Yeah, I haven’t seen the show and am certainly not signing up for Paramount+ for it, but in my totally uninformed opinion the good and bad about this show is that they are trying to recreate the Original Series vibe with better effects and more action. Which is…fine, although the original show only managed to be actually good about 1/3rd of the time, and passable entertainment for another 1/3rd, with the remainder being total schlock like “Spock’s Brain”. Given the production team I’m not very hopeful that they’ll even be able to maintain much less exceed those statistics, but maybe they’ve fallen forward so many times that they’ve learned what not to do, perhaps?
I liked it. Purposefully nostalgic, which is fine by me. I’ve missed episodic Trek, with only Lower Decks (and maybe The Orville) filling that gap since I stopped watching Enterprise years and years ago (because it sucked).
I was relieved not to see 10 minute long interactions about the crew members’ feelings.
I expect a certain amount of character development to take place, but no. No, I most definitely do NOT want to see any hugging or crying going on. And they damned well better respect canon.
I basically agree with that sentiment but I still think it’s very funny to see folks demand that Star Trek characters stop hugging and crying. Hugging and crying serves a very important function and has been effectively deployed in Star Trek many times in the past. It’s when it gets overused and substituted for other forms of character development that it becomes a problem.
My problem with is that you had Pike talking, at length, about his memento mori, and then you had Khan Spice talk, at length, about her survivor’s guilt. The first was fine, and was actually relevant to the plot. The second should have taken place in a future episode. One sob story per ep is enough.
I have no problems with exploring characters’ personal relationships and emotions. That can be an important part of drama.
But Star Trek isn’t Star Wars. It isn’t about fight scenes and spectacular effects and chosen ones. At least it shouldn’t be.
And stories shouldn’t be forced to span an entire 10-hour season if they don’t have the material. And not every season should be about a universe-ending threat.
Mostly I never ever want to see anyone running from explosions.
I think Noonien-Singh’s story was fine. It was a way to build some trust between her and Pike, after showcasing her relationship with Number 1 (while also showing that the writers were thinking through issues of conflict of interest as opposed to a who cares). Pilots generally are a bit packed with stuff just to introduce the characters in a sufficient way.
I will say the most amusing part wasn’t in the episode myself but my Trek fan wife’s loud gasp when Pike said “forget General Order 1” (I am more a casual fan myself). And then it was funny when Pike said Prime Directive will never catch on.
How so? Sam Kirk exists in TOS and La’an doesn’t break any previous convention.
Spock was too busy in Space Seed and Wrath of Khan to make small talk like when I was a young Lt, our security chief was this hot chick who was totally your descendant, small galaxy eh
Yeeeaahhh. They’re playing with the Khan storyline and Jim Kirk’s brother. I’m quite sure they’ll be careful and restrained, because that’s what they do.