As I wrote, I'd rather have a few shows that work on the air and a few that don't, than nothing at all. Right now, the only travesty in my opinion is Picard.
And yeah, while the Pike series does look good, we still don't know if it will be. Picard initially looked good via the trailers, but look at the disappointment it caused. I just don't know if I could stand another disappointment in Trek at this point.
You never know if anything is going to be good until it happens. I'd rather not spend my time on Earth not wanting to watch or do anything because it might suck.
STRANGE NEW WORLDS is the only new Trek I've been interested in in years. I love the TOS Federation setting when Klingons and Romulans were clever enemies and the mysteries were planets away rather than down in the holodeck. Maybe I'm still just a Cold War kid at heart.
I hope it's all played straight rather than indulging in time-jumps and the Mirror Universe. There's plenty of drama to be had in a setting where the limits of politics, exploration, and economics matter as much as they always have on Earth.
(To be fair, a huge amount of my Trek experience in my teens was about playing STAR FLEET BATTLES. This explains why my favorite TOS episode is "Balance of Terror.")
My only worry about Strange New Worlds is Goldsman (edit: sp) as the showrunner. I don't think that his involvement is necessarily fatal. If it truly uses the TOS format then the continuity and story arc plotting very well might take a back seat. Besides, TOS had it's share of dumb plots but generally was a whole better than its parts. I hope that is how this will go.
Last edited by malchior on Mon May 02, 2022 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Holman wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:04 pm
(To be fair, a huge amount of my Trek experience in my teens was about playing STAR FLEET BATTLES. This explains why my favorite TOS episode is "Balance of Terror.")
Holman wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:04 pm
(To be fair, a huge amount of my Trek experience in my teens was about playing STAR FLEET BATTLES. This explains why my favorite TOS episode is "Balance of Terror.")
Man, I loved that game.
A remake of STARFLEET COMMAND with *all* the SFB rules and *all* the eras faithfully represented is my dream game.
I remember when I stopped playing the rule books already numbered in the dozens with hundreds of pages. But I still loved it for its exacting detail. It was basically for space games what Panzer was for WW2 games.
malchior wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:25 pm
My only worry about Strange New Worlds is Goldsman (edit: sp) as the showrunner. I don't think that his involvement is necessarily fatal. If it truly uses the TOS format then the continuity and story arc plotting very well might take a back seat. Besides, TOS had it's share of dumb plots but generally was a whole better than its parts. I hope that is how this will go.
From what I understand, the stories themselves will be episodic in nature, but the characters will have character arcs tying things together. That's what early reviews are stating.
I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
Update: Strange New Worlds is good so far. I think it’s going to make a lot of classic Trek fans happy.
Spoiler:
The one thing that I thought would be difficult is watching this show while already knowing Pike’s fate. But the writers added a twist that I think works quite well…Pike is ALSO aware he’s going to die, having seen his death after an encounter on the Klingon home world ( the reason for this was actually explained on Discovery a while back….at least the mechanics of it). This makes it possible for us to know about Pike’s fate while also watching him deal with it. We get to deal with it alongside him, essentially.
And the show just oozes Star Trek. It may be a bit fancier, and I disliked Nurse Chapel now being a geneticist who can change people’s appearances, but it still captures the feel of Star Trek quite well. Mount was born to play Pike, I think. He’s just great at it.
There were a few moments that felt cheesy. The tie in to Discovery and zero point was a bit much as I don’t see how you could “reverse engineer” warp technology from just seeing warp ships via a telescope, but they may have had other surveillance tech they didn’t mention. I’m willing to overlook that kind of thing as the show finds its footing.
The ending may feel heavy handed to some. But honestly, they did it in such a Star Trek way that I felt it was a hopeful message that worked.
I’m looking forward to this one now. It certainly helps wash the taste of Picard out of my mouth.
Last edited by hepcat on Fri May 06, 2022 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
What did people make of the Wesley Crusher appearance? It was nice to see him, and to get an update of sorts on the travelers. But at the same time...why was he appearing now? What was his interest in whatsherface?
Why did he want her specifically to be a traveler?
Holman wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:04 pm
(To be fair, a huge amount of my Trek experience in my teens was about playing STAR FLEET BATTLES. This explains why my favorite TOS episode is "Balance of Terror.")
Man, I loved that game.
A remake of STARFLEET COMMAND with *all* the SFB rules and *all* the eras faithfully represented is my dream game.
Yes! SFB fans represent! Stephen Cole, who was one of the original designers of SFB went on to design Federation Commander, a more streamlined version. I bought it, but like most games, I find myself with no one to play it with.
Ive been thinking of a Starfleet Command II replay. I usually liked to play the Gorn.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake. http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
When in doubt, skewer it out...I don't know.
El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 10:59 am
Also, re: Picard:
Spoiler:
What did people make of the Wesley Crusher appearance? It was nice to see him, and to get an update of sorts on the travelers. But at the same time...why was he appearing now? What was his interest in whatsherface?
Why did he want her specifically to be a traveler?
Also, why should I care about any of it?
Spoiler:
Absolutely no idea. That was the most random thing ever, and the tone sounded like something out of a TV commercial. Sure - nice to have the update, but it was *weird*
Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 3:34 pm
Thank you for the spoiler tags and identifying the show.
Nothing is more useless than an unlabeled spoiler tag in a thread about multiple shows!
It's almost as bad as having one called "Farscape, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly, Stargate, BSG...."
