Star Trek Social Club

Stop at Season 2 and it's an ok time.

@cuchi it is bad...

Most any criticism of the show is true. I will say that it is a good series to watch with people who haven't watched Star Trek before because it is a little un-Trek-ish and there is less to stop and explain. Also, since the mission is top secret it has little overlap with anything except SNW.

As a Star Trek fan, I was happy to get more Trek, the same as I was happy to get more Picard (that S2 was a pain though!), Lower Decks, Prodigy, and even the Short Treks.

My wife was pulled into the world of Star Trek by Discovery (a full 36 years after I'd started watching the franchise) and now she loves it and wants to watch all of the other series. So, Discovery gets a point for that.

(I haven't seen Section 31 yet. It is supposed to be very bad.)

Discovery is fine and at the time it was the only modern Trek we had so there’s that, it’s enough for me to like it.

The only problem I had with it is that every season is "OMG we have to save the all fucking universe!", other than that it’s cool.

Then we had Strange New Worlds so my thirst for "let’s just explore that funny planet and have a drink at the mess" Trek was satisfied.

I still watch discovery because ‘spaceships goes piou piou piou eat my phaser’ and that’s what I want it to be.

I really liked parts of it...from themes to characters...but found it really hard to sit through, most of the time. They had a really annoying way of rehashing everything that happened, after-the-fact...as if we needed to be constantly reminded about details that were literally from ten minutes ago.

It reminded me of the dialogue formats used in cheesy Mexican telenovelas. You can't mention someone's name, without also including a brief description of who they are related to, and what they've previously done. No one talks like that in real life. Especially when the person you're talking to, was right there with you when that event took place.

If you remove all the superfluous dialogue, then the actual length of each episode, was less than 20 minutes.

I love Discovery. Some of the criticisms are valid; every season has a few dumb moments that make me shake my head. But I love the characters, the actors are all great, Doug Jones in particular is a treasure, and the first contact in season 4 feels more like a proper science fiction scenario than any other in Trek.

One thing to keep in mind is that the tone shifts considerably season to season. It starts off quite grim and gritty, but don’t expect it to stay that way.

Discovery is my least preferred star trek I've watched so far, I mean, it's not "bad" per se, it's just different from the rest of star trek and has a different formula.

The thing with discovery is that everything happens really fast, there's always a sense of urgency and hurry, but actual plot development happens really slowly.

Conflict takes a whole season to resolve, instead of standard one episode which you expect from a star trek show.

Also, I hate how the actors mumble instead of talking.

It's not bad, it's just not my favourite format.

Discovery was never bad. It's just different. Some people say it's not what Trek is about.

1. Star Trek has always been about captains exploring. Deep Space Nine challenged that with a commander; Sisko later made captain, but the station itself only moved in the pilot (closer to the wormhole; it's always been in Bajor's orbit) and maybe one other time? But they did plenty of exploring in the Runabouts, and Defiant, the ship they got later. But essentially the action came to them, and that was fine. Discovery is not about a captain. Michael Burnham is a... commander? I forget. On the original ship. Then she's nobody. She gets promoted up but she almost never leads, but the show focuses on her. It's... weird. (And she's a woman... named Michael... pronounced the same as the male name... and this is never explained.)

2. Star Trek has always been about diversity, but Discovery had a gay couple in an openly sexual relationship. It never showed sex between them, but plenty of kissing and intimacy. Discovery also had a non-binary character with they/them pronouns. And as mentioned, a woman named Michael, but she's cisgendered and straight, so that's not why she has a guy's name. Anyway, some people thought it was a few bridges too far.

3. Star Trek has almost always been wholesome. Deep Space Nine pushed the envelope, and while it showed Sisko doing some very bad things, profanity was never part of it, and the violence was mostly PG. Discovery was on streaming, so they had profanity and R-rated violence. There may have even been some mild nudity, I don't recall. This put off a lot of traditional fans.

4. Before Deep Space Nine (i.e. The Original Series and The Next Generation), Star Trek has always been episodic. DS9 introduced arcs, but each episode still had its own identity, and this was true through Enterprise. But each season was its own thing on Discovery, and no one episode really stood alone.

Points 3 and 4, and to some, point 2, put off some older, "traditional" Trekkers who felt that Discovery was made for the younger generation and was not "for" them. And I can dig it. I mean, it does follow the recent-ish films where the ships are flashy, not tacky with their tech. (Keep in mind, the ships were always flashy for their time! It's just, we cling to the old designs and the newer, flashier one just seems excessive, but now, the newer, flashier one is dull in comparison to the ones that have followed it.)

As for Picard, that was purely a sequel to The Next Generation (and to a lesser extent, Voyager, because of Seven of Nine). It was a love letter to the fans of that show, those shows. As purely its own thing, it's a weaker Trek entry, but for those of us who grew up with 80s/90s Trek, it was good closure since the movies were neglecting those characters. Another such show might be Prodigy, which is a more direct continuation of Voyager, but Prodigy stood on its own better with its original cast. Picard's original cast was not very good, but very forgettable.

