It's pretty bad. Comparing it to other Trek or not. Writing is atrocious. Much of the acting is bad. Crying Captain crying damn near every episode. Not developing much of the bridge crew over 5 years. Not to mention not remembering their own rules (I remember once they said they couldn't jump while cloaked, and then they did it).
Stamets, Saru, and Georgiou were they only ones that kept me watching.
If others can find joy in it, sounds good to me, but I'll pass thanks.
It's pretty terrible, not terrible enough to not see. The main problem is they made it very very difficult to care at all about anyone. Burnam is the most intollerable captain ever, they barely develop any character at all, and if they do, it's only to kill them immediately after and try and squeeze some easy feelings from us. Well developed characters are instead falsely killed, but ultimately protected by plot armor. As you mentioned, Stamets and Saru are the only really decent guys.
The acting is fine. The issue is the genre.
Discovery is melodrama, something previous series explicitly were not.
See, I’m torn. Because ST often gets weird and goofy, but DIS seemed to take that to another level with some REALLY questionable writing, directing, and acting at times. But that said, the big showpiece that DIS brings to the table - and imo, absolutely hits out of the park - is the pervasive theme of radical acceptance. For all the cringe and facepalm moments that the show has, THAT is a huge win - and in fact, goes to the very core of what the UFoP is supposed to represent both in-universe and in the context of fandom.
What exactly were you missing in other shows that was accepted here (besides wild subordination and actual mutiny)? I have to say I felt somewhat uncomfortable with the amount of emotion they show during their work. I have no problem with the show exploring that, but these people are supposed to be professionals, having them cry during every shift doesn't really give that impression
Personally, I was overall disappointed with DIS. But when watching it there was the occasional moment that I loved. Lorca was a great character (until they did the haha he's actually super space Hitler rug-pull), much of the props, set designs, and costumes were great, Mudd was superb, it introduced us to Anson Mount's Pike and led to SNW, Saru was genuinely one of the most interesting characters in all of Trek, etc.
It also had a bunch of stuff that I just really really didn't like. But meh. That's just, like, my opinion maaaaann.
(until they did the haha he’s actually super space Hitler rug-pull)
My guy, they had him admit to blowing up his own vessel and killing everyone on board. He openly ignored Starfleets protocols surrounding new life and sentient life by sanctioning the effective torture of a creature to power the spore drive. He rejected admirals and went against their orders frequently. He slept with a gun under his pillow. He was shown to be collecting torture implements that are psychotically illegal from the entire galaxy and having a creepy room filled with those implements that also happened to have its own independent brig.
It isn't much of a rug pull if you looked down at any point...
Edit: -
He was also gathering navigational data the entire time and actively punched in extra coordinates into the Spore Drive from the Captains Chair. He then gave a long stare into the camera and said "Lets go home".
He was exceptionally pragmatic in military strategy which isn't so common in Starfleet in general.
The season is also littered with mirror imagery. First time Lorca is introduced is through a reflection in his window. Stamets has his mirror moment in episode 4.
He's also littered with scars, including ones that are consistent with the shape of an Agonizer. He showed extreme interest in someone willing to break one of the biggest rules in Starfleet and used his power to pull her into his reach through some wildly sketchy means.
The light sensitivity wasn't an obvious one as it was a new thing, it was used to canonize why all the Mirror Universe episodes in DS9 and Enterprise are dimly lit and darker, but even that hints that he's not 'normal'.
He also behaved weirdly with Admiral Cornwall who knew him well and she even mentions that he's not the same person she knew.
He actively set her up for something he suspected to be an ambush and then refused to go save her despite risking the ship repeatedly before. Something Saru even questioned at the time.
He's even eating the same food that Burnham is served in the Mirror Universe.
Like I said. Isn't much of a rug pull if you look down.
He was still far more interesting to me as a guy suffering from PTSD and having to often choose between two bad options. There are a lot of ways a character like that can grow and evolve.
It's almost like people throw a fit over everything new for little reason other than not what they're used to. TNG was whined about. Ds9. Voyager. Discovery is in good company. Still Trek, no matter what anyone whines otherwise
Ds9: where's the exploring? They're on a space station!
Voyager: where are all the aliens we know about?
Enterprise: it's been a long road.
With time, they all got their space. (This is me agreeing)
All Trek is equal.
With the exception of Code of Honor and that racist ass shit they wrote for Chakotay
Is there anyone who dislikes Lower Decks? I'd say LD is more equal than the others.
Ok so literally not what you're after, because I do like LD.
However, sometimes it feels a bit too Rick and Mortyish for my taste. Mariner could shout "Wubalubadubdub haha, amarite guys??" and it would seem completely in character both with her and the show.
I guess it makes a lot of sense considering they poached some talent from the R&M team, and LD was greenlit after executives saw how popular R&M was (the same is true for multiple other sci-fi comedy cartoons).
I still like it, but I can't sit and watch like 4 episodes in one sitting like I could with DS9 or SNW.
