Start Trek: Discovery cast takes a knee after show's premiere.
I guess I was more right about the ghetto in that shows cast than I realized. What a shame. You can really see it in the eyes of the senequa person.
Posted on 09/24/2017 4:31:46 PM PDT by EveningStar
The original Star Trek series debuted on TV 51 years ago - September 8, 1966.
Since then it has spawned several movies and sequel / prequel series'.
Tonight, the latest series, Star Trek Discovery will premier at 8/7c on CBS, free.
As to the remaining episodes, you will have to pay for them on CBS All Access.
Will you want to continue watching and pay for it? Watch tonight's episode and decide for yourself.
For you folks in the Eastern and Central time zones, it begins in only a few minutes.
Agree. Where was the story? Too much tech, no personal relationships.
If I had not seen the panel of actors that was in with the trailers, I REALLY would have been lost. I have CBS Access anyway because I have no cable so I will try a few more times to get something from it.
there is no reason at all to give STD a second anything.
It was a basket case in development and when CBS had to stop a mere fan film that IS 1000% better that this so called professional drivel.
Netflicks paid for the distribution rights for this outside the usa. With their debt issues, they should be demanding a refund.
lens flares are used to cover sloppy framing.
Much like dark sets are used to conceal the absence missing parts of walls.
Mooves green lit this monstrosity.
I’m watching the first episode a second time and like a lot of shows or movies; you pick up on stuff the second time you miss on the first go around. Probably because you have information you didn’t have the first time.
I find this interesting. It’s possible this show requires a second viewing to really get it.
I’m going to give another chance and watch this season through. I have a feeling I won’t need to watch every single episode twice though.
It’s kinda the same thing with Game of Thrones and watching the season all the way through a second time without the wait time between episodes.
After finishing the first episode I find my thoughts are the same about watching it a second time but only if someone liked it enough the first time to do so.
Also; there’s something about the First Officer character, Michael played by Sonequa something, that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think I keep seeing the ghetto shine through her mediocre acting ability.
I don’t say this in a mean way. She clearly needs a few more years, say 5 - 10, to perfect her skills before her ‘hood’ atitude wasn’t so obvious. On the other hand; this may be exactly what the director or producer wanted. Disappointing if true. This isn’t Sanford and Son after all. In my opinion her role on The Walking Dead was more suited to her and her skill level. It’s a shame she couldn’t have stayed there and perfected her craft among other roles she may have gotten as well.
Sorry; but she really isn’t fit for this role... yet in her acting career. It’s possible the previous director saw this as well and wanted someone more fitting but was over ridden by the producers because they did want someone more ‘hood’ or ghetto in that role to appeal to that demographic. The way things are now in the acting world; I put nothing past them.
Start Trek: Discovery cast takes a knee after show's premiere.
I guess I was more right about the ghetto in that shows cast than I realized. What a shame. You can really see it in the eyes of the senequa person.
Just watched AfterTrek. Although the host set off my gay dar they discussed interesting points about characters and the next show.
IMO so far it is over Klingon-ed.
Firefly was extraordinary. Babylon 5 IMHO, best sci-fi storyline ever on TV.
I have the entire B5 series on Blu-Ray. The staging is static and wooden compared to the hand-held mobility of BG.
But yeah, Michael Straczynski’s story line was superb.
Okay, here my FULL review of “The Vulcan Hello” that I published yesterday:
Star Trek Discovery just might be the longest-delayed pilot episode in TV history, so it was with great relief that the show FINALLY aired its premiere on CBS Sunday evening – but not before one final delay that pushed the episode’s start time to 7:48 p.m. CST. There’s been a great deal of behind-the-scenes problems with Discovery, and oodles of merciless Discovery bashing on the internet. Anyone who has followed my posts in recent months knows that I have been firmly in the “very pessimistic about Discovery” camp. So, now that we can actually watch the show instead of just speculate on what it will be like, I tried my darndest to keep an open mind and hope for the best. Perhaps the end result would prove me wrong and turn out to an hour of fantastic television. One day later, the results are in. The good news? I didn’t hate Discovery. The bad news? I didn’t like it, either.
The biggest problem here is that CBS pretty much set themselves up for failure. If you study the history of Star Trek, most Star Trek TV series have had rocky starts (even the original series with its now legendary first season), but CBS insisted that only the first episode of Discovery would be aired on actual television. All future episodes— including the second episode that immediately picks up where the first one left off-— would be locked behind a pay wall and available exclusively online through their paid streaming service, CBS All Access. To convince both seasoned Star Trek fans and newcomers to Star Trek to sign up for All Access, CBS really needed to have their first episode knock it out of the park and leave the audience thrilled, at the edge of their seat, begging to know what will happen next. Did Discovery accomplish this? In one word: No.
