New Star Trek premieres on the 24th Sep!

[p1t1o]

The arrival of a brand new flavour of Star Trek used to be a big deal....

Michelle Yeoh takes the Captains chair this time around, seems like an excellent choice to me. 

[StrandedonEarth]

PVR is set, I'll be able to watch it tomorrow after work

[Kerbart]

No bueno. Oprah instead. And CBS is expecting me to clear out my schedule for that?!

[Kerbart]

Meh. If CBS expects this to convince me to pay for their streaming service they will have to prepare for disappointment.

[KamenRiderzero1]

General complaints:

what did they do to the Klingons? We've grown to adore the Klingon aesthetic that's devolved over the past 50 years. Those look more like Remans.

Why are they giving Spock an adopted sister? Then again he's already got a brother he never mentioned. Par for the Course I guess.

Why is the Shenzhou's saucer designed upside down? Why is the bridge on the bottom!?!

Why is the show called Discovery when the only episode you air on US broadcast TV doesn't feature the ship?

Why did they including a character who's "evolved to sense the coming of death" and put him on a Starship? Space is constantly trying to kill you! his little "spidersense" should be going haywire. One episode in and he's spent about as much time B-wording and moaning as McCoy. 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2017 by KamenRiderzero1

[MrChumley]

I just watched the first episode.  

The opening theme was not great.  Seemed like it was more than half commercials.  The Klingons are racist? And the crew are all girls?

Their first mission was to a binary system to study planet formation?  Whaaat?

I'd put up a pic of Picard's facepalm, but that might be considered reaction imagery.

[KamenRiderzero1]

On ‎9‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 11:26 AM, p1t1o said:

The arrival of a brand new flavour of Star Trek used to be a big deal....

Michelle Yeoh takes the Captains chair this time around, seems like an excellent choice to me. 

Unfortunately she's got company from actor Jason Isaacs, best known as Luicus Malfoy, as the captain of the USS Discovery.  

 

[NSEP]

I don't watch Star Trek, my Dad does though, i wonder what he thinks about this.

[Mitchz95]

13 hours ago, KamenRiderzero1 said:

General complaints:

what did they do to the Klingons? We've grown to adore the Klingon aesthetic that's devolved over the past 50 years. Those look more like Remans.

Why are they giving Spock an adopted sister? Then again he's already got a brother he never mentioned. Par for the Course I guess.

Why is the Shenzhou's saucer designed upside down? Why is the bridge on the bottom!?!

Why is the show called Discovery when the only episode you air on US broadcast TV doesn't feature the ship?

Why did they including a character who's "evolved to sense the coming of death" and put him on a Starship? Space is constantly trying to kill you! his little "spidersense" should be going haywire. One episode in and he's spent about as much time B-wording and moaning as McCoy.

The Klingons have been redesigned before. These guys have been isolated from Klingon society for millenia, so it's not hard to see why they're different. And a lot of the visiting Klingons looked like the ones on TNG.

Why is the Shenzhou upside down? Because they wanted to try something different. It's an older ship, perhaps almost as old as the NX-01. Maybe she was the testbed for new technology and design philosophies that got phased out?

Discovery - of the self and the other - is the central theme of the show. That's why it has the name, not the ship.

I doubt a species that evolved on a planet would have an instinctive fear of vacuum, any more than we humans do. And I don't think he was referring to telepathy or ESP, just his survival instincts saying "this doesn't feel right".

13 hours ago, MrChumley said:

I just watched the first episode.  

The opening theme was not great.  Seemed like it was more than half commercials.  The Klingons are racist? And the crew are all girls?

Their first mission was to a binary system to study planet formation?  Whaaat?

I'd put up a pic of Picard's facepalm, but that might be considered reaction imagery.

I liked the title sequence, but yeah, the theme itself is pretty lackluster.

Too many commercials, agreed. At least I don't have to pay for it since I'm in Canada.

I wonder if the "racist" Klingons are a call-forward to The Albino from "Blood Oath".

