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Post by sarapen on Oct 18, 2021 8:09:17 GMT -5
They finally showed Cetacean Ops on Lower Decks. Neat. So was TNG ever actually planning to have live dolphins on set, even as like a one-off thing?
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Post by Hachiman on Oct 18, 2021 20:14:22 GMT -5
They finally showed Cetacean Ops on Lower Decks. Neat. So was TNG ever actually planning to have live dolphins on set, even as like a one-off thing? I loved Cetacean Ops. I also loved how the belugas kept pushing people to swim with them in the weirdest ways possible. |
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Post by haysoos on Oct 30, 2021 23:56:39 GMT -5
Did anyone watch the pilot episode of Star Trek: Prodigy?
I was pretty skeptical going in, but I really quite enjoyed it.
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Nov 17, 2021 0:44:04 GMT -5
They finally showed Cetacean Ops on Lower Decks. Neat. So was TNG ever actually planning to have live dolphins on set, even as like a one-off thing? Apparently it was seriously weighted as something that would show up occasionally when they were planning the first season, though a lot of stuff was.I don’t have the link at the moment but the blueprints blessed by Andy Probert, the ENT-D’s designer actually had a huge chunk of the saucer dedicated to them. Rick Sternbach, another production designer, really liked the idea and snuck it into labels and charts and such, even if it was obvious that time it wouldn’t happen (and obvious that was for the better, whatever the idea’s original merits). I find it odd that Paramount insists LDS is canon—why bother? It’s fine if it exists in its own referential (and reverential, from what I’ve seen) corner. The whole point of canon was originally to reconcile TOS’s inconsistencies and then to make sure a set of constantly-rerun seasons of television were self-consistent enough for 80s-90s audiences. That’s not an issue now—there’s an unfollowable a amount of Trek to pick-and-choose from now and audiences are used to multiple continuities. Anyway I’m glad everybody likes it but I find the show anti-humorous and hard to sit through w/out irritation. Just not for me, even if they seem to be doing the preference as well as possible and keep reading stuff to lure me in. |
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Post by liebkartoffel on Nov 17, 2021 11:47:58 GMT -5
They finally showed Cetacean Ops on Lower Decks. Neat. So was TNG ever actually planning to have live dolphins on set, even as like a one-off thing? Apparently it was seriously weighted as something that would show up occasionally when they were planning the first season, though a lot of stuff was.I don’t have the link at the moment but the blueprints blessed by Andy Probert, the ENT-D’s designer actually had a huge chunk of the saucer dedicated to them. Rick Sternbach, another production designer, really liked the idea and snuck it into labels and charts and such, even if it was obvious that time it wouldn’t happen (and obvious that was for the better, whatever the idea’s original merits). I find it odd that Paramount insists LDS is canon—why bother? It’s fine if it exists in its own referential (and reverential, from what I’ve seen) corner. The whole point of canon was originally to reconcile TOS’s inconsistencies and then to make sure a set of constantly-rerun seasons of television were self-consistent enough for 80s-90s audiences. That’s not an issue now—there’s an unfollowable a amount of Trek to pick-and-choose from now and audiences are used to multiple continuities. Anyway I’m glad everybody likes it but I find the show anti-humorous and hard to sit through w/out irritation. Just not for me, even if they seem to be doing the preference as well as possible and keep reading stuff to lure me in. I'm a big fan/defender of Lower Decks, but I get why it robs some Trek fans the wrong way, considering how that's precisely my reaction to The Orville. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Nov 20, 2021 5:14:04 GMT -5
Discovery is back and it is certainly... Discovery. Is there any desire for an episode by episode write up? I'm not doing EBE for Doctor Who this season so I have space if anyone wants it.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 21, 2021 1:37:38 GMT -5
Discovery is back and it is certainly... Discovery. Is there any desire for an episode by episode write up? I'm not doing EBE for Doctor Who this season so I have space if anyone wants it.
That doesn't sound encouraging. I hadn't planned on watching it unless I heard people say it was a big improvement. I wouldn't mind seeing an episode by episode write up. Maybe if anything in the story sounds interesting I will give it another try.
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Post by Prole Hole on Nov 26, 2021 8:21:24 GMT -5
Discovery is back and it is certainly... Discovery. Is there any desire for an episode by episode write up? I'm not doing EBE for Doctor Who this season so I have space if anyone wants it.
That doesn't sound encouraging. I hadn't planned on watching it unless I heard people say it was a big improvement. I wouldn't mind seeing an episode by episode write up. Maybe if anything in the story sounds interesting I will give it another try.
