1901 replies to this topic

[robster]

Still looking forward to seeing some new Trek,despite the negativity towards it from some people. After all,it IS just a tv show,like all Trek before it. More than just a tv show?! No,it's not,it's a tv show and a bunch of movies that are very entertaining,for the most part. Making it into an obsession or let your life revolve around it is entirely up to the people watching it. There's passion,and then there's obsession,lol!

 

But STD looks great! And I'm totally happy that Trek re-invents itself from time to time,as it should. I know people who became fans after wathing the last three Trek movies......yes,they ARE Trek as well,whether you like it or not......and are looking forward to STD. And how can it get new fans if it doesn't do something new and exciting? So if those who are so against it hate it that much,just......like everyone says.....don't watch it,and those of us who DO enjoy it can be on our merry way,lol! I'm not saying don't criticize it,as long as it's contructive criticism. And I seriously doubt a small minority complaining about it every chance they get will change the show. Maybe you'll get a tweak here and there if they see something doesn't work,lol!

[Gothneo]

STD *does* look great! 

 

In the end it'll be the numbers... not the old school fans or critics that determine if it was a success or not, and yeah unless I completely hate the pilot... which is unlikely... I'll be trying out all access. 

[1701D]

I mean I think I speak for most when I say none of us wanted an STD, but now we're only two weeks from getting it, I couldn't be happier. Petrified that it could turn out to be like an actual STD though...

Also in order;

TNG
DS9
VOY
ENT
TOS

I love TOS, who doesn't! I'm a child of the 80's though and I grew up in the 90's. Picard, Sisko and Janeway are my childhood heroes and Enterprise was the first Star Trek show I watched from the beginning, all the way through - it may not be the best show but it has a place in nostalgia for me.

Discovery I'm certain won't topple the Berman era for me but hopefully it'll still be thought provoking and introduce Star Trek to a new generation and of course spawn new shows that are more anthology based - particularly stories set in the 24th century and also create new and awesome merchandise!

[JMW326]

DS9
Enterprise
Voyager
TNG
TOS
That’s my order. TNG has some fantastic Episodes, and Picard is probably my favorite captain, but I just never cared about the characters apart from Picard and Data.

I'm the opposite with TNG. Picard is probably my least favorite captain but I enjoyed the show because of the supporting characters. Riker, Worf, Data and recurring characters like Barclay and Obrien made the show for me.

[Alteran195]

I really hate STD as the abbreviation. 

 

I thought DSC was the official one? Hell, DIS would work better, and sound better than STD.

 

 

I'm the opposite with TNG. Picard is probably my least favorite captain but I enjoyed the show because of the supporting characters. Riker, Worf, Data and recurring characters like Barclay and Obrien made the show for me.

I really didn't care for Riker, and Worf wasn't nearly as developed until DS9. Same with O'Brien, he was good in the episodes he was in, but he didn't really do much. 

 

Forgot about Broccoli, he was great. 

 

In TNG I just didn't care for the majority of the main cast. 

 

Geordi didn't do anything for me, and he pretty much seemed to stay the same throughout the entire series. 

 

Crusher and Troi were terrible, and the majority of their episodes were not great. I honestly liked Pulaski more than Crusher, and wish she had stuck around. 

 

Worf was alright, but again he got a lot better in DS9.

 

Riker didn't do anything for me either, I just didn't like his character. 

 

Pretty much every other series had a main cast I liked more. Even Enterprise, except Mayweather who was pretty worthless as a character. 

[Gothneo]

Oh your all just terrible terrible fans!   

 

To me this was  the jump between TNG and DS9...

 

In TNG the episodic event was reason you learned more about a character, while in DS9 it was the opposite, the characters were more front and center and events unfolded around them. DS9 developed the characters deeper... heck they developed many of the species deeper.

[Alteran195]

Preview of the main theme:

https://streamable.com/cw3he

[1701D]

To be fair, Picard was an awful captain - a legend - but awful. His decision making and reasoning was questionable at best. Sisko was a bulldozer, God-like etc.. Janeway though, she not only had solid reasoning and decision making but she was a force to be reckoned with. I wouldn't want to cross her. Picard I think I could of fooled, not a hope in fooling Janeway and even if I was lucky enough to fool her, she'd find a way to roast my nuts over burning plasma.

[1701D]

I like the main theme, I just feel like there's not really much of a theme there and the ending seems a bit jolting. It sort of says; oh shit we've got to end this BAM! Now, que the Star Trek fanfare. It's a little messy and doesn't have the same sweeping, epic theme TNG, DS9 and VGR had - it's still better than faith of the heart though.

