Ahead of what curve?
Discovery tackles current political divide
- Thread starter RAMA
- Start date
Unless the show is live and daily it's going to be on or more than likely behind the curve. Such is the nature of beast. Things can change pretty quickly, even in the time it takes to get one episode on the air.
"I've done far worse than defeat you in the election. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on... hurting you. I shall leave you as your party left office. As you left America. Marooned for all eternity in identity politics and bottomless corruption... buried alive...buried alive."
Well someone's obsessed and it doesn't seem to be the folks who lost.
Right. Which is why i was confused by the previous comment.
Sorry, I just meant the entire internet and other forms of media are already saturated to death with such commentary, so I'm not sure exactly what this is going to add to the mix in a relevant way.
Are we confusing social commentary with political commentary? Are they the same. I ask because Star Trek is good at social commentary but they have always been more or less neutral rather than actually picking a side. I mean look at Let that Be Your Last Battlefield. They laughed at the audacity of the two but they didn't really pander to the audience saying one was correct over the other. Same with Past Tense. They commented on why things got the way they were but it always seemed more observatory to me than coming up with a solution.
I appreciate good social commentary if it advances the story in an interesting way. Trek has always been great at that and I hope it's the same way with Discovery. Also does all 15 episodes have to be social commentary? Can we get interesting Sci fi plots as well that inspires the imagination? People seem to be transfixed on the political aspects but I want to be inspired watching this show. Like the motion picture said, the human adventure is just beginning.
I appreciate good social commentary if it advances the story in an interesting way. Trek has always been great at that and I hope it's the same way with Discovery. Also does all 15 episodes have to be social commentary? Can we get interesting Sci fi plots as well that inspires the imagination? People seem to be transfixed on the political aspects but I want to be inspired watching this show. Like the motion picture said, the human adventure is just beginning.
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My guess is that Lorca and Burnham will fall out over the path to take, perhaps Lorca is a 'the best defence is a good offence' type and Burnham learns through the episodes that there is another way.
I don't think they're going to be that specific. We'll see general themes which are relevant to today, isolationism, racism, migration, political division, threat of war, brinkmanship, despotic leaders etc. I don't think we'll see direct allegories of specific events. No holograms of the Federation president being peed on by Orion slave girls. General themes tend to stay relevant, as far too many of TOS's themes sadly still are.
Plus, even when the specific event being referred to has passed into history, allegorical stories can work either in a different way, or just as a story. That's part of why I like the slightly withdrawn allegorical approach. The really on the nose current political philosophy dates a production far more.
Star Trek is (or tries to be) high concept, which is generally more suited for social commentary. But then you also have The Xindi arc, "Homefront," etc. which are political/current events.
Again, identifying with Trek's villain. A dangerous absolute ruler and a delusional tyrant. Typical.
Actually...yeah.
I don't much care if it is relevant, I'm far more worried about it being entertaining.
Many of us have said something similar in one of these threads but at some point, we have to define 'entertaining'. I am greatly entertained by many of Star Trek's political and social allegory episodes, their moral dilemma episodes, and their attempts to channel contemporary issues, but it was largely missing from the series I didn't find entertaining. Therefore I hope for some of that from Discovery, because I'm more likely to be gripped by a show that does that than a pew pew show or one focused entirely on character's relationships.
As long as they show a NON-BIASED look at both sides of the coin...I think it will be great.. But if its more like CNN of the future... not so much...
Every one has their own definition, their own tastes.
Some have worked, some haven't. But dedicating fifteen episodes to one story about politics under social allegory is something untried in Trek. I am leery of what the results will be. It could be great, could be awful, could be anywhere in-between. We won't know until sometime in 2018, once we have the complete story.
And I think for the most part they handled it in a "dignified" (?) way.
I guess these days the political climate is much more sensitive that everything is that much more magnified. I hope Trek continues with that tradition. I'm not sure it's in trek's best interest to get really really preachy.
That's not how fiction works. It usually has a point of view. Artists are not obligated to be fair,balanced or unbiased. Thats the job of the news.
Speaking of which ,citing only CNN exposes your own bias. But folks on the Internet aren't required to be unbiased either.
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Would be pretty dull if they didn't offer a point-of-view.
