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zonetrope

(he/him)
I think Prodigy is the first Trek show where I'm just going to accept that I'm not part of the target demographic and move on. It seems decent for what it is, but it's not the type of show I would watch if it didn't have Kate Mulgrew or the Trek branding. Which is fine, not everything has to be made for me.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Bit the bullet and subscribed to P+ via Amazon channels to get an actual working player. (Unsubbed Hulu, where we'd caught up on WWDitS, to keep just below the line of "paying for way too goddamn many streaming services at once".) Anyway, Disco continues to be awesome. Loving it. Also watched Wil Wheaton's talk thing which is included just for some more time with Sonequa. (Though as a tech geek who's worked in AR and tracking stuff, seeing the fucking enormous tracked video wall they built as a better-than-green-screen getting put together was also pretty fun.)
 
Didn't the the 2nd ep so much. Still good, plus more Saru, and look at Galactic politics. The Stamets / Book pairing weird. Mostly because Stamets seems like he's been sidelined since s1.
 
(Though as a tech geek who's worked in AR and tracking stuff, seeing the fucking enormous tracked video wall they built as a better-than-green-screen getting put together was also pretty fun.)
For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, this is the segment I believe Kirin is talking about:
If I’m correct, Disney is using the same kind of tech to make Mando and a few of their other shows. It’s exciting because now every third episode doesn’t have to take place in the same rock cave set like 90s Trek.

Didn't the the 2nd ep so much. Still good, plus more Saru, and look at Galactic politics. The Stamets / Book pairing weird. Mostly because Stamets seems like he's been sidelined since s1.
Yeah 2nd episode didn’t hit on all cylinders like the first one did, but it was still generally a good time. I really like the Stamets/Book pairing actually. Stamets has been through a lot of shit and has mostly come out the other side by now. So it’s really wonderful and compassionate that he is willing to just be there and help Book by just being there for him in ways people who have never felt loss as acutely can’t do as intuitively. I’m very excited for where the show is going, can’t wait to see tonight’s episode at midnight.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I'm not entirely convinced there wasn't a better path open to the main guest character that didn't involve killing her friends and colleagues, but I do see the potential pitfalls in other options. I guess it would be hard to trust that the Federation could be totally discrete even if they were benign, but still.

Also I'd been meaning to post - Wist, weren't you complaining a while back about there not being more interspecies characters in future-timeline Trek? Cardassian/Bajoran/Human president of the Federation is quite a step forward there. Seems like we'll be seeing more of that going forward.
 
That was never a "complaint" of mine. At most an observation. The showrunners said at the beginning of S3 that their goal with that season was to move things forward in time, but that they'd mostly keep the aliens we saw recognizable so that fans could have a softer transition into the 32nd Century. A 'some things change, some things stay the same' approach. Reading between the lines, they've clearly learned over the course of making the show that there's loud, vocal chunk of the fandom that has a very conservative mindset and cares more about aesthetics and maintaining a comfortable throughline with the setting and visuals than they do about actually exploring new concepts and ideas. And those fans need to be placated and handheld so they don't freak out and wet themselves just because you changed the way Klingons look a little bit. They also said that after S3 being an adjustment period, that they planned to feature and reflect more of the changes and syncretic nature of how the Federation has evolved over the 800 year gap.

Discovery is a lot of things, and whether or not it meets your personal expectations is ymmv. But one thing it's always been, is a show that has very openly communicated its intentions through supplementary media since day one, re: interviews, featurettes, youtube clips, etc. They've tried their hardest to explain to fans in very direct ways what they're doing and trying to accomplish regarding themes, structure, and how they're attempting to leave their stamp on this fictional universe. Go back to some of the first interviews with Sonequa Martin-Greene, and it's clear from even before the show began, the intention was always to show her character grow and evolve into someone who will one day take over the center chair, and as the main focal point of the show. They've so consistently told the truth regarding telegraphing what they're doing in the show broadly and within any given season, that I've come to trust when they tell us stuff, including their intentions on showing more interspecies characters as the show goes on. Ni'Var and "Unification III" was their test case in S3, and that was probably the best episode of the entire show to date. I assume that gave them the confidence to more fully pursue that direction going forward.

