Star Trek: Thread Space 9

[soupytwist]

Watched it. Say it, Soupy.

Killing a main character - It doesn't help that Hemmer was a good and unique character! I just don't get it.

[DoctorAction]

Watched it. Say it, Soupy.

Killing a main character - It doesn't help that Hemmer was a good and unique character! I just don't get it.

Agreed. I wish they hadn't killed him.

I HATED the over-emotional funeral/loss parts in Discovery. You can only do that if you've earned it and built up attachment fl in the audience. In Disco's case, they didn't fulfill that criteria in the slightest, afaic.

In this case, I thought the scene itself was handled well, and I liked the character a lot.

What was the last 10 seconds UK thing you mentioned, out of interest?

[soupytwist]

What was the last 10 seconds UK thing you mentioned, out of interest?

Uhura walking onto the bridge looking at the comms desk complete with the incoming calls noise from ToS - because she'd found where she belonged.  With Nichelle's passing a couple of days ago it felt really poignant.

[DoctorAction]

Got it.

[DoctorAction]

Another thing about SNW - I love the Spock/Chapel thing.

[soupytwist]

Another thing about SNW - I love the Spock/Chapel thing.

I think they are the two best characters.  I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike - maybe they are trying to make him too likeable?

[gmillerdrake]

I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike

Will respectfully disagree with you on this one. If not for Pike/Anson Mount SNW's doesn't work. He elevates the show to a new level and everyone else (actors) feed off his awesomeness.

[Adami]

Another thing about SNW - I love the Spock/Chapel thing.

I think they are the two best characters.  I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike - maybe they are trying to make him too likeable?

Well, I will disrespectfully disagree you chav, manky, pikey, trollop! (Thank you google)

You and I seem like a yin yang on Star Trek. We just seem to like mostly the opposite stuff with a little in common. But you know what means?

[soupytwist]

I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike

Will respectfully disagree with you on this one. If not for Pike/Anson Mount SNW's doesn't work. He elevates the show to a new level and everyone else (actors) feed off his awesomeness.

That's pretty much what happened in season 2 of Disco.  Just think he was a more natural character then, he's still good but in SNW undoubtedly though, but the writing is nearly all about reminding us how likeable he is, whereas on Disco the character was pretty much a blank canvas and it was the sheer awesomeness of Mounts performance that won me over.

[soupytwist]

Another thing about SNW - I love the Spock/Chapel thing.

I think they are the two best characters.  I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike - maybe they are trying to make him too likeable?

Well, I will disrespectfully disagree you chav, manky, pikey, trollop! (Thank you google)

You and I seem like a yin yang on Star Trek. We just seem to like mostly the opposite stuff with a little in common. But you know what means?

Don't tease I know you'll never leave Stadler! 

And know we do like the same things just for completely differing reason!!

[Adami]

He doesn't check this thread, he'll never know!

[DoctorAction]

I'm not sure why but SNW Pike isn't as good as Disco Pike

Will respectfully disagree with you on this one. If not for Pike/Anson Mount SNW's doesn't work. He elevates the show to a new level and everyone else (actors) feed off his awesomeness.

That's pretty much what happened in season 2 of Disco.  Just think he was a more natural character then, he's still good but in SNW undoubtedly though, but the writing is nearly all about reminding us how likeable he is, whereas on Disco the character was pretty much a blank canvas and it was the sheer awesomeness of Mounts performance that won me over.

They do seem to be leaning often on the great Dad/Uncle aspect of his character this season, but I love it. The scenes where they're all hanging at "Old Captain Pike's Old Time BBQ Space Quarters" and he's doing something domestic like cooking or washing up are both fantastic and hilarious. 

[El Barto]

I only got about halfway through season 1 before real life caught up with me, though I'm looking forward to getting back to it. (BCS comes first, though.) I like Pike, but he really does seem to be such a super-badass he doesn't seem real to me. The writers, and AM, are clearly trying to make him the world's most perfect captain. It's like he's Kirk, Piacard, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus all rolled into one character. His badassitude just seems a little over the top to me. Not a knock on the show, I'm very happy with it, but there just seems to be an abundance of "look how awesome I am" going on with him.

Now that I think about it, I suppose it's a function of his knowing of his own demise. It's like Arthur Dent knowing he couldn't die before reaching Stavromula Beta. Pike is essentially invulnerable for the next few years and he knows it. Interesting idea, but I'm not sure it makes for the best character device.

