Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Star Trek:Discovery

Didn't see one for this, so if there is, lemme know so I can get rid of this.

What I could find out for my wife is that it is set in the Original Trekverse, about 10 years before Enterprise. Story focus is on a minority woman that is the "number one". And you gotta pay to see it. 13 eps for the first season, and that's all they want to do, with a through line instead of episodic.

Anyone got anything else?

Here you go, Rick. Hope this helps:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Discovery

Death, taxes, and Wikipedia.

Seriously. Well, OK, half-serious.

BTW, I didn't know Carol was a Trek fan. Although I remember you mentioning in earlier posts that she's a fan of "V", and of horror movies. Has she ever considered joining LW? We may have more female members than any other set of comics/pop culture forums, but IMHO there can never be too many.

She's a huge fan of Trek. More than me by far. Hate to say it but both trek and wars are just "meh" for me. Legion was first and better.

And she was actually gonna join under an assumed name when we were first pregnant but decided that she had her places on the net and that Legionworld was mine. I had no problem with her joining, but comics aren't really her thing...though she did like the walking dead stuff.

And thanks for the link.

You're very welcome, Rick.

And no worries on your dislike of Trek and Wars. I think most of us Legion Worlders are contrary about at least one pop-culture sacred cow. Have you seen what I was saying earlier today in Gy'mll's about "Lost"?

Please tell Carol, though, that there is at least one female member of Legion World who is fond of quoting Diana, the lead villainess from "V," especially:

"She *will* be converted, damn her!"

Carol will know exactly what I mean.

So tell me if this is a (SPOILER) plot summation fo the first two episodes of the new Star Trek or the talking points for a Trump Rally?

Our enemies are ideological zealots, resolute in their desire to attack us. Our multiculturalism and diplomacy have made us weak and vulnerable. If we are going to survive we need to get tough, shoot first and answer their violence in kind.

Doesn't sound much like Roddenberry does it?

Looks like I'm not missing out on much by not watching this.

What he said.

Time to put Trek in mothballs for a few years, IMHO.

I asked the biggest Trek fan I know, and he agreed with this summation of the first two episodes. But he thinks the story of Discovery is going to be them realizing this knee-jerk reaction was wrong. I guess time will tell whether he's onto something, or it's just wishful thinking.

Unfortunately I'm finding it hard to share that optimism, when the episode shows the Federation sticking to it's ideals of diplomacy, but it clearly comes across as dithering and blindness, while the main character is arguing that they need to strike first. She's ignored and disaster strikes as the Klingons all but wipe out the Federation forces offering peace (twice). The editorial slant of the show clearly indicates Michael's instincts were right and ignoring her resulted in disaster.

Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. It's hard to imagine Bryan Fuller creating that. I wonder how much it changed between him leaving and what hit the screen?

Roddenberry's Klingons were just confrontational for confrontation's sake. A straw man bad-guy, and, unintentionally, a racist one at that. And it's hardly like classic Trek couldn't be all jingo-istic, at times, with the episode about the 'Coms' and the 'Yangs,' or the one where the 'Sun-worshippers' turned out to be worshipping the 'Son of God.'

Next Generation and Deep Space Nine fleshed them out, big time, and yet also muddied the waters in that we got a lot of point of view on Klingon culture from Worf, who grew up reading about it, but not actually living it, and when he did encounter it, was *consistently* disappointed by all the poisoning, assassination, allying with Romulans, betraying allies and breaking treaties the hot second it was convenient, etc. that was going on, in flagrant violation of everything he'd grown up believing about his 'honorable' race. Worf, at times, seemed about as reliable a narrator on all things Klingon as Chekov was on all things Russian.

This new interpretation of the Klingon's has them divided into squabbling houses, and in decay/decline, and some charismatic leader uniting them by painting some 'Other' who is literally no threat to them at all as the enemy to be feared and hated, and their 'we come in peace' message is tainted as a pernicious lie in a fine metaphor for 'fake news' and 'poisoning the well.' Instead of doing literally anything to make the life of the average Klingon better, or to 'drain the swamp' of Klingon politics, T'Kumva is pointing them at 'the Other' (who are almost literally 'foreigners' and 'illegal immigrants') and claiming that they are the source of all the problems, not the power structure that has so obviously failed them (and which will be perpetuated, despite it's failures, by uniting the people against this Other and blaming it for everything wrong in the universe).

So I'm seeing almost the exact opposite of what you are seeing.

And I'm not the only one, having just been treated to a thirty minute teamspeak rant (to which I did not reply, since I know better than to poke that bear!) by one of my Texas-based conservative MMO guildmates about how the whole show was 'liberal propaganda.' (Which led me to wonder what Star Trek he grew up on, if he thought it was ever *not* 'liberal propaganda...')

Anywho, short version, no, your plot summation doesn't sound much like Roddenberry. But it also doesn't sound much like what I saw in those first two episodes.

