Year of Trek

So there I was, minding my own business & enjoying a silly romp across the galaxy while finishing up Lower Decks S2, when all of a sudden it got serious AF.

Yeah I can't wait to see what this means for season 3.

Paramount hasn't announced a new schedule yet, but I'm inclined to think first we're getting the back half of Prodigy's Season 1, then Lower Decks Season 3, then Picard Season 3, then Strange New Worlds Season 2, and at some point down the line Discovery Season 5.

When will there be a series lead (usually a captain) that isn’t human? TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, DSC, PIC, LD, SNW….all humans. Not very inclusive. Prodigy isn’t a Starfleet crew so doesn’t count. And when I say something not human, I would prefer something like Orville’s Norm MacDonald sludge or something, not a Trill or Bajoran or some other species that’s just human with barely any makeup.

Rat Boy wrote:

So Duet came up on Facebook, and someone linked to this amazing essay about Marritza's ultimate, and successful, sacrifice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromIns...

Still amazed by it, one of my top favorite Trek episodes of the entire Trekiverse. I even bought a novelization—or was it a stageplay itself…it was years ago—of the work it was inspired by, Robert Shaw’s The Man in the Glass Booth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ma...

Keithustus wrote:

Still amazed by it, one of my top favorite Trek episodes of the entire Trekiverse. I even bought a novelization—or was it a stageplay itself…it was years ago—of the work it was inspired by, Robert Shaw’s The Man in the Glass Booth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ma...

Wow that looks really intense.

Saw this last night before bed. 32nd anniversary of Best of Both Worlds part 1 cliffhanger. Clip in the tweet.

Stele wrote:

Saw this last night before bed. 32nd anniversary of Best of Both Worlds part 1 cliffhanger. Clip in the tweet.

First time I ever yelled at my TV, and spent all Summer worrying about a cliffhanger. Really hasn't been matched in that regard.

And we didn't have the internet. So none of us knew that Patrick Stewart was in contract negotiations and they might actually kill him off. Or that the writers had no clue how they were going to end the cliffhanger when they broke for the summer. But came up with a pretty decent conclusion anyway. And of course Wolf 359... Sisko... everything. Influenced Stafleet for years. Huge moment in all of Trek.

I watched Strange New Worlds S1E10 "Quality of Mercy" the other day. First time watching SNW. I keep hearing how it's the return to classic Trek. Even people who hate PIC and STD keep telling me that this is it, Trek's back, baby!

I don't have Paramount+, and I didn't care enough to pirate it and find out, but a Trekkie Discord server I'm on was doing a watch party double feature with Balance of Terror and SNW 1x10 and I thought, "cool, I'll get to see an episode of this new show that's supposed to be the Great White Hope for nuTrek plus a classic episode of TOS."

SNW did not benefit from the back-to-back comparison. Really? THIS is the amazing show that everyone's been telling me about? I mean, it's... okay.

I'm not even the biggest TOS fan; TNG was my introduction to Trek, and I have trouble going back to the slower pacing of 60s TV. But it was head and shoulders above the SNW episode. It was focused and tense, and SNW was muddled and overblown. It didn't help that the Kirk I saw in SNW was not the same Kirk I had just watched in TOS. He was the parody version of Kirk that exists in the pop culture consciousness, the two-fisted alien-babe-banging maverick who plays by his own rules, not the cautious, thoughtful officer from Balance of Terror.

Which, okay, fine, it's okay to have a different take on a popular character, but if you're going to do that, maybe DON'T make an episode that's a shot-for-shot remake of an iconic episode of the original, plus some timey-wimey bullsh*t?

It struck me as an episode created by a creative team that's (rightly, if this is the best they can do) terrified of trying to make something that stands on its own merits, but also has only the most surface-level understanding of the original they're leaning on to prop up their mediocrity.

I can't like your post, and I won't.

When I was doing my year of Trek, I was dreading the watching of the TOS because every time I tried to get through a season in the past I always fell off. But I pushed through and was glad I did. There were at least a few gems and Balance of Terror was one of my favorites. I agree with the assessment, BoT was playing the submarine cat and mouse game which added suspense and helped to form a bond between the audience and the Romulan commander. They tried a bit in the SNW episode but it was really more focused on Pike and how avoiding the accident changed things. It still was a really good episode in it's own right, definitely best in the series so far, but watching it side by side shows it's blemishes.

All that being said though, one of the reasons I liked the SNW version was due to the similarities. It brought back nostalgia for the old characters and plot, while also keeping me on the edge of my seat wondering how they will tackle each scenario from the original.

kazar wrote:

When I was doing my year of Trek, I was dreading the watching of the TOS because every time I tried to get through a season in the past I always fell off. But I pushed through and was glad I did. There were at least a few gems and Balance of Terror was one of my favorites.