So, look, I was honestly planning on doing this after you said yes but then I watched last night's episode and... I just can't. Sorry to disappoint. This show is a tonal nightmare, throwing in PTSD, blisteringly stupid characters (Stammets thinking this is the time to bond with Book), heartfelt speeches at the wrong moments and big sci-fi "spectacle" the show just can't land. It's actually laugh-out-loud funny (in a MST3K sort of way) when in order to see the Anomaly they turn on a filter and... it's some blue dots on a screen! Ha! But, also, it's a hard thing to buy everyone on the bridge looking awestruck at. Anthony Rapp remains the weakest actor on the show, so an episode half-anchored by him just doesn't carry any weight. Elsewhere, our nice trans and non-binary people are nice and have nice conversations about nice things and that's nice. The representation is great and I couldn't support it more but there's simply nothing going on with these characters - it's as if the writers are afraid to do anything with them in case they shatter into a bajillion little piece, which isn't fantastic. Elsewhere elsewhere Saru is pointlessly sidelined into the first officer roll (while giving a speech about how great Michael is), Michael is not great then everyone thinks she's great, and there's five spectacularly tedious endings as we check in to make sure everyone's all nice and fine. Oh, and remember, at the end of the last season, where Michael shot Stammets out an airlock while he begged her not to so he could try and save Culber and how that had the chance to introduce some proper character conflict? Well, now it's a punchline to a joke, never to be mentioned seriously again. Off comma fuck. Help us Tig Notaro, you're our only hope. So, sorry. I just cant face writing this up episode by episode. I'll do a season overview at the far end. (OK, to be slightly fair, the artificial gravity getting fucked up on the bridge was genuinely funny.) |
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Post by sarapen on Nov 28, 2021 16:35:26 GMT -5
Did anyone watch the pilot episode of Star Trek: Prodigy? I was pretty skeptical going in, but I really quite enjoyed it. I finally watched it. It reminded me more of Star Wars, specifically Clone Wars, but yeah, it's not bad. The dumb decisions make sense when you remember the crew are just dumb teenagers who stole a ship. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Dec 9, 2021 17:04:38 GMT -5
This week on Star Trek: Discovery - Star Trek: Brexit
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Rainbow Rosa
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not gay, just colorful
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Post by Rainbow Rosa on Dec 12, 2021 16:03:22 GMT -5
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Post by liebkartoffel on Dec 16, 2021 9:57:20 GMT -5
Just saw a still from the newest season of Discovery and man do those uniforms look crummy.  The asymmetry for asymmetry's sake is bad enough, but do the shoes have to look so...orthopedic? Kudos for finding a design that looks equally unflattering on everybody, I guess. |
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Post by Superb Owl 🦉 on Dec 16, 2021 10:12:03 GMT -5
Just saw a still from the newest season of Discovery and man do those uniforms look crummy. The asymmetry for asymmetry's sake is bad enough, but do the shoes have to look so...orthopedic? Kudos for finding a design that looks equally unflattering on everybody, I guess. If they are going to insist on giving off TMP vibes, they should at least get somebody into this look:  |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Jan 12, 2022 0:39:24 GMT -5
I enjoyed the appearance of DS9 showrunner Ira Steven Behr on Cirroc Lofton's DS9 podcast this week. He was ostensibly there to discuss the episode "The Magnificent Ferengi", but he also talked about Ferengi episodes in general, why comedy doesn't work on Star Trek, and lamented that too much media today is written "for the fans". He said they wrote DS9 for themselves and fans could either get on board or not. He explained later that his intent was always to surprise the audience. As such, the writers sought to defy expectations. Their goal wasn't to "make the fans happy".
This is just further confirmation for me that a show like DS9 could never be made now.
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Post by Prole Hole on Feb 11, 2022 11:12:17 GMT -5
You know, Discovery is back, and... well.
I don't think Discovery is the worst Star Trek series. For me, that remains Enterprise, though I haven't seen Prodigy yet. So yes, I don't think it's the worst. But I think it's the most inessential, and that's a bigger crime. Enterprise struggles, but at least it swung for the fences. Temporal Cold Wars, the Xindi, all that stuff - it didn't come together but at least it had ambition. That kind of material probably, to be honest, would have worked better as a post-TNG show than as a prequel, but at least the effort was there. Discovery just trots along, doing its thing without ever really feeling like that much work is being put in. Burnham is Burnham and sincere, Saru is nice, Admiral DILF gives us a bit of eye-candy and whatnot, but it's all so terribly surface and so little seems to touch the sides.
