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Star Trek: Discovery: Life, Itself (2024)
What was the point of this story?
Having seen the end we can conclude that the last 3 seasons finished quite underwhelming: S3: Osyra was defeated easily and the Burn turned out to be caused by a child in agony.
S4: the C10 just said oh 'sorry, we didn't see you there, we'll stop. DMA reversed and we'll undo all bad things that happened in this episode'.
S5: after 9 episodes we found the tech, yeah! But there's no use for it, so let's just chug it in a black hole. And that dead guy Lak, sorry for him. End with 30 minutes of Burnham smiling, crying and whispering.
I predicted a lot of stuff in this finale: the Breen defeated easily, not a single casualty, Burnham getting promoted to admiral and a very long and emotional epilogue. I yelled to her multiple times to just stop whispering.
That last half hour showed us that the crew didn't matter, we only see Burnham's and Book's future. We don't even get to know if Rayner got his job back. Owo and Detmer were there for 10 seconds, yeeeey.
During this episode there were hardly any surprises, except for the weird Enterprise connection. It mostly went along as predicted. The ending wasn't bad per se but what was the point of it all? To have this season long chase just to dispose of the tech. Burnham becoming it's Stewart would have been the best outcome.
And what was Moll and Lak's purpose? All these emotional scenes just for him to be a useless corpse in the final episodes. Very weird and strange, it all ends with a fizzle.
As a writer myself I mourn the loss of all the great stories the 32nd century could have brought. How does Earth look now and what happens in the next 1000 years? How are the Klingons, Andorians and Bajorans doing? What happened with DS9, is it still there?
Hopefully the next show will actually do some discovering. I for one will not rewatch this show any time soon. It's like with game of thrones, if you know that the final seasons are not that great, it's no use to rewatch it again.
Final ratings: S1: 7 S2: 8 S3: 6- S4: 5 S5: 6+
Star Trek: Discovery: Lagrange Point (2024)
Where's the intelligent writing
This episode was filled with so many dumb, convenient stuff that I'm glad this show is almost over.
The Breen immediately snatching the tech when coming out of warp, the full volume conversations with each other when they were in the Breen suits, the completely ill-timed emotional moments, the complete and utter absence of real stakes and consequences all make this episode a waste of a promising story. It's all just convenience and stuff happening at exactly the right time to move the plot along.
I miss the days of old trek, when there was intelligent writing with mind boggling stories about ethos and empathy. There was a message but it was hidden in intelligent stories, show and don't tell. All the science came across as sound and that's what made it so great.
This show is just dumb and superficial. Centering it all around an underwhelming and uninteresting character who has near god like characteristics was a really bad choice. Thankfully there's only one episode left, which will be a copy of the previous two season finales. Expect a lot of easy problem solving, no bad consequences around the board and a lot of incessant smiling and smirking, of course capped of with a whisperspeak monologue by Burnham.
Star Trek: Discovery: Whistlespeak (2024)
Whisperspeak
Like with many other Disco episodes the premise is good, but the execution fails.
In the first 5 minutes you can predict the entire episode. Of course they we're going to break the Prime Directive and out themselves to a villager. It was an episode in the style of TOS and TNG but this show always refuses to send more than two people on these kinds of away missions where other shows would send at least 4/5 people.
The episode was slow and I looked at the clock multiple times. This was clearly a low budget bottle episode but being a writer myself I saw a goldmine of opportunities for some character and world building.
Some more background information on the Denobulans would have been cool and why couldn't we have seen some officers just enjoying themselves in their downtime. Remember all the silly holodeck and bar adventures of Miles and Julian on DS9? It was fun and it built their characters. Nothing of that can be seen in this entire series. It all has to be super serious and melodramatic all the time. It's the third season in the future and we still know nothing about Earth, the Klingons, Andorians and so on. The universe in this show always feels so tiny and the stories feel shallow and superficial.
If I was tasked to write on essay about the characters of this show I would fail miserably. I can hardly tell you anything about these people save some snippets. Such a waste of this promising cast and a bad foundation for all the melodramatic stuff. All personal and dramatic speeches fall flat because we hardly know these people. And why have Owo and Detmer been replaced; we hardly knew them.
Finally, the dumb stuff. Of course not do slim Tilly wins the race from a slim and fit young person. When the oxygen was sucked out of the room, all candles were still burning, even when the oxygen was completely gone. The episode was called Whistlespeak but it was featured for hardly 30 seconds, Whisperspeak would have been a better title.
And of course Burnham solves the riddle of which planet to go to and where the control panel was. The pieces of moss looked like plastic when they walked over them.
All in all a mediocre episode, but I could have easily been so much more.
Star Trek: Discovery: Red Directive (2024)
Not there yet
This episode is cinematic, it has nice music and the CGI is crisp. The story is promising but we have seen these sorts of opportunities being squandered before. The throwback to Soong, TNG and Picard was cool. Finally Discovery is embracing the rich history of Star Trek instead of doing it's own version of this universe.
Captain Rayner is a male version of Burnham but of course his arrogance and smugness is being condemned. Michael is still the one calling all the shots and being right all the time. She is so arrogant and smug, with her incessant smirky smiles, that it's just hurting her likeability. The incessant whispering doesn't help either. When the admiral wished her good luck with the mission she only gave an arrogant smirk and went 'hmm'. That's not how Starfleet officers treat their superiors.
Seeing the 800 year old Romulan vessel having the exact same windows as Discovery took me out of the scene completely. When the 2 starships drilled their noses in the ground to protect the colony, they were tilted at a 45 degree angle, but inside Discovery everything was still levelled. These are stupid things that make the show and the science of it seem dumb.
