If you guys really want, I can go back and re-watch the episode to give you every example of bad writing. I get that I'm doing a poor job expressing it.
That said.....why? I mean, I don't need you guys to think it's bad writing. I am happy you're all enjoying it. In fact, if you think the writing is great, I'd hate to challenge that. And I don't want you guys trying to prove why the writing is good or why, if it's bad, that's okay because other things have been bad too.
Up to you. My complaints about the writing, however, can be (maybe poorly) summarized as such...
1) The characters are largely speaking to the audience and not each other. In that, this isn't what they would say to one another, it's just a lazy way of hand feeding the audience info.
2) Many of the decisions are simply to be cool and not be logical. The Romulan death troops or whatever show up in that chick's apartment, kill the dude with a knife and have a cool fight. We all think it's cool and never stop to wonder why the hell they threw a knife at a dude when they have blasters. Who the hell is throwing knives for anything other than dramatic effect? There's a lot more of those, but that's just the one I immediately thought of.
3) It's all plot and very little character. The only character that is shown to be an actual character is Picard, and that's only cause Patrick Stewart is the god damn man, and the current writers are simply importing 30 years of established character into him. Shows that are all plot are, to me and maybe me alone, much less interesting and much more forgettable. We like the characters thus far because they found good actors, but the story rarely has anything to do with character moments and is almost 100% plot driven, which isn't very interesting to me and is the sign of lazier writing, since really, any of us can do a fine job writing plot twists.
I was thinking about something else, and again this is NOT to make anyone think any less of the show, so no need to try to destroy the argument or prove it wrong. But looking at various documentaries about Star Trek or fans or what have you, there's a recurring trend of inspiration. We have doctors, engineers, naval officers, astronauts, technicians, etc, that became those things BECAUSE different incarnations of Star Trek inspired them. It was inspirational. It was never JUST entertainment. It gave a lot of people hope for a better future and sparked a fire to bring that future about, even if in some small way.
But these new shows? The JJ Verse and after? It's entertainment and entertainment only. I doubt you'll see too many people being inspired to change their lives or have life altering realizations about themselves, the world, and humanity from Star Trek 2009, or Into Darkness, or Discovery. They're all trying to be a blend of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. The problem is, Star Trek had a distinct voice which it doesn't have so much anymore. I love Battlestar and I like Star Wars. I don't need Star Trek to be like those things, I already have those things.
Again, this is just my perspective. Not trying to change anyone else' perspective. The show isn't bad or anything, I just think the writing is lazy and subpar and could be so much better given how fantastic of a cast they have. I'll watch it til the end and hope it gets better and continue to enjoy Patrick Stewart if nothing else.
And just to reiterate one last time, I do not hold previous versions of Star Trek as perfect or anything near it, so pointing out that other shows had bad episodes has absolutely no impact on what I'm trying to say at all.
Topic: Star Trek: Thread Space 9 (Read 276903 times)