[ZirconBlue]

I don't see him as a super-badass, but just really competent and good at his job.  There's a term I've come across recently: "competence porn".

[DoctorAction]

Finished the season. Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to season 2!

[soupytwist]

Liked the last episode, although it played the time travel trick to ramp tension in a way that was always simply going to be reset, it was still a well written story and it gave us Pike front and centre being the emotional core which helped with the issues I had with the character I mentioned last week.   But there was one major issue with this episode.....the Kirk actor was weak, flat performance lacking the fun and charisma of Kirk and felt way to much like he was trying to act like Kirk than being natural (like Chris Pine did so well).   He also seemed to be too old for young Kirk and weirdly looked like the love child of Bruce Campbell and Jim Carrey.

[jammindude]

Liked the last episode, although it played the time travel trick to ramp tension in a way that was always simply going to be reset, it was still a well written story and it gave us Pike front and centre being the emotional core which helped with the issues I had with the character I mentioned last week.   But there was one major issue with this episode.....the Kirk actor was weak, flat performance lacking the fun and charisma of Kirk and felt way to much like he was trying to act like Kirk than being natural (like Chris Pine did so well).   He also seemed to be too old for young Kirk and weirdly looked like the love child of Bruce Campbell and Jim Carrey.

....and now I can never unsee this.

[Adami]

Liked the last episode, although it played the time travel trick to ramp tension in a way that was always simply going to be reset, it was still a well written story and it gave us Pike front and centre being the emotional core which helped with the issues I had with the character I mentioned last week.   But there was one major issue with this episode.....the Kirk actor was weak, flat performance lacking the fun and charisma of Kirk and felt way to much like he was trying to act like Kirk than being natural (like Chris Pine did so well).   He also seemed to be too old for young Kirk and weirdly looked like the love child of Bruce Campbell and Jim Carrey.

Spot on. Didn't feel anything like Kirk.

[DoctorAction]

We couldn't stop discussing this last night. Kirk is a really odd piece of casting/direction/whatever. Agree that he doesn't feel remotely like Kirk - and the Campbell/Carrey comparison is spot on.

Pike has always felt like an approachable Kirk to me. He does the swagger and sometimes delivers lines that way (whatever he said to Spock when he walked onto the bridge in the future, for example). So maybe they felt they couldn't do two Kirk-types at once?

For whatever reason, it's an immensely bland take on arguably the most iconic sci-fi character ever.

[soupytwist]

For whatever reason, it's an immensely bland take on arguably the most iconic sci-fi character ever.

Yeah that's the biggest problem.  He didn't need to be a carbon copy of Kirk to work (SNW Spock proves this), but he did need to bring charisma to the role - this guy just lacked any real spice.  Sorry to say while the script and his dialog was telling us he was reckless his delivery and performance felt more like Captain Kirk Space Bureaucrat.

You going for Disco season 4 DoctorAction?  I'm toying with starting it.......Adami - Disco 4 better or worst than 3?

[DoctorAction]

For whatever reason, it's an immensely bland take on arguably the most iconic sci-fi character ever.

You going for Disco season 4 DoctorAction?  I'm toying with starting it.......Adami - Disco 4 better or worst than 3?

I've no plans to, currently. I started the first episode a while back but switched it off halfway through, sadly.

Looking forward to Lower Decks 3 next month, though.

Another thing about SNW. Pike seems to be getting quite a lot of action. There's the captain who was staying over on earth, who was there again in the finale. The alien woman he slept with and, in the other timeline in the finale ep, Commander La'an greeted him with with a very familiar embrace. I wonder what they're aiming for in this regard.

[gmillerdrake]

I'm toying with starting it.......Adami - Disco 4 better or worst than 3?

It's pretty bad....anything Discovery after S2 is just......bad. I watch at this point just hoping it gets better because of the potential that S2 showed it 'could' have....but man....it's....bad.

[El Barto]

I haven't seen him yet, but it's worth noting that numerous times in TOS people made references to how different Kirk was from his younger days as a geeky bookworm. Given SNW's reverence for peculiar details it wouldn't surprise me if they sought to tone him down quite a bit in reference to that. SNW clearly doesn't GAF about the future, but they certainly do care about the past.

[King Postwhore]

[DoctorAction]

 

[Orbert]

Since there's a rumor that Season 2 of Strange New Worlds will have a crossover with Lower Decks, and also because I've heard that Lower Decks is pretty good, I decided to check it out.  I watched the first two episodes today.

