Star Trek Discovery S3

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

That was decent in the respect that it was actually coherent.

Seeing the words "Directed by Jonathan Frakes" usually gives me hope we're in for a coherent one. This ep was entertaining enough, I enjoyed the Admiral's scenes. Still not sure if they were going for "character growth" or "just being a massive fucking hypocrite" for Burnham in the scene with Stamets

Spoiler alert

it's like, 3 episodes since she disobeyed orders and dropped everything to run off after her bf?

[close]

. I like the wee robot pals. Minimal whisper talking too.

Based on Tilly's short speech,

Spoiler alert

I think we're about to see the bridge crew thinned out a little. I can only name Owo and Detmer so perhaps one or two of the more anonymous guys won't make it.

[close]

[petril]

"Director was in TNG" is the FREE SPACE one off of Star Trek Episode Bingo, isn't it? usually Frakes or LeVar Burton

[Wonderful Butternut]

Based on Tilly's short speech,

Spoiler alert

I think we're about to see the bridge crew thinned out a little. I can only name Owo and Detmer so perhaps one or two of the more anonymous guys won't make it.

[close]

The main cast can be inferred to be Saru, Burnham, Tilly, Stamets & Culber from the credits (although Culber features less than the other four). Whilst Detmer, Owosekun, Rhys, Bryce and Nilsson are listed as co-stars. Reno and Adira are listed as guest stars. All of those routinely have episodes with no speaking lines.

Spoiler alert

I wouldn't put it past them to bump one or two of them off to pull on our heart strings a bit. Airiam dying last season was well directed, but the following ep where they're all emoing about her at her funeral didn't really have the same impact.

[close]

As for the robots, as well as Book's courier route (which looks and functions like a hyperspace lane), they're fine in their own right, but just seems to me like another hint that Kurtzmann and his acolytes actually want to make Star Wars.

[Wentworth Smith]

If they are going to

Spoiler alert

bump off some of the peripheral crew Detmer is an obvious one as she is the only one who has had even a super thin bit of story this series, the rest have just stood around smiling at stupid things

[close]

.

[Malcy]

Concept art of the Federation fleet. Load of shite really and this whole detached part of the ships and programmable matter thing is a load of bollocks.

[Mobbd]

Good find Malcy.

Programmable matter. They think they're being so imaginative, don't they? They have no idea of the importance of restraint in science-fiction. Otherwise it's just "everything happening, all the time" and it doesn't mean anything.

Credit where it's due though. I think like those ring-shaped ships.

[Malcy]

Good find Malcy.

Programmable matter. They think they're being so imaginative, don't they? They have no idea of the importance of restraint in science-fiction. Otherwise it's just "everything happening, all the time" and it doesn't mean anything.

Credit where it's due though. I think like those ring-shaped ships.

The new shows are full of stupid tech that is just there to try and look cool rather than have a practical application. I don't know about the ring ships. I like the Maathi but the Annan just looks odd with that huge gap. Still better than Voyager-J's massive bottle opener at the back!

[Two Headed Sex Beast]

Good find Malcy.

Programmable matter. They think they're being so imaginative, don't they? They have no idea of the importance of restraint in science-fiction. Otherwise it's just "everything happening, all the time" and it doesn't mean anything.

Credit where it's due though. I think like those ring-shaped ships.

It is a bit "space magic", innit. Teleport any time you want, phasers that appear and disappear, ships that whizz around changing shape willy nilly. I mean most science fiction is space magic (to me anyway, I'm a dunce), but at least make it feel like something science-y and possible.

[Malcy]

It is a bit "space magic", innit. Teleport any time you want, phasers that appear and disappear, ships that whizz around changing shape willy nilly. I mean most science fiction is space magic (to me anyway, I'm a dunce), but at least make it feel like something science-y and possible.

Exactly, and they've even commissioned a web series about the 'science' of the show called BioTrekkie With The Admiral with the shows science consultant and her that played the Admiral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gb1EJ4xAOY

[Mobbd]

The new shows are full of stupid tech that is just there to try and look cool rather than have a practical application. I don't know about the ring ships. I like the Maathi but the Annan just looks odd with that huge gap. Still better than Voyager-J's massive bottle opener at the back!

