there is little doubt that the ds9 pilot is the best pilot any star trek series ever had
This is damning with faint praise
6 Likes
4 Likes
that was a surprisingly good read, thank you
1 Like
I think thatâs partly a product of just the first season or two, it gets better later on, Iâve noticed that catching the reruns over the past year. Adding to the roughness is the alterations in some of the makeup over time, Odo and Quark in particular donât look quite ârightâ when it cycles from the final seasons back to the start.
2 Likes
At this point in this Discovery mirror universe arc I kind of feel like I will enjoy all these individual plot points as ideas looking back on it as a wiki article in the future but man it is excruciating to watch Michael get put through the ringer a dozen ways to facilitate a dozen âtwistsâ. I said it before and Iâll say it again: this writing staff has all these cool ideas for âwhoa momentsâ that I feel like they just donât invest the time to actually earn. Instead of a chain of dominoes, itâs like they got 9 dominoes randomly scattered around poorly drew a bunch of the rest of them on a flat surface, then knocked them down with a gun. Okay this metaphor is getting out of hand.
Anyway the canon nerd in me canât help but think about how if they ever manage to give an explanation for the Klingons now it has to match the mirror universe too for some reason. But everyone in the mirror universe existing long enough to get murdered/murder is also nonsense so thatâs not really a big deal. Jammerâs reviews had an interesting point in that the comic booky mirror universe is honestly a lighter tone than the prime universe this time. And considering most of the darkest drama comes from Tyler and StametsâŚyeah. Maybe thatâs whatâs making me feel weird.
Assuming that Culber and Stamets both come back next season the show has got to do way the fuck better by them. What a bad idea to cloister them both off in this miserable plot!
The Tellarite and Andorian makeup is such a straightforwardly good modern post-Enterprise interpretation that Iâm kinda madder about the crazy Klingon stuff. Really hoping that they are not going in the direction of âTOS Klingons are surgically altered dudesâ. I canât believe thereâs a choice goofier than the Augment Virus but uhâŚI hope they just keep the Augment Virus if they ever bother to explain it.
Turns out David Iqbal is actually Shazad Latifâs dadâs name so thatâs kind of cute even if they set themselves up to fail a narrative in a franchise for obsessive nerds with âinventing a fake actorâ. I will always respect the pure wild ambition of this wholly unnecessary move that could have been solved by hiring another actor for Voq.
I canât be mad at Michelle Yeoh in a gold lame cape. Will never not be bitter that the show isnât about her instead of Lorca but lemons out of lemonade I guess. Kind of hope they donât do some weird âAsian women empress dynastyâ thing by making her related to Hoshi?
Lorcaâs American accent is really falling apart under the stress of the Agony Booth!
4 Likes
Itâs odd that weâre supposed to have a main character in Michael but she is always trailing the audienceâs understanding. Makes for the lurching feeling of being frustrated with dramatic irony and then unsatisfied when we get five dominos in an episode. I think of TNGâs conference room scenes in contrast because theyâre relentlessly utilitarian but also fun because they show the gears turning.
4 Likes
Can I also just say
Like Star Trek has always barely skated by with modern interpretations showing the alien races as having different âcultural valuesâ vs âthis is in their bloodâ garbage or whatever but
Having Michael, a person who the rebels understand as being from a genocidal racist army, come down and be like how did you the willful race and you the warrior race and you the logical race get along, a black woman, doubling down on all the worst parts of it
yikes and barf
7 Likes
Oh my god I thought you were exaggerating. Boy howdy, that moment when she gestures at each of the four major races and says, as scientific fact, their largest stereotypes and how baffled and amazed she is that any of them could work together without the humans there. It reminded me of this scene from near the end of Enterprise, when like, right as the Federation is just starting to become established, the Vulcan high command member goes up to Archer is has this whole bit about how âYou know, the Vulcans could never create something like this. Weâre too cold and reserved. The Andorians are too paranoid, the Tellarites are too boorish⌠only humans could be all things to all people. It is your speciesâ true gift.â Itâs wild.
Anyways I liked this one quite a bit. Iâm really glad weâre still in the mirror universe, and I hope weâre going to spend at least three or four more episodes here. I would love if the rumors about the captainâs relation to the mirror universe were true, so, the more time we spend here, the more likely that becomes. I just think thereâs a ton of interesting stuff to get into on this side, and the idea that the entire ship has to hide its true nature is exciting in a way that shooting at klingon ships isnât. Itâs like some weird inter-universe heist.
The Emperor reveal was cool, I thought. Hoping sheâs commanding some kind of decked-out post-apocalyptic Defiant. I would love if they continued to develop how the balance of power on Earth was fucked up by the introduction of the Defiant and its then-powerful weaponry.