The mission was to investigate and repair a broken communications satellite. The planets were just a bonus. And there are plenty of habitable binary systems in Star Trek; hell, Vulcan is in the 40 Eridani system.

 

There were thing I liked and disliked about the show. Overall, I enjoyed it and will keep watching. Be interesting to see where the story and the characters go after this.

Edited September 25, 2017 by Mitchz95

[KamenRiderzero1]

12 hours ago, Mitchz95 said:

The Klingons have been redesigned before. These guys have been isolated from Klingon society for millenia, so it's not hard to see why they're different. And a lot of the visiting Klingons looked like the ones on TNG.

Why is the Shenzhou upside down? Because they wanted to try something different. It's an older ship, perhaps almost as old as the NX-01. Maybe she was the testbed for new technology and design philosophies that got phased out?

Discovery - of the self and the other - is the central theme of the show. That's why it has the name, not the ship.

I doubt a species that evolved on a planet would have an instinctive fear of vacuum, any more than we humans do. And I don't think he was referring to telepathy or ESP, just his survival instincts saying "this doesn't feel right".

The Klingons were "redesigned" but the old look is still canon thanks to Enterprise and the augment virus. Here, the creators have gone on record that all Klingons will in the show will look like the ones in episode one. Simple continuity issue this causes; Where is their hair? The sword of Kahless was supposed to have forged from Kahless' hair. So ether A, the producers have got themselves in a plot hole or b, they've written off one the most sacred relics of the Klingons and a great DS9 Worf focus episode.

 

there is no logical reason to put the "Walker"-Class bridge module under the saucer. It provides no benefit compared to its usual position. Actually there is one benefit to bridge being higher. Physical evacuation to the rest of the ship would be easier if everyone was going down vs up.

 

the show is called Discovery for the same reason DS9, Voyager and Enterprise have their names; the USS Discovery NCC-1031.

 

I wasn't just referring to the vacuum of space so much as all the danger inherent to spaceflight. Radiation, impact damage, new diseases, hostile life forms. Saru is established as an over cautious worry wart, why would he want to live and work in such conditions.

[Mitchz95]

14 hours ago, KamenRiderzero1 said:

The Klingons were "redesigned" but the old look is still canon thanks to Enterprise and the augment virus. Here, the creators have gone on record that all Klingons will in the show will look like the ones in episode one. Simple continuity issue this causes; Where is their hair? The sword of Kahless was supposed to have forged from Kahless' hair. So ether A, the producers have got themselves in a plot hole or b, they've written off one the most sacred relics of the Klingons and a great DS9 Worf focus episode.

 

there is no logical reason to put the "Walker"-Class bridge module under the saucer. It provides no benefit compared to its usual position. Actually there is one benefit to bridge being higher. Physical evacuation to the rest of the ship would be easier if everyone was going down vs up.

 

the show is called Discovery for the same reason DS9, Voyager and Enterprise have their names; the USS Discovery NCC-1031.

 

I wasn't just referring to the vacuum of space so much as all the danger inherent to spaceflight. Radiation, impact damage, new diseases, hostile life forms. Saru is established as an over cautious worry wart, why would he want to live and work in such conditions.

We have yet to see whether all Klingons are bald or just the ones presented so far. Maybe the makeup change is universal, but not the hair. T'Kuvma was apparently a religious zealot, so it's not impossible. Or maybe it's just common for Klingons to shave their heads in the 2250s.

You may as well complain about the ships having saucers and nacelles in general. Wouldn't a cube or sphere be more practical? Sure, but it's a TV show. They wanted to try something interesting instead and so they did.

The U.S.S. Discovery was named after the show, which was named after the theme. Star Trek: Voyager was named for the journey the ship took, and Enterprise was about the aspirations of the first Starfleet exploration missions. Double meanings.

Because Saru wanted to be a Starfleet officer. I'm afraid of heights, but I can still become a pilot if I'm willing to look past it and learn. Saru is cautious, but he's hardly a nervous wreck. Otherwise he never would have made it through the Academy.