I agree. And yet I think I like all of these ships better than the Discovery itself (it's too fiddly-looking and inelegant, a failure of restraint again) and the Enterprise as it appears this series (why did they add all that textural tat to such a sleek and more-iconic-than-a-Coke-bottle design?).

Exactly, and they've even commissioned a web series about the 'science' of the show called BioTrekkie With The Admiral with the shows science consultant and her that played the Admiral.

Cripes. They've been doing this sort of thing a lot, haven't they? There's an official podcast now (no interest in this) and After Trek and Ready Room. Short Treks almost (but not quite) belongs in the same bin.

Imagine commissioning your own "after shows" and review/recap pods. It's like something a certain Mr Hitler would do. They're desperately trying to control the narrative. It's self-publishing with a massive budget.

[Malcy]

I listened to the first ep of the Podcast as it had Ben Stiller as the guest and he's a huge fan of TOS. Fell asleep and never went back to it. I can't see the point in these aftershow things. Can put them in the same bin as the inevitable 'Ending explained' videos that will be churned out after the finale. See these articles and videos everywhere, even for soaps!

[Marv Orange]

The new shows are full of stupid tech that is just there to try and look cool rather than have a practical application. I don't know about the ring ships. I like the Maathi but the Annan just looks odd with that huge gap. Still better than Voyager-J's massive bottle opener at the back!

What I think has happened is that they had a ridiculous budget for special effects and didn't know what to do with it, how do we have an excuse to crow bar special effects where ever... programmable matter.

There was one scene where the floor appeared and disappeared under their feet to get to an office.....whats wrong with an old fashioned floor, why does it need to disappear.

Also the phasers appearing out of the arm nodule.... what's wrong with a pocket or a belt clip.

How is programmable matter cost effective, why is the federation spending resources so unwisely, no wonder they are fucked, I will transmit a sternly worded message to my Member of Federation Parliament. Wasteful cunts, no wonder there is no rebate any more!

I'm sitting here in the last blockbusters in the galaxy without a pot to piss in while the federation are sitting on a programmable matter mountain, cunts
 

[Mobbd]

What I think has happened is that they had a ridiculous budget for special effects and didn't know what to do with it, how do we have an excuse to crow bar special effects where ever... programmable matter.

There was one scene where the floor appeared and disappeared under their feet to get to an office.....whats wrong with an old fashioned floor, why does it need to disappear.

Hahha. One thing I'll give them credit for is putting all this silly shit in the far-flung future and not allowing it into the pre-TOS time period for once. At least, I assume that's the case. Malcy?

[olliebean]

How is programmable matter cost effective, why is the federation spending resources so unwisely, no wonder they are fucked, I will transmit a sternly worded message to my Member of Federation Parliament. Wasteful cunts, no wonder there is no rebate any more!

Presumably they just replicate it out of their shit like everything else.

[Mister Six]

Concept art of the Federation fleet. Load of shite really and this whole detached part of the ships and programmable matter thing is a load of bollocks.

Looks like the console forgot to load in a high-poly model before the camera got too close.

Actually it looks like some confounding plastic kitchen implement offered to me in a Wish advert on Facebook.

[Malcy]

Hahha. One thing I'll give them credit for is putting all this silly shit in the far-flung future and not allowing it into the pre-TOS time period for once. At least, I assume that's the case. Malcy?

In series 1 they had holo-communicators which originally weren't introduced until later DS9. The in-universe reason why they were never seen again was in S2 when Capt Pike said he didn't like them and ordered it to be removed. Which is just stupid. So Pike doesn't like it and the entire Federation go "oh alright then we'll stop using them". They could just have not included them at all and not have had a scene to explain it.

Even in the 32nd century they still seem to glitch in visual and sound so if you can't perfect the technology in 900 years why use it at all?!

[JamesTC]

In series 1 they had holo-communicators which originally weren't introduced until later DS9. The in-universe reason why they were never seen again was in S2 when Capt Pike said he didn't like them and ordered it to be removed. Which is just stupid. So Pike doesn't like it and the entire Federation go "oh alright then we'll stop using them". They could just have not included them at all and not have had a scene to explain it.