Speaking of the UFP President, I really really like them. They're very obviously playing on the audience's built in distrust of politicians with her, but so far she's been very level headed and wise. It's not hard to see why and where they're going with this. S3 played with this idea a little, but S4 seems to be embracing it as one of their main themes - the idea of trust in institutions and the good faith of our politicians. The show isn't necessarily saying we should trust OUR politicians, but rather showing us how things *should* be or *ought to* be. And so far it's fantastic. Because this is really how things ought to be in an enlightened and evolved future. I've read several opinions recently along the lines of the fact that one of the bigger draws of Star Trek is that it's, "competency porn" - in that it shows a workplace and society where people are just generally good at what they do, and things work as intended, and there's no bullshit workplace drama, or people who failed upwards, or nepotism, or whatever source of incompetence everyone endures in everyday life. And this is kind of more of that, but from the political angle. This is what politicians should be doing, how they should be acting, this is how government should represent and work for the people, etc. I love it. It's incredibly Star Trek, and lives up to the lofty ideals of the Federation and Gene's mega utopia that often get a lot of lip service and praise from fans, but we never really are afforded persistent looks at. (What with the primary setting of most Star Trek things being exploring the far reaches of space, far far away from Federation borders.)

Edit: To tie all of what I just said into what you said, Kirin:
I'm not entirely convinced there wasn't a better path open to the main guest character that didn't involve killing her friends and colleagues
That's the whole point of that storyline, and it ties perfectly into what I was just saying. She didn't trust the Federation authorities to help, and thus a cavalcade of preventable tragedies ensued as a result. And maybe the pre-Burn, or immediate post-Burn Federation would have lived up to her poor expectations, but as Saru said in the first episode to his own peoples - this is a new era. And we can't keep dragging our old baggage along into the future because it'll just keep weighing us down. Had this rogue Qowat Milat approached things better, this tragedy might have been averted. And hopefully in the future, this even will engender more trust in the Federation and its institutions, so long as they keep being good faith stewards of this galactic society.

It's also, IMO, a little moral parable about extremism. She was inclined to approach the situation from an extreme position and to take extreme measures precisely because she belongs to an extremist order whose practices and worldview teach that these kinds of actions are necessary. Within the context of the 24th Century Romulan society, we saw in TNG and Star Trek: Picard why the Qowat Milat and their version of extremism be necessary as a reactionary force against the extremes of normal Romulan society. But in the 32nd Century when Romulan society has been tempered and moderated by their shift in culture and worldview by integrating into Vulcan and the Federation, they're potentially an obsolete relic.
 
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I'd like so see 32nd cent Klingons.
Gone from really devious and Taciturn Klingons, to T'Kuvma's traditionalist extremism, back to cold war Klingons, seemingly ending with death of Chang, then the powerful, but decadent society of 24th century, which vainly props itself up as warrior culture and honourable, but is in decline.

WHAT'S NEXT
 

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Noooo!

I already switched from Netflix. Now they’re leaving Prime too.

I’m just a bit more than halfway through Voyager and it feels like it’s picking up. I really don’t want to subscribe to another service though.
 

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
So, Viacom is finally making Star Trek Paramount Plus exclusive, huh? I've heard rumors to that effect for some time, but I guess they finally got around to making it happen.
 
Yeah, like I said, writing has been on the walls for a while. It's probably less "finally gotten around to it" and more "patiently waiting for current contracts to expire before not renewing them".

This is just in the US for now. Crave will still get distribution rights in Canada for the foreseeable future, as long as Canadian law keeps nuTrek on Canadian distribution channels. I imagine they'll want the EU to follow suit eventually, but it'll be a while until they can get the rights and infrastructure set up in the EU to even merit a shift like this.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
This is just in the US for now. Crave will still get distribution rights in Canada for the foreseeable future, as long as Canadian law keeps nuTrek on Canadian distribution channels. I imagine they'll want the EU to follow suit eventually, but it'll be a while until they can get the rights and infrastructure set up in the EU to even merit a shift like this.
Yeah, I really hope the old Trek shows stay for some more time on Netflix here. I'm really not interested in needing another service for that.
 
snw-cowboy-poster.jpg
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
Beautiful. Maybe this is more in the vain of TOS and TNG? Episodic, with bits of continuity perhaps? Whatever, this looks really nice.
 
