Lower Decks is the Trekiest Trek that is Trekking now.
Right, but the claim was TNG wasn’t good. Or more precisely I think it was forgotten.
Oh. It was a Sam Stone observation. Nevermind.
Technically, he said:
Since the last film featuring some of the “Original cast” came out after the last episode of TNG was aired, it’s technically possible he didn’t include TNG in that assessment.
Yeah, I didn’t mean to exclude TNG.
I am actually enjoying the current season. I hate the maudlin performance every single character has and how every single emotional beat this show has ever done has been unearned but the plots this season are much better and more Trek like, I like the optimistic outlook it exhibits and I liked this week’s episode in particular as I am a sucker for Trek politics.
An aside: they had a galactic wide conference and two notable absences were the Klingon Empire and The Dominion. I suspect they left the Klingons out to avoid reminding people of the terrible early seasons and also to avoid showing them look like the terrible early seasons or the right way. As for The Dominion, I suspect they want to keep their current status a mystery so they can use them later.
I have managed to make it through most of Episode 6, which had a promising Star Trek plot; Discovery being stuck in a weird little void is an interesting, very classic ST episode idea. They have, sadly, decided to solve the problem by getting into the ship computer’s emotions. This is not a show that needed more emotion. It remains bizarre that the captain of the vessel is unable to demonstrate the calm confidence you would expect of a person in that position.
The acting in this episode has been really bad, notably Stamets, whose constantly miffed expressions are becoming more extreme, and Robot Prom Date, whose acting in this episode has been absolutely horrific. It’s not clear to me if RPD is just that badly written/directed or if having more to do is exposing the actor’s limitations.
oh - just wait - it gets better!
At least in the Void episode, Burnham stayed behind because it was her duty as Captain, not because she is so special.
yeah- but ‘why’ ? -wasn’t the computer able to navigate it thru and then bring back the crew? If the computer didn’t survive, no one did.
Guessing someone had to sit there and make corrections if needed.
That does make perfect sense. Regrettably what followed was a melodramatic, teary conversation with… a computer. The show had enough of people being teary, self-doubting, and melodramatic. They had to make the computer teary, self-doubting, and melodramatic? I miss Tilly, who at least was funny and played well. Replacing her with a computer’s voice and Robot Prom Date is not going well.
As always, Discovery episodes are eight minutes of story jammed into 48 minutes of screen time.
Discovery is back from hiatus, and they have taken this time to really polish their dialogue-writing skills.:
“A swamp cat could’ve learned the Hortan Hustle since I last saw you.”
“This Devore scanner couldn’t pick out a Betazoid standing all alone in a Nieser cage.”
“But jab a brussel fly, and I’ll scoot some greenbread. Clear?”
“I heard we had Starfleet guests, so I just had to scurry like a spider cow to welcome you.”
“I have missed you like a Cardassian misses cake.”
“It’s true what the Elasians say. Give a man a tor-bak, and you are warm in the desert.”
“I’m a banta tree either way.”
“What in the katterpod and Calaman sherry is going on here?”
“Act like an Armus? Swim the Porathian Ocean with weighted boots.”
“And as the saying goes, to the Souvlo goes the spud.”
“I played a game once at Schaefer Colony. There-there was this guy who bet it all on a new wardrobe, thinking it was his night, only to go home in the emperor’s new clothes on a flush draw.”
(This was not a single conversation—but it should have been.)
Also, they invented not one but two new chemical elements as plot points.
For a fun mental exercise, in my head I switched the Star Wars and Star Trek showrunners.
I got an entire Trek episode shelving the main cast. Captain Lorca returns and dominates the whole ep until Archer showed up at the very end…and I got a Star Wars episode with Boba and Shand crying the whole time over those Gamoran guards.
Wait - they fuckin’ referenced ST: Lower Decks!
Disco is getting too terrible to even hate-watch. I now just skim tbrough episodes, which are around 80% filler.
In the episode you quoted, I’m reasonably sure the weird-ass, tortured similes were intentional. As for the rest of the badness, well, I’m equally sure that’s normal.
In the latest episode, apparently there is an energy barrier around the edge of the galaxy, because reasons, I guess. Maybe it keeps all the stars from drifting away? Also, gamma-ray bursts are especially common out galactic-edge way, because of course, where the stars are thinnest is where the danger would be the greatest.
Not to defend Discovery, but I that that’s been there since TOS.
Since the very first episode, in fact. Well, depending on how you count. After CBS rejected the first pilot and told Roddenberry to try again, he produced “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, which the network accepted. It wound up being the third episode aired, because network’s gonna network. In WNMHGB, the Enterprise encounters an energy barrier at the “edge” of the galaxy, which nearly destroys the Enterprise. And creates telepaths. For reasons.
In Season 2, Episode 21, “By Any Other Name”, the barrier is referenced again. The Enterprise rescues stranded spacefarers from a planet near the galactic “edge”. They turn out to be Kelvans, aliens from the Andromeda galaxy, whose ship was destroyed by the energy barrier when they arrived in our galaxy. They take over the Enterprise, and plan to use it to return to the Andromeda galaxy. They use their advanced technology to enable the Enterprise to cross the Barrier, before being defeated by the power of Humanity Is Infectious.
Accurate - I am only keeping up in case they manage to make it interesting.
Sad part is - its affecting my ability to even get excited about the next Trek works - I have no desire to watch Picard 2 (picard 1 was good until the last fucking episode) and I was really lloking forward to SNW.