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It's so nice to have pretty much year round Star Trek, with a different show starting up a new season every few months. For anyone who hasn't seen them, the animated shows (Lower Decks and Prodigy) have been really good, with Prodigy maybe having the best first season of any ST show to date, with a really well thought out story arc to get to know the characters and get them on their way. Picard starts up tomorrow, and it looks to be a wild (if a bit fan-servicy) ride. Strange New Worlds is coming soon. And despite the haters, Discovery keeps chugging away. What a great time to be a ST fan.
I am a fan and I take quite nicely to being serviced. Prodigy was quite pleasing, especially the mystery towards the end of the season and the possibility for more Voyager crew involvement.
I got a couple of months off last years' Amazon Prime Day, which allowed my wife to catch up through the first seasons of Discovery, and Picard's first season. Apparently our living-room Samsung can't get an app for Paramout+ directly (a year too old, I think), so I can't even find out whether they'd allow us to take advantage of this deal, having had a trial through Prime already.
I get Paramount+ through Prime, but even though I have Sony Blu-ray players that get Prime, and they list all the Paramount+ shows, but if you try to play them, there's an error message that Paramount+ is not accessible ob this device. Solved the problem by getting a few streaming sticks from Amazon or Roku.
Well, TrekMovie gave the Picard season 2 opener a pretty good review, said it was a big improvement from the first season.
My wife and I have just finished Season Four. It was very enjoyable and nicely pulled off the trick of having self-contained episodes that also take the story arc forward. Pleasantly different from series such as 24, where setback after setback are piled on. I have two slight gripes about Season Four. The first is that there are a number of scenes, especially in later episodes, where time is very short and yet the cast still seem to find lots of time to stand around doing a bit of soul-searching and bonding before doing what needs to be done. Meanwhile, I'm shouting "Get on with it!" The second is that it is far too much like "Women In Space" and goes well past any balanced approach to inclusivity, actually heading as much towards exclusion as it does towards inclusion. In this respect, it overcompensates and seems to reflect a minority political viewpoint rather than anything related to how society really is or really ought probably to be. Where did all of the men go? Having said that, the message that, despite all of the conflict, we're all connected and need to realise this is almost pure allegory, and this lines Discovery up very nicely alongside the best of TOS and TNG in trying to promote a highly valuable and laudable sentiment.
My biggest problem with season 3 and 4 were that they were too much the same. S3 = The Burn S4 = The DMA In S3, Discovery is tasked with finding the source of The Burn and correcting it. It turns out that it was all an innocent mistake and is fixed by season's end. In S4, Discovery is tasked with finding the source of The DMA and stopping it. It turns out that it was all an innocent mistake by an unknown race of beings and is fixed by season's end. And really, this basic plot goes way back to STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE: The Enterprise is tasked with finding out what V'ger is and stopping it. It all turns out to have been based on an innocent mistake in its programming and is fixed by movie's end. McCoy: Why is anything we don't understand always called a "thing"?
I will say the vast unknowable nature of the DMA creators gave me TMP vibes for sure, but I hadn't made the thematic connection until now. I'm more than ready for the universe to not be under threat every season, and that includes S1 of Picard as well; at least S2 is doing it with time travel as the crux so it's no quite the same thing. Prodigy was a welcome departure from that and Strange New Worlds looks to be and has been said to be more along those lines as well.
I agree with both your points. However, as a "mature" white male I recognize the approach to inclusivity has been unbalanced for sooo long and I find it interesting (and a little unsettling to be honest) to have the balance go so far in the other direction.
I like season 4 better than 3. The resolution to season 3 was just too simplistic to be effective. Season 4 felt like a better developed story. I too am greatly annoyed with members of the crew sharing their emotional breakthroughs in the middle of an emergency. It gets the big eye-roll every time in our house. For crying out loud, stay focused!!! On a lighter eye roll moment across all of Star Trek, why is it that when the captain orders to hail a ship, they wait less than a millisecond before they claim “no response?” “Hail them” Then instantly: “No response”. Always struck me as funny.
I enjoyed all the seasons so far. My only "complaint" is along these lines. I'm getting bored with the emotional breakthroughs scenes, regardless of when they happen! It feels so over the top.
Season 5 first look from New York Comic Con 2022: Hmm. Ground-based travel on a desert planet? Where have we seen that before?
I love Discovery and I think the new trailer looks great! That said while I don't mean to post off topic I just wanted to say I saw a related video afterward and had no idea that Picard Season 3 is also coming and will essentially be The Next Generation finale! Picard, Crusher, Worf, 7 Of 9, LaForge, Troy, Rikker, and even some surprise Trek cameos! Sorry back on topic, just had to say OMG we have lots of great Trek coming!
Got you covered over here: Patrick Stewart to Reprise 'Star Trek' Role in New 'Star Trek Picard' Series*
The original crew had their swan song in Star Trek VI...its about time the Next Gen crew gets theirs. NEMESIS was underwhelming as an ending for the Next Gen characters. I gotta say, Worf looks badass.
If the first two seasons of Picard are anything to go by, Nemesis will look like Shakespeare compared to season 3.
I'm hoping we will all be surprised as it's sounding more an more to me like season two was mostly a stop gap to have time to set up and coordinate season 3 and season 3 has a different writing team and essentially a new showrunner. Does anyone know how close I am to right here?
I have this fantasy (and I may have mentioned it before) that they give Frakes a chance to re-cut Nemesis. I just don't think Stuart Baird was a good choice on any level to shepherd a Trek flick.
Some very important moments were left behind in the deleted scenes!!!!!!! Would have been a better film.