This week's episode is a perfect example - it was competent, a couple of funny lines, a bit of sci-fi plot and it all ticked along with a top-and-tail scene that got us off to a start and gave us a conclusion. But this supposed rush to try and acquire Some Crucial Compound had no sense of urgency, treating this episode, of all episodes, as a light bit of shenanigans was misjudged, and at no point are we give any reason to care. Wooo the strange anomaly is mining equipment! You can see the shape of something there, subverting the idea that this might be a weapon or an invasion, but a) it's tough to care about mining equipment, even if it can wipe out a star system and b) there's just so little weight to it. The revelation - along with the series - just feels entirely inconsequential.
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Post by sarapen on Feb 11, 2022 19:40:59 GMT -5
Speaking of Prodigy, I forgot that it was back and just discovered the new episodes. Episode 6 has hologram Spock except the voice of Leonard Nimoy is provided by recordings of Leonard Nimoy from the previous TV shows and movies. The show tries its best to hide this thanks to sound mixing tricks but Spock's voice still sounds different from sentence to sentence. He ends up sounding like someone was screwing around with a Spock soundboard. I think hologram Odo, Scotty, and Uhura also relied on voices harvested from previous actor appearances but they only had a few lines and didn't give an inspirational speech cobbled together from different times in the actor's life. Check it out yourselves:
Aside from that, the show is still okay. It's actually watchable, unlike Discovery, so just go in thinking of it as Star Trek's Clone Wars series and you'll be good.
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Feb 11, 2022 19:57:24 GMT -5
and lamented that too much media today is written "for the fans". He said they wrote DS9 for themselves and fans could either get on board or not. He explained later that his intent was always to surprise the audience. As such, the writers sought to defy expectations. Their goal wasn't to "make the fans happy". I kind of think Behr’s self-mythologizing here wrt DS9 (they themselves were fans too, and they may have gotten more crap from Berman in ratings they were consistently slightly ahead of Voyager), but we definitely do see the dynamic he’s referring to in the treatment of canon in P+ Trek, and even before in the Abramsverse(?)* films. There’s a sense that fans can be bought off by references, thus Orci & Kurtzmann hanging out at Memory Alpha to give themselves cred. The Abrams films were poorly received by in fandom, so for P+ Trek they declared that all the new Trek would be canon. They misunderstood the problem, though—they thought “canon” meant “good.” That was never the case—“And the Children Shall Lead” is canon, after all, and so is all of TNG’s first season. “Canon” just means self-consistent. That is not just stuff like in which year and which nebula the Klingons battled Cardassians or the role of verterium cortenide in warp propulsion. It’s not a bunch of easter eggs dropped into dialogue and background art, it’s necessary background to provide a sense of history and “reality” for the characters’ decisions. There’s a great exhibition of Trek memorabilia at the Skirball Center out here, and one of the documents is a story outline from the pilot-first season era for writers to go through and find stuff inconsistent with how people would behave on the ship. None of the big spatio-political and historical stuff was around yet, but even on the level of shipboard operations and first contact protocol there was a sense that they needed to invent that sense of realism. Again, canon’s a way to facilitate realism. This has been the big mistake, since Trek 09. By treating “canon” as just better use of references, Kurtzmann is letting his own storytelling shortcomings off the hook. It leads to the sense of unreality—the ships don’t feel like places as they did in old Trek, the universe doesn’t seem to operate under any rules, and the characters are utterly juvenile.† “Canon” and stating a connection to old Trek does not make something good. A good show would have adults behaving in believable ways in a real-seeming universe, whether it’s the existing one or not. Everyone else seems to like Lower Decks but it’s worth noting that it arguably works better if it’s outside canon. I don’t think the (admittedly good) gag of an O’Brien statue fits in the same universe as TNG and DS9, and that’s fine. It’s okay to have a show outside canon that can still play with it. I dislike Lower Decks more because of its humor and the behavior of the officers more than anything else, so as someone unsympathetic I’d be tempted to say that references do successfully buy in fan support, but I can’t be sure if that’s the reason or even an appropriate argument here. I do think that DS9 really spoiled us on the type of show we got, especially considering how pioneering it was in the 1990s. We wanted the next Trek to be a Mad Men, but we got a Walking Dead instead. It’s like DS9 never getting any awards for dramatic presentation (and TNG only at the end)—genre’s still not respected on some level, even as it’s tremendously commercially popular. Given the difference in ratings and profitability between blah science-fantasy-action and the good stuff maybe’s its no surprise that Trek storytelling has sunk to that level rather than built up to the next one. *They were nuTrek (or more derisively nüTrek), but I’ve also seen Paramount+ Trek also referred to as nuTrek, and it does kind make sense to put them all together, I think. † I think I’ve given Picard some slack—really any slack—relative to the rest of P+ is because La Sirena felt more like a real ship and at least Picard, Raffi, and Rios (and Rios’s holograms) mostly acted like adults, even if that didn’t hold true for other characters and the worldbuilding was fairly batshit (though it felt more consistent in texture to old Trek). |
