"I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate where wiser men would have left well enough alone."
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Strange New Worlds S4 teaser strikes a more serious tone
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kinda sad to even think about watching where they've already torn down the sets, declared it too woke for further seasons, and are moving on to more conservative life brand oriented programs like probably some show about eating meat.
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I bailed on season 3 after the second goof off episode. If season 4 is a tight finale that takes itself seriously, then I'll watch it.
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voyager had issues behind the scenes i think, so characters the writers didn't like or who's actors they didn't get along with didn't get much spotlight. there were also some weird missed opportunities because it was still mostly an anthology like b'alana and paris's wedding which just happened off screen between episodes
janeway, seven, the doctor, and paris got the most episodes about them but just about everybody got an episode
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funny thing was TNG built the sets for the large runabout seen in Timescape for the production of DS9 to use afterward but the studio scrapped it after just that episode. they would have had a ship set in season 1 of ds9
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After the cartoon cross over episode and the thing that caused crew members to sing and dance I stopped watching SNW myself. Switched to Discovery for now but not sure I'll finish that either.
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I was the same, I couldn't get into season 3. Too campy and not serious enough.
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Am I the only one that loved the singing episode? I thought it was absolutely hilarious. I loved the cartoon crossover episode too, but that is because I think the Lower Decks is the best Star Trek I've seen in a while. I think Lower decks and Strange New Worlds get the idea of a strong captain right, and the idea that the Federation as a whole is doing the right thing. Which has always been what I liked about Star Trek.
I wanted the Star Tek Academy to succeed and be amazing, but you need the leader of the Academy to be a strong character. I think the biggest problem is that Holly Hunter didn't understand the assignment of being a leader in Star Trek. She mugs for the camera trying to be cute too much instead of trying to lead and being someone who should be respected. If She had taken a more "Captain Janeway" approach, I think it would have made the whole show better.
Its hard to think of this effectively leading and changing people into Starfleet:
I wanted the Star Tek Academy to succeed and be amazing, but you need the leader of the Academy to be a strong character. I think the biggest problem is that Holly Hunter didn't understand the assignment of being a leader in Star Trek. She mugs for the camera trying to be cute too much instead of trying to lead and being someone who should be respected. If She had taken a more "Captain Janeway" approach, I think it would have made the whole show better.
Its hard to think of this effectively leading and changing people into Starfleet:
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There's approximately a 100 year difference in timeline between Enterprise and SNW. T'Pol was born in 2088, making her 63 in Season 1 of Enterprise (2151). By the time SNW occurs, she's roughly 171 years old, so it's rather unlikely to see her "younger" version in SNW.
*Too early to be Saavik.
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I've enjoyed all of the new Trek and will be sad when SNW ends its run. I sincerely hope that if/when a new show comes out, it'll be set in the post Nemesis/Picard era. 15 episode seasons where they focus on exploration and the challenges facing the Federation without, this time without universe-ending stakes each season.
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Or maybe it's Section 31.
I imagine any ST we get out of the Ellison's is going to be mirror universe dreck.DS9 struggled through S1 and S2 a bit until the Defiant came along in S3. Of course, that also set DS9 on the long arc storylines of the Dominion war which I think helped ground the series too.
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Man I thought we'd finish with a season 5 not 4. I really liked SNW and it has been the most true to OG trek, Next Generation, and DS9. Including the goofy episodes and the not-great episodes. Completely in line.
At least we'll have the new Kirk-led series spinoff, now that they've obviously spent a lot of time and effort writing the TOS crew into SNW as it comes to its final seas–
Bummer, I'd actually grown to like the new iteration of Kirk.
At least we'll have the new Kirk-led series spinoff, now that they've obviously spent a lot of time and effort writing the TOS crew into SNW as it comes to its final seas–
... and, it's gone.
Bummer, I'd actually grown to like the new iteration of Kirk.
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A reason modern ST is lacking is that their season is a meager 7 or so episodes.
ST used to have 25 episodes a season which gave ample room to make mistakes, conduct long and short story arcs, utilize different mechanisms of character development, and even repeated guest characters (Q, Vash, Reginald Barclay etc.).
ST used to have 25 episodes a season which gave ample room to make mistakes, conduct long and short story arcs, utilize different mechanisms of character development, and even repeated guest characters (Q, Vash, Reginald Barclay etc.).
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I guess not you, or you'd realize Strange New Worlds is a good show.
Yes, Discovery and Picard seem pretty irredeemable to me, Lower Decks isn't my thing, and Starfleet Academy is aggressively average. But on balance, Strange New Worlds is of Voyager-level quality in my book. It's not DS9-level and I'm not sure any other Trek ever will be, but you don't need to act like everything is a failure because it's not as good as the GOAT Star Trek series.
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I think your point is made when Pike's approach is a failure in the episode "A Quality of Mercy." At the same time, Pike's more evolved approach could be seen as why the citizens of Talos found him so attractive.