[Alteran195]

Considering the intro is about a minute long, I don't think we've heard it in its entirety. It could have a better flow to it than how it was cut up for this clip. 

[s8film40]

It's interesting how we as fans get different things out of Star Trek and in turn have different favorites.

Here's mine:

TNG
TOS
ENT
VOY
TAS
DS9

I've also observed many Star Trek fans are also Star Wars fans while others nearly hate it, I fall into the latter. I've noticed my friends who like Star Wars seem excited about Discovery more so than those that don't. I'm curious how many on here would consider themeselves Star Wars fans or not and also excited about Discovery or not happy with the direction.

[Alteran195]

I like both. 

 

Been a Trek fan longer, and like it more than Star Wars. 

[JMW326]

I'm a huge fan of both franchises. I've never understood the one or the other mentality myself.

[s8film40]

I'm a huge fan of both franchises. I've never understood the one or the other mentality myself.

How do you feel about Discovery so far?

 

Personally I've always tried to like Star Wars, but just can't. I love the visuals but hate the stories.

[Gothneo]

The visuals in "Wars" are great... the 1st two movies hooked me... then I keep going hoping they will re-capture that magic... but they never do... to me they are (were??) a completely different thing than Trek. 

 

I'd say I'm fairly ambivalent about new 'Wars... but my Caution pertaining to DIS is that I haven't cared for the new movies... But I'm gonna give it a go, I found bits of every other TV Trek Show that I've liked... hopefully the same will be true here!

[MisterPL]

My personal definition of what makes me a "fan" is that I have to like at least half of it.

 

I used to be a Star Wars fan but after Return of the Jedi, the Special Editions, and the prequels, I decided to refer to myself as a student of the films. After Rogue One I'm starting to rebound. The Last Jedi might be a turning point.

 

My affection for Star Trek, however, goes way back, long before I saw George Lucas' space opera in 1977. Along with Lost in Space, Space: 1999, and any movie featuring giant monsters, Trek was must-see TV. I enjoy good sci-fi and this sated that thirst. I watched TAS every week and dragged my grandfather to see TMP when that hit theaters.

 

My take on TNG is that it's closer to what Roddenberry might have offered had he been given the go-ahead with "The Cage" instead of being asked to shoot another pilot. As much as I liked Jerry Goldsmith's theme for TMP, I wished that TNG had gotten its own to go with its new crew. The show took a while to hit its stride but TNG managed to define the franchise for a new generation.

 

DS9 was anti-Trek and ended up becoming my favorite. I fully expected to not like it at all but gave it a chance and am very glad I did. It's been a while since I've revisited it. 

 

I've always thought VOY should have been TNG with a new crew and maybe a new Enterprise, making its way back from the Delta Quadrant. Obviously the studio wanted to keep the Trek film franchise going and took the crew in that direction. VOY has the most beautiful opening credits sequence of all the TV series, in my opinion, and a very memorable main theme. I just wish the second half of the final season had focused on the crew's return to the Alpha Quadrant and their adjustment to being home. There were some missed opportunities for some character development there.

 

Coming off of Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica reboot, ENT felt like a similar reimagining of TOS, with a gender-swapped Spock, an alien McCoy, and some other pretty familiar characters. I tend to agree with most others; this was a pretty show that should have been run by Manny Coto from the start. As with the Star Wars prequels, the closer they got to the original source material, the better the show got. That finale though...

 

Bottom line: I've managed to enjoy all Trek, some more than others, so I'm excited to see Discovery. I even like the main theme. 

[1701D]

Star Trek and Star Wars are two very different things. I love to hate on Star Wars as a loyal Trekkie but in truth I really quite enjoy loosing myself in the sheer scale and scope and imagination of Lucas's universe. I think there's a lot in Star Wars that has been influenced by Star Trek and of course George Lucas was right when he said that Star Wars stood on the shoulders of Star Trek. I couldn't put it better myself.

The general issue I have is with Paramount and CBS continuously looking around for the next big thing to impose on Star Trek; clearly Abrams tried to channel Star Wars, when all Star Trek needed was a dedicated team of science fiction writers who grew up loving Star Trek more, understanding what Star Trek is and was and how to move it forward for the modern age.

I think the problems the Kelvin movies faced wasn't due to the fact they're necessarily bad Star Trek movies, they're just Star Trek movies that are clearly made by those who undoubtedly enjoy Star Trek but only enjoy it on a surface level, ensuring that the tropes are met because surely that will please the fans...