The bridge crew are still no more than cardboard cutouts. Saru got some nice moments, as did Tilly, but that was as far as character development went for most of the cast. A huge wasted opportunity if you ask me.
It is still the Michael Burnham show and that wouldn't be so bad if they at least did their best to make her more likeable. This is not a confident and strong leader as Janeway, Sisko and Picard were. They knew when to step back, they listened to other officers' advice, weren't afraid to admit mistakes and weren't so friggin arrogant and smug all the time. I miss the days when you could look up to a captain, with human flaws and human warmth. I would not want to be an officer on a ship where the captain knows everything, does everything and always knows best in the end.
House of the Dragon (2022)
Song of evil and evil
Season 1 really started out promising and I very much liked young Alicent and Rhaenyra. There was that same tension as GoT always had and I thought that this season was going to be amazing.
After the first time jump the show immediately lost me. Why they would replace these 2 actresses with slightly older women and leaving Daemon and that bodyguard at the same age for the entire season still baffles me.
Not only did their appearance change, their personalities changed way too much too. Gone were 2 likeable characters, replaced by power craving, mean people.
The 2 following time jumps made this problem even greater, replacing actors with people that hardly looked like them. No way that scrawny Aemond grows up to that Daemon imitator. Personalities and age seemed to be jumbled at random for all the replaced actors.
There's no one to root for as they're all just plain evil now. There is no clear good guy or likeable protagonist.
The story itself is not layered as it was in GoT season 1. There's just the one plot line and in each episode not much happens except for talking, way too many child birthing scenes, nudity and dragons flying around. There's is no tension building or exciting progress being made in this season. It is all very slow and soapy with a lot of talking and more talking. Each episode contains one brief shocking moment to hold your attention.
And then episodes 9 and 10, where each GoT season went out with an exciting bang: nothing. 2 slow episodes that contained one short shocking moment, letting the season end with a whimper instead of a bang.
Rhaenys not going Dracarys on the entire Green Party was baffling, why let her enter so dramatically to just let her fly away. I expected big battles in the last 2 episodes, but all we got was that Rhaenys scene, more gruesome child birth scenes and the Aemond Lucerys moment, which took place in the last 5 minutes of the season.
This season felt a lot like setup for the next one. I still hardly know most of the characters and for the largest part of the season not much happened. Where are the B, C and D plotlines in the story? Got season 1 was miles ahead of this first HotD season.
I don't understand why this is rated 9's and 10's by everyone. From a story telling aspect it is really not that superb as the ratings are trying to make you believe.
It looks and sounds great but story and characters are seriously lacking, as is a protagonist to root for.
I hope next season will be better instead of being Green's Anatomy or One Shade of Black.
House of the Dragon: The Lord of the Tides (2022)
Uneven
S8 of GOT greatest criticism was its rushed nature and character arcs that did a 180 or were completely disposed off.
I had high hopes for this prequel but in it first season it amplifies all the greatest flaws of that final season.
S1 of GOT was slow but interesting and it took its time to introduce all characters and have us connect to them before the shocking death of Ned Stark. It slowly built up the tension and the finale was very rewarding.
After a promising start I expected this to be an outstanding first season but then the first time jump happened. My two most favourite characters switched actresses and it become an entirely different show. Their characters had changed way too much in the span of 1 episode. And then another time jump happened and for this episode we got another time jump with new actors for existing characters and the show has completely lost me. I hated time jumps in the Walking Dead and it doesn't do this show any good either.
I'm completely lost it with the hot mess which are the family relations of all the different children and houses. I don't care for any single character anymore as they're all just plain evil. There is no clear good guy or family to root for as there was in GOT with the Starks.
Also the pace is way off. There are large portions of the episode when hardly anything happens and yore just waiting for some shocking moment that redeems the episode. And what a surprise: one shocking twist and scores are airing between 9 and 10 stars. The time jumps only hurt the story and the character development. After each jump there are way too many character changes.
I wish the show would stop with the time jumps and flesh out the characters some more. Give us someone to root for and someone to hate. Now I just hate all characters and that shouldn't be the case with any good series.
Star Trek: Discovery: Coming Home (2022)
This was it?
I really don't see the point of this season. After 12 episodes that were painfully slow in moving the main plot along we got a season finale without any surprises. I correctly predicted 95% of what would happen in this episode.
Nobody died except for maybe Tarka, all problems were solved super easy, barely an inconvenience. After some emotional speeches the 10C call off the DMA (which for some reason we didn't even get to see, just some flashes of debris, seen through the windows of the HQ). Earth and Nivar are completely fine and the last 15-20 minutes are just emotional scenes of people smiling excessively. Yet again Burnham holds a speech at the end in which more events are described than what happened in this entire season altogether, events I would have preferred to actually see.
The general redeems herself super easy and even gets away alive, retaining her job. Booker dies but of course is brought back to life. It would have been much more impactful if he was gone forever.
All the things Tarka did to be reunited with Oros were for naught, there was no clear conclusion to that story line.
And the Earth president was a woman, what a surprise!
The only thing I predicted wrong was Burnham being the hero of the day. But of course the president now tells her she is fit for a captaincy of the Voyager. I don't know where that was based upon as I didn't see that much character growth in this season. In my opinion she still doesn't hold a candle against Sisko, Picard, Janeway and Archer. And please, please let her speak without the excessive whispering next season.
All in all I found this to be the worst season of any Star Trek series ever. It has no replay value and nu redeeming legendary episodes. It is just bland, boring, slow and forgettable. Season 3 of this show in my opinion was already the worst season ever but in hindsight that season has a bit more to it.
