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Paramount+ Star Trek: Discovery - Official Thread (1 Viewer)

Josh Steinberg

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“Short Treks” is a series of Star Trek shorts that can take place anywhere in the Star Trek universe. They’re meant to be fun little stories adjacent to the main shows. At no point has the show been marketed as Discovery-based only. It’ll also be the launchpad for a “Picard” prequel short.
 

joshEH

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Just finished the new Discovery novel Dead Endless (written by Dave Galanter), and...wow. This one explores in substantial depth the relationship between Hugh Culber and Paul Stamets, and even more than with The Enterprise War, I wish that most of this had actually gotten put into the main TV show proper, as it it really gives much more of a reason for Culber's behavior towards Stamets after he returns from the dead in the second season.

Also, a huge spoiler:

Ephraim, the tardigrade from the recent Short Treks episode "Ephraim and Dot," (confirmed as being “Ripper” from DSC season one) is a major character in this novel, and gets some significant development as a sentient cosmic intelligence far beyond the seemingly more-animalistic depiction glimpsed in the animated short. Basically, my theory that the Short Treks episode was simply an in-universe-produced short for younger audiences that took known events and historical personages and "remixed" them for edutainment purposes appears to be somewhat confirmed by this novel. Ephraim is an extraordinary being, and author Galanter just offered up this insight into him/her/it (real-life tardigrades being non-gender-conforming for reproductive purposes):

Ephraim isn’t a he/she as we conceive of it, nor does Ephraim see Culber or Landry or even Paul that way. I think his conceptualization of identity and his nature is more inline with Q and the Wormhole Prophets, both of which he alludes to as being similar in their nature to “himself.” I think his understanding of the multiverse actually exceeds that of both the Q and the Prophets, as does his wisdom, IMO. All that said, what you saw in the cartoon, to my mind, is similar to what you might be offered by Q as a representation of what you can wrap your head around of the Continuum. Does that help?

Finally, actor Wilson Cruz just posted an online message from himself to Dave Galanter. Cruz has just read the novel and absolutely loved it. He says that he was moved to tears, and is thrilled by the synchronicity between Galanter's choice of backstory and his own interpretation as an actor.
 
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Jason_V

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Heads up: Amazon has Kindle versions of most of the Discovery books for $1.99 right now. The only one not included as far as I can tell is Dead Endless, the new book which came out on December 17.
 

NeilO

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We got season 2 on Blu-Ray this Christmas and are about halfway through so far. It has been quite fun so far. I am a little disappointed that there are only 2 of the Short Treks included. We've seen the Saru one so far - it was placed with the Saru return home episode. We watched it afterwards - it was interesting that they neatly summarized the whole thing in about 1 minute or 2 in the episode.

When watching the season 1 discs I made the mistake of watching the special features as they appeared. The mistake was they include spoilers for episodes on later discs (such as Lorca's fate). I am not making that mistake this time.

I just read some of the in-between season discussion in the forum and season 2 discussion up through the first episode (page 111). Will read more later, trying to catch up to where we've seen. The speculations are interesting as are the change in attitudes from several people about the show.
 

Jason_V

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I just read some of the in-between season discussion in the forum and season 2 discussion up through the first episode (page 111). Will read more later, trying to catch up to where we've seen. The speculations are interesting as are the change in attitudes from several people about the show.

I'll raise my hand on that. Didn't much care for most of Season 1, but I think there are hints of a good series in there, especially at the end of Will You Take My Hand?

Season 2 is so...much...different than S1 and so much better, in my estimation. Discovery went from something I watched out of duty into something I looked forward to and could champion again. Is S2 perfect? Nope. But I enjoy Trek again. That's the important part for me.
 

joshEH

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We got season 2 on Blu-Ray this Christmas and are about halfway through so far. It has been quite fun so far. I am a little disappointed that there are only 2 of the Short Treks included. We've seen the Saru one so far - it was placed with the Saru return home episode. We watched it afterwards - it was interesting that they neatly summarized the whole thing in about 1 minute or 2 in the episode.
Regarding the Short Treks and their inclusion in the set (or lack thereof), I'm not sure if you've made it all the way through Season 2 yet, so I'll spoilerize things just in case:

While it was expected that the episodes "Runaway" and "The Brightest Star" would be included in the BD set, there's a reason why "Calypso" is very likely being held back for the eventual Season 3 BD -- if you've made it to the end of S2, it's pretty obvious why, given where the starship Discovery ends up.

