Star Trek new series (2017 CBS online) update

[Athos]

Glad to see that my thoughts on Discovery are similar to many on the forums. 

I just saw episode 4 of The Orville; there were several points that I was simply laughing out loud, something that doesn't happen all that often.  I would argue that The Orville is more Star Trek than Discovery.  Are any of you watching Orville?

[Crist]

Hi, guys, long time.

Anyways, yeah Athos, I watching both too.  With Orville, I got a cheesy 90's style trek vibe, especially with the warp out.  Not that it's bad, especially as it's being a comedy plus sci-fi.  I think The Orville is doing well, the weird airings might mess it up like Firefly, but we'll see.

As for my thoughts on Discovery.  Episodes 1 and 2, seemed cool.  Though I have some beefs with some elements.  Mainly technology.  The tech that comes to mind are the Klingon Cloaks, Holo Communications, and Emergency Force Fields to seal hull breaches.

Not sure if this is cannon, but I believe around the TOS era, (During Kirk's 5-year mission), the Romulans and Klingons made an alliance where Klingons gave the Romulans ships/tech, and the Romulans gave the Klingons Cloaking tech.  Guess that's why Klingons didn't use cloaks in TOS and until the movies, and Romulans had Klingon ships in the Episode "The Enterprise Incident".  Now I don't know the story behind the ancient Klingon ships, but if they were made by ancient Klingons, then they shouldn't have cloaks.  If they were made by another race, think I read somewhere someone suggested, like the Hur'q, then maybe it could work for me.  Just so long as they can somehow explain to me, why they have it and why they didn't have it, which required them to get the tech from the Romulans.

Next is the Holo Communications.  Although, I really liked it, it was wrong for the era.  The first time I believe Starfleet used Holo Communications, was during DS9.  And then they didn't really use it afterwards, not sure why.  So I have no idea why they were using holographic tech, when it didn't really become widespread till TNG.

Finally, the Emergency Force Fields.  Now I know it was needed for story telling, but this is yet another tech that wasn't used until TNG.  At least, I don't think I heard anything like "Emergency Force Fields in place" during the battle with Khan, in ST2.

Now my other thoughts.  First the Klingons, and to be honest I'm fine with it, mostly, kind of....  We know the klingons looked like humans during TOS.  Then during ENT, we learned why they look like that, because of the augment virus.  At the end of that episode, ENT: Divergence, the Klingon scientist called Antaak said something like, "My days as a doctor and scientist are over, but I think I can find a new profession in cranial reconstruction".  So one might think that plastic surgery, in a way, to restore the Klingon features would be popular.  And some might have gone overboard to make the ideal Klingon image.  Which would bring us to the current "New Klingon" look.  Now I hope they will tell a story about, how that look will be eventually despised and shameful with dishonor, which will then explain why Klingons in TOS and onwards look differently.

Next, Discovery the ship.  the concept art, wasn't my favorite ship, but it was acceptable.  It almost reminded me of the Daedalus class, with the awkward design of the big ball attached to the engineering section.  But now, they have the cut away saucer, which I didn't like for the Vengeance.  I think when I look at it is, man the structural integrity of that ship must be a nightmare.  I think they were better off with the concept art then that.

Lastly the character of Michael Burnham, (she's a woman btw...).  She's a nice character, but I'm going to be soo disappointed if they pull a JJ Kirk promotion to Captian thing here.  I watched the so called 'whats next on Discovery', and I just got a double facepalm moment, like there is going to be a crappy unrealistic JJ Kirk promotion, thing that's going to happen.  I really hope that's not the case.

All in all, I think it will be a good series, not counting the tech era crap.


Also the first scene that Kheren mentioned, the two characters in the desert making a Starfleet delta to get off the planet.  Now I may not have paid much attention, so I may be wrong.  But as far as I could tell, they just couldn't contact the ship, communications being blocked by the storm.  I just assumed that the ships crew were monitoring the captain and the first officer, since they were on a planet that was pre-warp.  Then they noticed the two walking in a familiar shape and then were like, "we can't contact the captain, o she must need us."  But that's my take on it.

[Kheren]

The problem with the combadge in the sand being seen optically from the ship (since no instruments could find them) comes when we have this JJ-style shot of the ship emerging from clouds thicker than the smokes of 19th century industrial London. How could they ever see a faint sand mark through that/ (or even where they were going).

This is the kind of nonsense scene that I despise, most of all on a show like Trek; a purely wowing shot just for the sake of it but that makes no sense in the context and turns the scene into a farce. We got enough of this nonsense with Abrams already (remeber the Enterpise in the sea?)

I'm perfectly comfortable with the tech being rewritten for the 21st century. Unless we want to go retro style a la Captain Proton, sci fi should be about future tech from our starting point; not the 1960's vision of a future we have already left behind in many areas. Same with a few canon things like the Third World War which we know never happened (at least in 1996 like they imagined it) or DY-100 cryogenic spaceships we are not even close to build right now (so Khan should be started later in future-past History).

So yeah, go ahead with holocomm and emergency forcefields and ship AI. I can even accept Klingons being redesigned because now we can make more alien-looking aliens then they could even 15 years ago... although to me, they could have done without. They just fixed what was not broken; always useless to begin with but, at best, inconsequential.

But I agree; hope they put Kurtzman and his inept writing on the sideline and avoid all those teenage wetdreams of getting without earning anything a la Nu-Kirk. We almost got this BS again with Burnham not graduated from Starfleet Academy and yet reaching Commander and 1st officer status in merely 7 years of... what, planetology?She certainly showed her lack of experience as she lost all confidence iin her captain, friend and mentor and mutineed at the first sign of trouble... which she should have known would never ever work.

And now they are copying the old Dirty Dozen cliche to have her in-story. hope the bad writing and character arcs stops with that.

At least the characters are interesting and there are some intriguing hints about what is to come next. Hope thir new way to travel is not some other magic goo a la Red Matter. But they hired  a physicist as a consultant on that one so maybe we are in for some real sci-fi newness there.

But oh boy is that ship ugly. It even makes me appreciate the Defiant and I disliked this flying helmet so much back then...