I fear for season 5. We need new writers and a new showrunner to spice things up. I don't mind emotional touchy feelings scenes if we get decent stories that are memorable and make you think about moral dilemmas as Star Trek of old did.
And please, please can we can get some actual development for the bridge crew after 4 seasons?
Make it so!
Star Trek: Discovery: Species Ten-C (2022)
Arrival meets Grey's Anatomy
Well, we waited 11 episodes for this? We didn't even get a clear shot of The 10C besides some blurry visuals and some flashing colours and lights. The way of communication was a clear rip-off of the latest version of the movie Arrival.
And we get it, it's all about the feelings. If I'd done a drinking game for that word, i would have died of alcohol poisoning this episode and this season.
There was a lot of standing around and there was no sense of urgency whatever. Yet again characters are taking their time to discuss their personal feelings in the heat of the moment, completely taking the viewer out of the urgency of the situation. They really need to time these quiet talks better. Some shots of people nervously running around, some people panicking over images of the DMA approaching Earth would have helped to give everything a much better sense of urgency. Imagine seeing some Earth and Nivar ships and outposts already being destroyed because of the debris field of the DMA, that would make everything so much more intense.
The Booker and Tarka subplot concluded as we all could have predicted a couple of episodes ago. Booker regretting his teaming up with Tarka and Tarka taking the reigns to make the situation even worse.
The bridge crew was included for some bonus lines without any additional character development and one character brings up an anecdote from times past. Can we please get some actual development for these people?
Burnham was in full whisper mode yet again and was key in solving most of the issues they encountered in their attempt at communication. Can someone else please be the hero for once?
All in all I wasn't moved by this episode. There is no sense of urgency whatsoever and my expectations are that everything will be nice and peachy at the end of the next episode. Not a single familiar crew member will perish and Burnham will turn out to be the Hero of the Universe.
My suggestions: let some bridge crew members perish, let Earth and Nivar suffer at least some actual damage and let other people than Burnham do some heroic things. Discovery survives but is severely damaged and reaches Earth with its last breath. That would certainly spice up the final.
Star Trek: Discovery: Rosetta (2022)
It's giving me the Blues (and oranges)
What is with the colour scheme on this show? This entire episode was blue and orange.
I just bought a new 4K television but every time Discovery is on, it looks like there is something wrong with the sound and the picture. Discovery could be broadcast on a 4-colour screen as all they use is blue, orange, black and yellow.
Visual effects are very blurry and the lead actress whispers 80% of her lines.
2 episodes to go and the plot advancement we had in the last 11 episodes could be done in one episode. It is clear that in Season 3 they changed their target audience to people who are more into soap operas, teen dramas and emotional heart wreck movies. Emotions and feelings are the centre of the story and each episode revolves mainly around personal issues. The sci-fi stories are just a backdrop for all of this and that is what irritates me the most in this iteration of Star Trek. Gone are the days that Starfleet crews were the top of the crop, who could set aside their personal stuff during missions. We never saw any of the previous captains cry. This ship is run by sobby, whiny teens and their feelings are front and centre even during missions when everyone's life is on the line. And what happened with all the straight men in the future? I applaud diversity but this is just way over the top with all women crews and leaders.
I watched this back to back with Picard S02E01 and it was a difference of night and day. When the Picard episode ended I was disappointed it was over too quick and during this STD episode I was constantly watching the clock to see if it could please be over quicker. It was boring, slow and felt more like an episode of Grey's Anatomy or Dr. Phil.
The plot of this episode was ridiculous, why do they think the dust is their saving grace? Could it not be that the 10-C wiped out the inhabitants of this planet too?
And of course Burnham was the one who figured it all out. This is getting so tiresome, can somebody else do something for once? It was nice that Detmer was there, but all we got was yet another anecdote about someone's youth. More show, less tell please.
My predictions: Burnham will be the hero yet again, she will whisper a truce with the 10-C, Earth and Nivar won't even have a scratch on them and no familiar crew member will ever be in any real danger as they all will survive yet again, maybe some nice anecdotes about their youth which provide solutions in a stressful situation.
Star Trek: Picard: The Star Gazer (2022)
Mon Capitan, how I have missed you
I was geeking out so much in this episode: the ships (when I saw the Excelsior, I automatically said "Oh my!"), the shuttles, the LCARS panels on the bridge, the uniforms, the Borg etc etc. There was so much to like in this episode, especially the return of Q and Guinan! 10 Forward street LOL!
In contrary to Discovery the ships were as clear as the models they used in the 90's, no blue fuzzy mess like we have seen in the last 2 seasons of STD.
After 2 drab seasons of Discovery this felt like coming home. Of course it still has some slow and touchy moments but Picard has earned those moments. It was also good seeing tithe other characters again. Elnor being the first ever Romulan student at the Academy was a nice moment.
I think adding Matalas to the team was a very good move. I adored his little show 12 Monkeys, which was centered around time travel too. If the quality of that show is a sign of things to come, I couldn't be more excited.
Star Trek: Discovery: The Galactic Barrier (2022)
Better, not great
I think we can all agree this was one of the better episodes of the season, but I still have a lot of issues with it.
10 episodes in and we still don't know who species 10-C are, talking about stretching out a mystery way too thin. That is way too many episodes to keep a mystery going, especially when there are hardly any advances in each new episode. We learned nothing new this week about 10-C. I was expecting a shot of maybe a Borg cube in the last few seconds, but no.
