STAR TREK DISCOVERY Discussion Thread *Beware Spoilers*

[Hal-9000]

Here's another thing that irked me in the last episode

Remember when Pike contacted the Starbase to check on Spock? Whoever it was he was talking to said something to the effect that Pike was behind the times because he preferred to use the view screen over the hologram? Ummmmm....how many times did you ever see anyone use a hologram to converse on the Enterprise on TOS?

Just more rewriting of the canon.

I relented and listened to a podcast recap of the latest episode. Usually the hosts try to stay neutral as they get a lot of blowback on Twitter and in their comment sections, but for this episode the girl commentator didn't pull any punches

She attacked everything from Ash and the Klingon baby to incidents like you mentioned above. They think the character of Ash will be leaving the series and going with Michelle Yeoh to new show called Section 31 (?) She was especially offended by the Spock story line and brought up the exact things we talked about involving Sarek and Vulcan culture in general. She used your example of how Stammets just happened to have the spore sucker on hand and she hates the Tilly plotline because she thinks it's going to play into a larger idiotic plotline and she likes the Tilly character.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I looked for that book and may have lost it I also had a great hardcover book about Starfleet Academy that contained detailed blueprints of ships, academy outdoors areas, weapons, the universal translator...all done like it was an actual technical manual for cadets. That one is gone too and it was beautiful.

The Making of Star Trek book revealed lots of the behind the scenes problems with the network, some of the actors *cough Shatner cough* and every battle they faced from censorship to writing about political issues of the time. Uhura meeting Martin Luther King is a true story when he convinced her to stay with the show. The network slotting them to Friday night at 10 pm in an effort to kill the show. (10 is too late for younger children, too early for older teens because they would be out at that time). The "10 letter" write in campaign to save the show after the first season. Studio received thousands of letters per week because Roddenberry and two other people enlisted people to write in and ask 10 other people to do the same. One of the first chain mail letters. Also after the show went into syndication how the episode prices increased, rather than decreased (as is normal with syndicated shows) because of the fan support.

One thing that may have saved the show was the writers involved. And also strangely enough Lucille Ball was the head of Desilu before the show was moved to Paramount studios, and someone convinced her to green light the show when it was at Desilu. They were going to cancel it after the first pilot The Cage was made and no one survived that pilot other than Spock and Majel Barrett.

Some other good stories like Spock was 10 times more popular than Kirk, so they believed that's what inspired Shatner to start his over the top acting and delivery, and his later attitude on the set

Yeah, I think I remember seeing those books when I used to frequent bookstores more often. They made some amazing books dealing with all of that. I kick myself for never buying any of them. But if I remember, they were a tad on the pricey side when I was looking at them and didn't have the money.

It's really a shame that the show was never really given a chance to flourish. I know that TV is ratings based and that when it was on the air it never generated the ratings that the network wanted, but still. The show was very far ahead of it's time, so that's possibly one reason it was canceled not once, but twice. I believe that the kiss by Uhura and Kirk was the first interracial kiss ever on broadcast television. And to have a black communications officer, a Russian navigator (during the Cold War no less), an Asia helmsman, and the myriad of other people on the show, it really was ground breaking in so many ways.

I do remember seeing the thing about Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios giving the show a big break, which is very cool. And I remember Shatner being a prima donna but one thing I really do like is that even with the friction on the show, Nimoy and Shatner became fast friends afterwards when the show had been canceled for good, right up until the day Nimoy passed away.

[Hal-9000]

She said usually they can rely on good effects in the show, but the Klingon baby looked like a bad CPR dummy

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I relented and listened to a podcast recap of the latest episode. Usually the hosts try to stay neutral as they get a lot of blowback on Twitter and in their comment sections, but for this episode the girl commentator didn't pull any punches

She attacked everything from Ash and the Klingon baby to incidents like you mentioned above. They think the character of Ash will be leaving the series and going with Michelle Yeoh to new show called Section 31 (?) She was especially offended by the Spock story line and brought up the exact things we talked about involving Sarek and Vulcan culture in general. She used your example of how Stammets just happened to have the spore sucker on hand and she hates the Tilly plotline because she thinks it's going to play into a larger idiotic plotline and she likes the Tilly character.

Hahahaha I like the podcaster and I've never even heard her

As far as the fungus, I don't know if you saw my post from yesterday, but this is the theory I'm seeing on recapping sites in the comments section:

I just read multiple people theorize that the fungus they pulled out of Till is really going to turn out to be Culber, the dead gay doctor.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

She said usually they can rely on good effects in the show, but the Klingon baby looked like a bad CPR dummy

[Hal-9000]

Yeah, I think I remember seeing those books when I used to frequent bookstores more often. They made some amazing books dealing with all of that. I kick myself for never buying any of them. But if I remember, they were a tad on the pricey side when I was looking at them and didn't have the money.

It's really a shame that the show was never really given a chance to flourish. I know that TV is ratings based and that when it was on the air it never generated the ratings that the network wanted, but still. The show was very far ahead of it's time, so that's possibly one reason it was canceled not once, but twice. I believe that the kiss by Uhura and Kirk was the first interracial kiss ever on broadcast television. And to have a black communications officer, a Russian navigator (during the Cold War no less), an Asia helmsman, and the myriad of other people on the show, it really was ground breaking in so many ways.

I do remember seeing the thing about Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios giving the show a big break, which is very cool. And I remember Shatner being a prima donna but one thing I really do like is that even with the friction on the show, Nimoy and Shatner became fast friends afterwards when the show had been canceled for good, right up until the day Nimoy passed away.

