and on wards it was common as for why they didn't just use it. Well they mentioned as they approached the Glen that the location they were trying to get too was shielded ergo no transporting in... assuming that the shuttle even had the capability to do so. It's clearly an arc, in the context of a single episode the way she is... well it's the way she is. Her statement about her becoming a Captain some day is clearly going to be some wink nod to something in the future, assuming the show goes that long, so while she is annoying at the moment who knows in 4 or 5 seasons time she may be someone else totally. Yeah I am not quite on board with this one either. It's another Enterprise in that it seems like a large enough concept that it would somehow have gotten mentioned at some point in one of the other Trek series, you know like how their were 6 ships named Enterprise but everyone in TNG just seemed to forget the NX01. Of course their is a large feeling that this is below the radar type thing so if the tech is an utter failure, which we already know it is, then it's possible that it all got swept under the rug. It has to be used enough to see why it failed and got swept under the rug. Also why does he want to keep the big kitty? That seems kinda weird. Do they? If you knew nothing about a Trek show and were shown a picture could you say where everyone sat and what their role was? I doubt it. The reason we know the locations and positions is because we have had 5 different shows introduce their characters and then show us where they work. That's the difference, previous shows have focused on the characters that work on the bridge, hence we get to know their role and where they work. It's quite clear that Discovery is not about the Bridge crew, that the focus is going to be about a smaller section of the crew and that the bridge and it's crew is going to be nothing more than a secondary location with supporting characters. Not his quarters his ready room and yeah it's different to the others we know.
The tech error will have to occur because we demand/have it now! The holo display interface is cool as crap....AND WE"LL SEE IT IN OUR LIFETIMES : ) P.S. What? Weakness? ...well you better keep away from my krytonite infused body Superman. P.S.S. ROFLOL! I typed sh1t and the board replaced it with crap! And noticing while editing it still shows sh1t! The things we go through to be pc... sorry I said crap! <typed sh1t Still ROFLOL!
Jason Isaacs made Star Trek twice as entertaining, yes, he got a deep voice and is good looking, but also a great actor (one of my favorites) who adds a lot of depth to the story.
Time will tell, but they are chasing a dream, not a reality with the writing so far. Illogical actions and irrationality only prevail in the absence of logic and rationality. Those two points simply strengthen the point that having the show introduced properly by following the 'new recruits' and having the introduction montage is absolutely essential to set the stage. Every Star Trek Show did it, and; every other television show did it to my recollection. Character placements in weekly tv shows, along with character traits and motivations; rarely (if ever) change. Without even thinking about it, you will know where the characters sit in all of the rooms of the teevee shows "Friends", "Frasier", "Cheers", "Big Bang Theory" - you will also know what their motivations are and what character traits they have. All from the very first episode. BBT even has an extended monologue by one of the characters about where they sit, which is also used to explain the type of character they are. Now, that's brilliant writing: explain the traits of character and where they usually sit with one monologue. Back to Trek, I could explain away the theory that we only learn where characters sit and what they do during the course of an entire series, but it is all explained through dialogue and motivated-action in the first episode. As it stands, the bridge is just a mess; full of characters with no place in the running and general operation of the ship. Lest we not forget, the operation of the ship depends on the motivations of the characters, with camera shots and character focus committed to the what the premise of the episode is. Need a science-based bit of insight onto the 'thing' they are looking at? Camera angle on science area of the ship and the science officer, pushing buttons and saying 'hmm' a lot. Need a photon torpedo locked and loaded onto the 'thing'? Camera angle on the weapons/ops officer pushing buttons. It can be setup in one show, just like having your introduction montage. The more I think about it name me one character that genuinely wants to be on board the ship and is excited about flying though interstellar space? Exactly...and if the crew isn't interested, why so we be?
