Driverless Starships are still in the works at TeslaLabs.
LOL
My thoughts
- I enjoyed Episode 2 more than Episode 1. More action. Episode 1 had me bored.
- Don’t like the theme tune
- A First Officer would never overpower the Captain just cause they disagree about the best way to proceed. Unless the Captain had been taken over by an alien or something.
- Way too much emotion for a half Vulcan
The best Star Treks were TOS and TNG. I liked the way they would calmly discuss the problem at hand, invite theories as to what was going on and devise an intelligent reasoned response (often based on science). No one is pointing guns at each other without exceptional circumstances (see alien scenario above).
We’ll have to wait and see the new crew but it needs characters who can calmly rationalise and I didn’t see any of them in the prologue episodes. In TOS and TNG we had Spock, Data, Picard, Kirk, Geordie and others to a lesser degree.
Micheal is human, just raised on Vulcan.
OK well there were humans raised on Earth in TOS and TNG that were less emotional than her. So if we can’t rely on her to be one of the rational thinkers onboard then we’re going to need others
Oh, jeez, THIS. And he didn’t even try to hide his simulation-hacking. It conked out for a moment and everyone could see that something was hinky.
He even took a bite out of an apple—a prime example of the Asshole Apple trope. I can handle suspension of disbelief, but seriously, the next scene should have been Kirk being expelled.
The script of that film was such generic-action-movie dross that I got the feeling Abrams had used a discarded Mission Impossible script. “Just change the names, make the foreign locales into alien planets, and we’re good to go.”
Do we know for sure that Michael’s mentor is Spock’s father, or even that his name is Sarek (and not something that sounds like it)?
This may have been mentioned in the first episode, but I missed it if it was.
It definitely sounded like “Sarek” to me, but beyond that: no, I guess they didn’t spell it out or anything.
I thought it might be “Serek” or “Serak,” but watching the second episode last night I noticed he was addressed as “Ambassador.” So his being Spock’s father is heavily implied, if not stated outright.
I would definitely like this series more if weren’t so much like the Abrams movies. I saw the first one (for free, fortunately), and have NO desire to see the others.
As for the Klingons: Roddenberry et al. intended to reveal in the stillborn ***Phase II ***series that “Klingon” actually referred to a warrior class, not a species, and that the Empire naturally comprised many different peoples made up of different races, which would have explained the inconsistencies in make-up. So the stupid story of some experimental disease causing mutations (a la “Miri”) that they “don’t discuss with outsiders” was completely unnecessary.
After watching the pilot, I re-watched the “Balance of Terror”
Obviously the effects are better in STD but the BOT has the more riveting story,
There is significantly less dialog in BOT but everything that is said adds to the story and moves it along fairly well. "The action is a little easier to follow than STD (where there is way too much going on to follow in the action scenes
There are also more subtle nuances and non verbal actions in BOT that are only really noticed on a second viewing. Example, when the Bird of Prey fires on the Enterprise and is trying to escape their energy weapon.
Compare that to STD and even though the ship is surrounded and outgunned, it just doesn’t feel like the same imminent threat.
It does appear that STD is being written by the fanboys, but (so far) they have deviated from the Roddenberry principles.
The perfect example of that was mentioned earlier in this thread with the “Errand of Mercy” where it appears the Feds and the Klingons are going to fight it out only to get a peace treaty forced on them. In STD, they jump fairly quickly to this all out battle.
It is also obvious that STD is being written by a committee as opposed to a single writer. The difference is that a single writer can explore ideas not easily done in a committee. (ie Doomsday machine or the one with Joan Collins/Edith Keeler)
Although Gene Roddenberry’s son is involved, he was not around for TOS and he doesn’t has his father’s views.
I can also see why Brian Fuller left this show as he probably did not agree with the direction they were taking.
The expense and middling quality of opticals back in the '60s was a blessing in disguise. It forced the showrunners to focus on stories and characterization, rather than going overboard on special effects. CGI has more often than not ruined whatever it was used in.
I rewatched the first two episodes and found I enjoyed them more. I paid better attention and caught details that I had missed the first time (like how the civilization they saved at the beginning of Episode one was only suffering because of a Federation screw up).
I still think it’s a little weird they spent two episodes to provide back story for Michael and today we are getting the “real” pilot but I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Side Note: if you’re curious about the timeline in relation to TOS. This story takes place two years after the events of “The Cage” (the original TOS Pilot).
My working theory is that Burnham is not entirely rational when it comes to Klingons.
Her parents died in a Klingon raid. There is a flashback scene that makes it look like she had some kind of PTSD seizure while in Vulcan school, and Sarek tried to mind-meld with her to bring her out of it. IMO, shadows of this trauma still lurk in her subconscious.
In STD episode 1, Burham’s personal log gives a date of May 11, 2256.
According to Memory Alpha, (TOS) J. T. Kirk joined the academy in 2252.
The Cage is the first pilot with Christopher Pike as Captain. It is supposed to have happened several years before TOS. Pieces of The Cage were reused as the flashbacks in the two part TOS episode The Menagerie.
I am aware of that, thank you.
Anybody irked at all that Number One apparently traveled 2000 kilometers in about 90 seconds in the pilot? Some powerful thrusters in this space suit, for sure… 
Is this going to be a season thread or what?
I liked the third ep. Star Trek universe, but totally different story and feel. I like.
No there is a new thread for Episode three here.