I found the beginning extremely disappointing—I don’t really need Star Trek for pew-pew space laser fights against scary-looking bad guys. There’s enough of that to go around. Also, it just wasn’t a well-done action scene, from the weird rack-action of the phaser gun (what’s that supposed to accomplish?) to it running out of power after like four shots and then loudly announcing that fact to everyone present, to the Stormtrooper-like accuracy of the aliens, failing to really hit Beverly from what looked like five meters with a rapid fire gun.
The episode picked up some afterwards, but the plan to just hijack the Titan to get to Beverly’s coordinates seemed hare-brained, and recklessly endangering hundreds of Star Fleet personnel, who Riker and Picard were fully prepared to dump right into a potentially dangerous situation without any idea of what could be going on, without their knowledge. (The worst of which is that this means Shaw actually had a good point and showed the right judgment denying their request.)
I’m also not sure I need another ‘Star Fleet has been compromised and betrayed its core values’ plot—I mean, I get it, trust in institutions isn’t the hip thing to do anymore, power corrupts, and so on, but haven’t we been over this?
Anyway, here’s hoping that they manage to build on the good, and shed some of the bad (speaking of bad, was it me or was the CGI of the Titan’s exterior pretty embarrassing in places?).
Kurtzmanified. It’s what happened to the first two seasons and it’s what I’m concerned may happen here. From when that high ranking woman in season 1 described the “fucking hubris” of Jean-Luc, I knew this wasn’t really Star Trek anymore. Kurtzman is also the exective producer for Discovery. I don’t think he’s done the Star Trek universe many favours.
Deconstructions seem to be all the rage these days. It’s not enough that heroes have flaws, they need to be flawed.
Roddenberry’s vision of a future utopia, with a benevolent government is unrealistic in many ways, as are superhero stories. And just like those, the new wave of “gritty realism” has taken root, replacing ideals with corruption, optimism with grimdark.
Maybe that’s the thing that’s in right now, but I’d rather they create their own intellectual property to examine the darker side of humanity than to ruin an already existing one in their attempts.
Speaking of which, did every. fucking. scene. have to be in a dark room that were lit only with night lights? You’re not establishing mood, you’re just making me say, “Why won’t anybody turn on the fucking lights?”
Oh i know! Another long running TV complaint of mine. I can’t say I’ve ever been on a battleship bridge or NORAD command center…but I have been in a doctors office and court…and those places are generally very well lit. But you wouldn’t know it from Hollywood.
And the Titan bridge! Its not carpeted. Its multi-leveled. How many crusty admirals have broken a hip cause they didn’t see the step down.
I also said while watching, why won’t someone turn on the lights?
They had the lights out in Star Trek Generations because to save money they used the TV sets and those sets looked fine on TV but terrible on the big screen so the dark was meant to keep them out of sight but then they never turned them back on…
Re: Bev vaporizing the bad guys…‘slugged’ individuals can’t be stunned by phasers, and that shotgun didn’t appear to have a ‘hose him down til he passes out’ setting.
Prejudice being alive and well in Starfleet or the Federation isn’t exactly new; just look at how geneticly engineered beings are treated or artificial beings are. Ex-Borgs seem pitied at best, reviled at worse. It took the personal intervention of two very prominent flag officers and the Federation allying with the Borg (or at least a Borg faction) for Seven to even be allowed in Starfleet. Also I don’t see Seven giving Captain Asshole the satisfaction of complaining to Starfleet Personnel.
Speaking of artificial lifeforms, both Lore and Moriarty were artificial life-forms denied their rights. (Albeit much moreso in Lore’s case who was dissassembled,)
When I saw Amanda Plummer commanding a highly lethal ship all I could think of was, “Any of you f*%ing pigs MOVE, and I’ll execute every motherf*%ing last one of you!!!”
So Jack is Jean-Luc’s son, what an unexpected plot twist. I And Beverly both named him after her husband and raised him to speak with the Picard family accent.
I And Beverly both named him after her husband and raised him to speak with the Picard family accent.