Star Trek: Discovery (possible spoilers)

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"The Picard Show" has begun production
https://trekmovie.com/2019/04/22/star-trek-picard-show-begins-production/

Don't read the below until you've finished S2 of ST:D, unless you want to be spoiled.
https://trekmovie.com/2019/04/19/alex-kurtzman-confirms-star-trek-discovery-season-3-destination-hears-fans-on-pike-series/
 
Eh, watching so much STD spoiled me, if anything. ;) I did like Captain Pike, though, even if he is somewhat disturbingly like a combination of Mitt Romney and John Kasich. It figures that Pike & Crew are...on hold.

My thoughts on the series: I don't feel up to typing out a whole review as I intended, but here are a few snippets...

THE GOOD:

* It's nice to see a Trek series finally get the special effects it deserves (along with a few sets that it doesn't) and a budget that makes it look non-cheesy.

* The casting, while a bit uneven IMO, is generally good. Anthony Rapp often does a better Alan Tudyk than Tudyk does. Jason Isaacs was disturbing, but apparently that was the idea. If you liked Captain Lorca, you'll love the character he plays in The OA. Michelle Yeoh gives you two characters to rate: if you like one you'll probably dislike the other, and vice versa. And Doug Jones is truly Great as Mr. Saru - with the caveat to come.


* The Discovery itself is a sort of love it / hate it kind of ship: I can see how they made a modest effort to make it look Retro, and it at least isn't Cheesy or Claustrophobic.


THE BAD:

The Abrams/Kurtzman/Goldsman/etc crew were entertaining to me back when I was watching Fringe, especially in the last couple of seasons, and Super 8 is a great movie, but I really don't entirely love what they've done to the ST universe. (The first cringe-inducing thing they did was use an actual distillery, complete with transparent water-filled pipes, as the set for the Enterprise Engineering deck. I'm still convinced that they did it to pocket some set building cash. This atrocity was exceeded by portraying the interior of the Discovery as a hollow shell filled with elevators, roller coaster tracks, and pipes.) I also don't like the way they take a few grade school scientific facts and factoids, and try to substitute them for actually having some knowledge of physics, biology, or engineering. The results for me are almost always Grating - especially when they get grade school science wrong, as if mis-remembering it from an old standardized test or two they took 20 years ago. Like, you know, about the three dimensions of space, or how the First Law of thermodynamics means that bodies can't be destroyed. I particularly love how the characters, who are supposedly experts in their fields, have out-loud conversations about these things at times of crisis...very, very reassuring.

THE BAD CHARACTERS:

I liked Michael Burnham for a few episodes - until it became clear that for whatever reason - personal acting philosophy, bad direction, bad drugs - Sonequa Martin-Green not only wasn't going to dial her intensity down below "10", she wasn't going to dial it down to 10. As if that wasn't bad enough, she started crying at the drop of a hat. Way to go, guys! It seems that even hundreds of years in the future, women are still destined to portray sobbing, irrational hormone bombs. Speaking of sobbing: why is it a good idea, or even one that makes sense, to have a girl raised as a Vulcan turn out this way? Then there is Sylvia Tilley, a living cartoon who is always called by her last name, apparently because it sounds Ditzy-er. I don't think I've seen Mary Wiseman in anything else, so I'll just really hope that she isn't playing herself. How worrisome that babbling, insecure Woman-children are going to be the Engineers of the future.

THE GOOD CHARACTERS:

Anson Mount/ Captain Pike, as I already noted, and Rebecca Romijn/ Number One, who I really hope will be given a name when/if she returns. Wilson Cruz, who has managed to age just 20 years in almost 30, can be a little too Fey at times, but hey - at least he isn't McCoy! And really, most of the other cast.

WORST MOMENTS:

* Anything involving the "Spore Drive."

* Wiseman doing a hair toss instead of just pretending to be knocked around.

* Burnham and her mom getting together to talk in horrible, loud stage whispers (as if that would deter any decent listening device), and then starting to cry - while still stage whispering. I just had to first, mute them, and then zap ahead, after what seemed like half an hour of it.