and if the episode or in fact the entire season arc is only about a very small collection of characters that happen to work on that ship what does it matter who or where the people on the bridge sit? It only matters when that characters story arc for the episode requires them to be in that location that's why Geordie Le Forge would jump from engineering to the bridge, episode to episode. It's not because his actual job required him to be in that location at that time but because the story required footage of him either running around near the warp core trying to seal a breach or so that he could relay some engineering info to the bridge crew without requiring a cut away. The reality is that all the previous Trek shows have had a primary focus on what we would consider to be the Alpha Bridge Rotation with the minions of the ship being pulled out for story driving purposes. At the moment this Trek show looks like the bridge is just another location on the ship and we will instead be following the story of one person as they interact with other members of the ship in different parts of the ship. I also did some digging around on the shuttlecraft transporter thing. Turns out the shuttles that the Enterprise D in TNG were not meant to be fitted with transporters as standard but could have small arrays retro fitted if needed. (Type 6 shuttles) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Type_6_shuttlecraft Safe to assume that if it's not standard equipment on the shuttles of the flag ship in 2366 then having them fitted to shuttles at all 100 years before this was even less likely. Of course Discovery could turn round and f*ck all that up.
Oh, you can't be serious about that! IF, hypothetically, you have a teevee show that centres around one character, it places even greater stress to my point. The reason for this is simple: if we do not know who the other characters are, what their traits are, what their job/role is, what motivates them; then their existence and episode-by-episode life is not of interest to us and we will NOT care about them. As much as I despise arguing by analogy, here's a sciency one for you: IF you have a central character and not an ensemble cast, they are the Sun at the center of a galaxy, and the surrounding characters are the planets, moons and asteroid fields that/which gravitate towards the central character. Your suggestion (apologies if I got the wrong impression) is that each character should be a rogue meteor in some elliptical orbit that drops by once in a while to remind the Sun that it has a gravitational field. No planets. No asteroid fields. No moons. Just a big fat Sun and no other permanent bodies in fixed orbits/positions. From a story perspective, that would suck - and you might as well film it on stage and have the main character spout a bunch monologues, which is pretty much what I can see on screen right. Lots of speeches saying nothing by people we don't know, don't care about, who don't want to be there, flying through interstellar space in a spaceship, moaning about how life sucks....seriously. Not even DS9 was this downbeat and "Woe is me now!". No adventure. No life in any of these lifeless characters. It's a shame, because they can all act - the lead actress was really good in "Once upon a time" as a duplicitous bad girl (a guilty pleasure of mine, that show ) yet they are all just acting really badly written dialogue. Nice pay-check for them, though. Those residuals never run out!
just finished episode 4, still liking the show but a few bits stood out for me as sloppy. [Spoilers ahead] Spoiler 1. Space slug basically dictating where the ship goes ? The whole spore drive thing was feeling a bit crazy but the slug tipped it over for me a bit but I'll play along for now. 2. Saving the mining colony by dumping a few warheads or whatever on the Klingon ships when they got conveniantly close enough and then getting the hell out of dodge without even checking the results ? Which fleet commander acts like that ? Not to mention letting the Klingons nuke the Discovery almost to a point of a probable hull breach ? All this after some dialogue about the Discovery essentially being the fleets greatest potential asset once they got their spore drive up and running only to then go and get the paint job of the ship basically scratched just to show off ? 3. Main characters pouting is starting to grow old and I hope to see some emotions in the next few episodes. 4. Klingon's also aren't really doing it for me but the Klingon arc ended on an intriguing note so will roll with it for now.
Basically the spore drive has turned into the same plot device as the Voyager two parter Equinox..........and i don't think since Enterprise have i ever seen a crew of characters that are so unlikable, hell even Enterprise god awful tactical, science and engineer were not this unlikable. Lol
The focus isn't the crew in general currently, that may change. I think it's deliberate that they're not likeable so far to set the atmosphere. Remember none of them like Michael currently, so they are not going to be likeable around her. I think over time once they warm to her that will change.
I don't know, even when she is not about they come across as major a holes, and that tall alien is getting on my nerves. lol
Frumpy ginger girl was at first quite annoying, but I'm warming up to her since she seemed to be warming up to Michael. I also like that Captain Lorca seemed to be overtly duplicitous, I kinda had it with Star Trek TNG, DS9, and the like, portraying Starfleet captains as noble and principled people without a dishonest bone in their bodies. I find it refreshing to have a Starfleet captain who's......ambivalent.
Unlike the other Starfleet Captains, Lorca is in a war against the Klingons which the Federation cannot afford to lose. We have seen unprincipled Starfleet Captains in the different shows, they are just not the main characters, for example the Captain of the Equinox that XP200 mentioned as a ST Voyager spore drive comparison episode.
