Spoilers A lack of uplifting optimism and cerebral stories will kill this show

[Kane_Steel]

It is one thing for JJ Trek to get away with mass action blockbusters that appeal to the mainstream summer audience, but this is Trek on TV and needs to stick to the core principles that has made Trek because it needs to sustain itself for many episodes. So far the show has not done that. It has 13 episodes to show us it can rise out of the dreary, dark world of war, and become a show about exploration and inspiration. If it does not then I predict it will end after the already paid for second season.

Star Trek is hope.

Nah.

If this show brings in a big enough fanbase outside normal Trek fans, which is still TBD, it will continue beyond S2.

This is basically a 'cool' reinvention of Trek. They've been trying to do this for the past 2 decades honestly.

The show is divisive, but it will have it's hardcore fans.


War sells better than exploration, and I'm sure they want to appeal to the Star Wars fanbase as well, amidst the height of it's popularity with EP8 around the corner.

 

[Jedi_Master]

It's a little early to sound the doom and gloom horn, yeah?

 

[Kor]

I disagree that "cerebral stories will kill this show."

Recent movies such as Gravity and Interstellar have shown that audiences can handle more thoughtful content, and not just action-oriented pew pew (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Kor

 

[Gray Fox]

I'm a writer, so this is my POV of the story of the first episode. Uplifting optimism would be nice, but the story has to work first.
The Shenshou responds to a damaged probe. The instantly obvious conclusion is that it's a trap. Number One eventually states this...but nothing happens. Instead, the Klingons are so aggressive that they are busy talking, and talking...and talking. Finally the cloaked Klingon ship becomes visible so that the Klingons can...talk some more. Apparently, the really war-like Klingons flunked Ambush 101. Even when the other Klingon ships show up, it's just another plodding pause. A fleet of Buddhists would have opened fire by now.
Number One is utterly unbelievable as a mature, Vulcan trained, star fleet officer. She's more like an overly emotional space cadet. I got the feeling that she maybe spent a weekend at the Vulcan academy.
After the Klingons turn their blindingly bright device on, Number One calls Serak. He immediately knows about the "new star". The starships may travel at warp speed, but light propogates at (you guessed it) the speed of light. Serak shouldn't know about the "new star" for several years.
Both strong female lead characters suck. The Captain asks a hologram Admiral for instructions and Number One asks none other than her daddy what to do. I will never watch this with my grand-daughter.
A plot as deep as wallpaper filled with stunning, cutting edge visuals, a Chinese actor as Captain and a ship named after the PRC's first spacecraft. I don't have to open a cookie to figure out whose fortune this episode is targetting. They should have just called the it "Vulcan Nee Hau".

 

[seigezunt]

How do we not know we are going to get this?

"I thought there was going to be a whale." --- guy who stopped reading Moby Dick two chapters in.

 

[Mudd]

I'm a writer, so this is my POV of the story of the first episode. Uplifting optimism would be nice, but the story has to work first.
The Shenshou responds to a damaged probe. The instantly obvious conclusion is that it's a trap. Number One eventually states this...but nothing happens. Instead, the Klingons are so aggressive that they are busy talking, and talking...and talking. Finally the cloaked Klingon ship becomes visible so that the Klingons can...talk some more. Apparently, the really war-like Klingons flunked Ambush 101. Even when the other Klingon ships show up, it's just another plodding pause. A fleet of Buddhists would have opened fire by now.
Number One is utterly unbelievable as a mature, Vulcan trained, star fleet officer. She's more like an overly emotional space cadet. I got the feeling that she maybe spent a weekend at the Vulcan academy.
After the Klingons turn their blindingly bright device on, Number One calls Serak. He immediately knows about the "new star". The starships may travel at warp speed, but light propogates at (you guessed it) the speed of light. Serak shouldn't know about the "new star" for several years.
Both strong female lead characters suck. The Captain asks a hologram Admiral for instructions and Number One asks none other than her daddy what to do. I will never watch this with my grand-daughter.
A plot as deep as wallpaper filled with stunning, cutting edge visuals, a Chinese actor as Captain and a ship named after the PRC's first spacecraft. I don't have to open a cookie to figure out whose fortune this episode is targetting. They should have just called the it "Vulcan Nee Hau".

Yeah, very little of what happened made credible dramatic sense.

 

[Paradise City]

The scenes with the Klingons where there's no subs and one has to read them from their body language...well...maybe "cerebral" isn't the right word but these were experimental scenes that demanded patience from the audience.

The first episode was very vanilla. The acting was fairly stale from our heroes in those episodes. The 2nd one I liked much better. Yeoh is not that great in this though.

 

[The Wormhole]

The fact that it's rather bland is more likely to kill this show.

 

[Griffeytrek]

The Discovery crew could end up being fun and interesting as well, but there's no way to know because we haven't seen them in context yet. A friend of mine tried to sell a TV pilot a few years ago and one of the main pieces of feedback he got was that you can't delay introducing your entire main cast and the primary setting of the show past the first episode. You have to hook your audience with what the series will actually be like instead of pulling a bait-and-switch. I wish we had seen the Discovery and Captain Lorca in action this week because I still don't know what to expect from this show tonally.

And that is kind of the huge elephant in the room here. This show is not simply a new Star Trek TV series. It's the centerpiece, the main marketing attractor for a new startup streaming service. One entering into an already established and matured marketspace with a much shallower catalog than the competition. That first episode needed to really hook the broadcast viewers. It needed to fully introduce everything in one shot and at least let them know it was worth paying for.