* Just about ANYTHING INVOLVING KLINGONS. That includes ersatz Klingons. I guess I was supposed to suspect Ash Tyler from the beginning, but I wasn't expecting the writers to be sniffing glue whenever they wrote anything about what he turned out to be...

* Ruining the great alien costuming of the original ST pilot with GIANT CHEAP PLASTIC HEADS. Seriously, did they buy a truckload of them from the costumers for "Prometheus"? I wish they had at least also bought the makeup that was used to make them look like actual, living heads...

* Saru discovering that he's a predator, not a prey animal. No one else figuring out (or remembering!) that prey animals always vastly outnumber their predators, not the other way around.

THE BEST MOMENTS:

* The battle during the season finale. It didn't make a lot of sense, of course, but it didn't suck.

* Most of the scenes with Pike. Seriously, I am NOT a Mitt Romney fan. It's just an odd coincidence...

The "MEH" MOMENTS:

Most of the rest of the two seasons. After trying to write their own plot lines in season 1, and doing a less than stellar job, so to speak, the show was virtually rebooted as 'Star Trek: ReDiscovery' as they mined old favorite plots and characters. The re-imagined Harry Mudd episode was actually OK, but the whole Terran Universe knockoff, even though much more detailed and richly depicted than in the past, was IMO less satisfying and interesting than either the TOS version or the Enterprise version.


Ok, that was more than a few snippets. Just be thankful I have arthritis in my hands. ;)
 
Leftie: That was a lot more than a few snippets. :)

I may as well throw this in there about S3, Pike and Number One: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/anson-mount-and-rebecca-romijn-wont-return-to-season-3-of-star-trek-discovery. Regarding the "science", yeah, I remember someone complaining in a forum or at work about the "3rd grade" science when it came to a time crystal.

Regarding Tilly, yeah, I haven't seen her other work so I'm not clear how much of that is her character/what's written for her vs. how she acts. From what I gathered at the convention, the actors in the series (not sure about all or just STD or some of the others) generally had no input as to what lines their character got. This is obviously different than the role Patrick Stewart's gotten for "The Picard Show".

In PE class in middle school, the PE teachers always called us by our last names.

Re: Tyler, LOL re: sniffing glue. Voq/Tyler was a real puzzle. Why the hell did anyone in Starfleet or Section 31 trust him after they found out what he was? Why would they remove "acting" from his title in section 31? He was supposed to have been beheaded by L'Rell yet he was on board that cleave ship.

Michelle Yeoh's character is great. The fight scenes are great and she adds some comedy and mystery.

Anson Mount/Captain Pike were pretty good. Doug Jones as Saru was pretty good. I also liked Lorca and how we found out why he was a bit off. I still wonder if we'll see "good" universe Lorca. As I posted at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=533674#p533674, the actor found a way of blowing off my question. :shock:

Hopefully you watched the Short Treks. There were 4 of them.

I also read https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/star-trek-discovery/280608/star-trek-discovery-season-2-episode-14-easter-eggs-references the other night. I wonder how much was intentional vs. coincidental. Obviously, the green blood was to stick to canon. The pattern at Spock's station was intentional.

Will write more later.
 
Not yet on the Short Treks. Best places to watch them? Are they on CBS All Access? I have that for about 2 more weeks.

Calling people by their last names is indeed common. Generally, though, the last name is preceded by rank. In the case of "Sylvia", though, "Tilly" is treated as a first name. Someone clearly (IMO) decided that "Sylvia" wasn't buffoonish enough.

