I'm a bit annoyed at how straight-forward, without any kind of twists or turns, or really any kind of development the "plot-of-the-week's" are:
A) The crew needs to retrieve the spore device from the wreck of the Glenn. They beam aboard. Find the device. Run away from a monster. Get to their shuttle and fly back. Plot solved.
B) They need to bring the spore drive to work, to save a mining colony from a klingon attack. They use the stuff and the monster from the Glenn, and it works. They fly to the colony. They battle the klingons. Plot solved.
C) Cpt. Lorca get's ambushed while flying a shuttle. He meets other prisoners in a cell. He punches the klingons once they walk into the cell. They run through the corridors guns-blazing, steal a shuttle and fly back to the Discovery. Plot solved.
I'm missing a certain level of intrigue. Something beyond the bare bones of the plot. Some neat ideas to expand on these plot ideas. Which is especially annoying, since hints to that are clearly there! For example the klingons on the Glenn. This culd have been a superb sub-plot if handled right! Imagine that: Two warring fractions aboard an abandoned ship, together with a monster. Imagine if our Federation heroes needed to work together with the klingons to survive. Built trust with the enemy, while everyone is perfectly aware everyone is willing to stab the other in the back as soon as the possibility arises. And then have the twist that the monster, against which the two sides have aligned together against, really isn't a "monster", but just another "faction" fighting for survival as well. This could have been a really tense three-way factions thriller, with shifting aliances, predjudices, and people banding together and outwitting each other, akin to "The good, the bad, and the ugly". Instead, the klingon appereance was limited to a "shush"-joke, and a bath'let on the ground.
It's not that the plots themselves are bad. But they are pretty standard-clichéd Trek. They need expansion. They need improvement, maybe more time to breath, more focus, and certainly added details to amplify these 08/15-stories. It's not that it's bad. It isn't. But it's such a high level of wasted potential, it's really a shame. What saves it for me for now is the character interactions, especially the trio Burnham-Saru-Stamets, whom I already am a pretty big fan of. But this show needs improvement in their plotting and storytelling.
A) The crew needs to retrieve the spore device from the wreck of the Glenn. They beam aboard. Find the device. Run away from a monster. Get to their shuttle and fly back. Plot solved.
B) They need to bring the spore drive to work, to save a mining colony from a klingon attack. They use the stuff and the monster from the Glenn, and it works. They fly to the colony. They battle the klingons. Plot solved.
C) Cpt. Lorca get's ambushed while flying a shuttle. He meets other prisoners in a cell. He punches the klingons once they walk into the cell. They run through the corridors guns-blazing, steal a shuttle and fly back to the Discovery. Plot solved.
I'm missing a certain level of intrigue. Something beyond the bare bones of the plot. Some neat ideas to expand on these plot ideas. Which is especially annoying, since hints to that are clearly there! For example the klingons on the Glenn. This culd have been a superb sub-plot if handled right! Imagine that: Two warring fractions aboard an abandoned ship, together with a monster. Imagine if our Federation heroes needed to work together with the klingons to survive. Built trust with the enemy, while everyone is perfectly aware everyone is willing to stab the other in the back as soon as the possibility arises. And then have the twist that the monster, against which the two sides have aligned together against, really isn't a "monster", but just another "faction" fighting for survival as well. This could have been a really tense three-way factions thriller, with shifting aliances, predjudices, and people banding together and outwitting each other, akin to "The good, the bad, and the ugly". Instead, the klingon appereance was limited to a "shush"-joke, and a bath'let on the ground.
It's not that the plots themselves are bad. But they are pretty standard-clichéd Trek. They need expansion. They need improvement, maybe more time to breath, more focus, and certainly added details to amplify these 08/15-stories. It's not that it's bad. It isn't. But it's such a high level of wasted potential, it's really a shame. What saves it for me for now is the character interactions, especially the trio Burnham-Saru-Stamets, whom I already am a pretty big fan of. But this show needs improvement in their plotting and storytelling.
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