Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 and other stuff

[Cloud]

Season 3 has just been confirmed. Best Tweet about it: https://twitter.com/TrekCore/status/1100816807827369986

:D

Nerdrotic, Computing Forever et al probably already churning out videos about how another season of SJW Trek Diversity will be the death of the franchise etc

[Malcy]

Not much to say on this week's really. The Talosian redesign seems unnecessary.

[Alberon]

As Discovery's redesigns go it's fine, though they should all be played by older women.

But isn't there a mandatory death sentence on anyone who goes to Talos IV?

[Malcy]

As Discovery's redesigns go it's fine, though they should all be played by older women.

But isn't there a mandatory death sentence on anyone who goes to Talos IV?

Yeah Starfleet put a heavy punishment on going there. Bit extreme really.

[Chairman Yang]

Ahhh but what if this episode takes place before that! The tantalizing reason for the death sentence being established? An important gap in the canon of Star Trek finally jammed full.

Oh and this week's episode was well naff. Don't do an episode of time shenanigans on top of a series-long time boondoggle, especially if all that happens is a squid attacks them. Just make it a "Grey Hole" or something and it'd be fine.

[Malcy]

First bit of casting news for the Picard series. Possibly called Destiny, one of the names trademarked by CBS.

https://trekmovie.com/2019/03/04/star-trek-picard-series-casts-its-first-two-roles/

https://trekmovie.com/2019/03/04/more-production-details-for-star-trek-picard-series-emerge-including-possible-title/

[Cloud]

I can hear the right wing "geek" youtubers ranting about diversity without even looking there...

As for this week's episode, first crap one this season

[Malcy]

Possible character details. The fuck is this shite?

I hear Cabrera will play the pilot of Picard's ship who also is a skillful thief. Hurd is playing a former intelligence officer who is a brilliant analyst with a terrific memory that has not been affected by her drug and alcohol abuse.

[Alberon]

There is a supposed casting sheet for the series' regulars going around. Impossible to say if it truthful or made up nonsense just yet. It includes a holographic Doctor program (not Picardo sadly) and a Romulan teenager.

The rest of them are here
https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/star-trek/279647/star-trek-picard-series-character-breakdowns-emerge

[Malcy]

There is a supposed casting sheet for the series' regulars going around. Impossible to say if it truthful or made up nonsense just yet. It includes a holographic Doctor program (not Picardo sadly) and a Romulan teenager.

The rest of them are here
https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/star-trek/279647/star-trek-picard-series-character-breakdowns-emerge

Ugh. Ragtag bunch of misfit crew usually spells shite in my eyes. Reminds me of Renegades, the fan film with Chekov & Tuvok.

[mothman]

Various things Patrick Stewart has been involved with over the years have left me with little to discount the possibility that the version of him we saw in Extras is actually quite acciratem at keast when it comes to coming upo with ideas for shows.

It basically sounds to me like a retired Picard spending his autumn years indulging his passion for archaeology. Yay.

Also... K'Bar? Seriously? Because...

[Malcy]

Various things Patrick Stewart has been involved with over the years have left me with little to discount the possibility that the version of him we saw in Extras is actually quite acciratem at keast when it comes to coming upo with ideas for shows.

It basically sounds to me like a retired Picard spending his autumn years indulging his passion for archaeology. Yay.

Also... K'Bar? Seriously? Because...

I still wish he had made at least a short film of the Extras idea. Would have been a good laugh. I think he had a good bit of output into Blunt Talk which was superb.

K'Bar sounds more Klingon than Romulan to me. Obviously this isn't conformed info and the show doesn't start filming till next month but I think more and more that it might disappoint. Discovery has really drained any enthusiasm I have for Trek. I think most of the people in charge aren't really suited and the ones that are probably don't have enough power to make it good.

[Malcy]

Any ideas where I could get a massive promo banner for First Contact valued/sold? It must be 6 foot wide. I'd like to hang on to it but I'm so skint.