Back to Discovery, it's very much its own thing, set both before TOS and after anything else (minor spoilers — plot device allows them to swerve around any continuity problems). It did launch Strange New Worlds, which Trekkers seem to like more than Discovery, as that is a straight TOS prequel, showing the (movies/newer) original Enterprise under Captain Pike, who was captain before Kirk. Spock's in it, too. (I have yet to watch SNW, but I plan to. I just finished Prodigy and I like to space them a bit.) Discovery also launched Section 31, the streaming-only movie, which is about as bad as you've heard. The less said about that one, the better — if you want to watch it, you should, and you should do so without worrying what Internet People think about it. It's still Star Trek, albeit some of the weakest Trek out there.

Personally, I rate Discovery above ENT but below Voyager. I have a hard time deciding whether Discovery or Prodigy is better. Prodigy was a computer-generated anime that aired on Nickelodeon and that all sounds bad, but it was actually very good. It might seem at first that Kate Mulgrew (Janeway/Hologram Janeway) is there to prop the cast up, but they all shine so brightly, they don't really need her as much as they think. I liked TNG, DS9, and VOY all better than STD and... whatever we're abbreviating Prodigy to (PRO? STP?). As a child of the 80s, TOS is a bit dated for me, but the stories were so good... that's another one that is hard to place for me.

I recommend you watch it, but if you do, you have to finish the season. You can't drop it mid-season, and if you do, you can't judge it, because the individual episodes aren't meant to be watched on their own. It's meant to be binged. That said, you can safely stop at the end of any season. I won't say it gets worse, but each season made me wonder if it was really necessary, including the first one. Because no, it isn't. Discovery is not necessary for... anything... in the Star Trek universe. It's not really connected. Even Strange New Worlds... they ran into the Enterprise in the beginning of the second season, but then they went away. So yeah, you can safely watch SNW without Discovery and you'd be fine. I do think the first season was good, as far as action Trek goes. And you can stop there, but with the way it ends... you won't. Season 2 was okay, a good mystery, and you can stop there, but you still may want to see what comes next. After that, I think the quality does take a bit of a dive, but then they're in the far future, and you just wanna see more and more of what's left of Starfleet in the future. And it's good enough to stick with. But never necessary. And that's probably the "worst" thing I can say about it.

The central character of the show is the least interesting person on it somehow despite having what could have been a good back story.

Everyone else seems to be some sort of real person to me. She is just so boring and flat and everything revolves around her for no real reason. Her purpose seems to be to be the fence post that stands there and eventually cries.

The best thing about the show was it gave us Anson Mount as Pike and he is outstanding. He was so good as Pike we got SNW as a spinoff.

i would watch all of the above. with discovery at the very least the first four seasons, because S2 is a backdoor season 0 of strange new worlds and S4 rocks but needs the context of the first 3. it can be very uneven but i don't think it gets bad as often as Picard did and doesn't stay bad for as long as Picard does. Enterprise is similar, a rough-at-times ride that does really pay off in S3

you're only gonna watch one, though, i'd do strange new worlds. it's essentially a return to the TOS/TNG format and has a stellar cast. and frankly you don't need to watch disco S2 to fully know what's going on, they explain everything- i only watched disco after snw S1 left me hungry for more. SNW is seemingly unique among trek shows in that every season has been less well recieved than the last, partly because the short seasons are increasingly dedicated to gag episodes, but i'd say with the exception of one particular stinker in S3, a weaker SNW episode is still gonna be better than most shows at their best

but also- you're your own person and may walk away from all of these series feeling someghing different! no harm on trying and if you hate something hey, it only cost you 40 minutes of your life

It has its weaknesses, but I think you should watch it if just to form your own opinion.

I’ve only watched through the middle of season 4, where I got a bit tired of it, though I might pick it back up.

Season 1 is interesting, season 2 is weird, and season 3 has its flaws but keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Season 4 I feel like squanders the new setting introduced in season 3; the plot they introduce feels so artificial to me, which is very upsetting because it feels like the new setting has so many stories that would practically write themselves even if you do decide to lean on “Big Bad Villain/Problem” storytelling.

If you're a fan of older Star Treks it's bad, real bad. I watched until the end of season 2 with my partner and had to bail. Everyone above has given good reasons why, I'll add one I haven't seen: the lead actress (Soneqa Martin-Green?) overacts Michael Burnham. She overdramatizes almost every scene, to the detriment of the believabolity of the in-universe world, I tried to overlook it but found it grating. I told my partner that half-way into season two, and she responded that she doesn't really see it. Then about five seconds later Burnham is raising her voice to a senior officer and on the verge of tears over nothing.. a minor misunderstanding. Partner laughs and goes, "ok yeah I see it".

I'd rewatch Enterprise 100 times over ever watching Discovery again, and Enterprise is probably my least favourite pre-2010 Trek, if that helps you.

It’s constant flawed buildup to a promise of something just around the corner the might actually be good, that not only never ever delivers on that promise, but pulls the rug out from under you more if ten than not, rather than just providing the payoff that you probably want (I lately keep thinking back to the Klingon War)

Seen it recently myself, about a couple years ago, never watched before, and it's ok. I enjoyed it.