Like you all said, the Andorian redesign is pretty underwhelming, but I like the Tellarite wild-boar look, mainly since no series has ever seemed to know what to do with them besides try to make them look like âthose ugly angry TOS aliens.â Also kind of annoys me how the Andorians have this weird super-low voice. Thatâs going to be pretty annoying if it keeps up. I like the idea of making the Andorians more alien somehow, but just fucking with their voice is going to be dumb if we have to sit there and watch them talk to people for entire scenes in a modulated voice.
I had the Vok reveal spoiled into oblivion by the internet, so that sorta just hit like a dud. I agree that it feels like theyâre more concerned with the next craaazy twist than they are about the pacing or the feel of the show, so now weâre stuck watching Michael go through yet another horrific stress-blasted gauntlet of sadness, with her only relief, and the only happy, healing element of the show, now turned into this ultimate betrayal as her lover turns into a horrible evil human-eating alien orc-demon. I guess Iâm just glad we get to stop watching saw flashbacks every other scene.
Itâs also weird seeing this alternate version of the klingons where they are exactly like the regular klingons, just not cartoonishly evil.
Well, I like the general direction theyâre going in for this half-season. The Saru stuff is great, as always. I like where theyâre stuck and their situation. Thereâs a lot of interesting elements they could develop before they skip back to our universe. I think a lot of this will pay off. Itâs just, thereâs just a ton of shit I donât enjoy between major plot points that makes this show not entirely enjoyable to watch.
1 Like
Re Tonightâs: Discovery
YOOOOOOOOOOOO
Since this show is 90% wild twists I feel sorry for anyone trying to casually read or write descriptions on Memory Alpha lol
The Emperor mercing everyone with a magic ninja star beyblade drone was hilarious
Somehow the Lorca reveal almost (almost) redeems his shitty edgelord, death weapon, bone room ass with itâs context and I am excited to see Jason Issacs completely chew the scenery raw.
I also still gotta figure out what the fuck is the deal with the Buran and who knows about it
Like I forget at this point who all he told that he blew up the ship so the crew wouldnât be tortured, was it just Tyler and Mudd?
Also I guess thatâs why the admiral thought he was a different guy. I guess heâs alsoâŚa rapist soâŚokay
The sensitive eyes thing was real dumbâŚlike I guess technically they actually did dramatically under-light every single other mirror episode (except Mirror Mirror?) so I mean narratively itâs absurd but canonically itâs mostly on solid footing
If thatâs what the writers meant by Culberâs story not being over because of the magic mushrooms then fuck them I guess. Even if he came back to life in this ep, then fuck them for killing him cuz câmon yâall fuckin do better
I am curious if they are going to actually show the Defiant again like they did on Enterprise although it now being âtenâ years future advanced tech is again kind of goofy
I enjoy Discovery and it is a bad show with a ton of potential to be actually good next season if they stop trying to build hotwheels tracks plots. Like every first season of post TOS Star Trek is bad but this show found such new and innovative ways to be bad Iâm just utterly transfixed. And also plenty of it is good
Star Trek Discovery is the edgy, twisted teen fanfic version of itself and I have to kind of do some soul searching about how I am or am not enjoying that
7 Likes
this whole season being written so poorly while also being so aesthetically, transfixingly strange, in such a contemporary way, is why this franchise will never escape the spot inside my brain where i put my affection for Doctor Who
3 Likes
sleazy i really appreciate your posts itt
this is amazing info, thnku
yeah, christ
also just as an interesting note at not even 37 minutes this was the shortest episode of (non-animated) star trek so if you are used to the regular rhythm of trek, functionally it was âmissingâ an act
have they done any jokes to suggest that Trekâs mirror universe is (and always has been) the actual future of our own universe, as opposed to the one in which Khan leads an army of genetic supersoldiers in WW3 in the 1990s or whatever, i.e. the ânormalâ Trek timeline
1 Like
How could they go down to 6 acts from the usual 7?!
1 Like
really ideally just want a seinfeld/lucky star/slice of life style trek with hundreds of acts
3 Likes
really wondering what this show would have looked like just generally, and also from a budgetary standpoint, if they had gone with bryan fullerâs original idea of an anthology series where they theoretically werenât gonna reuse sets/costumes every season.
iâm also curious if whateverâs happening now was the original âimportant event in starfleet historyâ they were referring to as a hook
the best bit of tng was these people playing poker in a post scarcity economy so they donât even bet anything they just hang out forever
7 Likes
Okay just saw the latest one and Iâm pretty sure every single scene was some form of horrible torture, one after the other after the other, for like half an hour.
I like where the storyâs going but god this is bleak
That episode where Mudd killed everyone repeatedly in a time loop was arguably the closest thing this show has had to a goofy breather episode isnât it?
3 Likes
Yeah that was like âoh they could do an episode of Star Trek if they wanted toâ ÂŻ_(ă)_/ÂŻ
3 Likes