Star Trek: Prodigy just wrapped up for now. And I’ve gotta say I’m extremely impressed. This show was just legitimately good without reservation or caveat. It’s marketed as a show for a kid demographic, but it’s just a very good Star Trek show period, full stop. It’s mildly infuriating that it’s prematurely ending. (There’s another 10 episodes they could put out right now, but are holding back for whatever reason.) But it wouldn’t be Star Trek without a debilitatingly anxious cliffhanger between seasons. 😂 I’m very glad new generations of viewers get to experience what I did growing up, even in this digital streaming age

And speaking of, it’s hard not to feel blessed as a Trek fan right now. We went from zero Trek just a few short years ago, to having five concurrently running shows at the same time. And they’re all good somehow!?!? Disco really hit its stride and grew a beard in S3; S4 is awesome. Lower Decks and Prodigy are animated shows that do honor to the franchise and the medium. Strange New Worlds looks incredible. The only show that has any knicks in the armor is Picard strangely enough, with a very uneven first season. But there’s a really strong foundation there for next season to build into something special, so long as they learned from their very easy to avoid mistakes from the first season.
Beautiful. Maybe this is more in the vain of TOS and TNG? Episodic, with bits of continuity perhaps? Whatever, this looks really nice.
If the show runners and cast are to be believed, their intention with the show is to make it much more episodic in nature.
 

Sprite

(He/Him/His)
Paramount's lack of content really is our gain. Once the Georgiou spin-off comes out they'll have doubled the total number of Trek shows.

I don't really have any interest in Strange New Worlds, but I'm glad it exists since the goal behind it seems to be something for people who miss the classic Trek formula. It will take a lot of pressure off the other shows in terms of expectation. The coolest part of NuTrek is that each of the shows is pretty different from the other shows.
 
I'm very wary of Pic season 2. I honestly forgot Allison Pill was in this before I watched the trailer. Didn't she murder someone?
They should upgrade Picard's romulan roommates to full characters, and lose half the other cast.
 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
They should upgrade Picard's romulan roommates to full characters, and lose half the other cast.
Hard agree. They were basically the only good characters on that show.

WTB a show that's just geriatric TNG characters in a Romulan nursing home.
 
I'm very wary of Pic season 2. I honestly forgot Allison Pill was in this before I watched the trailer. Didn't she murder someone?
Yes, but it's not hard to imagine why they're back in action if you've seen the trailers for Season 2. Q fucks with history and makes the Federation a fascist state; all of PIC's crew still remember their old lives though and heed Picard's call to go back in time to fix shit.

They should upgrade Picard's romulan roommates to full characters, and lose half the other cast.
I wanted that. I don't think that was ever in the cards though. I'm willing to bet they'll get killed off actually.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
They really should have addressed what was going to happen to Pill's character at the end of the first season. There is at least some justification, however flimsy, that the mind meld Oh did with her implanted the same AI sourced message that made her fleshy brain BSOD like the other Romulans that saw it, so a case could be made that she wasn't in her right mind.

But they didn't even go that far and just ended the season with her as one of the gang.

And I like Pill's character, but that needs to be addressed.
 
They did address it though? IIRC She talked about her guilt and wanting to atone for her crimes by following the law. That says to me go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 to me. Even if that isn't the case, I have faith the show will explain what's happened to her at the beginning of S2.

What needed more of an explanation was evil Romulan spy guy who we never see or hear what happens to him after he's captured. The head writer insists he just goes off to jail bye bye, but the plot just forgets about him during the climax and he's never seen again.
 

Lakupo

Comes and goes with the wind
(he/him)
They did address it though? IIRC She talked about her guilt and wanting to atone for her crimes by following the law. That says to me go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200 to me. Even if that isn't the case, I have faith the show will explain what's happened to her at the beginning of S2.

What needed more of an explanation was evil Romulan spy guy who we never see or hear what happens to him after he's captured. The head writer insists he just goes off to jail bye bye, but the plot just forgets about him during the climax and he's never seen again.
My guess is that if the evil spy twins plot hadn't gone over like a lead balloon, he would've gotten away to menace our heroes another day, rather than being handwaved into jail between seasons.

I also am not expecting many major consequences for Pill's character, maybe something like "you were brainwashed by a Romulan/Vulcan fanatic, but you did kill your boyfriend, so we'll call it a wash, here's a slap on the wrist" and she loses her Daystrom Institute job so she can continue galavanting across the stars on La Sirens with her new hot captain boyfriend. I mean, this is a TV show after all.

I am overall intrigued by Picard Season 2, still a bit wary, but hopeful that the new showrunner had steered the ship a little better. We'll see soon enough!
 
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