Even in the 32nd century they still seem to glitch in visual and sound so if you can't perfect the technology in 900 years why use it at all?!

They really have such a low opinion of the audience that they think visual glitches are required to show that the person isn't really there. Either that or they are just copying Star Wars.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Those ships are nearly as ugly as the season 1 Klingon ships.

I always have to ask on these things: If the writers are not bothered being constrained by writing in a particular established setting, why do they write in it?

What about Discovery required S1 & S2 to be set in the 23rd Century? Why couldn't they have set in the 32nd to begin with and not have this ridiculous 'fix' of sending Discovery into the future and never speaking about the real Seymour Skinner it and it's crew ever again? Or the 27th century? Or the 28th? Or anything that's not within 10 years of an established in universe time frame?

The War with the Klingons? They didn't look like Klingons and barely acted like them. And that they had cloaking devices in the 2250s, but not again until Star Trek III set in the 2280s[nb]Might have been a Klingon with one in TAS? They didn't have them in TOS anyway. Only the Romulans did.[/nb] is one of many continuity errors. Could've replaced them with literally any alien species without any detriment to the plot.

Burnham being Spock's foster sister? Again could've easily been left out. As a matter of fact, most fans would probably prefer that it was.

The season 2 plotline with Pike, Spock & Number One? Only exists to get them out of the 23rd century. Not needed if you haven't fucked up by setting it there in the first place.

It's certainly not for nostalgia purposes since Disco is nothing like TOS.

They had enough trouble keeping things consistent between TNG, DS9 and VOY which form a continuous time frame of about 15 years both in the real world and in-universe. Going back to 10 years before TOS, 50+ real-world years later is asking for trouble.

The only potential good that might come of it is if the Pike spinoff ends up being good.

Marv covered the programmable matter thing. Might be useful for things like console interfaces and Stamets' spore interface, but for office fixtures and holding starships together it's at best a waste of resources and at worst completely nutty.

Either that or they are just copying Star Wars.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets this vibe when watching it.

[Wonderful Butternut]

I wonder if they do kill someone will it be Booker to make Burnham's life miserable?

Unless the actor's been confirmed for season 4.

[Malcy]

The War with the Klingons? They didn't look like Klingons and barely acted like them. And that they had cloaking devices in the 2250s, but not again until Star Trek III set in the 2280s[nb]Might have been a Klingon with one in TAS? They didn't have them in TOS anyway. Only the Romulans did.[/nb] is one of many continuity errors. Could've replaced them with literally any alien species without any detriment to the plot.

Burnham being Spock's foster sister? Again could've easily been left out. As a matter of fact, most fans would probably prefer that it was.

The season 2 plotline with Pike, Spock & Number One? Only exists to get them out of the 23rd century. Not needed if you haven't fucked up by setting it there in the first place.

The only potential good that might come of it is if the Pike spinoff ends up being good.

The Klingon's were absolute shite in this and they even gave us Klingon tits which was just weird. I remember one of the Klingon extras tweeted a picture of a load of them having lunch between filming and people quite rightly were concerned. The ships didn't even look Klingon. The cloaking thing was another fuck up. I didn't think they got the cloak until they traded tech with the Romulans in TOS when both races were using the D-7.

Burnham/Spock stuff can fuck right off. Especially as mentioned in the recent ep where Nimoy appeared and it was good to see him only for Burnham to be told that he was the man he was and achieved all he did because of her. Boiled my blood that.

The S2 plotline was atrocious as it was but they didn't even need to go to the future!

I'm really hoping SNW will be good but I doubt it. They couldn't even give us a proper NCC-1701! The engine room and turbolift network were twice the size of the ship!

Glad we got Lower Decks though. I enjoyed that. It's the only one of the 3 shows that looks, feels and acts like Trek and its an animated comedy!

I wonder if they do kill someone will it be Booker to make Burnham's life miserable?

Unless the actor's been confirmed for season 4.