I think I told you this one before. There's a picture in the book during an outdoor shoot where Shatner is laying on the ground looking irritated and Nimoy is laughing his head off. Shatner had rolled in some shit and was not impressed

There's some good stories like the budget was slashed to the point that they quit filming outside on locations, giving way to foam boulders and purple atmospheres because they were cheaper. How someone from the UN wrote them during the first season and asked how come in a world with all nationalities, there were no Russian crew members? (enter Chekov), something about George Takei having another commitment so one of the reasons they brought in Chekov was to initially cover the role, at times rewriting scenes just exchanging the names.

Theiss used model train lights on the bridge and I guess there were instances of electrical shorts and fires on the set They had two dudes operating the automatic doors and they would screw up the timing causing one guy to go too far, or worse, catch the actor in between the doors

[Hal-9000]

Hahahaha I like the podcaster and I've never even heard her

As far as the fungus, I don't know if you saw my post from yesterday, but this is the theory I'm seeing on recapping sites in the comments section:

The podcasters think/dread the same thing. I can't remember their exact wording but it was a vague inference about how Discovery tends to have these extended plot lines and do we really want to see them? They used the entire Ash Tyler progression from last season until now as an example. But why does it exist?

[Hal-9000]

Producers have hinted at a spin off series called Section 31 starring Yeoh.

You can look it up but having the evil Emperor of an alternate universe working for a secret club to help protect the security of Earth?

[Hal-9000]

Damn I buried the headline. Spock is now being vilified for having a problem with empathy. It's the focal point behind his incarceration and escape from the mental facility.

Excuse me? Sarek specifically brought Spock up to not show any human emotion, to live only by the tenants of Vulcan culture. In fact, the only time Spock colors outside of those lines is every seven years when Pon Farr occurs.

And yet in one of the biggest reveals of Discovery we find that Burnham is Spock's half sister and that Sarek brought her to live with Spock to...wait for it...develop more empathy.

So what is it Sarek...Did you teach Spock to become more Vulcan or more human? That's just sloppy writing.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Oh, I almost forgot....something I actually LIKED about the episode You know, since we're mostly always just complaining about it.

When L'rell unveiled the 'new' Klingon battle cruiser and it's the ones used in TOS. I've always though the TOS Klingon cruisers looked badass and much more intimidating than Star Fleet's Constitution class Starships.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The podcasters think/dread the same thing. I can't remember their exact wording but it was a vague inference about how Discovery tends to have these extended plot lines and do we really want to see them? They used the entire Ash Tyler progression from last season until now as an example. But why does it exist?

Yeah, I really think them trying to make Discovery 'serialized' like most TV shows are right now actually helps in hurting it. TOS (and as far as I know) TNG didn't do that, most, if not all, episodes could stand on their own. Now I know that TNG did rely on past episodes for future episodes way more than TOS dead with some of it's plot lines, but it wasn't truly serialized TV like Discovery is. And Discovery sure does like to draw everything out.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Producers have hinted at a spin off series called Section 31 starring Yeoh.

You can look it up but having the evil Emperor of an alternate universe working for a secret club to help protect the security of Earth?

Yeah, saw that too. As well as a Picard spin-off that has been green lit and in the works.

I thought this whole Section 31 thing was new, but I guess they made mention of it in 'Enterprise' (which I still need to go back to, I've only made it about halfway thru the first season) and in DS9, which I've never seen.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Damn I buried the headline. Spock is now being vilified for having a problem with empathy. It's the focal point behind his incarceration and escape from the mental facility.

Excuse me? Sarek specifically brought Spock up to not show any human emotion, to live only by the tenants of Vulcan culture. In fact, the only time Spock colors outside of those lines is every seven years when Pon Farr occurs.

And yet in one of the biggest reveals of Discovery we find that Burnham is Spock's half sister and that Sarek brought her to live with Spock to...wait for it...develop more empathy.

So what is it Sarek...Did you teach Spock to become more Vulcan or more human? That's just sloppy writing.

Exactly, nothing about the Spock story line makes ANY sense whatsoever. All starting with Burnham as his adopted/foster sister (whatever she's supposed to be). Like you said, Sarek wanted Spock to be Vulcan and to ignore his human half. And to pursue a life of science and logic. It's brought up over and over on TOS and even on the episode Journey to Babel when Sarek comes aboard the Enterprise as the Vulcan diplomat for the delegation, he's shown as being extremely cold to Spock because he joined Star Fleet instead of pursuing science/logic/meditation or whatever it is that Vulcans do after they graduate from schooling

And even with Pon Farr, it's still a Vulcan tradition, even though it deals with mating and letting raw emotion out. Nothing on Discovery honors anything Vulcan that has been canon over the last 50 or so years of the show.

[Hal-9000]

Oh, I almost forgot....something I actually LIKED about the episode You know, since we're mostly always just complaining about it.

When L'rell unveiled the 'new' Klingon battle cruiser and it's the ones used in TOS. I've always though the TOS Klingon cruisers looked badass and much more intimidating than Star Fleet's Constitution class Starships.

That half second flash looked like a bird of prey emblem on the floor. I didn't even recognize it was going to be an actual ship

[Hal-9000]

Yeah, I really think them trying to make Discovery 'serialized' like most TV shows are right now actually helps in hurting it. TOS (and as far as I know) TNG didn't do that, most, if not all, episodes could stand on their own. Now I know that TNG did rely on past episodes for future episodes way more than TOS dead with some of it's plot lines, but it wasn't truly serialized TV like Discovery is. And Discovery sure does like to draw everything out.

I'm okay with seasonal story lines as long as they're interesting and make sense. It really seems like they have different writers every week and they just improvise the next stage of the story.