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Spoilers Why do the same recurring characters implausibly keep popping up?

The last first season of a Trek show aired more than 16 years ago. TNG's terrible first season was 30 years ago. Are those really the standards by which we should judge a big-budget production in the era of prestige television?

Non-fans certainly won't.
Because GoT or Walking Dead are the immediate comparisons, which are based upon prior properties, adaptations, not full blown new productions. That's why I look at Season 1 of a ton of shows. Most Trek's faced the difficulty of living in the shadow of the previous one, and they are an appropriate comparison because of expanding the world, not adapting a work from another format. That brings its own host of issues.

And, if I'm comparing DISCO to "prestige telivision" then I lean towards "Daredevil." Guess what? Cast was limited, the ones that we get to know are primarily four (Matt, Wilson Fisk, Foggy [though in relationship to Matt] and Karen). Most of the ancillary characters we get to know through their relationship with the primary ones (Wesley as a stand in for Fisk, Ben through Paige, Matt and Claire, etc). Things are very tight, very focused on the larger implications are left outside of the show's arc, until later.
 
The Klingon Duras Sisters showed up (and they'd had their run on TNG with Redemption and Unification I & II around the time DS9 was premiring.
The Duras Sisters were not in Unification.
Taris was going to be brought back in Face of the Enemy, until someone mistakenly thought she had been killed in Contagion, so they ended up with a new character played by the same actress.
 
And what did I say? I said that he came to the wrong forum to discuss bad aspects of Discovery. Because here are all Discovery fans. It seems that I can't say anything that's not 100% exact because people will not be able to understand.


.

No I understood you fine, I just think you're wrong and making gross generalisations. I'll say it again, there are plenty of posters who dislike discovery and regularly express those opinions in this forum. Every single thread in this forum has posts from people who have issues with discovery. As someone who likes Discovery, i have no issue with people disliking it. This place is not an echo chamber for either Discovery fans or it's detractors.
 
How would we know this? We don't even have general viewership figures, much less a breakdown like that.

Yes we do.

I think you might not have read that quoted paragraph properly.

That's how the klingons won the war. Pretty easy to win a war when you're fighting the same number of people as a soccer team.

And that soccer team’s ships are never in the right darn quadrant.
 
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The Duras Sisters were not in Unification.

They didn't actually appear no, but they were mentioned by Picard in the 'threat' used to get Gauron to lend him a Cloak-equipped ship. I do remember them actually appearing at least one more time on TNG after Redemption, before the series finale and their subsequent appearance in Generations, but I don't recall the episode name or the TNG Season it was in.
 
They didn't actually appear no, but they were mentioned by Picard in the 'threat' used to get Gauron to lend him a Cloak-equipped ship. I do remember them actually appearing at least one more time on TNG after Redemption, before the series finale and their subsequent appearance in Generations, but I don't recall the episode name or the TNG Season it was in.
Yeah Firstborn - it was the one with Alexander from the future - we find out Lursa is pregnant, which makes her death in Generations quite poignant. They also pop up in DS9's Past Prologue early in season one.
 
Regardless, again, let's compare things to Game of Thrones. Basically the same run time as Discovery for the first season, and a smaller budget. They had 19 main characters who were all given development, along with introducing characters who only later became main cast members (Tywin, Samwell Tarley, Bronn, Varys) or who never became part of the main cast (Pycelle, Osha, Rickon, Ros, etc). All of the main characters, and some of the guest characters, were given solid development over the course of the season.

If GoT - with the same run-time and budget - can develop three times as many characters as Discovery, then I don't think arguments that Discovery didn't have time to introduce more characters hold up.
I'm not convinced Game of Thrones is a fair comparison - they were adapting a massive novel, first in a series of massive novels, which laid out all those characters and plotlines in advance. Adaptation and writing TV from scratch are two very different things, as GoT has shown since running past the end of the books. The Walking Dead also had source material to work from. Even Orange is the New Black, another streaming show which has a large variety of characters, had a source book to run from which itself was semi based on reality.

Discovery is a first season of an original startup show. Others that are comparable to it in that respect, such as The Good Place, Orphan Black, Sense8, Travellers, House of Cards, Homeland, Grimm, How To Get Away With Murder have comparable cast sizes and scope in year one and indeed beyond.
 
*nudges*

Some of those aren’t original.

Not that it changes your point, mind. It just means they have even less of an excuse than DIS for their epic trip-ups. Lookin’ at you, Homeland.
 
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Yeah House of Cards is an adaptation of a UK TV series which itself was adapted from a novel.

There were significant changes to move it from Whitehall to the White House, but the basic plot of the first season was the same.
 
I'm not convinced Game of Thrones is a fair comparison - they were adapting a massive novel, first in a series of massive novels, which laid out all those characters and plotlines in advance. Adaptation and writing TV from scratch are two very different things, as GoT has shown since running past the end of the books. The Walking Dead also had source material to work from. Even Orange is the New Black, another streaming show which has a large variety of characters, had a source book to run from which itself was semi based on reality.

