Comment Stream

Re: SNW S1: A Quality of Mercy

Can someone explain to me what “woke” or “overly woke” even is supposed to mean? I live in the US and it’s become a trigger word and I don’t understand what the people saying it mean by it.

Re: DSC S3: People of Earth

Why do these people talk this way?

Re: LD S1: No Small Parts

Wolfstar: I saw several people referencing your original post so I had to look for it and I’m glad I did - in a few paragraphs you managed to nail how I feel about the newest incarnations of Trek. Bravo sir.

Re: DSC S3: That Hope Is You, Part 1

I quite liked this - I didn’t care for season 1 and never even finished 2, but this grabbed my attention. I’ll be giving it a shot.

Re: DSC S1: Will You Take My Hand?

Heh, I left the following feedback on CBS (you can send feedback on any show which I think is kinda neat).
——
Seriously, and I mean this as a friend to Star Trek, fire the entire writing staff and get new people in. Gorgeous show, fine actors, atrocious writing.

Re: DSC S1: Context Is for Kings

Someone said this on io9, and I think it rings true. I think Burnham is our moral anchor for normal Star Fleet behavior (despite what she did), and this show is going to explore the dichotomy that has always existed in Star Fleet between its charter of exploration and its duty of defense. The journey the show is going to take us on is getting from where we’re at (losing a war against an overwhelming foe and doing whatever it takes to win) back to a an organization that Does The Right Thing. But, you can DTRT if you don’t exist anymore, hence the central conflict. Things aren’t quite right on Discovery, nor are they intended to be. This is a very common literary motif, and has even been used in ST before in the Dominion War of DS9, but given the context I think it’s still an interesting story to tell on the broader scale of all of Star Fleet. In DS9, we examined personal moral conflict in Sisko and the compromises he had to make in such eps as “In the Pale Moonlight”. Now, scale that up to moral compromise on an organizational scale. How far is too far? What is a species willing to do when their very survival is at stake?

No, it’s not bopping around as the goody two shoes Federation meeting new civilizations and generally being cool to people. But, story needs conflict, and conflict can be seen in most every Trek episode if you look hard enough. I know a lot of people miss the cohesiveness and lack of conflict amongst the Fed crew, and I’m not even saying Roddenberry’s vision is outmoded - it’s just not *this* show. Another one might come some day. Until then, some of you have a choice to make...

Re: DSC S1: Context Is for Kings

Ughhhh. I’ll *gladly* show myself the door after this little rant.

I became a fan in ‘79 on syndicated TOS. 38 years of cred here. Watched every episode since then in broadcast time, every movie on premiere. You guys call yourself fans? Star Trek has been off the air for 12 years and now that it’s back all most of you can do is whine about “canon”. It’s obnoxious. After what is essentially the second episode (post-pilot) and we’re already complaining that the characters aren’t fleshed out, or have chemistry? Really? Does no one remember The Naked Now? Parallax? Past Prologue? Those were hardly gems and all the main characters were stiff as boards in those as well.

Or how about the people that complain about the production quality, the upgraded look and feel and how it doesn’t match TOS that comes after it? Ya? You want the cardboard sets and the paper mache Hortas back?

Or people throwing around “grimdark” or how Star Fleet is too militaristic or its generic sci-fi with a Star Trek veneer. And the people whining about how “we don’t see any mention of this tech in later series!” You do know the writers have the same access to the existing shows as you do, right? They probably thought of that one. Just sayin.

Look, Star Trek has always been a reflection of it’s time. And like it or not, we live in some fairly dark and shitty times. But man, Lorca and his final speech trying to get Burnham to stay - CLASSIC Trek. I’m so excited for this series and where it could go. And even if it goes NO where, it’s still inescapably Trek and I’ll take it over 95% of the garbage on TV and streaming services. To me, and I’m sure to REAL fans like me, even bad Trek is STILL Trek. What you guys need to start to realize is that this is a big, old, sprawling franchise - maybe the most complex and intricate alternate reality ever created by man. It’s going to get rebooted, reinterpreted, mixed up, have different takes and different approaches and they aren’t going to line up anymore - but you know what? That’s OK. Cause I’ll gladly spend as much time in this universe as I can, since I can’t be there in person.

That is all.