Star Trek: Discovery
 

Season 1: possibly some minor spoilers.

Good stuff, for the most part. I like that they stuck with the arc, instead of each ep being a separate story within the Discovery Universe. Plenty of surprises, willing to end characters. Faithful enough to the cannon but still able to surprise.

Although I did think the series languished a bit after the Mudd bunny ep. I liked the idea of the mycelium universe, and Michael's relations with her father were quite good, but the whole engineer-Anthony being sick and Dr relationship, and Ash-Vlod-Michael relationship was slow and languishing to me. Even the ending eps, despite interesting reveals, the inner ship battles and fights were very cliche. simple and not exciting.

They would have been better off exploring the overall war aspects, Captain Lorca and Burhan's unorthodox and conflicting styles, and exploring Vlog's rise into Klingon politics and religion, and a more elaborate betrayal.

Probably the most 'out of arc' ep was also the best ep, with Mudd the bunny. I see it was nominated for not only a Saturn, but a Hugo. I like these homages.

I don't think the Klingon faces had to be so elaborate and alien, but no biggie. I was a little disappointed there were two aliens in the bridge crew, seems unnecessary. This happens before the Original Series, which had no alien crew except Spock. Glad there are no main Vulcan crew, yet, except Michael being raised Vulcan. I guess the second 'alien' is an android, but she's so different, might be from an android planet. Maybe they get into that Season 2.

Anyone watching the 2nd season?


SPOILERS thru Ep 3

I like having Cpt Pike so far. The Red Angel thing is OK as a vehicle so far, the tie into Spock and Michael's siblinghood is the most interesting part, but that's rolling out too slow for my taste. The Klingon with Ash story is rather blazé. And the parasite pretending to be her dead friend was very Next Gen cliché and boring.

Last ep they reveal the head dude Lealand of the Federation covert org, Section 31, had Michael's parents work on a time travel device, and Klingons find and kill them. Somehow Michael blames Lealand for that? Why is it his fault? Not enough protection soldiers?

In the preview they reveal the Red Angel isn't Michael...

Absolutely agreed - it was for me, by far the worst mini-arc of the show...and the little chick the had playing her was just about as annoying as a mosquito flying near your ear at night.

In season 1, I thought it was actually a good surprise.
Now I'm wondering what will start the war with the Klingons that goes throughout TOS, since the empire has kind of taken a back seat this season.
I kind of like that his human side has "taken over" the personality, but I'm not really certain of his alignment one way or another.

Agreed here too - I don't think it's a whole-season-worthy story arc.

I think Pike has been the best part of the show by far...and is one of my favourite Captains after this. It's too bad he's leaving in season 3 but I guess it was only meant to be a temporary assignment.
Wonder if Saru would be up to the job when he's gone?
Though I believe they'll likely get a new captain/acting captain that's not yet part of the cast.

So latest ep.
I thought the funeral/send off scene was nice. Quite heartfelt.
...don't know about replacing the character with another one played by the same chick...but ok...

You're right, Ash being embedded with the flesh and psyche of the Klingon prophet was way over the top interesting and creative. Seems rather far-fetched, I mean, how much of Ash's flesh was replaced? But Ash's brain wasn't replaced, right? How does this work? It's pretty darn complicated. ::big grin::

I think the Red Angel is a worthy season arch. But I wouldn't be surprised if they rap this up, for the most part, in the next couple eps.

We barely knew ye... ::big grin:: I think it's kind of funny. They totally ignored the most interesting cast member, the heavy duty cyborg, for the entirety of two seasons, besides the last two eps, and then kill her. So tough to really miss her.

Throughout the 1st season I didn't know if she was a part of a robot race or what. Now she's dead. I guess she was human, and her brain was transferred into a robot, or maybe just 50% is human flesh... they didn't really get into it. Could have been very interesting character! But I guess the writing staff was like, we haven't used her yet, let's kill her.

They're ignoring a lot of the Command Deck crew. Which is really rather odd for a Star Trek series. TOS we got to know them pretty quick. And NG they were into them day one.

Digging Cap Pike. I always thought the TOS Pike looked like Chuck Woolery (Love Connection). He's the temp Cpt, but could be made perm. I wish he was a bit more... I don't know, he seems a bit small of a character, I think they need to let him be more Pike or something. It's way too reserved. It's not like we knew the old Pike so much from one pilot ep.

Saru would be the first alien Star Trek Cap. I'd dig that. I'm feeling him. He's got strong moral inclinations -- and that's been the traditional umpf of the ST Caps. But I kind of assumed it was going to be Michael????