Star Treks - Personal Logs

So... I guess that worked?

The editing this episode worked against all the drama. Why were we intercutting between the medical bay transporter discovery and Gamble's reveal? It drained all the surprise and excitement from the reveal - not that it was a huge reveal because no one on the show even remembers Gamble at this point.

They didn't even need the scene in the medical bay - the briefing after that gave the same info.

And Fletch, you're right - tying it into M'Benga's daughter would have been a FANTASTIC explanation for why they can't just revive every dead person by their last healthy transporter pattern. And lay lines - OKAY? These are different than subspace frequencies? Technobabble explanation for a stupid shortcut that would have been better DRAMATIZED. But we had to sit through a fake murder mystery instead.

Also, the fact that Scotty exposited that they had purged the evil orb months ago was really unsatisfying - if this is where we were headed, that should have been on camera. Also, Korby should have mentioned something about this plotline in his last appearance, that's he's still investigating the dead people - we can insult the soup, but not tie the season together?

There was another scene that was also edited really poorly and there was air where there shouldn't have been - right before Gamble grabs M'Benga and then Pike and Batel take so long to walk into the door that could explode the planet at any moment.

Speaking of: the door is about duality. How the hell did Pike and M'Benga get out without their respective other? Props to M'Benga, though - his fakeout worked on me, too. :)

Maybe it was the scene of Gamble encouraging all those aliens to gouge their own eyes out to make themselves homes for demons - the intercutting of that with the technobabble killed it. Also? Gamble - not really a strong actor, so maybe that's why.

This is an interesting idea for Batel but not one properly set up AT ALL. No one guessed it or saw it coming which was probably the writers' intention but that also makes it completely unsatisfying. And she's just totally okay becoming a statue FOREVER?

WHAT?

She is an upholder of justice, that we've established. But like - huh? And how did she know how to become a statue? Why didn't we work on a solution to destroy the prison entirely before sacrificing a Starfleet captain?

The make-up was good in the alt life scenes. I like their chemistry and sorry to see Marie leave - having a happy captain in a healthy relationship was a nice change.

I'm having trouble remembering much else about this finale. It ended somberly and then restarted for a tiny button that was literally most of the SEASON'S TEASER TRAILER. I avoid trailers until after I've watched something and I watched that last night and I am SO GLAD because what?

Also: is the Chef Pike apron already for sale?
 
There's no way for me to comment on the poster for Star Fleet Academy and not come off sounding like a curmudgeony old 46 year old. They went full CW. Wow, that is certainly a brand new vibe for this franchise. One of the characters even has a high school letter jacket.
 
I've never seen a cast so diverse yet so homogenous. And so shiny.

I've been waiting for a Starfleet Academy show for, like, 30 years, so I'll at least check it out. I don't know anything about the era it's set in, but maybe an academy setting is the best place to introduce it.

I'm a little put off by the number of mixed-species characters, which sounds racist but you know what I mean. Like they find old Trek races boring and have to mix them up to make them interesting. And I'm pretty sure two to three of them are half-Klingon, so that's lazy.

Still, Robert Picardo and Tig Notaro are aboard, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more from them. Jett Reno was the best thing on Discovery.
 
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I wanted it to be set in the post-Picard era (when he finally retired again)
The academy is in a ship!? so take the most unqualified group of people with a handful of professors & place them in immense danger every episode???
 
Fletch said:
I'm a little put off by the number of mixed-species characters, which sounds racist but you know what I mean. Like they find old Trek races boring and have to mix them up to make them interesting. And I'm pretty sure two to three of them are half-Klingon, so that's lazy.
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Yeah, I know what you mean. We've seen this before with decades-old franchises that want to stay rooted in familiarity and avoid all risks of new ideas: They mash up the things we know. In comics you get Gwenpool and Hellverine. In the toy aisles you get TMNT/MOTU and MOTU/Transformers. In Star Trek you get Klingons/Gem'Hadar.
 
Is Gwenpool still around? She sounded fun.

The girl in the white dress looks like a young Una. It would have been cool if one of the leads was decidedly unsexy, but maybe in motion.
 
I'm going to go even more curmudgeony after watching 4 minutes of footage:

"We're in space. Uh-oh, something's attacking us. Raise the blank-ity, arm the blank, blank, contact so and so."

Several crewmen simultaneously with QUICK camera shots: "We're taking damage! Casualties! Shields are at ___%, weapons are at ___%!"

The enemy revealed to be an old adversary seeking vengeance!

Star Trek has droids now.

Still boldly going where all New Trek no one has gone before.
 
Some good stunts when everyone was being blown to shit.

On the other hand, though, why have a half-Klingon, half-Tellarite villain if he's just going to act like a human? ("Origami chicken?" The hell?) I guess if you're going to cast Paul Giamatti, you're going to want him to act like Paul Giamatti, but yeesh.

Also, why is the bridge so dark? I notice that from the Picard clips that I've seen as well. I can't tell what the eff is going on anywhere.


But on a larger Trek rant, the century this is set in has immediate site-to-site transporters just anywhere around the ship and I hate it. It's just part of how the technology has to logically progress as you continue into the future, but after a while we get Clarke Magic and it stops feeling real. Even by Next Generation they were making personal forcefields.

It doesn't help the CG effects are so easy that they can make a randomly-shaped space ship that just assembles out of smaller random shapes and expect us to believe it's a real thing.

I honestly think I'm going to just go back to watching Enterprise.
 
Schizm said:
"The CG effects are so easy..." uhhhhhhh glad they LOOK easy.
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You know what I mean.

CG allows them to do whatever they want, while a model would require some actual structure and support. Considerations that make it feel real.

I'm sure they spent ages on that alien ship, but that time doesn't translate into believability.
 
I hear you but there's no gravity in space - a model would have to utilize Earth gravity. So in this instance, maybe VFX models are better.

Was Book's ship dumb? Yeah. It never made sense or felt at all structurally sound. But that was kinda Disco in nutshell, no?
 
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I can at least say I'm glad you like it, I suppose.

I find it too fantastical in the way a brain just recognizes when something doesn't hold up. It's the spaceship equivalent of when actors drink from empty coffee cups.

So my whole thesis is just the something designed and built entirely virtually can lack the structural considerations that a model requires and that your brain expects. If that was the whole approach to Discovery ships, I'm glad I missed it.
 
The trailer of Star Trek Academy looks so meh to me. And completely at odds with the poster for it.

Like is the poster very cw feeling? Yes, 100%, but thats a better vibe than the actual trailer!

Like Star Trek should be made for syndication like a CW styled show, bu set in the far far future, having a villain, and centering it on one dude maybe looking for revenge/redemption?!

It's not hard to just do a show about school students, the drama writes itself!
 
Setting a show in the post-voyager/Lower Decks timeframe is like, the ideal setting for me. Or like post Prodigy, and retconning Picard out of existence
 
I'm gonna keep Picard S3, thank you very much. :)

The trailer sets up characters and conflict while looking very glossy and generic. It's also very pretty. It's a big, wide universe - hopefully this slice will be good.

I do tire of fandoms piling on every new concept until it comes out and then realizing "it's not that bad."
 
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