I pretty much agree with all of this having just watched the first 2 episodes on Netflix in the UK. There is always a problem with iconic series like Star Trek when they are rebooted. People always have an view on how it should be, rather than just accepting its new form, which is perfectly understandable given the intensity of the fandom! I hope to like this more.
I hope I am not old, but at mid 40s' why was I literally having issues with the constant "Tilted" camera angles and the hyper fast editing? I felt things were very "Light" obsessed, but was not really able to see much of anything, other than lights. It was almost as if everything was being darkened by excessive back lighting. My wife said it was nearly unwatchable to her, and asked why did was the first officer not taken back to sick bay immediately if she was about to die??
The "new form" was not very watchable though. I am all for modernizing Trek, but what we got was just "Visual fluff" (and some Skyping in the captains room)
I signed up with cbs.com on their 7 day free access so I can at least see the end of the episode. Another thing wrong with the first part: where was the humor? There was an attempt at a joke by the navigator (?) on the bridge when Michael began on her recon fly-by but it wasn't funny. I'd have to re-watch the episode to be sure, and I might now that I have access for a week, but it was a riff on an airplane in-flight announcement. I'm glad to know those haven't changed in 250 years.
Okay, let me say a few things about the first two episodes. They were written much better than I expected. However, the look of the show was too bright for my tastes. As others have said, it's frustrating to not get any kind of a really good look at the ships. I can easily afford to pay to watch this, but my data usage is capped on a monthly basis and streaming video is something I have to stay away from as much as possible. Final verdict? I'm going to cancel my free trial of All Access and hope that CBS has the good sense to release the entire season on DVD at some point.
Star Trek seems to have gotten visually darker over the years - TNG was super bright - less so on DS9 and Voyager - the movies got more mono-chromatic - Nemesis particularly - the reboot continued this....and now what we saw last night - I know space is really *dark* -but - Im positive you would want to have the insides of the ships lit as brightly as possible....just to keep people from going nuts.....you aren't getting any sunlight up there......
They're trying to make the interior of starships look like submarines or some dang thing. The lighting in TOS and TNG was correct IMO.
I thought the show the was well-written BUT it makes no sense as a prequel. It's not worth my time to go through the problems. I feel like there's something really lazy about this kind of prequel. If you know the outlines of the box, then you have the limits for your story already defined in a lot of ways. Yet, this series constantly goes outside of the box visually and conceptually. It's prequel to JJ Abramsverse I guess. Who the hell wants that? Had this been not ST, and something all its own, I might have liked it. Long time fans have every reason to sit and quibble. We didn't decide to call it "Star Trek." That's how it was handed to us.
I'm replying to multiple posts, so I won't quote. Feminism - Yes, the two main characters are women, but there's nothing in the plot to suggest a "feminist slant" or "agenda." Those characters could easily have been played by men without changing a single line or plot point. Maybe some people are resistant to having women in charge? Production values - I was disappointed. Although the cinematography seemed very good, it was hard to tell because of the harsh contrast and color timing that was used. Also, the lens flares were very distracting. I thought the VFX looked very cheap and rushed.
Not much a fan of the new Klingons. They've taken something that Next Generation and DS9 worked very hard to make more than a cliche and undone everything. I also appreciated the nod to realism, but having all of their dialogue in Klingonese got old, fast, and yet they could speak perfect English when needed. That, and they look too much like these from the 70s horror classic "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark":
Mutant turtle Klingons what the hell.. a warrior cast..? I'm so bloody tired of the Klingons .. I mean the whole thing for was big let down.. too much JJ Abrams style production.. I will stick with original star trek and the other tvs series which had soul great stories.. This is frigging mess.. Those Klingons looked like they were on steroids. I would hoped for some new kind of threat... This just pure dreck.
When the thing was getting started last night with the football delays that affected streaming too, I had my TV set to Picture & Picture mode with CBS on one side and the streaming channel on the other. The CBS feed was coming from over-the-air antenna WKMG Orlando. Both images were sized at 2:1 identically once things got going. The CBS feed actually started first, and then it took a few minutes to get the streaming version going, so the CBS feed was way ahead of the stream for me at that point. In fact, CBS had concluded the entire teaser and gone to the opening credits when I finally got the stream to start. But since I opted for the no-commercials stream, it wasn't long before the stream was way ahead of CBS.
