Ten years before Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, the USS Discovery discovers new worlds and lifeforms as one Starfleet officer learns to understand all things alien. My first reaction to Discovery was frustration. Hollywood today seems to need to create a new piece to a puzzle that is already complete and doesn't truly add anything to the puzzle. Rogue One is a perfect example, as is Star Trek: Discovery. <br/><br/>Discovery is generally well written and well acted. Sonequa Martin-Green is excellent as Burnham and shows nuanced emotions better than most actors or actresses would in the role. Anthony Rapp shows range and development in his character better than most previous Star Trek actors. Doug Jones is astoundingly good as Saru, running through emotional gambits in a rubber mask better than any previous Star Trek alien, even those like the Bajorans or Trill (who literally have a wrinkled nose or spots painted on). The plot of the series moves more-or-less logically from episode to episode, and even the "one-off's" like the Harry Mudd episode serve the purpose of the greater story arc. In fact, the Mudd episode stands out to me as an episode that would have been one of the essential "must see's" of any previous series, especially TOS. <br/><br/>The problem is that it didn't need to be Harry Mudd, because there are plenty of other dastardly scoundrels in the universe. Burnham doesn't need to be raised as Spock's adopted sister. Spock has a half-brother that no one gives a damn about already, and it doesn't add anything to Spock or his family to have an emotional attachment that has never been mentioned before. A "spore drive" is an amazing concept that deserves to be explored, but it's certainly more advanced than a "warp" or even a "transwarp" drive and deserves to be set in the future, after a wayward crew of mostly humans gets lost on the other side of the galaxy and could probably have used it to get back (thereby negating the entire need for Star Trek: Voyager). There are no uneven performances by those three actors mentioned above, but the rest of the cast has many uneven moments, or worse yet, nothing to do except say "aye sir". Can anyone explain the point of Airaim to me other than to look like a robot? Airaim literally spoke all of 6 lines in 15 episodes. Shame on the writers for not giving those actors more to do than give the military equivalent of "ok, sure". Perhaps most egregiously, even though I initially found it thrilling, the last thing this series needed was for The Big E to show up at the end. It's a Star Trek crutch that didn't need to be there.<br/><br/>I wish for so many reasons that they had set this series after the Next Generation era of films. I want to see the future, not a rehash of the past. Much of the fan objections to this series would have been completely undercut. It would give writers and producers freedom to explore new concepts, worlds, species, etc. Instead, we're back to the Klingon's, who've literally fought the Federation in every incarnation of Trek there's been.<br/><br/>Discovery deserved to have the chance to stand on it's own, apart from all of the other series. It shouldn't be a fan service show, which in some ways it became towards the later half of season one. For instance, outside of the Enterprise randomly showing up at the end of the season finale, Clint Howard was great as an Orion doing volcanic space cocaine, but it bordered on "too cute" with too much of a wink/nod to fans.<br/><br/>I don't object to the fact that a female character was given a male name, or that there is a person of color being the star (DS9 was possibly the best of the Trek series), or of a woman captain (Janeway was great in VOY). I don't object to the anti-Roddenberry feel of the series, because have you gone back and watched the show when he was in charge with a fresh set of eyes? It was nothing but tacky, party store style aliens who contributed nothing to what everyone says Star Trek is supposed to be about, humanity. Also, it seems like Roddenberry was no saint of a man and would have been swept up in the politics of 2018 more so than most creative types.<br/><br/>Personally, I object to the need for a TOS era series when we already have TOS, TAS (if you want to count it), the TOS movies, and the Kelvin-reboots set in the same time frame. Rogue One was entirely unnecessary. It was made to fill in a plot hole that, quite frankly, I wasn't aware existed. The same can be said of Discovery. It does not add anything to the era. In fact, it only makes things murky when it was already opaque and obtuse to begin with. <br/><br/>I will continue to watch, because there are some genuinely great moments to the series. It's my hope that the writers feel like they can and ultimately will break free of the crutches of Star Trek and create their own version that can stand on its own. I wanted to like "Star Trek" Discovery. I watched every episode, and tried to find good things about it. But after every episode, I was left with the feeling that whatever it was I saw, it wasn't Star Trek. So, while I think the actors are great, the visual style is smooth and the storyline is interesting in itself, rated as a Star Trek series, I'm saddened to say that it's a complete fail in my opinion. <br/><br/>I'll rather watch DS9 (the best ST series so far) yet another time than waste more time on a "Star Trek" series that ruins everything that was great with Star Trek, shits on established canon and introduce a lot of unneccesary changes just for changes sake.
Frorem replied
346 weeks ago