Edited September 26, 2017 by Mitchz95

[Shpaget]

I just finished watching the first two episodes and all I can say is "Meh".

Michelle Yeoh as captain is poor casting. Her English is worse than the one spoken by the Klingons, even with their prosthetic teeth. Seriously what was the point of that choice?

The ship is dispatched to the edge of Federation space to fix a broken coms relay. Why is a coms relay at the edge of a territory? That doesn't make sense. One would expect such infrastructure to be placed inside protected space where it can be easily maintained and actually have more useful coverage.  

Can we please stop representing asteroid fields as densely packed clouds of rocks that are impossible to navigate through? That is nowhere near the actual state of them. However, if they made a conscious decision to forgo realism and decided to make the asteroid field (or protoplanetary disk, whatever) so densely packed, why would they put a coms relay (and the Klingons their beacon) in a still forming solar system where there is a significant risk of debris hitting it?

Why is there an ancient Klingon beacon at the edge of their territory? One would expect such a device to be close to their home planet.

The opening sequence in the desert, what was that all about? Not only it doesn't make any sense since it would be impossible to see footprints from orbit, not to mention a freaking sand storm being in the way, why include such a scene at all? To show how smart the captain is? Or that our first officer can predict when the storm will reach their position with the accuracy of one second (even though she later clearly says she was wrong and that the storm was moving faster than she thought)?

I think I'll go back to Orville, it's a better Star Trek series than this.

[p1t1o]

13 hours ago, Shpaget said:

Why is there an ancient Klingon beacon at the edge of their territory? One would expect such a device to be close to their home planet.

*cough*voyager probes*cough*

 

[Shpaget]

1 hour ago, p1t1o said:

*cough*voyager probes*cough*

 

I dissagree.

Voyager probes are not (and never were) intended to be used by humans as relays. They are a message in a bottle type of objects intended for anybody but humans to discover (even though the plausibility of that sceario is debatable). For such mission they necessarily need to go outside of "human territory".

With the Klingon device it is clear that it is intended as a comunication device for Klingons themselves, and it being ancient, one would expect to find it deep inside their territory, unless the Klingon empire has lost significant part of that territory. I must admit that Klingon history is not my strongest area of expertise.

[kerbiloid]

Star Trek ?,..

Is that a spin-off of Orville?

[Nuke]

im going to be intentionally vague so as not to spoil anything for anyone who didnt watch both episodes.


from the previews for episode 3 we should finally get to see the ship in the show's title. it also makes the acronym for the show rather embarrassing.

also only a few of the characters shown so far are regulars. so consider the first two episodes as kind of a prequel to set it up later on down the road.

liked the shenzhou, seems to have the vibe of a refit nx-01 type ship. liked the other federation ships as well. it kind of has that crude asthetic rather than the 'clean' ships from tos and the more elegant designs from tng onward.

liked the klingon redux. even though it seems similar to other alien races from the main timeline. though im less interested in their ship redesigns, i have a feeling were not going to get to see any d7s or birds of prey (probibly my favorite ship design in all of trek). im hoping that these are house ships and not production vessels.

didnt like the softness of the scifi. ftl telepathy and the 'new star in the sky' bit because of violation of speed of light limits. i suppose thats trek for you but at least put a little effort into the handwavium to at least make it appear plausible.

didnt like many of the characters thus far. the new alien spock/data analog doesnt really impress me at all. i dont ever remember a cowardly character in a show ever be memorable. they turn out to be annoying at best and typically get cut early. depends if/how they develop his character. didnt like how the klingons were being portrayed as religious fanatics, especially considering according to their belief system they were supposed to have killed off all their gods long ago. or to put them in the role of modern day terrorists when they should have more of a space viking/mongolian vibe. the protagonist was probibly the best character so far. lots of room for development there. too many characters in star trek come from pristine backgrounds and its nice to see a damage case with deep seated issues who tries to act cool and logically but ends up falling short.

