Sure, but it became more than that.
Actually by the title it's about TRAVELLING in Space. (just saying)
Actually, trekking refers to walking or hiking.
Let's talk about the elephant in the room, this series violates Roddenberry's vision big time
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Actually, trekking refers to walking or hiking.
the throng of people attending trek conventions to see the cast will eventually be a dead giveaway.
Well, dully anyway.
I dunno if I'd agree. There's lots of bad writing in Discovery - expository dialogue (or even monologue), plot holes, and inconsistent characterization - but at the same time I have to say I haven't been bored by a single episode yet the way I was about half of the Voyager and Enterprise episodes. I'm engrossed in it enough to pick up on all the flaws in execution, instead of being so bored I can't even be arsed to do that.
Objectives that will, invariably, come in to conflict with other powers. This show happens to be about how the Federation responds to challenges.
To be fair, Zone and Limits were only sci-fi sometimes, and the other influences weren’t really TV shows. Forbidden Planet itself is well known to be based on the Tempest.
In terms of live action TV though...from an American perspective, there’s a fair element of truth to his claim.
It may be in the opening monologue, but then it was in BSG's monologue that the Cylons had a plan.
The majority of Trek episodes in TNG and a solid chunk of TOS episodes don't involve any exploration at all, they're of the 'visiting a colony', 'visiting a station', 'diplomatic mission', 'ferry an ambassador/cargo', 'check out the a Romulan incursion' etc variety. True 'exploration' episodes became rarer and rarer. Even ENT didn't do as many of them as the premise would suggest.
Voyager did have some dull episodes early on...some kind of dull anyway...but rewatching it now, it’s clear that it’s worse episodes were still usually better than the worst of TNG, TOS, or the later ENT...the problem was it’s very best episodes were also only just about on a par with the better of those shows and very very rarely better overall. It is middling.
That’s where I think DSC is heading. It’s worst individual eps wont be As bad as other shows, but it’s great ones may be dragged down by some of the flaws in premise if it’s not careful. Overall, it’s very much a slightly better executed ENT in so so many ways, and borrows heavily from the other shows in ways that aren’t always immediately obvious. Lorca is like someone experimenting with doing Janeway and Archer from a different tack, Tilly is Harry Kim and Wesley, Burnham herself is Tom Paris meets Spock...the whole thing sprinkled with the ethical dilemmas of late DS9. I am not sure how that will work out long term, it could go either way.
But VOY and DS9 did more than anyone, so it balances out (DS9 is basically two or three first contact stories ongoing from episode one...the integration of Bajoran, the Prophets, and the repercussions of the Dominion contact. VOY by its nature can’t help but be exploration...they can’t go anywhere but where no one has gone before.)
I really liked what Janeway said in Caretaker.. (in part) "..as the only Starfleet vessel assigned to the Delta Quadrant, we'll continue to follow our directive to seek out new worlds and explore space. But our primary goal is clear. Even at maximum speeds, it would take seventy five years to reach the Federation, but I'm not willing to settle for that. There's another entity like the Caretaker out there somewhere who has the ability to get us there a lot faster. We'll be looking for her, and we'll be looking for wormholes, spatial rifts, or new technologies to help us. Somewhere along this journey, we'll find a way back. Mister Paris, set a course for home".
Planet or creature of the week would become dull, you have to look at those other missions in the context of the hero ship being part of a whole....colonies, as depicted, are very much exploration, the ships support those. Ambassadors, depending on their brief, are also very much part of exploration, so the ships support those...once you break it down, there are very few non exploratory episodes. Basically the military ones, unless it’s as a result of First Contact or similar circumstances (as DS9 is serialised, it’s entire war is looking at the results of contact with the Dominion.) Basically....Arena in TOS is exploration because of following up on the colonies, whereas as almost every Romulan or Klingon episode in every series is not...because those are not new races to the Federation. ENT and now DSC could redefine that in the way DS9 works, but I don’t think the Klingon Wars come out of botched First Contact, and certainly would be hard to redefine as that, because the Dominion works as exploration story telling precisely because it’s linear...we meet them, both sides fuck up contact, it leads to war (perhaps inevitably because of the Dominions approach.)
The Borg stop being about exploration after their first appearance, but if generous can be handwave because much of their TNG appearances involve supporting colonies or new groups (Hugh). After that though, unless the story is explicitly tied, they are just a recurring threat (the Hansens we’re exploring)
None of the TNG films were exploration, but then, Picard opines as much. Sure, they discover new things, but not entirely by looking for them. But then...only two of the TOS films had much ‘exploration’ and both of those had other reasons for bringing the unknown to the heroes, rather than them going to it. TMP and Final Frontier Basically.
It’s a messy thing, when you get into it.
It’s a good thing Seven didn’t catch the word assigned when she had her tinfoil hat breakdown.
You mean when she had all those conspiracy theories?
Visiting colonies, visiting stations, etc, I would count as exploring.
After all, its not so much the in-universe crew who are exploring, as the audience. Each new location builds the world.
They were exactly as skiffy as Trek.