Don't read too much into the comments, just watch it, of you don't like it stop watching it.

For me it's worthy, i have warched at this moment all ST except TOS, I tried it and I can't.

I think Discovery is perfectly OK Star Trek. However, because it had a few changes in show runners things progress very strangely.

Season 1 is a 10 hour movie. I liked it for doing something different, and thought the plot twist was interesting.

Season 2 starts off good, but then jumps the (metaphorical) shark at the end.

Season 3 thru 5 starts to feel more like traditional Star Trek, just with wacky doom's day scenario in the background until it's resolved at the end of the season. It honestly feels too formulaic, but I thought Season 4's ending was fantastic, some of the middle stuff was a mixed bag.

Anyway, I still think you should watch it. It's perfectly adequate. Didn't make me throw up at all.

I liked it though it did feel that the series had a tendancy to take itself maybe too seriously. Trek is best when it knows when to keep things on the lighter side and/or create ongoing gags and themes to call back to during the series. Discovery didn't really feel like it had much of that.

Despite that it was still a good watch IMO. Burnham tended to be at the center of the series though the other characters do get interesting when they got more time. You should just give it a watch and decide for yourself.

Also if you want to know the backstory of Star Trek Strange New Worlds you'll want to watch at least some Discovery, SNW is a spin-off.

And giving credit where it's due, Discovery was the first of what became a whole bunch of new Trek shows that came out afterwards. If Discovery was that bad then none of the other newer Trek shows would have even made it to air. Before Discovery it had been a while since any new Trek shows had appeared, at some point the Star Trek universe needs new blood to keep things going. Else it's just going to be older people talking about the original Star Trek series and TNG and it'll just be something that used to exist a long time ago.

The worst Trek is still better to watch than a heck of a lot of other TV

It's always worth remembering that the people who dislike something tend to be the loudest.

There's no doubt reactions to Discovery have been mixed. Personally, I enjoyed it. It was uneven and flawed and sometimes frustrating. But there were enough good moments to keep me going. I don't think anyone can tell you if you'll enjoy it... You just have to try it and see.

I couldn't make it through the first season and tried picking up season 2 to see if it improved any. Didn't watch anything past that.

It was written by people who didn't have a good grasp on what star trek was, or thought they could remake it better for a new generation. But they ended up making something that just leaves a sour taste in your mouth if you know what that setting is capable of being.

To me, STD and the first season or so of Picard feel exactly like when a video game you thoroughly enjoy gets adapted into movie. There's recognizable elements there, but nobody is acting the way they should and everything has that uncanny valley affect where you know what it's supposed to be but it's clearly failing to do it convincingly. It's hard to point to what is actually wrong but you know several elements are off.

I watched all of Discovery. It is, by far, the worst of all Star Treks. (Disclosure: I have not seen TAS.)

The reason is simple: Discovery is really the Michael Burnham show. She is the Mariest Sue who ever Mary Sued. Discovery could have been a really great show if it had been an ensemble show because it has a lot of very interesting characters whom we never explore.

Instead, everything centres around Burnham. She is the reason for the war at the start of the show. She is the magical, fated solution. She is Spock's (adopted) sister and had immeasurable impact on his life. Even through timey-wimey things, her (biological) mother comes to save her and the universe.

And on top of all that is the crying. Oh, gosh, everything is so emotional on this show. There is a time and place for emotions, but Discovery was too much of it, including inappropriate times. Burnham and her maybe-broken-up-boyfriend stop in the middle of an infiltration in a hostile station to talk about their relationship.

Even the really great characters, Saru and (Emperor Georgiou) centre around Burnham. She is like a sister to Saru, she saved his life, he gives up being a Captain to continue serving under her captaincy. Burnham is Georgiou's daughter (not actually), and Georgiou's love for her (as much as she can love) changes her.

No one has a story unless its actually about Burnham. Or they get a story and then get killed off.

The best thing about Discovery is it brought Trek back on TV and it gave us the rest of this era of shows.

There is an entire season about warp drive not working anywhere in the universe. It turns out that it stopped working because an alien got really sad. Not because he did anything because he was sad, just because he got sad. Ohh, and somehow the Vulcans, with all their logic, never thought of tracking down the cause by triangulation.

That was the end of the series for me.

Naw it’s a journey. I accepted discovery like I did voyager. Once I saw what it was in it own, much better. Second watch got better, just like voyager.

It's also important to separate what you're seeing online from the leftovers of a manufactured "opposition campaign" orchestrated by a handful of reactionary influencers.

Personally speaking I did not like the early two seasons, but I thought three is ok, and seasons four and five I consider to be some of Trek's best!

i loved picard and discovery the only bad thing about picard is that it made me remember watching tng every saturday at my dads house and he would of loved it.

I watched all of Discovery. It's different, a bit too touchy-feely at times for me. But, the stories are interesting and wild.

OTH, I liked all of Picard, so maybe you shouldn't take my view into account.