Different tone, for sure.  And obviously animated rather than live action.  But an interesting take on Star Trek.  According to IMDb Trivia: "Alex Kurtzman was inspired to create this show by his experience working on Star Trek: Short Treks (2018). It showed him that there was more than one way to tell a Star Trek story."  For me, the most important thing is that it "feel like Star Trek" to me.  Sure, it's pretty wacky sometimes, bordering on irreverent (or perhaps even crossing that line), but it does still feel like Star Trek.  I enjoyed the two episodes I've seen so far.

[soupytwist]

Not a huge Lower Decks fan.  It occasionally knocks out a decent episode, but it's not really for me.  It's way to wacky and hyper in it's characters, dialog, plot and physics to be  Trek (constantly referencing Trek things is annoying too).   But even taken as a animated comedy it's not really very funny, clever or inventive - it's no Futurama or Rick & Morty.  Really don't want a SNW and Lower Decks crossover - unless Pike just shoots Mariner for being annoying.

[King Postwhore]

[El Barto]

Apparently the guy who played Hemmer was blind in real life. Wonder if that's a case for the appropriation thread.

In any case, he might have been my favorite character. Shame to see him go, but his death was a good one. At least he didn't get the Tasha Yar or Jadzia treatment.

I haven't seen the last episode yet, but the season certainly seemed to start stronger than it finished. The fairy tail thing was insufferable. There was way too much with the gorn and Spock's girlfriend(s). And while Pike is not only the greatest captain in Federation history, he's starting to take on a Mike Brady-like appearance as the galaxy's greatest dad. Still like the show, and I'm looking forward to the next season, but it's not without its flaws.

At this point my favorite character is looking like Ortega. Didn't like her at first, but she's actually taken on a bit of an everyman kind of persona as the one character that doesn't have some overly dramatic backstory. She seems like a normal chick who's content to just enjoy her lot in life. Apparently the actress patterned her character after Riker, and it kind of shows. Be good at your job and have fun when you're not working. Not very many of those in the modern ST universe.

[soupytwist]

Apparently the guy who played Hemmer was blind in real life. Wonder if that's a case for the appropriation thread.

In any case, he might have been my favorite character. Shame to see him go, but his death was a good one. At least he didn't get the Tasha Yar or Jadzia treatment.

I haven't seen the last episode yet, but the season certainly seemed to start stronger than it finished. The fairy tail thing was insufferable. There was way too much with the gorn and Spock's girlfriend(s). And while Pike is not only the greatest captain in Federation history, he's starting to take on a Mike Brady-like appearance as the galaxy's greatest dad. Still like the show, and I'm looking forward to the next season, but it's not without its flaws.

At this point my favorite character is looking like Ortega. Didn't like her at first, but she's actually taken on a bit of an everyman kind of persona as the one character that doesn't have some overly dramatic backstory. She seems like a normal chick who's content to just enjoy her lot in life. Apparently the actress patterned her character after Riker, and it kind of shows. Be good at your job and have fun when you're not working. Not very many of those in the modern ST universe.

Both those left because of the actress wanted to leave the show.  It's the thing that annoys me most in modern Trek is it's willingness to kill of characters.

I liked Ortega to the only problem was she a major player in any of the episodes, in fact she wasn't even in the B plots either.  More Ortega in the next season please.

[jammindude]

Lower Decks season 3 premiered. I loved it. It's been bumped from 1st to 2nd favorite new ST show thanks to SNW, but it's still refreshing and wonderful.

After it was over, P+ started Star Trek:Prodigy, which I didn't even know existed. But 10 minutes in, it feels more like Star Wars Rebels than a Star Trek show.

[ZirconBlue]

Lower Decks season 3 premiered. I loved it. It's been bumped from 1st to 2nd favorite new ST show thanks to SNW, but it's still refreshing and wonderful.

After it was over, P+ started Star Trek:Prodigy, which I didn't even know existed. But 10 minutes in, it feels more like Star Wars Rebels than a Star Trek show.

I think Prodigy takes on that old-school Trek feeling once they head out into space.  Yes, it's written for a younger audience, but it has a sense of wonder and exploration that's been missing in a lot of other modern trek. 

[Samsara]

I have never watched Discovery. No plans to.

