Is this show actually "character driven" at all?

[GilmourD]

I assume confusion or cut and paste error... STD does take place 10 years before the events in The Cage.

(I'll also hold out the possibility that I'm reading this wrong, but I've re-read and don't see where I am)

STD (2256) takes place two years after The Cage (2254), nine years before Where No Man Has Gone Before (2265).

 

[Jayson1]

I think the show is character driven but also a show were the only truly important character is Burnham. Everyone else is their to help develop that character. Kind of like the show "House." No matter how interesting the other characters might be, everything always comes back to the House, character. Just replace, treating patents for unusual medical problems with action and it's the same thing because the show is also more action adventure than drama or pure sci-fi.

Jason

 

[cultcross]

The more I think about it the more it seems like this was originally a post-Nemesis story that was quickly rejiggered into a pre-Kirk story with Klingons and Sarek. That would explain the uniforms, the ships, the tech, and I bet they weren't supposed to be Klingons but they spent all the money on the alien design and decided to use it anyway.

Almost certainly not. Production design followed, rather than preceded, the announcement of Discovery's timeframe, and the new Klingons have clearly Klingon features, just turned up to 11.

 

[Long Syntax]

STD (2256) takes place two years after The Cage (2254), nine years before Where No Man Has Gone Before (2265).

Confusion... on my part.

 

[GilmourD]

Almost certainly not. Production design followed, rather than preceded, the announcement of Discovery's timeframe, and the new Klingons have clearly Klingon features, just turned up to 11.

Then why does the design of everything fit and post-Nemesis world so well? Did they not tell the designers the setting?

 

[cultcross]

It only does to the extent that all Trek 'eras' have the same basic set of technology. Phasers/tricorders/communicators/transporters/subspace comms/warp drive/androids/shields etc are all fairly universal Trek fare. When they're a bit clunkier, we tend to be 'back in time', when they fit in a watch battery, we are 'forward in time'. So far, Discovery fits the clunky aesthetic.

 

[eschaton]

I partially retract my initial question based upon the newest episode. While don't think Choose Your Pain was perfect in terms of plot structure, it delivered exactly the sort of quiet character moments I was really missing in the earlier episodes, with all of the main cast (save Tilly) and even some of the secondary characters getting some development. I'm a lot less fearful for the future of the series now.

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

This show is about plot, not characters. At least at this stage in the game.