Agree with the review from Cleveland. Literally, Star Trek Continues (a fan produced youtube series) has better writers and better plots. This show would not make it on regular TV, let alone get very many to pay for it. Dark, preachy, illogical, and uninteresting.
On the other hand, we have The Orville . Which is more Trek than Trek is. Ironic that the supposed "comedy-drama-spoof" is so much better at understanding what Trek is than the people that own the copyrights.
Well, I think it's like buying a car, BUT, they only give you a set of two wheels on delivery and want you to pay extra for the other two you MUST have.
I think it is like buying a sports car and the dealer giving you the valet key that doesn't open the trunk and doesn't allow you to explore the performance possibilities.
Does anyone here remember the animated Star Trek? The Science officer reminded me of the alien navigator from the animated series. Unless I move to Canada I guess I won't be watching "Discovery" until it's all over.
On the other hand, we have The Orville . Which is more Trek than Trek is. Ironic that the supposed "comedy-drama-spoof" is so much better at understanding what Trek is than the people that own the copyrights.
The word going around is that a few years ago, The Orville was originally pitched to CBS as an actual Star Trek series by both Brannon Braga and Seth Macfarlane, but Les Moonves (CBS's resident idiot CEO -- a.k.a. the guy who also hates game shows and at one point argued about why he wasn't getting residual licensing income from the Star Wars movies, until one of his executives actually told him Star Trek and Star Wars were two completely different franchises and they don't own Star Wars) turned it down.
So instead, the pair took the idea to Dana Walden (FOX's CEO) and she greenlit the project. It's actually not a coincidence that both Orville and Discovery premiered in the same month. Seth intentionally wanted it done that way so that traditional Star Trek fans could compare what he came up with, versus the darker dystopian version of Star Trek Discovery, and then choose which one they wanted to watch. The only thing off-putting on Orville is some of the humor, which sometimes falls flat, but humor aside, everything else in Orville is what Star Trek used to be back in the pre-2000 era.
That said, after watching the first two episodes of Discovery (which was originally intended to be just one episode, but then stretched out with additional filler to separate it into two parts, and I'm sure to force people to subscribe to All Access just to watch the space battle scene), I can tell you first-hand that I don't like it. Even if you ignore the traditional timeline canon inconsistencies with the ships, uniforms and technology, I could write an essay on everything else CBS and Moonves screwed up with Discovery.
The acting/dialogue seemed forced and non-believable. Every second shot seemed to have lens flares and the camera positioned at an awkward 15-20 degree angle for some odd reason. The theme song for the show is not catchy or memorable, and the opening sequence is basically a bunch of 2D blueprints showcasing equipment from the Star Trek universe, which is ridiculous. The terminology isn't even consistent -- at one point the ship's captain refers to the weapons of the Shenzhou as "Phase Cannons" and then subsequently tells her officers to "Fire Phasers". To add to that, the writing staff makes horrible and illogical decisions for the characters and the storyline -- here are some examples:
- The main character Burnham investigates an unknown object by going out herself in a spacesuit, when logically you can simply launch a probe from a distance instead, and we know probes existed back in Star Trek Enterprise, which is supposedly set before Discovery in terms of the timeline.
- Burnham has a "Star Wars Jedi-like" telepathic conversation with Sarek even though he's thousands of light-years away.
- Burnham is able to verbally convince the ship's computer to alter its programming and let her out of the brig.
- Even after Burnham accidentally kills the Klingon warrior on their ship, the Klingons spend an eternity before actually attacking, when in reality, this goes against Klingon culture itself. Actual Klingons would've immediately opened fire, instead of just standing there and waiting for their fleet to arrive in order to deal with a single Federation starship.
- The whole point of the season's 15-episode storyline is that the 24 Klingon houses are divided and this one Klingon is trying to unify them, but for plot convenience, he's somehow able to convince most of them to stand by his side after just the first episode.
- When the Klingons ram one of their cloaked ships into the USS Europa, the Starfleet Admiral volunteers to immediately self-destruct his ship and kill everyone onboard for no reason other than to display a visual effects explosion.
- The battle between the two fleets was so frantic and fast-paced that at times it was hard to see which ship was Federation and which was Klingon.
- The graphics showcasing the Shenzhou traveling at warp speed were horrendous.
Do I need to say more? I think the only good thing out of the first two episodes was that there wasn't any major profanity in the script. Aside from that, about everything else is out of place. You talk about people not able to properly manage their finances, and governments wasting taxpayer dollars on useless things. Well, major tv networks are just as financially incompetent. I don't understand how you can spend $8.5 million per episode of Discovery and manage to screw it up this badly. Back in 2005, it was costing Viacom about $1 million to produce a single episode of Enterprise. You're telling me that 12 years later, you add 8x the amount of money to the budget, and you get an overall worse product?
That was the only reference you made that I didn't have a problem with. At least it displayed some logic and ingenuity instead of just brute force or gratuitous "action". The graphical representation of the final result was cringe-worthy, however.
Watched the latest episode of The Orville last night and the third episode (and really pilot) of Star Trek Discovery tonight, and I hate to say it, but I think I enjoyed The Orville a LOT more.
Watched the latest episode of The Orville last night and the third episode (and really pilot) of Star Trek Discovery tonight, and I hate to say it, but I think I enjoyed The Orville a LOT more.
I really like the Orville and didn't care for The S.T. Discovery series at all. My only issue with the Orville is are they really going for serious Star Trek like shows or are they trying to be funny. The humor seems almost misplaced in an otherwise Star Trek like show. Not that there wasn't also humor on the other Star Trek shows, but this humor seems out of place .
I really like the Orville and didn't care for The S.T. Discovery series at all. My only issue with the Orville is are they really going for serious Star Trek like shows or are they trying to be funny. The humor seems almost misplaced in an otherwise Star Trek like show. Not that there wasn't also humor on the other Star Trek shows, but this humor seems out of place .
I love how they have holographic communication, new technology(using spores to power the ship's drive, etc.), AND they want to remind you that this all happened BEFORE TOS.
It stands on its own ok, but as for its spot in the Trek time line not so much. I'll continue to watch as its a genre I like and better than a lot of the other stuff on tv.
It stands on its own ok, but as for its spot in the Trek time line not so much. I'll continue to watch as its a genre I like and better than a lot of the other stuff on tv.
I'll watch, but I am very disappointed, and do not think this is Star Trek. And after three re-bootr/alternative universe/JJ Abrams b.s. "Star Trek" I was hoping for some comfort food. And totally denied. I agree with that review, the Michael character (and why does she have a male name???) is not a strong lead, and I just don't like her character. Meh...
I'll watch, but I am very disappointed, and do not think this is Star Trek. And after three re-bootr/alternative universe/JJ Abrams b.s. "Star Trek" I was hoping for some comfort food.
So after watching Episode 3, I've noticed even more timeline inconsistencies...
There are Tribbles on the USS Discovery and they have "site-to-site" transporter capability. And again... this is supposed to take place in the prime timeline before TOS (discovering Tribbles) and before TNG (when you were able to transport without having to be in a physical transporter room). And apparently the Discovery crew is working on a way to instantly transport anywhere in the entire galaxy, basically nullifying the entire point of warping to get from one area of space to another.
They should've just not bothered calling this a "prime" series in the first place.
Oh, and by the way, the warping graphics are still horrendous. At least there didn't seem to be any awkward 20-degree camera angles this time, so I guess that's an improvement.