Spoiler alert

The actor gave an interview early on that made it seem like he was a 1 and done character. Probably means we'll get half a series of Burnham grieving. Oh good...

[close]

.

3 series in now and it hasn't really improved at all. I'm really just watching to see how they can keep fucking it up and sitting through episodes for little easter eggs.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Burnham/Spock stuff can fuck right off. Especially as mentioned in the recent ep where Nimoy appeared and it was good to see him only for Burnham to be told that he was the man he was and achieved all he did because of her. Boiled my blood that.

I know. They're either very dense or they actually want old school fans to hate Burnham.

They couldn't even give us a proper NCC-1701! The engine room and turbolift network were twice the size of the ship!

The impossibly cavernous turbolift shafts and engineering sections is another thing dragged over from the Abramsverse that no one wanted. I never recalled watching an episode of TNG and thinking to myself "gee, I'd like it if there was an establishing shot where they showed the turbolift car in a giant void full of colouredy lights that couldn't possibly fit inside the starship."

Could've been worse. That was their idea of being faithful to the original design and they did consider deviating from it more.

Glad we got Lower Decks though. I enjoyed that. It's the only one of the 3 shows that looks, feels and acts like Trek and its an animated comedy!

Didn't bother trying to illegally watch beyond episode 3 cos honestly it seemed to be shaping up to be childish garbage for babies. I believe it is going to be available legit soon, so I'll pick up again from ep. 4 and see am I wrong, cos is had reviewed better than Disco (although that's not bloody hard).

But if that's all that's classic Trek is deemed useful for: a backdrop for Lower Decks' lolarious references to everything, then we're deeper in the shitter than we thought.

[Graveside Soildozer]

Still better than Voyager-J's massive bottle opener at the back!

The drive section rotates 180 degrees, transforming the ship into a massive nail clippers.

[Malcy]

The drive section rotates 180 degrees, transforming the ship into a massive nail clippers.

Big Spock could use it to cut his toenails and give it to Adonais after!

[Malcy]

Just about lost the will to live sitting through that. Fucking atrocious.

Spoiler alert

First of all what was with all the spinning camera shots? Some of them were sideways!

I don't know what species Adira was supposed to be disguised as in the holo-program but it was awful. Like they ran out of time or money so said fuck it let's just scribble on her face and put some shit on her ear.

I thought the engineering and turbolift sections of the Enterprise were big but Discovery's sections were like Borg Cubes. Can they not see when they are making this that it doesn't look right? The shot after the warp core ejection showed how big it was compared to the ship so instantly you realise it makes ZERO sense.

Su'kal was told there was a incident that made long distance travel impossible, nothing else. He then seems to know The Burn by name.

Captain Fucking Burnham, fuck right off. All of a sudden Admiral Vance is licking her arse and giving her a promotion.

The look of disgust that Stamet's gave Burnham was brilliant. The only good part of the episode and it was 2 seconds long. Out ov just over an hour.

Adira & Gray, can't believe they're continuing with this shite in the next series. Who gives a fuck?

Vulcan/Romulan fleet turns up and we can't make out a single one of their ships.

What was the point in the Sphere Data arc. Just so one of the Dot-23's could save whatever her name is and play old films for the crew?

It was just a complete waste of an hour, followed by a random Gene Roddenberry quote on the screen then the TOS theme playing over the credits.

[close]

I think that might be me done with it. Uninteresting stories, uninteresting characters and just no point to the whole thing. The Burn, Control, MU, Klingon War all shit stories poorly executed and at times appallingly acted.

[Nobody Soup]

I think that might be me done with it. Uninteresting stories, uninteresting characters and just no point to the whole thing. The Burn, Control, MU, Klingon War all shit stories poorly executed and at times appallingly acted.

this makes me glad I tuned out an episode ago.

one of the shittest things about the whole story arc structure is Discovery and Picard will be the first franchises of Trek with no good episodes at all as they're all dependent on the context of the series they're placed in, which are all pretty shit.

[Wentworth Smith]

The most in-depth review I can to rouse myself to give is that the finale was absolute fucking shit.

[Mobbd]

I always have to ask on these things: If the writers are not bothered being constrained by writing in a particular established setting, why do they write in it?