Yes. There are people on this community who frequently complain about the show. One dude was outright banned because he refused to accept LD as canon or any animated show as canon while being hyper dismissive and aggressive about that stance.
They're out there and they're not that unicorn-esque. They just generally don't say anything because they don't want to go against the grain. Same reason why the people who loathe Discovery are multiple factors louder than the fans. Anytime I said I liked Discovery on reddit I got jumped by every Trekkie who claimed that I clearly wasn't a real fan.
Hello, I am the unicorn. I don't resent LD per se, but I hate "adult cartoons" aka crude pseudo intellectual, cynical humor. I understand other people like it, but for me it is just not real trek, both tonally and the cartoon medium itself (TAS can get fucked as well).
All Trek is equal.
Yo them's fighting words Stamets. Obviously Year of Hell is above all the rest.
Personally I'd put the SNW musical top tier but YoH is a very close second
Great now I have to go watch every episode to rank them properly.
/sigh
Rewatching ds9, the visitor was well done. (It's a tearjerker)
Voyager is the only series, Kate Mulgrew & Robert Picardo will save us all.
Save us indeed. From Robert Beltran...
My main complaint is common to Picard: I don't think the season long arcs were a good idea. I felt like maybe that had enough story for a "two parter" but stretched out to a season because "streamers binge".
I did watch it, that's how I know I don't like it it didn't take everyone else's views and make them my own.
Same, I needed more after SNW and wasn't quite ready for the way 80's - '00s era Trek was filmed. I actually liked the first two seasons and thought season 3 was okay.
Spoiler alert:
But then we learned about the source of the burn.
And then season 4 happened. And then season 5 happened. It felt like all of these were leaning into my least favorite things about Discovery. By the finale, I was fast forwarding through everything just to get through it.
Watching TNG for the first time now and loving it way more than Disco :)
I salute your integrity 🫡
Dunno what show you watched. But I thought it was trash.
Yeah, my only complaints with it overall are the insanely high stakes every season. The format of the show is hyper-serialized by design, so each season is a 10-13 hour movie which appears to make "high stakes" a requirement. Once you accept that and go along for the ride, it is quite enjoyable.
That said, I do prefer the episodic format of SNW and LD.
That’s why I like Strange New Worlds better.
Yeah, which makes the burn story kinda flop at the end. It was a good idea, a resource everyone has become dependent on becomes scarce. There was a lot of untaped potential there IMO, but a great premise. Then it gets turned into this asnine root cause. They could have done so much better. Imagine if they turned it into a tragedy of the commons. A warp superhighway wore a crack in subspace and that interacted with a nebula or something. It was a death of a thousand cuts and everyone ignored it. Maybe Starfleet even knew it could happen but ignored it because that's how they have always done it, and even if Starfleet stopped the cardasians and the gorn etc would still be using dilithum based warp bubbles (excuse after excuse)... Heavy handed, maybe, but more meaningful.
Totally second everything you state. The characters are absolutely great too, but the season story arcs with just incredible stakes are not my cup of tea. Serialized and packaged story EPs are preferred. That said I enjoy it for what it is.
Is discovery the one with the weird looking Klingons?
Yes, the one where I'm 90% sure season 1 is some other IP that had Star Treks skin stretched over it.
But it is. Very much so.
I think a lot of the criticism of DISCO is overblown. It’s definitely a fun watch, but it never really feels like Star Trek. It feels like an action sci-fi show wearing a heavy coat of Star Trek paint.
It was good once I accepted it for what it is and stopped expecting it to be something like what I generally expect Star Trek to be.
That's what a lot of modern Sci fi shows are doing these days, it seems.
Like the "Halo" show. It very much feels like someone took their idea for a show that got shot down, used find+replace to redo all the names and places to make it "halo" and got greenlit. And honestly I think I might have liked it as it's own thing.
It sucks soooo much.
It’s the only Star Trek show I’ve struggled to get through. It became the show I put on in the background while I was ironing my laundry.
I’ve watched everything else except Enterprise and Prodigy.
Stamets is one of the better parts of the show, though.
Enterprise is a little campy but really awesome.
I thought Disco was pretty good, but it kept diverging further and further from what feels like Star Trek
I thought it got closer over time. Season 1 tired maybe a bit too hard to feel "new and fresh", but they reined it in a lot later on. I mean, obviously bringing the SNW Enterprise crew in for Season 2 was a bit of a mission statement, but the entire back half of the show is all about getting back to Trek status quo.
Care to elaborate? Didn't watch it yet, this is an honest question.
Discovery is very divisive among viewers. People seem to really like it or really hate it with not much in between. Both sides have valid arguments, but people forgot there is a middle ground.
I thought this was about the discovery channel... and didn't understand anything from the comments
My personal highlight in DIS was the start of S3, when Burnham amd Book were cruising around with his ship. I thought "Yeah, that could be nice. Star Trek that's not playing on a Federation ship? That could be a nice change of pace". Then two episodes later they abandonded that and returned to the same old.
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