My wife and I subscribed to Paramount Plus the last couple of weeks and we watched the first season of Picard. For context, I'm a lifelong Trekker. Fell in love with the original crew feature films when I started watching them in the 80s, TNG was "my crew," DS9 is my favorite Trek series. I watched some of Voyager, and a little bit of Enterprise. I liked them okay, but much less than DS9, TNG and the original crew. That said, I did not really care for how TNG translated to the big screen. After Generations, which was pretty good, I thought the subsequent TNG films were worse and worse.  My wife has seen the Trek films, sporadic episodes, and she thinks its all okay. She's a sci-fi fan, just not a huge Trek fan.

I say all that in preface to our reaction to Picard. Put simply - the plot was all over the place. I know some folks likely haven't seen it, so I'll try to be vague. But while I really liked the premise of where Picard was, what was troubling him, and how he as a person got further back to what we all remember, all the side points and plots were all over the map, many of them being unnecessary. The new characters (particularly the one that calls him JL) were all just half-baked and silly to me. The...(again, trying to be vague) "lets throw these folks in there" mentality of the first season was silly. The funny thing is, the on screen chemistry between Picard and those familiar folks was perfect. But it just felt like things were slapped in there. The half baked storyline of the...young Romulan...got introduced, and never really had a chance to properly develop.

Ultimately, the resulting end of season 1, and what happened with Picard was...not surprising. I called it early in the series as events unfolded and that "condition" kept being mentioned and what could fix it. And it made sense. But everything to get there...just so many unnecessary things. I know Paramount is desperate to make Star Trek popular again with the masses, particularly given what Star Wars has done in recent years for Disney. But trotting a legendary character like Picard out there, and then haphazardly throwing in so much garbage (did we really need what's her name vaping? I'm no prude, and have a bad mouth myself, but was all the vulgarity necessary? Trek never needed that before, etc.), it really left me annoyed.

The ending with...Picard's main hangup, I thought was...fitting. But how they got there left a lot to be desired, IMO.

We won't be watching Season 2.

[hefdaddy42]

FWIW, I thought season 2 was a little better.  But definitely still not very good.

[El Barto]

I have never watched Discovery. No plans to.

My wife and I subscribed to Paramount Plus the last couple of weeks and we watched the first season of Picard. For context, I'm a lifelong Trekker. Fell in love with the original crew feature films when I started watching them in the 80s, TNG was "my crew," DS9 is my favorite Trek series. I watched some of Voyager, and a little bit of Enterprise. I liked them okay, but much less than DS9, TNG and the original crew. That said, I did not really care for how TNG translated to the big screen. After Generations, which was pretty good, I thought the subsequent TNG films were worse and worse.  My wife has seen the Trek films, sporadic episodes, and she thinks its all okay. She's a sci-fi fan, just not a huge Trek fan.

I say all that in preface to our reaction to Picard. Put simply - the plot was all over the place. I know some folks likely haven't seen it, so I'll try to be vague. But while I really liked the premise of where Picard was, what was troubling him, and how he as a person got further back to what we all remember, all the side points and plots were all over the map, many of them being unnecessary. The new characters (particularly the one that calls him JL) were all just half-baked and silly to me. The...(again, trying to be vague) "lets throw these folks in there" mentality of the first season was silly. The funny thing is, the on screen chemistry between Picard and those familiar folks was perfect. But it just felt like things were slapped in there. The half baked storyline of the...young Romulan...got introduced, and never really had a chance to properly develop.

Ultimately, the resulting end of season 1, and what happened with Picard was...not surprising. I called it early in the series as events unfolded and that "condition" kept being mentioned and what could fix it. And it made sense. But everything to get there...just so many unnecessary things. I know Paramount is desperate to make Star Trek popular again with the masses, particularly given what Star Wars has done in recent years for Disney. But trotting a legendary character like Picard out there, and then haphazardly throwing in so much garbage (did we really need what's her name vaping? I'm no prude, and have a bad mouth myself, but was all the vulgarity necessary? Trek never needed that before, etc.), it really left me annoyed.

The ending with...Picard's main hangup, I thought was...fitting. But how they got there left a lot to be desired, IMO.

We won't be watching Season 2.

Do what I did. Just watch all of the scenes with Q on Youtube and skip the rest. Like you I have no interest in the series, but putting a fitting end to the Q story was a damn fine thing to do. And it was nice for Picard to finally give him the appreciation he deserved.