Star Trek: Discovery

[Pinsir]

So some think DS9 might show up next episode given that it's fairly close to the Badlands (and also the Cardassian border, although I think it's unclear whether Cardassia is now part of the Federation. There is of course Rillak but she's just one person).

This wouldn't surprise me. I just got access to a Paramount membership and watched all the episodes and this series had a lot of 'memberberries' to it. The season starts with with a reference to the TNG panspermia episode and each episode seems to have a call back to something; Breen, Mirror Universe, Trill, Denobulans, Betezoid, Soong Android etc. Star Trek normally has far more OC aliens in a season. Admittedly, I was more eager to watch this series when I learned the Breen were in it, but at the same time, I thought it would be like this as well. The last season of Enterprise also had a lot of callouts to other shows.

I do think this season is pretty good, even if the plot is exceptionally video game-y;a plot where you find the 6 Crystal Star/Elements/Triforce Pieces what video games do.

[ChrisIII]

The precursor tech also seems to be treated a bit like the Genesis technology, like if it gets in the wrong hands...despite no indications what it necessarily is (While Genesis had a fairly detailed description).

The term "power of creation" is also used, which Kirk used to describe it as well.

[Anthony W]

The Breen feel very "Klingon Lite" to me

It feels like the show runners told the actress who plays Moll to "Let the raccoon eyeliner do all the acting" and it shows.

The head archivist felt very "California" to me. It was distracting.

Why did Burnham have to go on the away mission? It's the final season, we know that she is the star. It wouldn't hurt go see someone else do this quest.

Tig Notaro continues to steal paychecks by not making any attempt to act.

Raynor continues to be solid.

And talking about feelings saves the day?! Never change Discovery.

[ChrisIII]

Efrosians (Species Hy'rell is) always kind of look sort of like Klingons but with fancier hair. It was a bit of an odd visual choice to have Kurtwood Smith's president be one in Star Trek VI, although the film is full of very different looking Klingon haircuts like Chang, Gorkon etc. so he does look more distinct. Although some sources had him be Deltan, which would also be a very different cut!

Seems I'm not the only one who made that connection, as it seems to show up on some message boards. The Federation First 150 years book also seems to have a bit of a funny aside, revealing they were subjects of the Empire at one time.

[Deathstroke]

I know that there are male and female Breen, but is it me or do they just come off as a bunch of incels in desperate need of getting laid?

[80sbaby]

I don't really see how they're incels at all? I'd also say they're a bit more intense than Klingons.

[BeastieRunner]

I don't really see how they're incels at all? I'd also say they're a bit more intense than Klingons.

I don't see the incel parallel at all, either.

Same with Klingons.

Just being a warmongering race doesn't mean they're Klingon-esque.

[ChrisIII]

Any thoughts on the finale? BTW Calpyso is kind of explained, at least a little bit.

[kidfresh512]

I just finished it. I thought overall it was a good series finale I would say. It felt rather long though but I let it go because finale. It could have used some editing though there was some drag as an episode taken alone. Only criticism I suppose is the same that some had the whole series. The extreme focus on Burnham. I mean I didn't hate it but there did feel like she had 30 minutes of runtime where it seemed like ONLY her.

[ChrisIII]

Think it wasn't originally intended to be a series finale and stuff like the coda and other scenes were incorporated during reshoots.

Kind of funny that this was yet another Trek series finale where we see an older version of the captain, although in the case of TNG and VOY they were alternate futures which were averted and the Enterprise finale the time skip was so minimal there wasn't even any need to change the makeup.

I kind of wonder if we'll see this with LOWER DECKS. Maybe what the Cerritos did during the big Borg attack twenty years later.

Guess Kovich must have gotten some face alteration since David Cronenberg doesn't really resemble Matt Winston that much...or his time agents have tech or biology similar to another scif-fi time traveler....

[BeastieRunner]

- The creators being created was not the twist I was expecting

- Doc has powers?

- Like Enterprise, this show got good and found it's footing in the end.

- Saru is the best poker player since Data in ST history

- It's a finale! Time to separate the saucer!

- Burnham got Sisqo'd, eh? No wait, the whole crew!? No, it's gonna be Burnham.

- I liked the spore drive takeout of the dreadnought

- Didn't think the sudden turns of Mal and cap ... They were not earned. Felt like a comic book super hero team up with a villain. Too many trust/betray/trust/betray. Wish Burnham took the buffer and smashed it or had it as leverage.

- Too much much Shakey cam

- Booker helping like a good boy felt a bit OOC, thought he'd steal a ship or something

- They didn't Shaw the new number one, I grew to like him after episode 5 & 6. Thought his locale teleport of the Breen was clever (the GB, not the whole spore thing)

- Episode was overly long, felt like it should've ended at the one hour mark, still half an hour go ... Too much wind down

- Wait, cap is giving up the power? Felt too expected to me.

[ChrisIII]

The Michael/Moll fight was kind of a bit corny, looked like something out of a Superman or Matrix film with the flying bit, and then going into Revenge of the Sith/Star Trek III with the volcanic part.

Was half expecting Michael to say "I have had...enough of...you!"

Michael timing her jump out of one of the worlds to coincide with the hurricane winds stirring up seems like a strategy out of a video game.

Culber suddenly remembering part of the knowledge of the Trill scientist at the right moment with the music swelling up a bit kind of reminded me a bit of "Use the force, Luke!"

