Paramount+ Star Trek: Discovery - Official Thread (2 Viewers)

[DaveF]

All I can say is, for me these new shows are that - Picard in particular was stunning and very moving, and much of Discovery has had a similar effect on me. No show in 2020 moved me as Picard did.

I liken that to my experience with The Magicians. It was some of the best TV I’ve seen in years. It had deeply moving episodes — Literally, breaking down in tears, crying alone in the dark in my theater, during self-quarantine, as it’s telling a story about friends scattered and separated and lost to each other. It hit like a wrecking ball. But The Magicians is imperfect show, and very SyFy in various ways. It’s uneven in writing and acting. I can’t recommend it unreservedly to people. But, its imperfections were far outweighed by its strengths for me.

 

[jayembee]

I couldn't get into The Magicians. I watched the first episode because it was directed by Mike Cahill (Another Earth and I Origins) but it just didn't grab me.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I loved "The Magicians". I have the entire series on Blu-ray, and revisit it frequently close to annually. A fantasy world that is very irreverent, but with a concept of magic that has very strictly enforced rules and very severe consequences. All of the main characters were so flawed, yet so well-defined and three-dimensional. And the production values, while not up to the level of HBO or Netflix, were still pretty miraculously great for a Syfy budget.

 

[DaveF]

I couldn't get into The Magicians. I watched the first episode because it was directed by Mike Cahill (Another Earth and I Origins) but it just didn't grab me.

I totally get that. The first season is so-so and took probably half to get going.

But The Magicians was kinda like Bojack Horseman: a silly little show that would suddenly pivot and tear your soul from your entire being and leave you utterly emotionally wrecked.

The Magicians also said things I’ve not hear a show say before. It is willfully and offensively transgressive. And damn smart about it. A bit of the original Star Trek there, putting things on TV that are real, that make a point about human equalities, that aren’t quite broadly accepted.

It’s not the greatest show. But it was at times, the best TV I’ve ever experienced.

 

[Nelson Au]

I did not watch the Super Bowl, but a new ad was shown:

 

[Sam Favate]

Season 4 new look:

and teaser:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Interesting that the uniforms have evolved yet again. While the design is very similar to the 31st century uniforms from last season, the use of color is a lot bolder. I'm wondering how much of a time jump there will be between last season and the new season.

Also interesting that there's a Kelpien on the bridge in command colors; presumably Saru.

 

[Nelson Au]

I plan to watch all the new trailers and teasers today. I had not known the uniforms changed colors. I think that looks like a homage to TOS and TNG. Plus maybe the fans didn’t like the grays used on the uniforms they had in season 3.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I had not known the uniforms changed colors. I think that looks like a homage to TOS and TNG. Plus maybe the fans didn’t like the grays used on the uniforms they had in season 3.

In one of the First Contact Day videos, costumer designer Gersha Phillips said that the 31st century uniforms were designed for the Starfleet Headquarters set and when they started filming with them on the Discovery sets they realized that the gray in the uniforms was the same exact gray used on sets, creating problems with the actors blending in with the background in the footage.

The thing I liked about the gray uniforms is that they felt like military uniforms in the same way that the Wrath of Khan uniforms did. But there's something about such a bold use of color with the new uniforms that also feels very right for Trek.

 

[Nelson Au]

I had missed that particular video segment with Gersha Philips, I just watched it. That bit about the gray uniforms being the same color as the Discovery sets was right at the end. It would have been interesting to hear her elaborate more. She focused mainly on the gray uniforms.

It seems like history keeps repeating. In The Cage, there was the dark blue-grey jackets they wore on Talos. The Starfleet tunics were less saturated golds and blues. In Star Trek The Motion Picture, the standard duty uniforms tunics were gray and muted gold with small amounts of red and blue and green to donate divisions.

That red uniform top Burnham is wearing in the one still looked almost like a robe. I’ll have to see in in motion.

 

[joshEH]

I had missed that particular video segment with Gersha Philips, I just watched it. That bit about the gray uniforms being the same color as the Discovery sets was right at the end. It would have been interesting to hear her elaborate more. She focused mainly on the gray uniforms.

It seems like history keeps repeating. In The Cage, there was the dark blue-grey jackets they wore on Talos. The Starfleet tunics were less saturated golds and blues. In Star Trek The Motion Picture, the standard duty uniforms tunics were gray and muted gold with small amounts of red and blue and green to donate divisions.