To be fair, having a mind-blowing pilot episode is an extremely difficult task, so I can’t blast them for failing to pull that off. Likewise, no matter how doubtful I was of Discovery, and did not care for the setting, characters, and direction the show planned to go in (and I especially hated the “Ghostbusters reboot style” marketing where Discovery and its defenders accused naysayers of the show of being motivated by bigotry), there is little doubt there were many positives about the show. The opening theme music is much more dignified and appropriate for a Star Trek series than Star Trek: Enterprise’s “Faith of the Heart” theme was in 2001, and the credit sequence itself (showing interactive sketches of things from Star Trek like Tricorders, phasers, etc.) was a clever idea, even if it seemed more appropriate for a documentary about Star Trek props. The visuals: and especially, the cinematography, special effects, and art direction lived up the hype and were the best I’ve ever seen for Star Trek on the small screen, and were indeed very “cinematic” in scope. Obviously, a lot of time and attention was paid to getting the “look” of this show right.
The biggest issues I had with the first episode was that the episode utterly failed to accomplish some major things it needed to do from the start. The marketing and trailers for Discovery made the show look ultra-dreary and serious, which is totally against the upbeat spirit of optimism found in the most beloved Star Trek shows: the original series and the Next Generation. I was hoping the pilot would prove me wrong and demonstrate that Discovery could be fun and adventurous, too. It did not. Likewise, Discovery has been under fire nonstop for looking nothing like a “prequel” set “10 years before Kirk” in the original Star Trek timeline. Discovery needed to alleviate those concerns in the pilot and demonstrate that it legitimately fits into the existing Star Trek timeline and believable takes place “10 years before Kirk”. Not only did it fail to do that, its look and feel was so inconsistent with past Star Trek series, it felt like a total reboot. Star Trek: The Next Generation began the tradition of having an existing Star Trek actor reprise their role in the new show (namely, DeForest Kelly showed up as an elderly McCoy in the 1987 TNG pilot) and every Star Trek series and movie that involved “passing the torch” to a totally new vision/setting for Star Trek has followed suit. This is such a major hallmark of Star Trek that even JJ Abrams’ 2009 “reboot” brought back Leonard Nimoy as the classic Spock, in order to have the movie tie-in with existing Star Trek. Discovery’s failure to do so is very disappointing, and makes the new show awkwardly stick out like a sore thumb in the Star Trek universe.
Stylistically, Discovery was much more similar to the JJ Abrams movies than the “prime timeline” it claims to be set in. Like the JJ verse, Discovery relied on lots of lens flares, sleek tech, frantic non-stop action, shouting, and shoot ‘em up action sequences. The one major difference is that the Kelvin universe movies at least kept the fun, humorous, and lighthearted style of the prime timeline Star Trek (even “Star Trek Into Darkness” was actually very “dark”), whereas Discovery is extremely dour and somber, making the experience more like watching Blade Runner or Alien.
Tonally, the only existing Star Trek that Discovery resembled was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This was an odd choice, since the movie was roundly criticized in 1979 for not “getting” the point of Star Trek, and Discovery is (quite fairly) getting the same criticisms. Like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Discovery relies on wowing the viewer with breathtaking visual effect sequences (there’s even a “spacewalk” scene for the Michael Burnham character that is reminiscent of TMP), and some “big” scary crisis in space to drive the events forward— but it lacks any kind of warmth, personality, playfulness, or sense of wonder and joy. Looking at it objectively, this tone is likely the reason “The Vulcan Hello” is probably my least favorite Star Trek pilot (falling behind my previous “least favorite”, Emissary), as all the previous pilots seemed to have some compelling ideas and fun characters that Discovery simply lacked.
One thing that surprised me going into “The Vulcan Hello” is that it’s really the first Star Trek pilot since the original series that’s not really a legitimate “pilot” episode. In other words, all the other pilots from Next Generation to Enterprise made a point of introducing the characters and setting up the story that the rest of the series would be about. They were also all two-hour premiere “mini movies” on the small screen. “The Vulcan Hello” harkens back to the original 1960s Star Trek where the “pilot” may have been the first episode produced, but it’s just a random story that plucks the viewer right into the middle of an established setting and doesn’t really let you get to know the characters. I’m actually OK with Star Trek trying this format again (after all, Roddenberry originally wanted the Enterprise to be a ship with “some history” and to introduce a seasoned crew as opposed the later shows all taking place on the crew’s maiden voyage), so I’m fine with Discovery starting us off with Michael Burnham having already served on that ship for seven years, and pushing the viewer right into a critical mission they’ve having. That being said, what I question about this episode was the execution of that idea. Once the decision was made that the pilot would be the lone “free” episode on regular TV and would have to “sell” the viewer on signing up for the rest of the show, there should have been enough time devoted to the first episode of giving us a compelling story and ending with a “tease” of the USS Discovery and its regular crew (perhaps the final scene showing them shaking hands with Jason Isaac’s Captain Lorca or something). It seems bizarre to me that a show called “Star Trek Discovery” gave us a pilot episode that didn’t feature one second of footage showing the USS Discovery.