I find that I enjoy TOS more when I don't try to binge it. Every once in a while I'll get in the mood, watch a random episode and enjoy it for what it is. Some of them like Balance of Terror are bona fide classics, some of the silly ones are still fun in more or less the way I get the sense they were intended to be, and some of the worst ones are still watchable for trainwreck value. Always, at the very least, there's the novelty of looking through a window into a different time in pop culture history.

But I seldom feel the urge to watch a second, and any time I've said to myself, "I'm going to sit down and watch through this show!" I've gotten bored before the end of the first season. It's just not that kind of show.

It struck me as an episode created by a creative team that's (rightly, if this is the best they can do) terrified of trying to make something that stands on its own merits, but also has only the most surface-level understanding of the original they're leaning on to prop up their mediocrity.

So what you are saying is you've judged a show on one ep, an ep that is blatantly an homage to the original series so of course has similarities, without understanding what the characters or the show has been doing the whole season?

Hmm, definitely seems the right way to go about things.

Last time I slogged miserably through a season of nuTrek (which was Picard Season 1), I got told over and over, "if you hate it so much, why are you watching it?" So you'll excuse me if I don't line up to do the same here. I'm going to take that very good advice and not watch more of this thing that's not doing a thing for me.

Yes, it was "blatantly an homage." It did a bad job. The comparison just underlined the many ways the original was superior. See DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" for a timey-wimey homage to TOS done right.

Maybe the other 9 episodes of SNW are fantastic, I don't know. This was the one that I happened to watch because it happened to be convenient for me to do so. It was aggressively mediocre. I can't know with Cartesian certainty that it's not just an off episode or that it doesn't work better after watching the first nine. I do know that nothing about it lit a burning fire underneath me to find out.

I think you perhaps ought to stay away, because while I absolutely hated each season of Picard (second season took longer to hate because the beginning was at least snappy, but goddamn was I in the hate camp by the end), I thought the SNW season finale was perhaps one of the best episodes of the season overall. Comet episode is still my fav.

If you found that finale "aggressively mediocre," you're gonna hate the rest.

Noted. I managed to dodge the second season of Picard and everything I have heard reinforces that that was the right decision for me.

And, just to be clear, I think this is unequivocally the best first season of a spinoff Trek show ever made. I wasn't just entertained, I was overjoyed that they finally found a familiar Star Trek voice to put into just one of these new series. The whole season is a triumph. It is possible that my opinion is being distorted by just how bad I find Disco and Picard - like getting a drink of water after being significantly dehydrated. But I don't think so. I have less than zero inclination to go rewatch any Disco, and definitely not any Picard, but I will fully rewatch SNW season 1 before season 2 comes out.

I loved it. And despite my advice, I definitely think you're missing out by skipping it.

I also think this was one of the best episodes of Kurtzman era Trek that I have watched. It's just that that says more about the low quality of the rest.

Do you usually watch the last episode of a season and none of the other episodes for other shows?

I explained how I came to watch that particular episode and in what circumstances in my original post, which you are welcome to peruse at your leisure.

Actually, I did watch the last episode of Over the Garden Wall first when I happened to turn on Cartoon Network in the middle of a marathon. It made me want to watch the rest, so I did, which turned out to be very different than what I imagined it would be based on seeing the finale out of context, but still very good. I did not find the experience diminished by having the ending spoiled for me.

And, just to be clear, I think this is unequivocally the best first season of a spinoff Trek show ever made.

Lower Decks is pretty good.

Lower Decks is fine for what it is, but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m looking for Star Trek.

hbi2k wrote:

I explained how I came to watch that particular episode and in what circumstances in my original post, which you are welcome to peruse at your leisure.

Actually, I did watch the last episode of Over the Garden Wall first when I happened to turn on Cartoon Network in the middle of a marathon. It made me want to watch the rest, so I did, which turned out to be very different than what I imagined it would be based on seeing the finale out of context, but still very good. I did not find the experience diminished by having the ending spoiled for me.

Oh I read it, don't get it at all, but I'm gonna drop it because it's ultimately not worth it.

NSMike wrote:

Lower Decks is fine for what it is, but it’s not what I’m looking for when I’m looking for Star Trek.

I guess the best way I can describe my feelings for LDS (That's the in-house abbreviation) is that it's a wonderful snack to hold you over between meals, but it's not a meal in of itself.

It’s Satire Trek.