If no familiar crew member ever dies, there are no stakes. Of course the ship was going to reach the other side safely. And of course Burnham will solve all issues before the DMA reaches Earth. The show would benefit greatly from a red shirt once in a while. Remember Game of Thrones, in which no character was ever safe? This show would be so much more tense if there is real danger.
The Tarka story was fine but it took so much time of the episode. Why call it 'The galactic Barrier' when only 20% of the episode is revolving about it? This episode was focused on relations, emotions and feelings. The galactic barrier story was just a backdrop for those personal problems and stories. Yet again we have time for the personal feelings of someone, in this case Saru and his love interest, while the ship is in major danger. The show would benefit more of choosing what to focus on. Seeing the title of the episode it should have been 75% galactic barrier and 25% other stuff, but is was the other way round. Problems are always solved way too quick and easy. Let them fail once in a while, with some damage to the ship and some casualties as a consequence to let us know how dangerous space is. Remember that Enterprise episode in which the ship got damaged so badly that we see people floating through space! Now that was some heavy stuff!
The bridge crew all got some lines, but who are these people? Please give us more than some throwaway anecdotes or sentences.
Burnham whispered her way through the episode and even whispered when she was on the shipwide intercom. I loved that she wasn't the centre of the universe for once. I hope that for once she isn't connected to everything, but maybe we are all fooled and it turns out that species 10-C is actually her father or something like that.
Star Trek: Discovery: Rubicon (2022)
Filler season
I notice that there are people who are giving this show a deliberate 10 in order to cancel out the so-called gender political reviews. I would like to stress that I'm purely focusing on plot and character work. As a free time writer I know a thing or two about it.
Firstly the pace of this season is so incredibly slow to the point that almost nothing happens in several episodes to move the main plot forward. Look at Enterprise season 3, it was twice as long as this season of Discovery but told an overarching plot with an additional story for each episode. It gave us some very good and memorable episodes while still moving the story forward each episode. In this season however, almost nothing happens. We have a main plot and it is stretched so thin that episodes feel empty and devoid of any real story. Star Trek of old would have spiced this episode up by introducing a ship in distress at the core of the DMA. Now that would have complicated things and made this episode much more interesting!
The last 3/4 episodes feel like filler episodes as it focuses on the main plot while hardly advancing it. The sole attention of the story is the ongoing conflict between Michael and Book and that is not even very interesting. The plot is repeating itself over and over again, while we all know that it's not going to come to an explosive conclusion. For 3 episodes in a row we have seen them arguing, arguing, being nice for poker, arguing and arguing. The conclusion was predictable and the whole thing was devoid of any tension or stakes. They tried to emulate the Wrath of Khan but there were no stakes entirely.
Bridge crew is so underdeveloped that they're only there when the plot calls for it. I would suggest red shirting them once in a while to spice things up as no one is ever in any real danger. The character of Book has been over compensated these last episodes to the point we arrived in a vicious, annoying circle.
The story line with Adira and Grey took a lot of time and has now been discarded entirely. What was the use of that plot line? Adira, with her Trill symbiont, had so much story potential but nothing has been done with that.
Lastly, the Michael character. She is flawless, smarter and more inventive than any of her crew and so good at everything, that the show hardly even needs other characters as she is the one doing and solving everything. Her actions never have any real negative conclusions and that makes her unlikeable. Greene's acting style comprises of whispering, big teary eyes, crying, tilting heads and smirking. This episode the whispering was borderline annoying. I liked her very much in TWD but she is not quite fit for this role. She doesn't have the same charisma and aura as Kate Mulgrew and Avery Brooks.
Please add some more story weight to the coming episodes and remove all the plot armour. Maybe then this season can redeem itself.
Star Trek: Discovery: All In (2022)
Skip it and watch the final few minutes
What is there to say about this episode? It felt redundant, empty and was full of eye rolling moments.
I don't mind bottle episodes but the old ST series mixed it up with some humour, some nice twists and a satisfying ending with a clear message. There is barely any of that here. I don't know what the purpose of this episode was, save for a chance in the spotlight for Owo. And even that moment didn't give us any further character development for her.
Of course Burnham the Great, the Whisperer of Words and the Breaker of Tears, is the hero of the day yet again. I kinda liked the evil syndicate vibe but it didn't add much to the story.
We got to spend only a few minutes on board Discovery for a scene with Stamets and Culber but that scene felt very much out of place in this episode. The rest of the crew was absent yet again so the episode feit small because of it.
The stakes were never any high during this entire episode and the conclusion was predictable and unfulfilling. I would recommend fast forwarding the episode until the final moments when we get another snippet about the DMA and species 10C. The rest of the episode is hardly memorable and just barely entertaining enough to hold your attention.
After a few weeks with some very strong ST Prodigy episodes this felt like going back to a boring school after the best summer holiday ever. I know that there are people who are enjoying this show now more than ever but seeing average scores for S4 being around 20% on the 3 big review platforms, those people are vastly outnumbered.
This show lost me around the middle of S3 and it hasn't won me back since. It just isn't very strong on great, creative storytelling. If you're just going to focus on one big mystery, which you want to drag out over an entire season, you'll need to come up with great additional stories for each episode. This show doesn't do that and has chosen to emphasise everyone's emotions and feelings and it feels so empty because of it. The ST universe feels so small and the cast feels small too, focusing mostly on Burnham, which for me has become a totally unlikeable character.
By the way: why throw in a changeling only to have it captured very easily and never to speak of it again??? What was his deal, what was he doing there? How are the Founders and the Dominion doing these days? If you want to include big stuff like this, you have to flesh it out and not have us just hanging there.