Whereas the decision to sit on the Harry Mudd-episode is just kinda peculiar, unless maybe CBS is planning a "complete" Short Treks BD-release further down the road, and wants to hang onto it as an incentive for those who've already picked up the season-sets to also invest in that release as well. The animated episodes and the Picard-prequel episode released last night would also presumably be included too, along with future episodes yet to be produced.
 

NeilO

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Thanks for the reply Josh. We just got to Talos IV and will be taking a little break before finishing off the series. I'll read what you had to say after we finish.
 

NeilO

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Resumed this week and just watched Perpetual Infinity last night. Definitely some mind-bending time travel business going on with Burham's mother seeing so much of Burnham's life. Looking forward to seeing the next episode tonight. (Read partway through page 124 in the forum. Lots of good discussion.)
 

Tino

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Just finished season 2 and agree with all the positive comments about it. First Among the many highlights of the season is Anson Mount’s portrayal of Christopher Pike. Amazing.

One advantage to waiting so long to finish this season is I have less of a wait for season three than most of you guys! :D
 

NeilO

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Regarding the Short Treks and their inclusion in the set (or lack thereof), I'm not sure if you've made it all the way through Season 2 yet, so I'll spoilerize things just in case:

I understand now, for the most part. They had Runaway paired with Part 1 of the finale. I wasn't sure whether to watch it first or not until they had a scene we hadn't seen yet in "previously." So, went to Runway and then Part 1.

Now done with the series. That was loads of fun. Started watching the special features on Disc 1. This time I saved them all until finishing the whole series. I made the mistake of watching them along with each disc on series 1, thinking there wouldn't be any big spoilers of later episodes on earlier discs. That was an incorrect assumption. The special features on Disc 1 haven't had big spoilers yet, but they do cover a deal more than the episodes on the first disc.
 

NeilO

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I thought the season 2 finale was absolutely thrilling and completely entertaining from start to finish. Between the length (especially when coupled with part 1) and the budget, the finale felt like a Star Trek movie.
I am wondering why they didn't air it originally with both parts on the same night. I thought they might have done so, but looking at the forum here, I see they didn't. That would have seemed to be much more of an event. I have seen the special features now on the first 3 discs and am looking forward to those on the final disc. I wonder if they will address any of the issues people had. From starting one of them it appears they do discuss the decision to suppress knowledge of The Discovery.

Edit: Reading the Trekcore interview with Michelle Paradise that was linked to a few pages ago. Apparently, Such Sweet Sorrow was originally going to be one hour-long episode and was extended to two. That explains some of that.
 
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NeilO

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I've now watched all of the special features. There was one about the season as a whole which was quite interesting. The Sphere episode was initially going to be a bottle episode and then they decided to make it central to the season. Along with the season finale there was a nice feature on the making of an episode - it included the initial planning, ADR, foley, music, the works.

I still would like to listen to the episode commentaries at some time, but that isn't a priority. I'll probably do it when I can just do it as stuff in the background some day.
 

Jason_V

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I am wondering why they didn't air it originally with both parts on the same night. I thought they might have done so, but looking at the forum here, I see they didn't. That would have seemed to be much more of an event. I have seen the special features now on the first 3 discs and am looking forward to those on the final disc. I wonder if they will address any of the issues people had. From starting one of them it appears they do discuss the decision to suppress knowledge of The Discovery.

Edit: Reading the Trekcore interview with Michelle Paradise that was linked to a few pages ago. Apparently, Such Sweet Sorrow was originally going to be one hour-long episode and was extended to two. That explains some of that.

I actually prefer two separate episodes instead of a 90 minute anything. The first half is generally really, really good with a lot of time and thought and character put. By the time the second half rolls around...the story is filled with phaser fights and CGI and stuff. That has been a staple of Trek 90 minute episodes since the beginning of time and, even with new people behind the scenes, I have no faith it would actually change.

Plus, two separate episodes builds the tension and anticipation for me.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I think it may have been intended as one part at one point; the original episode order from CBS was for 13, and when the showrunners were fired and Kurtzman took the reins, he got CBS to kick in for an extra episode.

For the studio, breaking it into two probably helped them recover their costs. An extra episode means extra licensing fees from their worldwide partners. It also means an extra week of subscription time for US viewers.
 

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