[mothman]

what does it look like?

[Malcy]

I don't have it in the house or I'd take a photo. I'll get one tomorrow. It's a sort of vinyl canvass type thing. Good quality printing with a metal ring in each corner to hang it. It was up in a small cinema that a friend worked in when it came out and he took it when it came down. It's in perfect condition for something 23 years old.

I've searched online a few times but never seen anything like it.

[mothman]

God, 23 years. That's scary. One of my earliest forays online was to try to learn more about all the whizzbang new starships you see in this sequence:

https://youtu.be/vPzJSBHG4pI

... The Akira-, Steamrunner-, Sabre- and Norway-classes, it turned out. Plus of course the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E. As well, established designs like the Miranda-, Nebula- and Oberth-classes make appearances alongside the USS Defiant. And - right in the background, as an injoke by ILM - the Millenium Falcon.

[Malcy]

God, 23 years. That's scary. One of my earliest forays online was to try to learn more about all the whizzbang new starships you see in this sequence:

https://youtu.be/vPzJSBHG4pI

... The Akira-, Steamrunner-, Sabre- and Norway-classes, it turned out. Plus of course the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E. As well, established designs like the Miranda-, Nebula- and Oberth-classes make appearances alongside the USS Defiant. And - right in the background, as an injoke by ILM - the Millenium Falcon.

Was a shame those designs were rarely used outside of the games. Theres part of a Vor'Cha class Klingon ship floating amongst debris in a Red Dwarf episode. I like when they do things like that.

I've been wondering about the design of the Picard series. It's only 20 years after Nemesis so I hope there are familiar looking ships etc. I can see them redesigning the fuck out of everything though.

[mothman]

I suspect you're right. Also, we're possibly looking at the first non-Starfleet-centred Trek show (OK, technically ENT too, but...).

[Malcy]

Really enjoyed this week's. Great little previously but it showed how shite the Talosians redesign was. There really is no need for them to have that nose bridge and such rubbery looking faces. The original design is a real classic sci-fi look.

Loved the sound of Talos IV when Burnham left the shuttle and great to see the blue plants as well.

But please get rid of Stamets and his fucking pathetic boyfriend. I was really enjoying it then it was interspersed with daytime American soap opera pish with those two and their stupid faces they both pull. Get it to fuck.

The Pike and Veena stuff was great. It's a shame we'll probably be Pike-less by series 3 but hopefully it puts Saru in the big chair.

Does the nearest sun have to shine through EVERY FUCKING WINDOW ON THE SHIP?

[Alberon]

The camerawork was annoying again. Too many wide-angle shots making the large sets look ridiculously enormous.

The Talosians redesign was okay, but as I said last week they should have replicated the old female actors with male voices as they did in 'The Menagerie'. The frosty relationship between Sock and Burnham feels right. At this point up until mindmelding with Vejur, Spock is trying to deny his human half. Only after realising how barren Vejur's existence is with just logic will he open up to his human side.

The pisspoor soap going on between Stamets and his husband can just fuck off and die though.

Airam is still infected with evil red eyes. What is she anyway? She can't be a full robot like Data, so she's a cyborg?

[Malcy]

The camerawork was annoying again. Too many wide-angle shots making the large sets look ridiculously enormous.

The Talosians redesign was okay, but as I said last week they should have replicated the old female actors with male voices as they did in 'The Menagerie'. The frosty relationship between Sock and Burnham feels right. At this point up until mindmelding with Vejur, Spock is trying to deny his human half. Only after realising how barren Vejur's existence is with just logic will he open up to his human side.

The pisspoor soap going on between Stamets and his husband can just fuck off and die though.

Airam is still infected with evil red eyes. What is she anyway? She can't be a full robot like Data, so she's a cyborg?

Apparently Ariam was in an accident and was given all thT shite as a health upgrade or some bollocks. I don't know I might have been the one at the connection who they always film turning round to show off her implant and not much else.