Discovery is a first season of an original startup show. Others that are comparable to it in that respect, such as The Good Place, Orphan Black, Sense8, Travellers, House of Cards, Homeland, Grimm, How To Get Away With Murder have comparable cast sizes and scope in year one and indeed beyond.

While as others have noted some of the details may be off, I understand your point.

This sort of touches on another point though - typically in serialized TV, the series has a sense of broader direction from season to season. There's a set number of seasons (four, seven, whatever) that the writers want to tell their story within. The first season often ends in its own climax, but mostly helps to "set the table" for the remainder of the series run.

Discovery isn't doing this. It's pretty clear they didn't have a multi-season plan. They had a plan for a single season, and didn't begin figuring out Season 2 until season 1 was almost done filming. This may be why all of the arcs seem cramped and amped up to an absurd level. Realistically they should have taken something like the Ash Tyler/Voq arc and extended it out over multiple seasons. And they should be introducing a lot of characters now which they have deeper plans for for Season 2 and beyond. But the season is really being treated as its own self-contained thing - sort of a giant episode within a broader procedural show - rather than part of a bigger story.
 
Yes we do.

I think you might not have read that quoted paragraph properly.

I read it right, I just wasn't thinking of Rotten Tomatoes. :) Your point is valid. But I will still be curious to see how that audience score lines up with viewership trends and overall audience size.
 
I think the problem, if it is a problem (I don't mind), is the lack of a bridge ensemble, coupled with a ship on mainly secret missions captained by someone who is on the run.

It narrows the contact we have with people on board and in the bigger universe at large.

I don't think I am expressing accurately what I mean, but hopefully you get the gist.
 
I'm not convinced Game of Thrones is a fair comparison - they were adapting a massive novel, first in a series of massive novels, which laid out all those characters and plotlines in advance. Adaptation and writing TV from scratch are two very different things, as GoT has shown since running past the end of the books. The Walking Dead also had source material to work from. Even Orange is the New Black, another streaming show which has a large variety of characters, had a source book to run from which itself was semi based on reality.

Discovery is a first season of an original startup show. Others that are comparable to it in that respect, such as The Good Place, Orphan Black, Sense8, Travellers, House of Cards, Homeland, Grimm, How To Get Away With Murder have comparable cast sizes and scope in year one and indeed beyond.
Agreed. That was my larger point that GoT is a poor comparison because there is already so much material there.
 
The Duras Sisters were not in Unification.

Taris was going to be brought back in Face of the Enemy, until someone mistakenly thought she had been killed in Contagion, so they ended up with a new character played by the same actress.

Well, then they should have gotten their ducks in a row and rewatched that episode. I think it would have been cool if Taris was the Romulan commander in that episode, IMO.
 
Well, then they should have gotten their ducks in a row and rewatched that episode. I think it would have been cool if Taris was the Romulan commander in that episode, IMO.
It would have been nice, but I doubt they had the time to rewatch it.
 
They didn't actually appear no, but they were mentioned by Picard in the 'threat' used to get Gauron to lend him a Cloak-equipped ship.
Afraid not. Here's that conversation in its entirety:
WORF: Captain, we are being hailed by the Klingon home world.
PICARD: Gowron or K'Tal?
WORF: Neither, sir. It is the junior adjutant to the diplomatic delegation.
RIKER: Junior adjutant.
PICARD: Name.
WORF: B'iJik, sir.
PICARD: On screen.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: Greetings, Captain. I regret to inform you that Gowron and the High Council are quite busy and won't be able to speak with you today.
PICARD: Is Gowron aware that we have been transmitting messages for the past three days?
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: Captain, Gowron wishes it were possible to talk with everyone who wants an audience. But he is one man. The demands on his time are formidable. If you would like me to take him a message.
PICARD: A message? Very well. Tell Gowron, leader of the High Council of the Klingon Empire, that his Arbiter of Succession, Jean-Luc Picard, needs a favour.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: A favour?
PICARD: I require a cloaked vessel.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: A cloaked vessel. This is no small favour, Captain.
PICARD: It is for a mission that could have repercussions throughout the quadrant.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: How would it benefit the Klingon Empire? I'm sure Gowron will ask.
PICARD: The only benefit to the Klingon Empire would be our gratitude.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: That is what you want me to tell him?
PICARD: Yes. And please add that if he is unable to provide a ship, then I am sure there are others in the Klingon Empire who would be willing to help me. And then, they would have our gratitude.
B'IJIK [on viewscreen]: I see.
PICARD: Also, please tell him that I am immensely gratified that he is prospering so well. A tribute to his skilled leadership.
No reference to the Duras sisters at all.
 
Afraid not. Here's that conversation in its entirety:

No reference to the Duras sisters at all.
It's an obvious threat to go to Gowron's political rivals, and given his role in securing Gowron's victory in the very recent civil war against the Duras family, you don't have to read too far between the lines.
 
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