Comment on Just some fun size comparisons
constantokra@lemmy.one 8 months agoI wasn’t a fan of discovery at first, but by the time Pike and Spock came in it was obvious they had gotten some people involved who cared about the universe. I feel like it has recontextualized TOS, and added a lot of depth to the characters we’ve known for the longest time. And they’ve done a fantastic job of making the shows intelligible to new people, while adding heaps of depth, backstory and context for the rest of us with the simplest things, like Picard holding his flute at the beginning of season 3.
People can completely ignore the new stuff if they like, but I like that they’re taking some risks. The alternative is what we got with the last star wars trilogy. Perfect casting, fantastic acting, excellent world building, and a story that meandered, found the safest route, and ended up not leaving much of its own mark. Or anyway, that was my opinion.
Stamets@startrek.website 8 months ago
I agree. The first season was rough but I dare anyone to name any show other than Lower Decks or Strange New Worlds (which are insane aberrations that I’m so happy we have) that had a good first couple seasons. It takes most shows some time to find their footing. Discovery was no exception. I’m really enjoying the ride we’ve gotten to take. Has it been bumpy? Yeah. But it’s been a really fun ride showing a side of the Trek universe don’t normally get to see. It always bothers me that people say “Oh this doesn’t get Trek” or “it doesn’t understand Trek” because that seems to be painting Trek itself in a very shallow manner. There’s a lot of depth and complexity to the universe. Sure, most of the shows are explorative and less emotional but that doesn’t mean everyones like that. Lower Decks proved that point as well.
Like I said. People can not like it all they want. I get it. But personally I think it’s a really fun and interesting show with interesting and entertaining takes on the universe we know and love. Also I think the ship is just fucking GORGEOUS.
aethervision@universeodon.com 8 months ago
@Stamets I thought naming the lead engineer after the foremost authority on mushrooms showed a remarkable amount of commitment to the utterly bonkers tech. There’s a ‘anything can happen day” quality to the show that really helped the 60 year old franchise.
Stamets@startrek.website 8 months ago
Exactly! They knew what they were going for and they committed for the entire run it’s been on. Crazy, crazy tech? Absolutely. But I like it. I’ve always thought mushrooms were kinda cool. This just makes it cooler and Stamets enthusiasm for spores and mycelium is infectious to me.
Also this is totally a minor quibble, but we actually have no fucking clue who the lead Engineer is on the Discovery. Seriously. There was an onscreen error in Season 1 that listed Stamets as the Chief Engineer but he wears a science officers badge. Jett Reno has a line in Season 2 about ‘The Chief’ sending her in to upgrade or shield something in Stamets lab. We’ve also never seen the warp core or even main engineering. Which is frankly fucking insane to me.
aethervision@universeodon.com 8 months ago
@Stamets Huh. I didn’t catch that, probably because I spent most of the first season gobsmacked by what they were doing. Had to pause for a second to confirm if you were actually Paul as I kinda used to know him when I worked at his publisher.
Prouvaire@kbin.social 8 months ago
TOS. 😎
constantokra@lemmy.one 8 months ago
Yes. And the characters. They have depth, and it feels like you know them, which makes putting lgbtq and neurodivergent characters on the screen that much better. I understand their motivations, and i’m autistic so that’s a real accomplishment.
I’m not caught up on all the shows, because i don’t always have the energy for the active watching that something like Picard warrants, but they’ve managed to make even something as silly as lower decks have character development, depth, and add a completely different view of starfleet. Like, the whole chest alien conspiracy from TNG isn’t so wild when you see that there’s a wide range of people in starfleet that’s not so obvious from following around their absolute best and brightest.