This brings up something that has annoyed me since the waning years of STNG: characters who are created primarily to appeal to segments of the target audience, who then come to identify with them and are thus Hooked on the show. The first one of which I'm aware (except for Wesley Crusher, I guess) is Reg whatshisname, who started off as a stammering, mediocre engineer, became a god for a bit, and ended up as a great, highly-respected engineer. Or maybe they were just playing it safe, in case he got re-god-ed. This trend was solidified in DS9 (which I have yet to manage to watch all the way through) and by the time Voyager came along, there were even characters who were there primarily as fantasy objects for the target audience demographic (COUGH7of9COUGH). Characters like Tilly, Tyler, and even Hugh were clearly "kicked upstairs" to draw in more diverse groups. Probably Michael Burnham as well, although I'm not sure how many borderline-psychopathic Black women watch STD...
 
LeftieBiker said:
Not yet on the Short Treks. Best places to watch them? Are they on CBS All Access? I have that for about 2 more weeks.
Yes. The titles are "Runaway", "Calypso", "The Brightest Star" and "The Escape Artist". CBS AA had them first run.

Runaway is about the queen (worst, IMHO). Calypso may relate to where (when) Disco went to. The 3rd ep is the best IMHO re: Saru and the Ba'ul but you already know some backstory. Last one is Harry Mudd and has some TOS Mudd references at the end.

Netflix outside the US has them in the trailers and more section but they showed up WAY late and I think out of the blue.

Did you watch any of the After Trek after shows that followed each S1 ep? I enjoyed them then they nixed them for S2. Matt Mira was a good host. I watched every single ep of After Trek.

The replacement was some lame after show on Facebook and available on https://www.youtube.com/user/startrek/videos (The Ready Room). I tried watching may 1 or 1.5 of them and found it to be a big disappointment. Not sure if I'll go back and watch any more of The Ready Room.

Also, not sure if you ever saw this deleted/bonus scene about how Mirror Georgiou got recruited by Leland to Section 31: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGRJ4CvOvhc.
 
Also, BTW, quite a few of the clips found at https://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/video/ are actually available to watch w/no subscription or while signed out (try an incognito/private browser window or a totally different browser app that's not signed into CBS AA) or can be found on https://www.youtube.com/user/startrek/videos or Facebook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEHWts2zVO4 was a neat behind the scenes piece for the end of S1.

As I mentioned, I was at the Vegas convention last year so I was in the room when L'Rell and the Admiral re-enacted their scream. See video near the bottom of https://trekmovie.com/2018/08/05/stlv18-mary-chieffo-talks-season-2-klingon-aesthetic-ken-mitchell-indicates-return-to-star-trek-discovery/.
 
cwerdna said:
LeftieBiker said:
I may as well use AA while I've got it.
I suggest using CBS AA for the stuff that's only on the service while you have it (e.g. Short Trek eps). The rest you can wait until later...

The Short Treks were all gone from CBSAA when I looked. I could see from the search results that others were looking for them as well. I don't know why they pulled them...
 
LeftieBiker said:
cwerdna said:
LeftieBiker said:
I may as well use AA while I've got it.
I suggest using CBS AA for the stuff that's only on the service while you have it (e.g. Short Trek eps). The rest you can wait until later...

The Short Treks were all gone from CBSAA when I looked. I could see from the search results that others were looking for them as well. I don't know why they pulled them...
You sure they got pulled? I don't have a sub now but I see them at https://www.cbs.com/shows/star-trek-discovery/. You may have to click Show More and slog thru the clips. Look for the 15 minute ones. Titles: "Runaway", "Calypso", "The Brightest Star", "The Escape Artist". They're listed as S2 E1 thru S2 E4.

First is the worst and relates to the finale. 2nd kinda relates to the finale. 3rd gives us more of Saru's origin story and is the best IMHO. Last one has Harry Mudd and has tips of the hat relating to him in TOS.
 
My trial expired 2 days ago. I did try to find them through the show page, to no avail. One of these months...

You'll be happy to know that I'm well into Season Two of The Expanse. What do I think so far? They traded scientific accuracy and soap opera boredom (someone seriously misunderstood the term "Space Opera") in S1 for roaring, banging and crashing - and even WHOOSHing, for crying out loud - plus lots of...adventure... in S2. If they don't kill Miller shortly I'm out.
 