That, Brother Butternut, is the question at the centre of all of our complaints as fans, isn't it? If you're going to change everything beyond the point of recognition, why bother? Just make something else. It looks at first like a spectacular fumble (for all their flaws, compare the effort Marvel went to in establishing a coherent fictional universe and a brand that people understand to CBS's "failure" to manage the universe and brand they were given on a plate) but I suspect it's not quite that.

I've put some thought into this over the past couple of years and I think I have an answer to your question: the creators (i.e. the writers and the veritable horde of producers) of Discovery and its various stinking spin-offs aren't creative people at all but asset strippers.

You might remember the Phones4u scandal of a few years ago? I don't give a shit about Phones4u but what happened to them is pretty appalling. Asset strippers acquired the company, gave obscene bonuses to the new board directors (i.e. themselves), and ran the company into the ground until it had to file for liquidation.

The same is happening now to "intellectual properties" like Star Trek. The people who have acquired it have no interest in making Star Trek. They just want to seize on its assets, get personally rich, and then fuck off.

The big-money assets of Star Trek are not the lovingly-maintained franchise that has been relatively consistent in quality for 60 years and across multiple productions OR the expanding of a fictional universe into exciting new frontiers, but (a) Spock, (b) the USS Enterprise, (c) the words "Star Trek," (d) maybe Klingons, (e) maybe Captain Picard. Those are the elements of Star Trek with the most mainstream cultural cache. That's why Discovery had to be a prequel: so that you can get Spock and the Enterprise into it no matter how artistically awkward and creatively undesirable that is.

Once you're in a prequel, you have to know your canon. The asset strippers like Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, and (sorry to say it) Patrick Stewart don't know their canon and they don't care.

To my mind, this isn't just a case of producers putting business over creative integrity: in the arts under capitalism, you obviously need a degree of creative integrity else your product won't shift. But they're not primarily interested in shifting product. They just want to leach the property dry for their own personal gain until it is gone.

That (in my opinion) is why they're writing in the established setting with no knowledge of/respect for the constraints. Because that's ultimately not the game they're playing or the business they're in.

Burp!

[Wonderful Butternut]

Yeah Mobbd, I agree. Asset stripping is probably a good way of putting it.

Funnily enough, PatStew went on about Picard the character not being the same as in TNG before PIC dropped. He's actually closer to TNG Picard (apart from the stupid beret, eyepatch and exaggerated accent bit - but that whole episode was a train wreck on every level) than literally anything else in the series is to classic Trek. Apart maybe from Riker, but he was only in it for one episode.

Just about lost the will to live sitting through that. Fucking atrocious.
I think that might be me done with it. Uninteresting stories, uninteresting characters and just no point to the whole thing. The Burn, Control, MU, Klingon War all shit stories poorly executed and at times appallingly acted.

Hmm... should I read Malcy's spoilers or not since I won't get to watch the ep until Friday?

Actually, it's probably not going to fundementally impact my enjoyment of the episode, so yeah, I'll read them.

*2 minutes later*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIgfiSzCy1o&ab_channel=blackmetaldragon

What the fuck are these people doing to themselves?

[Malcy]

Forgot the only other good bit of this was

Spoiler alert

The man who was holding out hope for the Federation manning an outpost alone finally getting to HQ and getting a Lieutenant's commission.

[close]

[surreal]

Wow, that was just rubbish.  If they want to make random ridiculous sci-fi they should call it something else cos it's not Trek. The science may as well just be hand-wavy magic and the whole shit about detaching the nacells was clearly just a device to get to that one part of the finale (as well as allowing Book's shit to do that stupid transforming while flying through debris fields).  The amount of history and baggage that Trek brings with it means all of it makes less and less logical sense in the universe, but the comments upthread about asset-stripping are spot on.  Gone is the hopeful utopian future as someone decided they had to make it "relevant", but it's just all heavy-handed.

And Michael "nothing happens without me" Burnham can fuck the fuck off, which is a shame as I don't dislike the actress.  I miss Georgiou, and hope that the Section 31 show is good as I won't be bothering with this any more.