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I liked Season 3, just not all of it. I liked that they explored telling their story via new genres. I thought Subspace Rhapsody would suck, but it did not; however, I am not a fan of musical comedy or opera. My mom was an opera singer, so maybe that's a me problem. The boy band Klingons just really tickled my funny bone, while having everyone singing their repressed feelings instead of needed a mutated water molecule was cute.
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The new boss of Paramount is the son of a tech mogul, and I'm sure he acts like a mogul. Considering the short-arming of the SNW series, it probably wasn't making enough money, and experimental episodes like Subspace Rhapsody are expensive while CG is getting cheaper by the day with AI, so expect a lot of that this season. We can only hope we learn about more strange new worlds before the lights go out.
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No you're not, those were good, memorable episodes. Anyone whose undies are scrunched up so tight that they can't enjoy a little musical or a well done crossover can just not watch I guess.
Like many of us, I can only enjoy SNW and Lower Decks out of the entire range of nu trek from the last 10+ years. For me though, SNW is mostly pulp.. love the casting, the ship and aesthetic aren't bad, I dont mind that it gets a thirsty, but it doesn't really have a lot of depth and I doubt I'll ever re-watch it. And that's ok, some media can just be for fun.
Lower Decks ends up meaning a lot more to me though. Likely has to do with the characters who all have clear, (and if I'm being critically honest, probably slightly childish and in-your-face) flaws that they are always struggling with, and that you can really feel great about when they briefly transcend them and you get a glimpse of the more complete person they're trying to become.
We get little tastes of that in SNW from time to time, but it just doesn't connect with me like Lower Decks does.
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I didn't even know people didn't like the musical episode? I don't even like musicals but I loved it. I mean people praise silly golden era Trek episodes all the time, like Take Me Out to the Holosuite or the casino heist episode. Trek can and should be silly occasionally. That one was a hit for me.
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I don't know, I mean there was that one episode when they were in the mirror universe and her and Dax ... O-o
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Well, sort of. Only around a third of episodes were actually worth watching in most seasons, because the rest were just low effort filler episodes to pad out the season.
Futurama said it best, "79 episodes, about 30 good ones".
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Somehow the ratio sticks no matter how long the season, though. More eps, more room for spacing out focus, and overall more good minutes of Trek. We could have had so much more time with Hemmer in S1 and it would have probably really elevated late S1/early S2. More time with Batel, same deal, especially since she's outwardly normal.
Disclaimer: I desperately loved the musical episode and I love dumb science. S1 overall was a huge winner for me, and S2 had memorable moments of joy.
But the Spock/Chapel relationship episodes and subplots always seem to make the cut in SNW, whereas other character's stuff is not happening as much as I want, and it deeply reduces the amount of episodes I'm likely to enjoy. I am currently unlikely to pursue S4, but I was drawn in by Prodigy and I should really push to finish it.
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Trek has had some silly episodes, I'm fine with those... but if you're going to do a musical episode, give a very good reason for it in-universe. Across all those very silly holodeck episodes in the past, there was some reason, some sci-fi excuse for why everyone had to deal with the ridiculous scenario. It's broken, or the ship's AI became self aware and had a space baby, or light construct aliens are convinced the holograms are the only actual form of life, or something. The musical episode was just self indulgence on the part of the writers. Frankly I think it could have been an explorative episode on the nature of communication. They can't speak to an alien race, they don't understand, but they DO seem to be "singing" everything back to them, and in seemingly choreographed musical numbers at that. To them, it's natural to just spring into song where everyone knows their parts. To communicate back, they have to put on a big show, and with language communicators in the background writing and rewriting responses and parts of the number in real time to catch up with how the aliens respond. It'd still be self indulgent, but it would be doing something WITH the premise, even if it's just a Darmak all over again.
Star Trek should never take itself all THAT seriously, but it should be working plot elements together with the presentation in a way that makes some sort of sense.
Frankly, I just want to see the beep chair at this point. What a wonderful way to start off this series, by taking how we know it'll end, telling it to the main character, and making that TENSION a big part of the overall arc he goes on. Let's see if they can stick the landing there. (I mean, it's not like season 7 of Next Generation was it's best either, but it had an amazing series finale that even retroactively justified the series opener.)
I don't really care if it's on a space station or if it's "woke" or anything like that. These are trivial points fans like to latch onto as if that explains the storytelling issues. I feel like if there's problems, it has more to do with a whole lot of writing issues that add up together into something viewers can't really fully explain, but they know that it didn't "land" for them. One thing's for sure, the sort of fans who are adding up "trope lists" as if they are deduction points off a perfect golf game don't seem to understand writing at all. It's like they found a way to put a word to not liking something and then just sit back and relax, there, they've pigeonholed it. "Mary sue! There! Now I know it's bad without any further thought!"
Star Trek should never take itself all THAT seriously, but it should be working plot elements together with the presentation in a way that makes some sort of sense.