Was the fact that Spock went through the Kohlinar in TMP just before the V'Ger incident not due to the fact that he had been embracing his human side? Then after his meld he learns that embracing it is the right path for him.

[Sin Agog]

Been rewatching Deep Space Nine concurrently to this, and it feels so much richer and more lived-in, and morally muddy and grey, than Discovery.  The plots and ideas, though sometimes a bit silly, feel like they're written by actual old-school sci-fi writers, rather than maybe good-natured neoliberal 'zecs just winging it, which is impressive because they had to pad out so many more 24-episode seasons.  You remember everyone's name straight away, and the dialogue, though occasionally turgid in that uniquely Star Trek way, is sometimes genuinely witty.  You really feel like the characters are having actual conversations.

Did like the genuinely alien feel of that Naru homeworld episode, though.

[Old Nehamkin]

DS9 was a bit sht for the first 2 seasons to be fair.

[Sin Agog]

I don't think so, although the showrunner dude agrees with you.  That first episode alone had all the mythos, the emissary stuff, racial tensions, a truly alien space station where the portholes look like Cthulhian eye sockets etc.  Maybe monster of the week style telly-making feels refreshing to me now when so much TV's gotten lost up its own arc?

[Cloud]

I actually found the first couple of seasons of DS9 the best when I rewatched recently.  To each their own though.  I quite liked all the Bajoran political stuff now (though it bored me to sleep when I was a kid, literally)

Really enjoyed this week's with a very well done follow-up to the Cage.  I was wondering at one point if we'd see Pike say something like "it doesn't matter if the illusion goes away as I fell in love with the person" to undo the rather problematic 'can you give her the illusion of looking nice again please so she can have self worth?' kind of stuff in the original pilot, but they seemed to aim more subtle than that and just gave her a more useful role.

Can't remember what's going on with robot girl but there seems to be a lot of foreshadowing.

I am also tired of the Stamets and Paul thing.  They're a worse couple than the fucking O'Briens (or rather, not-fucking O'Briens a lot of the time).   No real context to their relationship, just endless meta stuff where they're defined by the fact they're in one in the first place.

[Chairman Yang]

I'm glad everyone else seems to jam with this episode because I couldn't find a single F to give about whether Spock and Michael get on, or how Pike feels about his time on Talos. Put all that in the same boat with Dr. Lazarus getting over his resurrection and fire it into a black hole. The one situation in which having a counselor on board would help and instead everyone is just all melodramatic and shouty.

Eh, maybe it'll be one to revisit in later years... but it's pretty unlikely with all the GODDAMN SPINNING CAMERAS

[Spoon of Ploff]

No I didn't get what was so great about this episode either... other than Spock being somewhat dismissive of Michael. That made for a refreshing change and could be an interesting dynamic if it continues. The revelation that the terrible thing she did to him was call him rude names when they were both young kids was a bit rubbish. That's not something they would have sorted out in the next x number of years with all those logical perceptive minds  living under the same roof? Still, I'd been starting to dread some kind of Pon farr faux pas, so it's kind of a relief that's all out of the way.

Any guesses on who the red angel turns out to be? Michael? Tilly, Evil Crouching Tiger lady?

[Chairman Yang]

Tilly

Christ almighty, now I have.

[Malcy]

Any guesses on who the red angel turns out to be? Michael? Tilly, Evil Crouching Tiger lady?

I think everyone from Archer's dog Porthos to Neelix has been suggested at this point! I hope it's not revealed and is just some sort of friend from the future that we dont know.

Lots of people saying that they hope it's not Picard as a lead in to his series. I doubt that would happen though.

The Spock and Burnham thing I could get. Spock young and unable to deal with his human side properly meaning he got hurt in a way that always stayed with him but it was a bit weak.

[Alberon]

The angel has a female shape to it.

From the second it was revealed it was a person not a species there was only ever one person it could be. Michael Burnham.