I agree - it's the Sci-Fi Show Randomness thread.
What would be even better, though, are threads entitled "Discovery", "Picard", etc. We used to have multiple threads for every show, book, and game, dozens if it was popular. Now people are terrified if two vaguely related topics aren't combined into a meta thread. We're using OO like Discord.
Meh, I guess I don’t get that worked up over it. I don’t have any issues understanding what people are talking about as they normally include the name, or it’s obvious what they’re talking about from previous posts immediately before.
But if it will keep your blood pressure down, I will create a new thread every time I want to discuss a new topic.
I think it makes sense to have a different thread for each "major" show that considerable chatter is expected for. There's already a Strange New Worlds thread. I asked for opinions before beginning Picard season two discussion in this thread, but the consensus seemed to be that no one cared as long as there was sufficient labelling. Since we'd already discussed the first season here, I opted to continue on for continuity's sake.
I kind of hate that many shows are discussed in the Netflix/Prime/Hulu/etc. threads these days. Often they get buried since there are so many new shows. Also since I'm in Canada we have quite a few shows that pop up on different services and I don't know where to look. (But forum search usually works.)
I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
Sudy wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 6:55 pm
I think it makes sense to have a different thread for each "major" show that considerable chatter is expected for. There's already a Strange New Worlds thread. I asked for opinions before beginning Picard season two discussion in this thread, but the consensus seemed to be that no one cared as long as there was sufficient labelling. Since we'd already discussed the first season here, I opted to continue on for continuity's sake.
I kind of hate that many shows are discussed in the Netflix/Prime/Hulu/etc. threads these days. Often they get buried since there are so many new shows. Also since I'm in Canada we have quite a few shows that pop up on different services and I don't know where to look. (But forum search usually works.)
I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
Finally got around to watching Picard season finale. While it was pretty awful,it did have two saving graces for me:
Spoiler:
It made me somewhat like Q. I know the hug was sappy, but for some reason it hit me in the feels.
And the Borg Queen Jurati reveal on the ship was better than I expected. Even if after 400 years she ended up looking like Linus from the Peanuts gang. And they kind of did what I wanted with the Borg (or at least an offshoot) joining Starfleet, as I mentioned a few pages back.
The Wesley cameo just felt awkward.
Dr. Soong should have been given a mustache to twirl.
It wasn’t very good, but it was better than expected. Which isn’t praise, mind you.
I'm not really prepared to talk about it because I'm still so disgusted, but the notion of the whole plot being set up by Q to help Picard forgive himself and learn to love is just absurd. I can see some potential for a "Q is dying" story, but it comes out of nowhere. Maybe I'm guilty of being inflexible, but a final jaunt with Q should have been of cosmic significance. Little could top their final scene together in TNG. The hug was moving in a way, yes... but it also just felt absurd. I fail to see how this was a meaningful Picard story to tell. In the end it really does feel like a cynical cash-in on old characters and relationships to me. And the individual plot points are often nonsensical.
So the Travelers run the Supervisors? Give me a break. And Kore is being recruited why? Isa Briones apparently isn't even going to be in season 3. (Elnor nor Jurarti either, but this may be obfuscation. Doesn't seem like it though with the announcement of the TNG cast returning.)
I knew this season would disappoint me, but I had no idea it would undermine TNG's legacy to this extent. I know you can say, "Well just pretend it doesn't exist; go back and watch TNG if you want to." But it just doesn't work that way, as much as I wish it did.
I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
I was enjoying it and wanted to be optimistic. But without going back and looking I'm pretty sure I said a couple times that I expected to be disappointed by the end. Just perhaps not this disappointed.
I saw a commercial on late night TV. It said, "Forget everything you know about slipcovers." So I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell me slipcovers, and I didn't know what the hell they were. -- Mitch Hedberg
hepcat wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 9:51 pm
Finally got around to watching Picard season finale. While it was pretty awful,it did have two saving graces for me:
Spoiler:
It made me somewhat like Q. I know the hug was sappy, but for some reason it hit me in the feels.
Spoiler:
I mean sure if you look over the many unnecessary brutal deaths to teach a friend a kindness.
It also doesn't explain why he was expressing super 'I hate Picard' vibes other than some high school level attempt to set up the "twist". It completely made no sense.
My biggest problem is this shouldn't have been the entire season. How many of the dumb sequences could have been cut if they weren't padding this hackney, tropey plot line?
I was just pretending everything other than the first 15 minutes of the first one and the last 20 minutes of the last one didn’t air. It’s my only coping mechanism for this. Please don’t take that away from me.
hepcat wrote: ↑Tue May 10, 2022 10:08 pm
I was just pretending everything other than the first 15 minutes of the first one and the last 20 minutes of the last one didn’t air. It’s my only coping mechanism for this. Please don’t take that away from me.
That tracks. I wish I had those sort of coping abilities.
I always enjoyed the Q (species.) I just don't think they ever really had the 'key' episode that would help Q (individual) make a little more sense.
I always felt that he was an excellent example of the trickster god in mythology. Coyote, Loki, Anansi, etc. They were always troublemakers, but always with the purpose of furthering humanity. They'd create problems and fiascos that invariably resulted in the victims learning something that was vital to their survival. It's teaching humanity to swim by throwing us into the deep end of the pool, but only doing so because they know that the ship will sink the next day. They always seem like dicks - but the end result was always vitally beneficial.