The team that made the Kelvin movies aren't trekkers or trekkies, they're fans, fans of the iconic pop culture references Star Trek offers and the iconic moments in Trek rather than fans of the deeper, philosophical ideas and meanings behind the catchphrase, colourful uniforms and ships.

Discovery is an odd one. On the one hand I can see it falling into that same trap, believing the hyperbole spewing from social media from fans unhappy about the look of the Klingons or confused about how this can possibly be a show set ten years before Kirk, while on the other understanding that Star Trek isn't about catchphrases or Kirk and Spock or hokey aliens in prosthetic foreheads.

The main stumbling block Discovery has made i feel, is by setting its show ten years before Kirk when it clearly wants to do its own thing unattached from what has come before, but because the studio believes that Kirk and Spock are the key to Star Trek's success, having a show were they are out there and could show up down the line is something they (the studio) believe will eventually win over fans and appeal to non fans.

That might happen and Discovery may be a huge hit, but the truth is that's just Star Trek-lite. It's pandering to the pop culture appeal of Trek, the iconic tropes and tag lines that have made this franchise synonymous with geek culture.

I think for Star Trek to move forward, it has to embrace the very thing it promotes; a strange new world. Instead of pandering to fans or to identifiable tag lines or aliens, it perhaps needs to push boundaries and truly discover a new way to fly... it needs to pioneer a new way of thinking whilst all the while holding that mirror up to our own world.

I think Discovery desperately wants to be that show but it is so torn between ensuring it hits the recognisable tropes of Trek that make Star Trek the pop culture icon it is, and being something actually very new and exciting.

In short; I think they've perhaps got the right idea, they've just put it in the wrong period of continuity; this is a show that should of been set 100 years after Voyager where it can really explore not just strange NEW worlds, but do so without the constraints of a 51 year old TV show constantly looming large.

And perhaps this is true of Star Wars as well. Instead of doing something bold and daring with the storyline, they've played it safe. Returning JJ Abrams to Star Wars will undoubtedly deliver his version, his interpretation of Return of the Jedi. I can't see Star Wars pushing new boundaries, it's all very safe. The Han Solo movie doesn't expand upon the universe, Kenobi in the same vein and the bounty hunter movie that is reportedly coming down the line - all of these movies aren't designed to further the franchise, all of these movies are being developed to pander to the fans and the kids who can identify the iconic tropes of Star Wars, to continue the toy line juggernaut.

I've always loved Star Trek because by and large it was never afraid to push boundaries and to stick the middle finger up at the mainstream, against everyone else looking at it, not truly understanding it, it persevered with being something a little different, a little quirky and it's only really been since 2009 that Star Trek has tried to pander to the lowest common denominator.

Discovery has a really hard time of it, a challenge I'm not sure it's capable of really overcoming and succeeding with. In a way Star Trek is the one franchise that belongs to its fan base. In the fan base I think we find the true meaning of Star Trek. In the fan film Star Trek: Continues and in the vocal outpouring of opinions all saying the same thing in different ways;

Respect and honour what has come before but move this legacy forward.

That's what I take from it and truly I think Star Trek is sort of in need of a mega Trek fan who truly gets what Gene Roddenberry was doing and who understands the philosophy Roddenberry was preaching each week to come in and deliver us a proper modern Star Trek show.

Trek was aspirational science fiction, it wasn't for everyone, it was for people who got its deeper meaning. It was only ever one ship, one crew, on the edge of unknown space. That's a solid concept right there, that never needed changing. Everything that happens to that ship and that crew is a normal occurrence for them, overcoming obstacles by them working together - aliens, humans of all colours and creeds, sexualities and backgrounds striving, learning, teaching, growing, nurturing. Using their intelligence and professionalism to overcome something that most of us in the real world are struggling to comprehend or completely denying even exists, but for a few people who became Star Trek fans. Trek is for intelligent people who love this show for its cool pop culture stuff but love it more for the importance of intelligence and inspiration it promotes.

In today's age that would be a Starship Enterprise that was highly advanced with some of the most amazing theoretical technology onboard it, a crew made up of all kinds of amazing and talented individuals from all walks of life and pioneering stories that make you question your own ideas, beliefs and opinions.

[1701D]

I could be overthinking this. 🤓

[Gothneo]

naaaww... not you 1701D!

[JMW326]

How do you feel about Discovery so far?
 
Personally I've always tried to like Star Wars, but just can't. I love the visuals but hate the stories.

I can't wait. The more I see the more excited I get.