Per the tweet at https://www.cnet.com/news/star-trek-picard-tv-show-gets-a-sensible-name-and-a-perfect-logo/, the "Picard show" will be called Star Trek: Picard. There's a single screen capture there, as well.

The tweet says
#StarTrek: Picard will stream exclusively on @CBSAllAccess in the United States, on Amazon #PrimeVideo in more than 200 countries and territories and in Canada on Bell Media’s @SpaceChannel and OTT service @CraveCanada. @StarTrekCBS @primevideouk http://bit.ly/STPicardTitle
...
2:30 PM - May 15, 2019
LeftieBiker said:
You'll be happy to know that I'm well into Season Two of The Expanse. What do I think so far? They traded scientific accuracy and soap opera boredom (someone seriously misunderstood the term "Space Opera") in S1 for roaring, banging and crashing - and even WHOOSHing, for crying out loud - plus lots of...adventure... in S2. If they don't kill Miller shortly I'm out.
I don't want to say too much about Miller. Hope you make it to S3:E5 "Triple Point". There's one part of that ep that I've watched multiple times.

In some eps, Bobbie Draper really kicks butt.

Totally OT: On a totally different genre, I started watching The Handmaid's Tale a few months ago since I'd heard so much about it. I may as well take advantage of my promo 99 cent/month sub (for 12 months) to Hulu that I think was a Black Friday deal. Hulu's ads are real annoying. Anyway. I finished S2 (latest season) last night. Boy.... what a scary dystopia. Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia is the perfect actress for the role. Wow! S3 is coming out June 5th.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Upstate NY isn't worth visiting from the West Coast unless you like slightly to moderately polluted rivers and lakes, very large forests, Woodchucks (the Northern version of the Redneck, also a very fat, very large rodent) and black flies. Canada isn't far from Ticonderoga, so I'd suggest flying to Montreal or Toronto and driving South to the exhibit. Burlington Vermont is also supposed to be nice. It's just a bit too far for me to have ever visited.
Ha.

I ended up booking my trip on Southwest Airlines tonight. They don't fly to BTV. I ended up booking a flight to Albany. I arrive on a late afternoon, plan to go see the sets (Star Trek Tour) the next day then fly back home the day after that. My trip includes earlier stops in Tuscon to go to https://titanmissilemuseum.org/ (was used in Star Trek: First Contact), https://pimaair.org/, plan to get on the tour of the boneyard (https://pimaair.org/visit/boneyard-reservation-request/), and Houston, mainly to visit https://spacecenter.org/visitor-information/.

I've had other priorities (like planning the above) + being very busy w/work so I haven't had time to even start S3 of Handmaid's Tale yet.
 
https://www.facebook.com/CBSAllAccess/videos/635634500261713/ has a trailer for 6 more Short Treks. TOS fans will love some of the scenes.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2454362964794593 is a trailer for the next season of The Expanse. It goes live on Dec 13.
 
There's a new trailer for Disco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46ec8WnBHes

https://www.facebook.com/StarTrekCBS/photos/a.1477676935617457/2705906072794531/?type=3&theater has dates for Short Treks, including one that dropped today. The text there says
The new Star Trek: Short Treks are finally here! Stream Q&A now on CBS All Access. New Short Treks drop the 2nd Thursday of every month until Star Trek: Picard begins.
 
Anyone all caught up on Short Treks?

I recently got an offer to rejoin for a month for free. So, I took advantage to watch the post S2 Short Treks. Unfortunately, I was spoiled about the outcome of the 3rd Short Trek by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Short_Treks#Season_2_(2019). Oops. Don't read the summaries there!

Unfortunately, my free month won't cover short trek ep 10 (post S2, Short Trek 6) that'll be released Jan 9, 2020. It will cover the next two, which drop on Dec 12, 2019.
 
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/ST_Seasons#Season_2 has list of "S2" Short Trek eps w/no spoilers.

https://www.youtube.com/user/thegoodwife/search?query=short+treks has some trailers for the Short Treks.

Fans of Tribbles would probably like "The Trouble with Edward".
 
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