Life-long Trek fan here, but not a zealot who thinks the franchise can do no wrong. That said, I found the first two episodes of ST Discovery pretty decent, but not great. My biggest gripe - like others have mentioned - is the Klingon re-imagining. I don't like the way they look, and I don't like their philosophy. Like someone else said up-thread, the Klingons were re-worked during the TNG/DS9 era in a way that was very well thought-out and well-developed. No need to reinterpret them yet again other than perhaps a visual tweaking. I saw someone mention how the ship interior wasn't featured much and was disappointed. The thing to remember is that the ship in episodes 1 and 2 isn't even the Discovery! It's the Shenzou. So we can hope to get a much more detailed look at the Discovery as the series progresses. I watched a bonus short about the props of ST Discovery, and think that the designs of the phaser, communicator and tricorder are pretty inspired. They knocked those out of the park, in my opinion. I'm probably not going to stick with CBS All Access for the series, though. My month is up on 9/30, and I'll probably wait to view the season in its entirety on another platform - or just wait until the season is done and then binge watch on CBS All Access during a single month.
I haven't seen the film reboots (honestly, not interested) but I am a solid fan of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I'm going to let this one surprise me - I haven't loaded up on a lot of background information. After two episodes it's too early to pass judgment but I will point out four things: 1) the tilted camera angles don't make this look any better than they did Battlefield Earth; 2) lengthy, disruptive dialogues and flashbacks are a tired way of telling the story or introducing the characters; 3) I wish Michelle Yeoh were a regular - she's seriously charming (she's a special guest star in the first two episodes); 4) the camera actually makes a sound when it enters the brig containment field (in the second episode), as if it were a physical object in the reality it is showing - it annoyed me more than anything else in the episodes. I've always liked standalone episodes more than big story arcs, because there was more room for individual characters and the humour as well as the social commentary came out more naturally. This looks arc-y. I hope it doesn't mean Star Trek is losing all it's quirks (Quarks?) and comedy. To me space battles are the boring part of Star Trek! It all comes down to characters, the actors, and their interplay, and there's not much I can say about those factors on Discovery yet. EDIT: Just so I'm clear, my overall impression was positive, and I look forward to seeing more!
First episode (first half of the premiere) was fine. Sonequa Martin-Green as Mike was one of the best Vulcan impressions we've had and she's not even a Vulcan. So there's that. The look of the show is good. My back was hurting watching Doug Jones having to bend over to look down at consoles that were a foot or two further down than they should be (for him). I will enjoy watching the first season in a year or whenever it is released more broadly.
Variety just published a big article on the show, and several interesting facts were revealed: • each episode costs about $8.5 million each (which is extraordinarily high for a first-season series), all shot in a massive stage in Toronto. The Klingon starship set alone cost $3 million (!!!). • Bryan Fuller was basically fired for telling Les Moonves that he would need more time to finish the scripts, and the network wanted them rushed out faster. (Fuller had previously written for Voyager and Deep Space Nine, and is currently the showrunner of American Gods.) • though the show has yet to be renewed, they have a road map for season two and the beginnings of one for season three. More here: Can ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Help CBS Boldly Go Into a Streaming Future?
I'm on my early 60s (birthday coming up in 3 weeks, thank you very much), and I had no problem with the editing or the look. It is true that the faster pace of modern TV shows require that you pay close attention and learn to pull in the details faster. I do have a problem with modern films & TV shows that cut too fast during violent scenes, to the point where you can't tell who's hitting who, who's winning or losing, or were you are in the room. And that does happen.
a lot Star Trek fans are set in there ways .. I'm 40's don't like.. don't need.. will read books.. and watch my dvd collection..
Now, had the lighting and bridge looked like above, I would have really liked it! I constantly got the feeling, they were unsure of their sets or ideas and were trying to "cover" by quick editing and a lot of back lighting to hide that things were not truly polished or HD ready quality.
And a lot of Star Trek fans are not set in their ways and are open to something new and different. I'm in my 50s and will give this show a chance to get it legs. I remember how stiff and lame TNG was for it's first season -but it improved substantially to become something excellent.
TNG took two seasons to get good, then another (final) season to get not so good again. But at least the show was episodic, so you could discard the bad eps and enjoy the better ones. What happens when the show is one long, serialized story and not very good? Production values are not that important in Trek on TV, something this version seems to be obsessed with - it should be more about ideas. Sure, early days yet, but...
This! I did think that there were good ideas in this episode: Trust between peers was a consistent theme. The potential to desecrate something of value to another culture even out of curiosity - although that seems to have been a setup by the Klingons in the first place. I found Michael's personal struggle with her past intriguing. All good setups for further conflict (have not seen the pay content, btw). My problem is the new universe. I'm not hooked on it at all. This show would have been great as something outside a franchise with a different set of species. It's the whole cash cow aspect that puts this on the farthest back burner for me. Maybe I'll get around to it someday. In my 50's. Always (prudently) open to new and changing views. I just want my viewership and loyalty respected, not exploited. Not feelin' it here.