Star Trek: Prodigy: Kobayashi (2022)
Wow!
This episode was a breath of fresh air after the bleak, exhausting and emotional mess that was Discovery season 4 (so far).
This episode gave me that typical excitement that only Star Trek can give me. Despite this being meant for children it gave me more emotion that S3 and S4 of Disco combined. Especially that ' in loving memory' screen gave me goosebumps.
The episode had excitement, character development, humor, fan service, science, mystery and all the other stuff I'm looking for in ST. Great cameos by legacy characters, wasn't expecting this!
It maybe was a bit too much fan service like Lower Decks but I absolutely didn't mind. In my honest opinion Discovery would be better off if it did some more fanservice than just namedroppings and quick shots of familiar ships or alien races.
I'm very excited for this show and can't wait to see where it will take us!
Star Trek: Discovery: ...But to Connect (2021)
To boldly and beautifully go as the world turns
There was not much in this episode to talk about. There were 2 plot lines and both were slow and boring.
The Federation votes for first contact with species 10-c and Zora is declared a new life form so she can stay as the computer of the Discovery. Zora was clearly brought as a metaphor for non-binary people.
The ending with Tarka and Book going rogue could be seen from 5 light years ahead. Honestly the trailer for the last 4 episodes had more excitement than this episode.
The 2nd half of season 3 and almost the entirety of season 4 don't click with me. While I certainly can understand why some people are enjoying Discovery more because of it, it resembles too much of a soap opera for me.
I really don't mind personal talks about feelings and emotions but since the last season that taken the centre stage instead of the science fiction stories and that's what bothers me. Star Trek always left me in awe about space and its wonders, the miracles of future science, time travel, all the while connecting to real world dilemmas and moral problems. It was always a nice balance but in Discovery we get barely any space travel, new species or cool stories. There is one mystery that is slowly being revealed and we get some other story snippets here and there, but 90% of the episodes are about people talking about there feelings and emotions.
It would click more with me if the characters had been developed better, but we still hardly know the bridge crew. The only time they get to shine are when they can share an anecdote about their life which makes them a convenient vehicle to drive the plot to a new stage. It is all about plot convenience.
The main character doesn't click with me either. She feels like a super hero, always being right and always bring at the centre of every problem and solution. Her actions barely have any negative consequences and that just makes her too flawless and therefore unlikeable. Plus the incessant whispering and crying doesn't make it any better.
I wouldn't mind if this is the last season of Disco. The first 2 seasons were great but the last 2 seasons were just boring for me. Going into the future I believe Disco will go down as the one Star Trek series that has almost no classic masterpiece episodes, I certainly can't name one. I hope Strange New Worlds will build on the foundation that Disco has built and improve vastly upon it. Sometimes you just need to fail to know how to make something great.
Star Trek: Discovery: Stormy Weather (2021)
Is there another show being recorded next door?
The incessant whispering is so annoying, please stop with that.
This episode followed the standardised Discovery checklist:
- whispering: check
- Michael crying: check
- Michael being the hero of the day: check
- some throwaway lines for the bridge crew without actually developing them: check
- long, emotional speeches in the middle of chaotic situations: check
- more focus on how everyone is experiencing the chaos than actually focusing on the situation itself: check
- the solution is super easy, barely an inconvenience: check
- a very tiny new snippet regarding the season long mystery: check
- inconsistencies regarding personal transporters: check. Why did Gray use the turbo lift to run to the bridge to tell them their findings?
- cringy stuff: check. The computer singing to Michael was a new low
The beginning of the episode was promising but then the conversations about feelings took the spotlight in favour of the actual danger of the situation. I found it to be so incredibly boring that I was looking at my phone the entire time.
I absolutely love Jonathan Frakes but he was let down by the script in this one. I think I'll be going to rewatch Voyager's void episode for a stronger episode about the same problem.
My main gripe with Disco is just that I can't seem to get to like Burnham. She is way too perfect, always at the centre of everything and always the one solving all problems. No captain before her was this perfect, they all had their flaws and struggles. It is the same as Rey from the latest Star Wars trilogy becoming a super Jedi without actually having to overcome any struggles or even bursting a sweat (like Luke did before her). If the main character is so unlikeable but nevertheless the shows only main hero, it hinders me to feel attached to this show and it's characters.
Star Trek: Discovery: The Examples (2021)
Finally some classic Star Trek stuff
Besides the occasional whispering and tearing up, this was a decent Star Trek episode.
There was humour, science stuff, banter, moral and ethical dilemma's, some new and interesting developments regarding the DMA and less focus on Burnham.
There were some heart to heart talks but they were earned and had the right length. I really enjoyed the Culber -Kovich talk, it is a natural consequence of Culbers experiences so far. I really enjoyed the Tarka-Book talk at the end too. Tarka is a strong character and a great addition to the cast this episode.
Just for the USS Janeway and the presence of Reno I'm inclined to rate this episode even higher. How I missed her snarky and sarcastic humour!
Again a snippet of backstory for a bridge member. We now know Owo is from a tribal village and can hold her breath a long time, Bryce likes to surf and Rhys was evacuated by Starfleet from a natural disaster at young age. Please keep this coming and flesh out these characters some more. One question: where were Owo and Detmer?
All in all I enjoyed this episode quite a lot and it is a step in the right direction for season 4! I have been hard on Disco these last few episodes but if continues like this last episode it might actually redeem itself.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Star Trek: Self Discovery
This will not be a rant or a hateful response to this show like many other reviewers did. I will review this show by core elements I look for in a good sci-if and Star Trek series.