And in every way possible CBS failed horribly at that task. They only showed one episode. The first half of the pilot. It didn't introduce most of the main cast or concepts. All it showed of the main character made them seem like the most unlikable twit on television. Remember broadcast viewers didn't see episode 2. They HATE her by the end of the first episode. And not in a Breaking Bad/House of Cards deliciously evil sort of way. After seeing just that one first episode, just acts one and two of the first story. The first half of a movie, the audience hates your main character. They haven't seen the ship yet. The Klingons look like leftovers from Stargate casting so the audience doesn't recognize them. It's a mess of an introduction. At least it's a pretty and expensive looking mess.

Now add to it the technical screw ups. A massive football delay on the launch and subscriber introduction to your new streaming service? Yeah no! News flash, the audience that would pay for such a service is the type that despises and deeply resents football delays. And let's not forget the political faux pas, such as the showrunners describing the Klingons as Racist Xenophobic Trump voters you start to wonder if this whole thing is some sort of elaborate "Springtime for Hitler" type Money Laundering scheme?

My feeling since 1992 has been that every new version of Trek should have at least the working title: Star Trek: You Can't Kill It With A Stick.

This show will not die for several years no matter how poorly fans think it's doing. We can all think of TV shows we don't like or don't consider to be good that continue on year after year. I've noticed, for example, a lot of antipathy in fandom to The Big Bang Theory.

If this was a normal broadcast show I would agree. CBS AND Paramount have more interest in preserving the IP as active than quickly cancelling a show. But the calculations aren't the same here. It's an unproven streaming service and a godawful expensive show. We will see more Trek. They need that as a draw. But willwe see more Discovery? Note how the powers that be have already hinted that this is a season by season anthology project like American Horror Story.

I think this is a big assumption to make after only two episodes. Who says there won't be uplifting and cerebral stories as the show goes on?

If they broadcast uplifting cerebral stories on a subscription service that nobody is willing to pay for, do they make a sound? They needed to do the hopeful, uplifting, or at least deeply compelling stuff up front, in the broadcast tease for the service. Instead they left the not yet subscribing audience with a very negative view of the show and main character. Not a formula for success.

 

[starmike]

It is one thing for JJ Trek to get away with mass action blockbusters that appeal to the mainstream summer audience, but this is Trek on TV and needs to stick to the core principles that has made Trek because it needs to sustain itself for many episodes. So far the show has not done that. It has 13 episodes to show us it can rise out of the dreary, dark world of war, and become a show about exploration and inspiration. If it does not then I predict it will end after the already paid for second season.

Star Trek is hope.

Nice way to judge a show on its premiere. BTW: how did things work out for the last of its kind in "The Man Trap"?

 

[The Overlord]

It is one thing for JJ Trek to get away with mass action blockbusters that appeal to the mainstream summer audience, but this is Trek on TV and needs to stick to the core principles that has made Trek because it needs to sustain itself for many episodes. So far the show has not done that. It has 13 episodes to show us it can rise out of the dreary, dark world of war, and become a show about exploration and inspiration. If it does not then I predict it will end after the already paid for second season.

Star Trek is hope.

Does that mean they should go back to planet of the week stories, where exploring is finding some random planet, solving a problem and never mentioning it again?

Really Star Trek can't be the same show it was back in the 60s or 80s, the episodic planet of the week thing wouldn't work now.

 

[cultcross]

Does that mean they should go back to planet of the week stories, where exploring is finding some random planet, solving a problem and never mentioning it again?

We should also experience life changing events like losing a parent, or discovering a duplicate twin, which will never affect you again in any way.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I don’t think you perhaps grasp what the words “Star Trek” mean.

Every time someone says something like this, I see a flashing neon sign saying "GATEKEEPER OF TRUE FANDOM" appear above their head. Then the murderlights come on. But at least I know where to throw the axe.

 

[Kor]

... A plot as deep as wallpaper filled with stunning, cutting edge visuals, a Chinese actor as Captain and a ship named after the PRC's first spacecraft. I don't have to open a cookie to figure out whose fortune this episode is targetting. They should have just called the it "Vulcan Nee Hau".

It's about time Star Trek acknowledged space exploration from areas of Earth outside of North America.

Not to mention that Asians and Asian-Americans still don't get much decent representation in popular American media aside from forgettable secondary roles based on martial arts, organized crime, import hot rods, meek "model minority" stereotypes, or some combination thereof (or just being associated with food as in that cheap-shot fortune cookie stereotype), much less in exemplary leadership roles.

Kor

 

[cultcross]

a Chinese actor as Captain and a ship named after the PRC's first spacecraft. I don't have to open a cookie to figure out whose fortune this episode is targetting. They should have just called the it "Vulcan Nee Hau".

As opposed to an American extolling the virtues of the Constitution while head of a ship called 'Enterprise'?

 

[Jedi_Master]

Why is it a bad thing to target a Chinese audience? Seems to me that Star Trek wouldn't be hurt by a billion new fans...

 

[CorporalClegg]

Hollywood is making aggressive attempts to grab a piece of the Chinese pie. Film at eleven.

 

[Smoked Salmon]

It's about time Star Trek acknowledged space exploration from areas of Earth outside of North America.

This is why I am pleased to also see South Asian on the show. Based on the direction of the planet right now it is reasonable to assume that Indian and China will be two of, if not the, leaders in space exploration.

 

[Khan444]

Every ST show has taken a little bit to find it's footing. Honestly this was a better start than TNG, Voyager, or Enterprise got. Those openings were flat-out awful. This was "it's pretty good, but they need to work on some things."

 

[Phily B]

It is setting up the rest of the series, so I'm not judging yet.

But I hope they don't go the BSG route with everything being so fucking grim. I want some goofy comedy episodes and episodes based around scientific theories (like parallels or the dyson sphere episode).