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Post by liebkartoffel on Feb 12, 2022 10:25:33 GMT -5
This essay annoys me, from the blatant reverse engineering of the premise (Star Trek always favored logic over emotions--yes, here are like ten examples I bring up where this isn't the case but I'm just going to declare otherwise), to the confusion of "emotion" with sentimentality, to the insistence of separating "logic" and "emotion" in the first place. Arguably the entire point of TOS, with its McCoy/Kirk/Spock id/ego/superego trio is that the two are inseparable and that "objective" reason should always be informed by empathy and compassion. The entire point of Data's arc in TNG is that emotions are core to the human experience, but they mean something more than just simulated responses to external stimuli, and that striving to be a good person is in many respects what it means to be a good person. Etc. Yes, because he's in a fucking courtroom. The setting defines the nature of the problem and how it needs to be solved. Ignoring, again, whatever the hell the author thinks the difference between a "logical" and "emotional" appeal is--he seems to enjoy conflating "making an argument" with "logic"--just how was Picard supposed to solve this particular problem with "feelings"? Was he supposed to say "Data is my friend and I love him and if he goes away I'll be very sad"? No, that's still an argument, so I guess he was supposed to perform some sort of interpretive dance or cry for a solid half hour or something. But no, despite the fact that he states his case "lovingly and movingly" he still, uh, states a case and therefore logic reigns supreme, I guess.
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Post by Prole Hole on Feb 12, 2022 13:52:29 GMT -5
This essay annoys me, from the blatant reverse engineering of the premise (Star Trek always favored logic over emotions--yes, here are like ten examples I bring up where this isn't the case but I'm just going to declare otherwise), to the confusion of "emotion" with sentimentality, to the insistence of separating "logic" and "emotion" in the first place. Arguably the entire point of TOS, with its McCoy/Kirk/Spock id/ego/superego trio is that the two are inseparable and that "objective" reason should always be informed by empathy and compassion. The entire point of Data's arc in TNG is that emotions are core to the human experience, but they mean something more than just simulated responses to external stimuli, and that striving to be a good person is in many respects what it means to be a good person. Etc. Yes, because he's in a fucking courtroom. The setting defines the nature of the problem and how it needs to be solved. Ignoring, again, whatever the hell the author thinks the difference between a "logical" and "emotional" appeal is--he seems to enjoy conflating "making an argument" with "logic"--just how was Picard supposed to solve this particular problem with "feelings"? Was he supposed to say "Data is my friend and I love him and if he goes away I'll be very sad"? No, that's still an argument, so I guess he was supposed to perform some sort of interpretive dance or cry for a solid half hour or something. But no, despite the fact that he states his case "lovingly and movingly" he still, uh, states a case and therefore logic reigns supreme, I guess. Also, the "favours logic over emotion" seems to rather ignore the fact that Spock, in the final proper iteration of TOS, declares, "logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end". So you know, there's that. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Feb 16, 2022 5:46:22 GMT -5
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Post by Desert Dweller on Feb 16, 2022 10:58:23 GMT -5
and lamented that too much media today is written "for the fans". He said they wrote DS9 for themselves and fans could either get on board or not. He explained later that his intent was always to surprise the audience. As such, the writers sought to defy expectations. Their goal wasn't to "make the fans happy". I kind of think Behr’s self-mythologizing here wrt DS9 (they themselves were fans too, and they may have gotten more crap from Berman in ratings they were consistently slightly ahead of Voyager), but we definitely do see the dynamic he’s referring to in the treatment of canon in P+ Trek, and even before in the Abramsverse(?)* films. There’s a sense that fans can be bought off by references, thus Orci & Kurtzmann hanging out at Memory Alpha to give themselves cred. The Abrams films were poorly received by in fandom, so for P+ Trek they declared that all the new Trek would be canon.