Plus, of course, the 1964-65 TOS pilot uniforms were just drab and ugly. They were a product of a time when most TV was still black-and-white, so their hues were chosen to be distinguishable in grayscale more than anything else. And they look crude and cheap even compared to the later TOS uniforms. DSC was never going to recreate the "Cage" uniforms faithfully during its first two seasons, because it would've looked bad.

 

[Nelson Au]

Just for fun. Here’s a few images of uniforms past present and future.

I always find it interesting that The Cage uniforms and TMP uniforms share a similar desaturated color palette. They really toned the colors down.

 

[Josh Dial]

Interesting that the "split" on the sleeves in The Cage uniforms has been echoed in the split in the centre of the jacket in the Discovery uniforms.

 

[Sam Favate]

I liked The Cage-era uniforms, with or without the jacket. I would have loved to see Discovery embrace them back in season 1.

 

[Nelson Au]

Not to dwell on this too much more , I agree that with some modern adjustments and changes in fabrics and details, the Cage uniforms could have been adapted well for Discovery. They sort of did with the Enterprise uniforms at the start of Season 2 by using the three colors on the same patterns used to make the Discovery uniforms.



Though as a designer myself, it bothers me that Gersha likes to do asymmetrical designs. Like the collar and the hems of the tunics.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Yeah, I really don't get the lopsided collars, and the uneven hems on those uniforms at the end of S3.

 

[Nelson Au]

I just read the Trekmovie breakdown of the teaser trailer for season 4 of Discovery. I’d only seen the teaser trailer once and had a second look after reading the breakdown.

Trailer Analysis: The Gravity Of The New Mission Comes Together In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 4 Teaser

From new costumes to new characters, we have all the details.

trekmovie.com

My impression is that these 10 or so episode season long arcs have become repetitive in the sense that each season has to have some massive macguffin to resolve and this year it’s another anomaly that is threatening all life. Sounds like The Burn times 100. I wonder if the producers and writers feel they need to develop these greater and greater threats to the galaxy storylines due to these long gaps between seasons?

This is not the focus of Star Trek. Unless they are using this massive threat as a backdrop to explore the human condition. Or perhaps Kurtzman and others feel that Strange New Worlds will better address the kind of Old School Star Trek story telling done so well during TOS and TNG. I guess we will see.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I wonder if the producers and writers feel they need to develop these greater and greater threats to the galaxy storylines due to these long gaps between seasons?

I think it’s just what audiences want today, not specifically a threat of a certain size, but an approach that treats episodes within a season like chapters of a novel. Studios and networks used to discourage that kind of long form storytelling because if the audience missed an episode, they could get lost and drop out of watching altogether. But with the change in how we consume content, audiences no longer are limited to having one chance to see an episode at a specific date and time. With the audience now having a better means of following a multipart story, that’s what they want.

The old procedural model where everything is wrapped up by episode’s end and nothing ever really changes and characters never really develop is something that audiences aren’t as interested in right now. In general, they’d prefer to invest in ten episodes that cumulatively tell a story from beginning to end over twenty episodes that don’t build on each other.

Discovery has been a serialized story from the beginning; I wouldn’t expect that to change. Strange New Worlds will tell more episode stories but even then, character development will happen over the course of a season.

 

[Nelson Au]

I totally understand that Josh. That these new Star Trek shows are one long serialized story. Like a long film, or Maxie mini series. Ha, ha. I’m fine with that. It’s a new form and I like, it keeps you coming back and as you said, it is kind of cool that we are getting chapters to the story.

What I wasn’t very good at saying above is why each season has to have such a galactic catastrophe. First the Klingon War, then Control, then The Burn. The new season sounds like something like The Immunity Syndrome! There was a kernel of the season theme telegraphed in the teaser about how they are working together now to solve the problem. So that’s Star Trekian. I guess there needs to be some kind of epic situation to resolve to save the galaxy. “Once again we saved civilization, as we know it!”

I sort of miss the occasional episode where the crew meets an advanced civilization and mankind learns something new about themselves. But as John Lennon once said, and I’m paraphrasing, you still have all the old albums to listen to if you want to revisit.

 

[TJPC]

In Canada, episodes still play one by one on our sci-fi channel. Because it is not streamed, you must still be carful to watch each episode as it comes along. I of course PVR them, but if the system screws up as is all too common, you are still SOL.