The cast: The show has a large ensemble of characters but don't expect this series to do its best to have you get to know them all. The show is primarily about Michael Burnham. There are some other characters which you get to know somewhat but don't expect it to be deep. Saru, Tilly, Stamets and Culber are the most prominent other cast members but their backstories remain rather shallow. This withholds me from bonding with these characters and even makes some of them unlikeable. Don't compare this series in its character building to DS9 or TNG. Most bridge members are glorified extras and only get to tell a tragic backstory or a useful anecdote from their life when it serves the plot.
Burnham is front and centre in this show. Especially in the first 2 seasons everything seems to be connected to her, which makes her feel like the centre of the universe. I quite enjoyed her character but with season 3 her growth halted and she started to annoy me. She does it all, she knows it all, she solves every problem on her own, she's always right and never has to face any negative consequences for any of her actions. She commits mutiny on several occasions but in the end she's always rewarded for her actions.
In the S3 finale she becomes a superhuman action hero, shooting the enemy through the head with one shot, after completely being pushed in a wall. Star Tek should be about imperfect humans, not superheroes.
She is the most emotional captain you have ever seen in a Star Trek series, often involved in deeply emotional conversations with whispering tones and big, teary eyes. After 4 seasons that is really getting tiresome. It also doesn't help that she is practically an invincible superhero, solving everything on her own with almost no collateral damage. And when the show surprises you with actual consequences, these are being undone almost immediately.
The stories: season 1 was chaotic and messy but it had some nice twists with Voq and Lorca. It was exciting and seemed to move at breackneck speed. I quite enjoyed it and found it to be the best Star Trek I had ever seen.
Season 2 was even better, with a slower pace and the inclusion of Pike and Spock. The episode in which Pike saw his future was the strongest moment I had ever seen in this show until that time. For the second season in a row major characters died, which raised the stakes and tension of the show. The show took risks and I loved it.
Season 3 slowed things down even more and went in a different direction when the touch of Michelle Paradis as the new show runner became clear. The show became more introspective and gave us more and more quiet, emotional talks between characters we still hardly knew by then. These moments felt flat for me because most characters were still so unknown to me that I didn't care enough to have those scenes move me emotionally. For me that made the show boring to watch. The science fiction went to the background to make way for personal discovery. The mystery of the season was quite dragged out and was very anticlimactic for me personally. The stakes turned out to be very low and the ending was too neat and perfect.
Season 4 seemed to slow down even more and gave us even more quiet emotional talks, even in the midst of hectic situations. The mystery of the season yet again was dragged out to long and the finale was very anticlimactic in that it solved everything so neatly and easy that the stakes were non-existent. Every sacrifice, death or damage was undone, and every bad deed was forgiven too easily, removing the emotional impact of all those elements. All in all I found it to be a very boring season. The idea and the moral of the story are true to Star Trek but the execution felt more like Grey's Anatomy in space. This show would really benefit from some more risk taking, actual bad stuff and consequences happening once in a while, together with some characters actually dying.
Is it Star Trek? For me, it isn't. There's hardly any humour, there are almost no remarkable, developing friendships like Bashir and O' Brien for example. We hardly ever see the crew enjoying downtime and experiencing other shenanigans than what the main plot gives us. There is hardly any space exploration, alien planets, or encounters with new alien races. This, together with the spore drive makes the universe feel very small. We hardly get to know the crew, it is more of a one-woman show. The show sure trues to tell true Star Trek stories in season 3 and 4 and the message they try to tell is great, but the execution isn't.
The show is often about telling instead of showing, like the Burnham speeches at the end of S3 and S4, telling about new worlds joining the federation. In S4 it is often told that the DMA is x hours away from Earth but we never get some actual scenes depicting it. Or all the crew telling their backstories instead of showing them. Some more showing can really improve the stakes and the tension that the show so desperately wants to create.
Finally, the SFX are often blurry and the show uses way too much blue and orange colour schemes.
All in all, this show is deeply flawed and I commend it for trying to tell a true Star Trek story but the execution isn't great. It emits a strong sense of diversity but by excluding straight white men altogether, it may feel exclusive to people from that group. We all like to see great role models in our favourite shows, therefore Pike is why I enjoyed S2 the most.
Disco needs much work for S5; hopefully the succes of Strange New Worlds can help with that.
And for the love of god, please find a better catchphrase than 'let's fly'. We're in space, you know, not in the air.
Star Trek: Discovery: All Is Possible (2021)
More show, less tell!
STD has never been more polarizing. Official reviews are giving the show non-stop praise and are claiming that Disco is shaping up to be the best ST show in history. On the other hand a large part of the fans is disappointed and furious about the direction the show has taken since S3.
Personally I liked S1 and S2 way more than S3 and S4 (so far). Important to know is what ST is to me personally and if Disco connects with that:
- The wonders of space travel with its dangerous nebulas, hostile species, new and strange planets etc. There is hardly any of that here due to the spore drive. Space travel is instantaneous and therefore the thrill of it is all gone. This is something I sorely miss, because it makes space feel small.
- Getting to know and love the crew. We still hardly know anything yet about Owo, Rhys, Nilsson, Bryce and so on. We got to know more about the 3 cadets in this episode than most of Disco's crewmembers in 4 seasons now.
- The humor: all other shows had plenty of this; but Disco tends to be so serious all the time.
- The camaraderie: ST has had great friendships: Data and Geordie, Kirk and Spock, Paris and Kim. I long for the days of Bashir and O' Brien and how they became friends after not liking each other in the beginning? Their adventures in the holo suite? Those were fun moments with a lot of emotions. STD barely has any of this.