Yeah, I think this is what he was getting at, not just with Trek but with a lot of pop culture in general. He was referring to writing stories with the intent to check boxes to make sure fans were happy and then stopping there. He didn't much get into how he and the other TNG/DS9 writers actually WERE fans of OG Trek and Trek in general. But as you say, I think a lot of what he is talking about here is how nuTrek thinks "canon" is dropping references only at the surface level.
ST:DSC is particularly bad with this, and I think this goes back to what Prole Hole is talking about with everything on the show feeling like it operates on only the surface level. The characters, the plotting, the ties to older Trek, everything!
Yes, I've been wondering about this ever since this Trek prequel obsession started happening. And how the producers and writers seem to always say that a prequel is easier because then they aren't weighed down by canon. This always seemed strange to me. As if telling a story in the future meant it had to be tightly linked to everything that came before? DS9 wasn't. VOY wasn't. Why did this suddenly become a problem? And yeah, I pick on PIC because of its fuzzy understanding of the world, but it isn't like I complain about it more than I complain about DSC. Why do they think a prequel will be easier? Why was DSC EVER a prequel? There seems to be some misunderstanding of what "canon" actually is. Do they think they can't do anything new if they set a show in the future? DS9 and VOY introduced a ton of new stuff. Why do they think it is harder to go into the future?
I'd rather have fewer references and better storytelling.
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Post by Desert Dweller on Feb 16, 2022 11:27:38 GMT -5
This essay annoys me, from the blatant reverse engineering of the premise (Star Trek always favored logic over emotions--yes, here are like ten examples I bring up where this isn't the case but I'm just going to declare otherwise), to the confusion of "emotion" with sentimentality, to the insistence of separating "logic" and "emotion" in the first place.
Wow, that piece....
Um, no. No it doesn't. The DSC characters are too shallow to evoke pathos. Nothing makes sense on this show! I don't know WHY characters are crying over everything. And these great emotional journeys don't seem to carry over from episode to episode. There's no consistency to the storytelling.
It seems like what DSC is doing is the equivalent of a YA novel or a teen soap. Everyone FEELS everything so strongly! Oh, the emotions are driving everything! This must be related to how YA fiction has exploded in popularity among adults.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Feb 16, 2022 17:17:01 GMT -5
This essay annoys me, from the blatant reverse engineering of the premise (Star Trek always favored logic over emotions--yes, here are like ten examples I bring up where this isn't the case but I'm just going to declare otherwise), to the confusion of "emotion" with sentimentality, to the insistence of separating "logic" and "emotion" in the first place.
Wow, that piece....
Um, no. No it doesn't. The DSC characters are too shallow to evoke pathos. Nothing makes sense on this show! I don't know WHY characters are crying over everything. And these great emotional journeys don't seem to carry over from episode to episode. There's no consistency to the storytelling.
It seems like what DSC is doing is the equivalent of a YA novel or a teen soap. Everyone FEELS everything so strongly! Oh, the emotions are driving everything! This must be related to how YA fiction has exploded in popularity among adults.
Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at with the difference between emotion and sentimentality. If the lesson you got from the earlier Trek series was that "emotion is for dumb babies and cold computer logic is great" maybe you just have trouble understanding subtext? Or your sense of drama is turned up to 11. "Why aren't these professional adult work colleagues crying or hugging or screaming or fighting constantly and for no goddamn reason?! Gah! It's like they're all emotionless robots!" |
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 4, 2022 18:23:58 GMT -5
Well, the first episode of Picard was certainly an episode of Picard!
(it was nice to see Q and there was at least four minutes it actually felt like Star Trek)
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Post by Desert Dweller on Mar 6, 2022 16:15:46 GMT -5
Well, the first episode of Picard was certainly an episode of Picard! (it was nice to see Q and there was at least four minutes it actually felt like Star Trek)
Sigh. Was there any promise or potential in this episode that they may have solved the plotting or characterization problems from S1? Because I feel that this show has a better group of characters to work with and a better setting than the other current ST shows. I really feel like this one *can* be better with a few small changes.
However, that short review doesn't give me much hope.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 6, 2022 17:22:21 GMT -5
Well, the first episode of Picard was certainly an episode of Picard! (it was nice to see Q and there was at least four minutes it actually felt like Star Trek)
Sigh. Was there any promise or potential in this episode that they may have solved the plotting or characterization problems from S1? Because I feel that this show has a better group of characters to work with and a better setting than the other current ST shows. I really feel like this one *can* be better with a few small changes.
However, that short review doesn't give me much hope.