[Anthony W]

I have never hit fastforward so much. I want to say that this episode should have been an hour long but even that felt too long. This episode thought that cranking up the music would all of a sudden make me care about characters that the show did absolutely nothing to make us care about in the five whole seasons it was on the air.

[Jokerz79]

So, it's over. To be clear I like the Kelvin Movies, I like Lower Decks, I like Prodigy, I liked most of Picard (1st season was mediocre, 2nd season started off good and went off a cliff, and season 3 was Fantastic), and I like Strange New Worlds.

Going to be honest never watched Seasons 3 or 4 saw clips and unbiased season breakdowns and nothing made me want to watch them. Of the 1st 2 seasons which I watched all episodes the only episodes I ever really somewhat liked were New Eden, If Memory Serves, and Magic Makes the Sanest Man Go Mad. Of Season 5 I watched Red Directive, Face the Strange, Mirrors, & Life Itself and found them all ok and leagues better than what I saw in the previous seasons.

The Finale Life Itself while not as good as PIC Vox/Last Generations, TNG's All Good Things, DS9's What You Leave Behind, or even VOY's Endgame IMO it's better than ENT's These are the Voyages.

Speaking of ENT I will defend its earlier seasons while season 4 outside of the Finale is one of my favorites in all of Trek Season 1 and 2 which seems to get all the hate are pretty darn good with season one having some great episodes like Andorian Incident, Shadows of P’Jem, Cold Front, and Shuttle Pod One and some really good episodes like Broken Bow Part 1 and 2, Fortune Son, Acquisition, Fallen Hero, Detained, Fusion, and Shockwave and the rest being fine. Season 2 has episodes like Carbon Creek, Minefield, Stigma, Judgement, Regeneration (One of the best Borg episodes), and the Expanse these season IMO are better than anything DISCO ever produced. That's the bonus to episodic television vs season long story arcs episodic allows gems to come through even if the season overall isn't great. TNG Season one gets a lot of hate and deserves some it has some real low points for not just the show but the franchise, but it also has the Battle, Conspiracy, Too Short a Season, 1001001, the Big Goodbye, Datalore, Heart of Glory, and Symbiosis to name some. I think the season long story arc type of storytelling hurt DISCO and I'm happy SNW has gone back to an episodic format which allows for individual stories to shine more.

I keep Star Trek as a background "Noise" on my tv when I'm not watching anything with the Pluto App I either have on DS9, VOY, TOS, or TNG if they offered ENT, I'd have it too. I go back to those shows and I can see myself one day going back to Picard seasons 1 and 3, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange new Worlds but if honest I doubt, I'll ever watch DISCO again.

[Pinsir]

I checked through the other seasons of DISCO to gauge how many episodes were left, so with all other seasons having more than 10 episodes the last I didn't actually expect this to be the series finale. I wasn't really sad when it ended. I had actually watched stopped watching the show after Season 2, which, until Star Trek Picard S1 and S2, I considered to be the worst season of Star Trek. I did eventually get around to watching the show and like S3 and S4 just to 'watch all of Star Trek' and I do think it improved significantly, but the characters never hooked with me in the same way as other tv shows.

Here are some thoughts
• Making Micheal the secret sister of Spock was a disaster. You immediately had Mary Sue accusations thrown at the character and its a transparent way of trying to make a character important from the get go. Considering this plot point was basically dropped in the latter seasons, in hind sight it seems like a particularly stupid move and handicapped the shows identity from the get go. I have to imagine that the initial production problems the show had was the result of the studio trying to shoehorn that relationship to exist
• I think comparisons can be made between Discovery and the Star Wars Sequel trilogy, to Discovery's benefit ironically, DISCO at least ended positively. The series underwent such major shifts between seasons that its hard to believe they were written by the same people (and I get the feeling it was). Season 1 and 2 tries to be a gritty war drama and 3-5 is all about love and emotions. Its bizarre
• Original Series pandering is likely over. I know this is a strange thing to say when BNW is still going on, but when that show wraps up we that'll be the end of it. Future shows will lean more into the TNG era, in fact they already are with Picard and Lower Decks. The old execs who think OS = Star Trek are retiring and TNG has proven to be more lucrative. This season had a bunch of TNG references for that reason
• The Elon Musk pandering is a major black mark on the franchise as a whole. He's a reactionary white supremacist, anti-LGBT bigot who has used popular media like Star Trek and Marvel to bolster his celebrity. The problem with Elon Musk too is that he exposes one of the major problems with sci-fi like Star Trek; it primes people to expect anything is possible. So when Elon Musk postures himself as offering the future people fall for it.
• The epilogue was strange. I don't know how you can justify dumping a sentient ship in the middle of nowhere all so it lines up with a Short Trek that most people probably forgot. Its been revealed that the 6th series was going to connect to that Short Trek, but in the streaming era, you don't get series that go for that long. If that's the story you wanted to tell...you should have told it.
• The Best Season was 4 and I think it could have easily served as the series finally had this season swapped. Season 3 was spoiled by a dumb reason for the Burn taking place and season 5 had a lot of video game logic to it, but as overall better than 3 too. Season 1 had a lot of good individual episodes, but was hampered by its edginess imo and Season 2 was mostly bad. I have a strong dislike for evil A.I. plots in media and this season is made all the more unoriginal when Picard S1 shamelessly did the exact same storyline