- The crew working together to overcome perils with a possible place in the spotlight for everyone. Disco is all about Burnham, she is the center of everything and the solution to everything.
This season feels like watching Dr. Phil due to the long and emotional talks that are front and center. Other storylines are small and dealt with rather fast and easy with never any real danger to any of the crew members. There is more telling than showing. Remember the monologue at the end of the S3 finale about Trill joining the Federation. That is something we want to see! I wanted to see actual interaction the aliens on the moon in the previous episode but it was skipped entirely. This episode we didn't get to see the USS Armstrong or even the actual crashing of the shuttle on the planet.
Starships and space stations are always depicted so blurry and shiny we can hardly make anything out.
ST is no stranger to strong women or people of colour and those characters are among my most favourite ones: Janeway, Sisko, Dax, Kira, B'lanna, Seven of Nine, Tuvok etc. The writers of STD could learn of lot by watching them. They have made Burnham a space god and those other characters were just human and at times just flawed. That's what made them great.
4 seasons in and I hardly care for anyone on board Disco, with Burnham at the bottom of my list. Replay value is also very low. I would gladly watch the infamous Threshold or Move along Home again in favour of these last 3 boring episodes.
Star Trek: Discovery: Choose to Live (2021)
I figured it out!
S1 was a mystery show full of plot twists and a lot of action. People complained it wasn't Star Trek so S2 went back to legacy characters like Spock, Pike and Number 1. It also gave us more character depth.
People complained there was still too much action and that the characters were under developed so S3 went in a different route. Suddenly we got more and more of these big emotional heart-to-heart scenes, taking up the majority of the episodes. This became prominent with the S3 episode Scavengers and that is exactly when the ratings started to drop and when I started losing interest.
This episode was 85% heart-to-heart talks and while I can certainly appreciate those scenes once in a while, this is becoming too much. This is Star Trek and not The Bold and the Beautiful. Legendary episodes of old Star Trek certainly had character moments but those were well earned and were a culmination of previous developments. Take 'In a pale moonlight' for example. It prominently showed Sisko struggling with his guilt but it didn't hurt the tension of the action in the episode. It was a perfect blend of story and characters struggling with their feelings.
I liked the away mission on the moon but was disappointed we never got to see that species in the flesh. I enjoyed the scenes with Tilly, there weren't as dragged out as some scenes in the previous episode. I like the connections with Picard but it somehow feels the writers are trying too hard to connect these 2 shows.
Those scenes with Adira and Gray are too much. We hardly know them so how are we supposed to care as much as the writers want us to?
This week also gave us a lot of bridge crew, oh wait... they all had a day off from the set.
My hopes for the coming episodes: more story progress, less heart-to-heart scenes, more bridge crew, less Michael, more exploration and more connections with ST of old. How cool would it be if we finally saw how the Klingons and Andorians are fading now? How awesome would it be if the anomaly was connected to V'ger, the Nexus or the Spherebuilders from Enterprise?
Star Trek: Discovery: Anomaly (2021)
It lost it's mojo!
I don't know what's going on with Disco... I loved S1, it was edgy, it was messy and it went all over the place but it just clicked with me. S2 clicked even better with me. It was paced better and it had a great connection with Star Trek of old.
I was really excited for S3 and it had a great start, but halfway it started to lose me. I just didn't enjoy it anymore and was looking at my phone for the entire time because it was just so boring. The finale was just too much, full of last second saves and very thick plot armour. There was just never any real sense of danger for whichever character.
I had high hopes for S4 and was genuinely excited for episode 1. It wasn't the best but I enjoyed it more than the entire 2nd half of S3. But this episode just wasn't that good. It has been said here before many times but it contained a lot of trademark crying and whispering. How are we supposed to care for any of these characters when there is never any real danger and when we still hardly know any of them?
I like the idea of the anomaly being a metaphor for the COVID crisis but buildup is the same as the mystery of last season. Hopefully this time the conclusion is not that underwhelming. I don't know what it is but Disco seems to have lost its magic. Other ST series were never perfect but they had something that clicked with me. The science, the camaraderie, the humour, the wonders of exploring space, getting to know those characters and seeing them become a family. There is barely anything of that in Disco. It evokes hardly any emotions from me because 4 seasons in the writers expect us to care for these characters while giving us all these emotional scenes but it just falls flat. Gives us some more bridge crew and less Micheal. DS9 wasn't exclusively about Sisko either.
Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 2 (2021)
Predictable
My first real moment of emotion this season came when Burnham entered the bridge in captain's uniform. It wasn't joy however, it was pure anger. She doesn't deserve this in any way, always ignoring the chain of command and doing her own thing.
Burnham is the first main character in ST history that I couldn't care less about. She is totally unlikeable and constantly has to be at the center of the universe. The other characters on the bridge deserve more than just a few throwaway lines here and there.
Compare Burnham with Sisko for example: Sisko was a prime example of a coloured man bring proud of his heritage and earning everyone's respect, he is my most favourite character of all time. He also ignored the rules at times but it always made sense and had actual consequences.
The episode itself was bland, boring, predictable and devoid of any real sense of danger. The stakes were very low and the baddies were dealt with way too easy. Yet again a fleet shows up at the exact moment it is needed. Every main character gets a last second save at any moment of danger.
The turbo lift scene was just hilariously ridiculous; with the lift travelling through vast open spaces. Did they ever look at a map of a ship? Where do those larges spaces fit in and what is their purpose? Book being able to operate the spore drive was another head scratcher. Osyraa went down way too easy, the Emerald Chain never felt like an actual threat.
