Subject: Novastorme...
Author:
Posted on: 2019-04-23 08:56:00 UTC

Ok. I REALLY don't want to turn this into a flame war. And no, that's not a opener for a flaming post.

Discovery isn't bad because of the cosmetic differences. It's not 'bad because it's new'- I had absolutely no problem with Enterprise when it aired, even though it was cosmetically more advanced in a era set before TOS. I actually liked that aesthetic a bit...because it wasn't all that different. I would link to a excellent analysis of Discovery that takes apart the camera work, lighting and set design- and then compares it to Enterprise...but unfortunately CBS has apparently gotten that video copyright striked for a few clips taken from STD.

No. Discovery is bad because it takes the whole formula of Star Trek- its soul if you will- and rips it to shreds. Star Trek- yes, even DS9- felt like Star Trek for a handful of reasons. You had a setting that was inherently optimistic (in the very words of Gene Roddenberry himself 'In the 24th century there will be no hunger, there will be no greed, and all the children will know how to read'), even if the people living it were flawed beings, just like every person alive today. You had a distinct visual style that evolved with each era depicted on the show, with clear visual padigrams changing between the distinct eras, and others staying more-or-less the same. You had a formula for each cast: people who were paragons, who (as ruled by Gene himself) didn't fight with each other- but instead worked as a team- and were clearly professionals in their field (although some characters like Kirk are a little loose on the professionalism, and I'm not counting the various space-madness episodes); people who represented the best of humanity, not the worst; and above all, people who you could feel affinity with. One of my childhood heroes is Captain Jon Luc Picard, and the fact that CBS is now setting out to shred the best captain ever to captain the Enterprise is heartbreaking for me.

STD is having none of that shite. From episode one, they set out to wreck as many of the tropes and themes of Star Trek as they can. They introduce a abrasive cast, who can never work together without rowing in the classic reality-TV style of angsty-drama that I absolutely hate. The style of the ships is all wrong for the era in which STD is set, and the uniforms are nowhere close. There's obviously some bits that the writers have drawn from canon, but not much is right (I.e. the new Enterprise Bridge has the targeting scanner on a arm. That wasn't part of the helm console until a mid-season refit during Kirk's era. It shouldn't be there)

The writers obviously haven't fact-checked stuff. They say that Burnham is the first mutineer in Starfleet. I mean, Spock apparently says otherwise in a episode of the Original Series set at least ten years later, but hey! Who gives a crap about continuity, eh? Even their dumbass explanation for why no one will ever mention anything that happens on their show again (it's classified!) strongly smells of a need to patch the off-the-rails canon-defilement that happened all through season one, in a effort to get people to forgive them for their stupidity.

It blatantly tries to make something that would work for sure as a standalone work...but is in NO WAY Star Trek. No way.

I've been raving about this for nearly two years now, so forgive me if this was a little incoherent. I have so much repressed hatred for this bloody show. It came out two days after my birthday. Not the best present, I can tell you that.

What's worse? I was actually LOOKING FORWARDS TO THIS!!! It was so disappointing that I sobbed into a pillow for a hour after watching the first three episodes.

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