didnt like the new intro, it was too minimalistic and conceptual. at least they didnt use a crappy theme song (im looking at you enterprise).

special effects are pretty good, though i found the warp effects too reminiscent of battlestar galactica. really liked the cloaking effects.

speaking of galactica this show kind of has a battlestar discovery feel to it. remember when galactica ended and every show to follow it tried to have a bsg redux vibe. many of them fell flat on their faces (sgu being the biggest offender). this show feels kind of late to that party. however this is not entirely a bad thing. ive always wanted a more gritty star trek, like the way ds9 was going in the last few seasons. this seems to top that greatly. i kind of wish they would redo m*a*s*h and bsg the hell out of it, other than that i think bsging things needs to stop.

story had some issues. like during the battle in episode 2 many of the actors didnt portray the tension appropriately. or how saro kind of seemed like he had just met burnham even though she had been a memeber of the crew for years. in that second scene where the protagonist and the captain were introduced, i kind of kept thinking that they were walking on the sand wrong, i kept thinking a sandworm was going to come kill them, then i realized i was watching star trek. ironically this was probibly my favorite scene from the first episode. this felt like trek. then the rest of the show contrasts that and its as if its saying, this is star trek, but were doing things differently. it did a good job at setting the tone of the show.

mudd is coming.

thats it for now. look forward to episode 3.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Nuke

[Cydonian Monk]

I want thank the lot of you, mainly for helping me save money by not throwing it at CBS. Sounds ok, in a pulp-sci-fi kind of way, but not a $50/$90 level of ok. I’ll wait until this inevitably trickles out into other streaming services. 

 

41 minutes ago, Nuke said:

I kind of wish they would redo m*a*s*h and bsg the hell out of it

Please no. I love all three versions of M*A*S*H, but those characters only make sense with the tone that’s presented in the book/movie/series and the real life inspirations that created them. The reality of Korea was dark enough already, as was MASH. (Especially with things like that “chicken” on the bus.)

[Shpaget]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Star Trek ?,..

Is that a spin-off of Orville?

Yeah, but their starships are not as pretty as Orville's.

[kerbiloid]

10 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

Yeah, but their starships are not as pretty as Orville's.

Indeed.
A strange hybrid of Orville and IXS NASA. With two huge tubes on thin struts.
Very strange design.

[Nuke]

7 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

I want thank the lot of you, mainly for helping me save money by not throwing it at CBS. Sounds ok, in a pulp-sci-fi kind of way, but not a $50/$90 level of ok. I’ll wait until this inevitably trickles out into other streaming services. 

 

Please no. I love all three versions of M*A*S*H, but those characters only make sense with the tone that’s presented in the book/movie/series and the real life inspirations that created them. The reality of Korea was dark enough already, as was MASH. (Especially with things like that “chicken” on the bus.)

i suppose. m*a*s*h still holds up to this day and its one of the few shows of its era that do so. a remake would never be as good as the original series/movie, so doing it a different way would be the only approach that wouldn't completely flop.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Nuke

[Just Jim]

OK, I tried... and I can't lie... I thought Enterprise was bad.... but, wow. First impressions are everything... and everything in me hates the new Star Trek.  

The Orville... on the other hand... Now that was quite a pleasant surprise... I thought I'd hate it, but ended up laughing my butt off. I will definitely watch more... 

Edited September 28, 2017 by Just Jim

[Galane]

Discovery-Klingons by g_alan_e, on Flickr

[kerbiloid]

Compared to the documentary

Spoiler

 

, the second one looks more authentic.

Edited September 28, 2017 by kerbiloid

[Mitchz95]

I like them fine. The makeup has changed before, and they look more like a distinct species instead of just "rubber-forehead" aliens.

And they still act like TNG Klingons, which is the most important.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Mitchz95

[p1t1o]

For reference, this is what an original Klingon looks like:

 

So yeah, all arguments moot.