This season lacked the mysteries and surprises of the first 2 seasons, which managed to instill the story with some very cool connections to ST stories of the past. This season was bland and boring all over, making it the worst ST season of all time. The only mystery, the Burn, turned out to be very disappointing. We were hoping for connections with the temporal wars and future guy from ENT, the doc from Voyager or any other cool thing from ST lore but instead we got a child crying over his mother.
Crying is the theme of this season, along with whispering and Burnham going rogue front and center. I was really looking forward to this season but what a dud it turned out to be. No surprises, no cool stuff happening. The highlight of this season was seeing Voyager-J and the guardian of forever, the rest will go down into oblivion like the Voyager episode Threshold.
In the closing moments of this episode Burnham tells about Trill and Ni'Var joining the Federation, why couldn't they have saved that for an entire episode in S4. S3 had such slow progress and then in a few minutes are told about a few months of events without them being shown. I really hope S4 will be better or else I'm afraid it will be the last season.
Star Trek: Discovery: Su'Kal (2020)
This was an epic.... failure
The Discovery enters the nebula and finds an old Andorian warship. Upon hailing it they're greeted by an aged Captain Jonathan Archer. After the founding of the Federation he was recruited by Daniels to assist in the Temporal Cold War. He was the man from the future we saw in Enterprise S1 and S2. He recruited his buddy Shran too but 125 years ago they got stranded at the dilithium planet in this nebula. A temporal war core breach from their refitted Andorian Timeship exploded, causing the Burn. Shran died in the accident, leaving Archer behind all alone. Due to this being a weird pocket in spacetime hardly any time passed for Archer. The Discovery brings Archer on board, once again tasking him with building a new Federation. He brings with him rumors about a new threat originating from fluidic space
Now wouldn't this have been awesome, tying it in with Trek of the past? I don't know what happened with this show. S1 was good, S2 was great, S3 started out terrific but the last 6 episodes were just boring. There is so much potential here, but we get a toddler igniting a universal catastrophy by throwing a tantrum. Please let this season have been a dream and give me the story above or something even better.
The VFX are awesome, but there is so much wasted potential story wise. Bring in some creative writers and Mike this show great again. Now I'm just watching it casually while reading the news in my phone. That has never happened before during the first 2 seasons. Where is Riker's beard when you need it?
Star Trek: Discovery: Terra Firma, Part 2 (2020)
With that out of the way...
Now let's get back to the actual plot and story of the season!
I'm a fan of Disco, but I didn't really enjoy the last 4 eps. They felt like filler eps with some generic action and stories. The general plot hardly moved ahead and I spent most of the time on my phone.
For the first time ever I wasn't looking forward to seeing a new episode today. The last mirror episode was subpar and was ill placed in the season as a whole. I really liked the mirror episodes in S1 but now there was no tension whatsoever as we don't have a connection with those mirror characters and it was obvious that nothing had repercussions as we had already seen the outcome in S1.
I really had to put myself to watching this episode and boy, I was so glad when the mirror stuff ended. It had some enjoyable parts and I get what the writers wanted to do but it just felt...off. The last 20 minutes were much better: the guardian of forever, Book helping out, the surprise return of Reno and Stamets commenting about that, the talk between Vance and Saru, the crew drinking one for Philippa.
Again there was the ever present whispering and crying, currently en route to becoming DSC's official trademark.
I'm expecting the last 3 episodes to be an avalanche of plot progression, action and tension. There is so much potential here, now it's time to make use of that! Please no more trips to the mirrorverse, drab mining sites, flying locusts or courtrooms.
Burn baby burn, disco inferno!
Star Trek: Discovery: Terra Firma, Part 1 (2020)
What is happening with this season?
I'm a huge ST fan, have been since I first saw reruns of TOS as a little boy. I loved TNG too , but I became a true Trekker when Voyager started. It was the first series I got to experience with a new episode every week. I liked the occasional ep of DS9 too but I only discovered it's greatness until I bought all dvd box sets. The Dominion War is IMO the best storyline in all of ST history.
Enterprise was just decent in seasons 1 and 2 but 3 and 4 were terrific. It ended just when it became great.
I was really looking forward to Disco, I missed new ST so badly. I enjoyed S1 very much: the mystery of Lorca and Voq, the mirror eps and the Klingon war. I liked the darker toon but disliked the new Klingons.
S2 was much better and Pike was just great, really looking forward to SNW! I disliked the fact that Burnham has to be at the center of everything.
Before S3 started I adored Lower Decks, it was a true love letter to ST. Picard was decent, I would give it a 6.5-7 out of 10.
This new season of Disco is something else... it started great but it went downhill in the last episodes. It's not a good sign when I'm on my phone for most of the episode. The stories are medium sci-fi at best, the mystery of the Burn is being drawn out way too long. I remember the last few eps for some highlights: voyager J, Saru's search for a catchphrase, prime Spock's cameo to name some. The rest has been so boring. I this the best you can do with this undiscovered time and place? I enjoyed the moments without burnham the most and I'm tired of the whispering and crying. ST of old gave everyone an episode in the spotlight, I really miss that. Give us a chance to get to know the bridge crew! This is just Star Trek: Burnham, to boldly whisper and cry where no one has gone before.
I like it that this ep is not about Burnham but the timing is horribly wrong. Eps like this belong in the beginning of the season, not near the end. Normally I would have enjoyed this ep greatly but I have been sighing and annoying myself during the whole thing. Maybe it gets better in a rewatch after we got a terrific and redeeming finale to this season. Make it so!