I suppose if you're looking for something 'political' to be angry about, you'll find it, in this show or any other.

Is it basically like the Dominion War seasons in DS9 or Battlestar Galatica? If so, I might really like it so please let me know.

My issue is what appears to be the new broadcast model: pay a separate subscription fee for each network: Netflix, Amazon, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Disney, etc,, etc., plus you need to pay for basic cable, plus you need to pay your internet service provider, plus additional fees (coming soon) when net neutrality is repealed.

And none of the content is more interesting than my old CD collection of Gilligan's Island. (A format soon to be extinct.)

You have to choose your social group (again) and subscribe (multiple times) to get your shared universes.

I'm getting too old for this stuff.

I agree that the fee structure is annoying and - in my world - unsustainable. I don't have it in me to pay every company that wants my money in new ways. Hell, I dropped Marvel comics at the first Civil War because I couldn't afford all the crossovers (and now Marvel Unlimited is a more cost-effective option).

As for the politics of the first episode, I see both Set and Dave's views in it. I felt like the Captain and Admiral characters were very much a critique of white liberalism - and I was unimpressed with the heavy-handedness of it (IMO). I found Michael and T'kumva more complicated than I expected, and I still haven't found an easy place for them to sit. I will rewatch it. It's interesting enough for that

I think that TV shows today work better with a through line, rather than a monster-of-the-week format. It works better on streaming services down the line IMO.

So far, it's feeling more like DS9 to me, with the Federation still being a hopeful optimistic group, but the universe containing people like the Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, GemHaDar, Founders, etc. who aren't necessarily so pleasant or idealistic (or, if they are, have ideals completely at odds with the Federation's live-and-let-live philosophy).

I was not a fan of the Battlestar Galactica relaunch, so I'm kind of hoping it's nothing like 'the Cylons have a Plan, and it's to kill 95% of humanity with nukes, and then fart around not finishing the job for a couple of years, for reasons that even the writers will never understand.'

At least when the Minbari stopped on the verge of annihilating humanity in Babylon 5, there turned out to be a hugely relevant reason why!

And yeah, subscription service is nonsense. I'll probably have to wait until the season is done and collected and, if I must, subscribe for a month and binge-watch it, so I only have to pay the fee once. I'm not going to pay about 18 bucks a half-season. (Assuming 5.99 a month, and 4 episodes ish a month, and 12 eps per half-season.) That's silly. I already have cable, and Netflix.

Hulu's another one that I cut last year, and now wonder how I'm going to see Runaways, when it comes out. (I think Runaways is the one that's going to be on Hulu, and Cloak & Dagger on Freeform, and The Gifted on Fox, and goodness, could there be more comic-book shows coming out this year?)

I technically have cable, but don't have it set up. I have Hulu just because of the large number of shows that release the new episodes there within hours of airing. Since ABC doesn't accept my cable provider on their website, it's the only place I've found that I can keep up with my guilty pleasure, General Hospital.

I desperately tried to find a way to bring that diversion back to the topic, but not having seen the episodes, it's very hard. The at-best mixed response makes me unlikely to sign up anytime soon, although I'll continue monitoring response over later episodes.

Has this show gotten any better? It would have had to. Between this and Orville, Syfy is doing MUCH better.

Evidently, on 'The Orville', Lt. Commander Bortas is essentially Matter-Eater Lad.
(Episode Six)

This is my favorite tv show. Besides the Good Fight.

The second half was incredible. All these plots started overlapping and coming together and we get explanations for why this show is so dark.

I think the first couple of episodes were like a BSG version of Star Trek, and I always liked the optimism of Star Trek. But this is a young Star Fleet ... and some other stuff.

The show looks great, the effects and the Klingons.

The show gets even darker but the plots are intricate and there are a lot of good twists and there are few characters that often lighten the mood.

I can't wait for season two and I heard its supposed to be a bit more optimistic.

I'm guessing this show didn't get much better because I've heard nothing about it. Not good, not bad. I don't hear anyone looking forward to it. I don't know, but after about three episodes, it just didn't do much for me.

It being in such limited availability probably greatly limited it's impact.

The beginning of the season had way too much Klingons shouting at each other in their klunky language, for my tastes, but the second half of the season was pretty awesome.

I'm really enjoying this new Star Trek. It's like each episode is like a mini cinematic movie.

I found Discovery to be pretty mediocre. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I'm not going to go into details. The show was just too inconsistent and all over the place. That being said, it's a Star Trek show so I can't wait for the next season lol.

Okay, following established historical patterns, season 2 is doing much better than season 1...which was a freakin' mess. Seems like they've actually established a direction and are pursuing it whereas the first season seemed all over the map, it took too long to bring the characters into focus, and spent way too much time in a language that the casual viewer didn't get. Still not A+, but not tracking at D level.

I generally try to grow with my beliefs as I garner new information and experience. Discovery...couldn't watch the first season all the way through. Second season...really ratcheting things up in a good way. Gets better and better.