Rather, Star Trek Discovery can be summed up as about 40 minutes of frantic action revolving around a crisis with “Predator-style” Klingons that act like ISIS members. The Klingons in “The Vulcan Hello” seemed to be depicted as purely evil nasty monsters barking angry orders about some crazy ideology, which didn’t fit with even the most negative portrayals of Klingons in past Star Trek series (at worst, past Klingon villains were more along the lines of arrogant, tough bullies who delighted in putting down the federation). To me, the pilot episode was very much at odds with Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future where vastly different cultures try to find common ground, no matter how difficult. It also seemed to have a very ugly and cynical look at the future that was never present in any incarnation of Star Trek, even “dark” series like DS9. If there’s one thing it did manage to “sell” me on, it’s that Sonequa Martin-Green did an excellent job as Michael Burnham (I had my doubts about the show revolving around her character before I saw the episode), and she is compelling character in her own right – though she deserves better than a shoehorned in back-story about being raised by Vulcans and having a season-long arc that apparently involves fighting ISIS-like “Klingons”.
Although I did not care for the episode, I freely admit that an entire television show cannot be judged by a single episode, so I intend to tune into the next few episodes, and I hope the show improves. In the meantime, however, Star Trek Discovery’s biggest obstacle to succeeding at this time seems to be itself. Discovery simply hasn’t earned its place as a “legitimate” Star Trek show and it can’t afford two seasons to “find its footing” like past Star Trek shows have done. In the meantime, the Orville has sprung up to capture the attention of Star Trek fans, and it’s doing something that would have seemed impossible two years ago – it seems to be working as a valid substitute for having Star Trek on television.
** out of ****
Well, B5 began airing in 1994, so cannot compare since styles and technology have changed so much. Still such immense creativity, with the ship designs especially.
its defenders accused naysayers of the show of being motivated by bigotry
The credits, I forgot to mention, I was totally underwhelmed by both the tune and the graphics, entirely forgettable. At least it’s not a stupid pop song like “Enterprise” had (instead of the lovely instrumental theme they instead used on the closing credits)
I’ve watched ep 2 now. *SPOILER ALERT* there were some lens flares.
After watching the 2nd ep, the Klingons are just wrong, not just the cult members but all of them. They don’t act like the Klingons of every other incarnation, they are missing personality, swagger, there are all just dour stuck up weirdly dressed ugly depressive whiners.
As to your complaint about the lack of a cameo from a past actor, I hear you but who could they have gotten? Scott Bakula made up like an ancient old man? T’pol? Who would care about that? They ain’t Nimoy or Kelley. They did have a cameo by an established character (though not actor) in Sarek, and while I like the actor they got, it just feels unnecessary, Humans raised by aliens and aliens raised by humans (Worf) has been done.
*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*
Not sure why Brown sugar (I can’t get over her name, I don’t like her last name either, she sounds like she should be a baseball pitcher with a handlebar mustache) would confess to mutiny, where is the “logic” in that? With Yeoh dead, there was no evidence save hearsay (unless they security cameras or something). And I’m shocked they would give her LIFE. In later set Star Trek works the Federation prisons look like country clubs, they are all about rehabilitation in lib land.
This looks like it will be entirely about war with the Klingons. Star Trek was never about war. I was skeptical at first but I really liked the DS9 Dominion war act. But that was already established characters being thrust into a war. This starts with a war and looks very very dark, I’m not sure there will be any “discovering” or Trek humor which is a vital element.
If they are doing war I wish it would have been the Earth-Romulan War and then the founding of the Federation, which Enterprise was gonna tackle if hadn’t been cancelled cause they waited till season 4 before getting good (seasons 1 and 2 were lousy) TNG survived a crap first season and Voyager survived despite never being near as good as it could have been. If Enterprise had started out doing the interesting stuff instead of just meandering in space, they would have lasted.
Issacs looks like he might interesting, when they finally get around to him.
CBS A-A sucks btw, I signed up for a free trial and never cancelled it cause I’m an idiot, despite paying there are still commercials (you have to pay extra for no ads).
and I went there to catch up on “Big Bang Theory” eps from last season that I missed, and they aren’t available, only the season 11 premiere, if I’m paying they should have every damn episode on there.
I say if you want you want to see it, pirate it.
Tons of deliberate lens flare in both episodes.
90% of it made no sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0xOgFDXFg
You guys must know this skit, I never saw it before
Man, what a great Shatner, without being over the top at all.
I wish that they re-do the original star trek with modern graphic special effects. Modify the back ground using the ideas from the later movies to make the originals more realistic. Just a pipe dream but didn’t they do that for the original Starwars?
Gadzooks, Imp-- I saw it when it was... 
LIVE from New York!
可恶, Bendy-- You one... 
old white dude, ya know.
A full-blown refurbishment of the entire series would be prohibitively expensive - but it'd be interesting to let various FX studios compete by updating certain space-battle episodes, such as "Balance of Terror" or "Elaan of Troyius".
The digital remake of “The Doomsday Machine” is one of the best. The modern CGI took that episode to a whole new level.
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