Frankly, I just want to see the beep chair at this point. What a wonderful way to start off this series, by taking how we know it'll end, telling it to the main character, and making that TENSION a big part of the overall arc he goes on. Let's see if they can stick the landing there. (I mean, it's not like season 7 of Next Generation was it's best either, but it had an amazing series finale that even retroactively justified the series opener.)
I don't really care if it's on a space station or if it's "woke" or anything like that. These are trivial points fans like to latch onto as if that explains the storytelling issues. I feel like if there's problems, it has more to do with a whole lot of writing issues that add up together into something viewers can't really fully explain, but they know that it didn't "land" for them. One thing's for sure, the sort of fans who are adding up "trope lists" as if they are deduction points off a perfect golf game don't seem to understand writing at all. It's like they found a way to put a word to not liking something and then just sit back and relax, there, they've pigeonholed it. "Mary sue! There! Now I know it's bad without any further thought!"
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Frankly the big promise of this series was to address past issues with Starfleet, have the new recruits question values and/or how well Starfleet had lived up to those values in the before-times, and to steadily build even better values going forward. I'm not sure "strength" is particularly important a value I need in a captain, just reliability.
They've got the guy who killed Tuvix right there, that'd be something for an episode.
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Okay this is interesting, now I'm wondering if the space kaiju episode being shorter than all the other S3 episodes and seeming to have key pieces of the story missing wasn't actually censorship by the new MAGA ownership and was just them running out of time to finish the episode due to the strikes.
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That's it. CBS/Paramount is dead. Are there enough idiots around to keep them solvent?
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It's possible that after the merger goes through, they will do what Fox did before they sold off the 20th studio - keep the news operation right-wing but allow the entertainment division to produce typical Hollywood fare. That's not a good outcome either and would still justify boycotting them, but it would allow them to attempt to make money by serving the widest range of entertainment viewers.
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My biggest complaint about this era of Trek including Strange New Worlds is a normalized disrespect for the chain of command. Too often the stories come down to "it's okay to be insubordinate and disobey orders if you think you're right, and you'll wind up totally justified and commended for it." Starfleet Academy was the worst about this with the school administrators never wanting to give out the slightest amount of discipline and the story always making the kids right.
Interestingly, it's the animated shows that defied this. Lower Decks has everyone on the ship follow orders and respect command hierarchy (at least as much as the TOS and TNG crews did), except for Mariner whose whole schtick is that she defies authority at every chance she gets, but she frequently faces consequences for it.
Prodigy also made it a common plot point that things don't work out if the teenagers give in to their impulses and do things their own way, but things work out if they work together as a Starfleet crew with a clear chain of command.
Interestingly, it's the animated shows that defied this. Lower Decks has everyone on the ship follow orders and respect command hierarchy (at least as much as the TOS and TNG crews did), except for Mariner whose whole schtick is that she defies authority at every chance she gets, but she frequently faces consequences for it.
Prodigy also made it a common plot point that things don't work out if the teenagers give in to their impulses and do things their own way, but things work out if they work together as a Starfleet crew with a clear chain of command.
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Picard season 1 was ok. I noped out of S2 after that "exciting" car chase and the doc getting possessed AGAIN.
I heard S3 was good, so I came back. Once it turned into STNG the new adventures it was actually really good.
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I watched a season or two of DS9 and while I enjoyed the Ferrengi road trip episodes, the series itself felt really claustrophobic so I noped out. And then they got the Defiant but I didn't see any more episodes til the finale.
Wish they'd do a proper HD upconversion, the ST shot on video looks like hot chocolate muddy garbage.
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Raises my tiny hand: I'll take whatever Trek I can get. I'm looking forward to watching seasons 4 and 5 of SNW and season 2 of SFA, and I'm hopeful that Paramount does something great with Trek in the near future.
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I'd disagree.
I found Ake to be an interesting take. One: know your audience. The Academy isn't (supposed to be) a normal Starfleet ship encountering normal Starfleet situations. While Picard was a great active captain, I think he was too stern for what amounts to a school. Starfleet isn't supposed to be military. While respect for command is important, I thought Ake was accessible and compassionate to her students. Someone who they might listen to because she wasn't taking things too seriously.
I would pick Janeway to get me home from the Delta Quadrant every day of the week. She was absolutely an inspiring leader in the same way Admiral Adama by James Olmos was in Battlestar Galactica. But she wasn't headmaster material.
As for SNW, I'm like you. I enjoyed the silly episodes, probably more than the serious ones. I like light-hearted Trek, it seems.
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You basically missed every single season and episode that makes a lot of people vouch for it being the best Star Trek series ever made.
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Similar here. Thought S1 was great, S2 very good (the musical episode even worked), and only finished S3 because my partner refused to give up (the Q episode being a notable low point). Hopeful S4 is a return to form but my pessimistic side fears more validation.
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