I thought it was an improvement (i.e., I think it was probably the best episode of the show to date), though that may be damning with faint praise. Michael Chabon said some things after season 1 that give me hope that they understand the problem, at least. And given that the first season of every single post-TOS live-action Star Trek show has been generally terrible, I'm hopeful that this one will improve like most of them have. |
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Post by ABz B👹anaz on Mar 6, 2022 23:46:45 GMT -5
I am cautiously optimistic about Picard, and enjoyed the first episode. Less optimistic about the "almost all of the ragtag crewmembers from the first season are now in Starfleet" thing, but otherwise it looks like it has potential. |
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 7, 2022 6:57:28 GMT -5
I am cautiously optimistic about Picard, and enjoyed the first episode. Less optimistic about the "almost all of the ragtag crewmembers from the first season are now in Starfleet" thing, but otherwise it looks like it has potential. I think that was the only way to keep the characters on the show realistically moving forward. It makes more sense than Wesley being on the bridge in TNG, in any case. |
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 8, 2022 16:20:33 GMT -5
Well, the first episode of Picard was certainly an episode of Picard! (it was nice to see Q and there was at least four minutes it actually felt like Star Trek)
Sigh. Was there any promise or potential in this episode that they may have solved the plotting or characterization problems from S1? Because I feel that this show has a better group of characters to work with and a better setting than the other current ST shows. I really feel like this one *can* be better with a few small changes.
However, that short review doesn't give me much hope.
OK a slightly more detailed version. Yes, there's some sense that they might have at least worked something out with the characters. Almost all of the minor characters are pushed off to one side - Elfo being in Starfleet is unintentionally hilariously dismissive of him as he gets about six seconds of screentime, which is as it should be - and the focus is actually on the person for whom the show is named. Having Whoopi Goldberg turn up was a surprising breath of fresh air - it didn't completely smack of fan service and made the show suddenly feel like Star Trek again and it made Stewart up his game noticeably. It was great to see a bit of Seven Ranger-ing too (there really is a whole show there, and probably a better one than Discovery or S1 of this) and Ryan is given focus in a way she never really was in S1, even when she was ostensibly the focus. The episode was too long on set-up - Q should have arrived about the halfway mark - but all the anomaly stuff felt like Star Trek, the New Borg Queen was different enough not to (just) feel like repetition, and though it was held back too long Q's actual arrival couldn't help but elicit a smile from this bot. Some of the S1 flaws are unquestionably still there but still it felt like an improvement on S1 while still having some distance to go. Cautiously optimistic (though that was true for the first couple of episodes of S1 as well, before *effusive hand gesture* all that happened. |
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Post by Desert Dweller on Mar 8, 2022 19:14:51 GMT -5
Sigh. Was there any promise or potential in this episode that they may have solved the plotting or characterization problems from S1? Because I feel that this show has a better group of characters to work with and a better setting than the other current ST shows. I really feel like this one *can* be better with a few small changes.
However, that short review doesn't give me much hope.
OK a slightly more detailed version. Yes, there's some sense that they might have at least worked something out with the characters. Almost all of the minor characters are pushed off to one side - Elfo being in Starfleet is unintentionally hilariously dismissive of him as he gets about six seconds of screentime, which is as it should be - and the focus is actually on the person for whom the show is named. Having Whoopi Goldberg turn up was a surprising breath of fresh air - it didn't completely smack of fan service and made the show suddenly feel like Star Trek again and it made Stewart up his game noticeably. It was great to see a bit of Seven Ranger-ing too (there really is a whole show there, and probably a better one than Discovery or S1 of this) and Ryan is given focus in a way she never really was in S1, even when she was ostensibly the focus. The episode was too long on set-up - Q should have arrived about the halfway mark - but all the anomaly stuff felt like Star Trek, the New Borg Queen was different enough not to (just) feel like repetition, and though it was held back too long Q's actual arrival couldn't help but elicit a smile from this bot. Some of the S1 flaws are unquestionably still there but still it felt like an improvement on S1 while still having some distance to go. Cautiously optimistic (though that was true for the first couple of episodes of S1 as well, before *effusive hand gesture* all that happened.
Thanks! I see Paramount+ has a sale going on for $1/month for 3 months. So, I put in a new email address and credit card and resubscribed at that rate. I will check it out over the weekend, along with episode 2. Another friend of mine also said they thought it was a bit better than S1 and seemed to be avoiding some of the worst character stuff from S1.
Still not tempted to try DSC Season 4, though. Maybe I'll check out one of the animated Trek shows.
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