Spoilers Missed opportunities in DSC?

[F. King Daniel]

Biggest for me is not having a Lorca POV episode following his reveal, showing how he figured out where he was as he took his counterpart's place and hatching his plan to bring the Discovery crew together. The Walking Dead did some good episodes from The Governor's POV and it could have been awesome, and given Lorca's finale a bit more depth and meaning.

They also could have featured Staments/Culber flashbacks instead of just telling us about it, especially with all the Mycellial Magic™ going on.

Anyone else thinking they missed opportunities this season?

 

[KennyB]

Nope

 

[Hythlodeus]

I somewhat agree with the POV episode. I don't think it was needed, I don't think it would fit a show that is mostly about Burnham's POV, but on a personal level, I'd like to see it.
Other than that, though, no, not many missed opportunities. I mean, more Andorians are always better, but I've accepted that TPTB don't share my enthusiasm for that species many decades ago.

 

[CorporalClegg]

An entire musical episode with just Stamets.

Rapp's voice is sexy AF.

 

[cultcross]

They seemed to feel that the war was seen from both points of view, but I'm not convinced they achieved that. If they wanted that they probably needed to do more humanising (for want of a better word) of the Klingons, and more that would allow the viewer to sympathise with their ideals.

A good first step would have been ditching the Klingon language, Hunt for Red October style. Their best scenes were in the episode when Burnham is using the translator.

 

[XCV330]

I think a few side views of the destruction wrought by the war would have been useful. DS9 had their wall of the fallen. Could have been news coverage of the war, or more Gagarin type scenes. We were left with an antiseptic confrontation that never really compelled the audience as well as it might have.

 

[Hythlodeus]

A good first step would have been ditching the Klingon language

for me, the opposite is true. the usage of Klingon made the feel more alien, it made them more interesting. It certainly helped that they were not depicted as uniform as they were in the TNG era too.
I want the same treatment to all alien races from now on

 

[Longinus]

I think missed opportunities was basically the defining feature of the latter half of the season.

 

[Butters]

Yeah. There was never much sense of their being a war on, you know. The show was accused of being grim dark as it was, and war is hell and all that, but I never got a war vibe from the series. Being a science ship I wouldn’t expect too much gung-ho ‘let’s kick some Klingon butt’, but the war did seem to pass me by for the most part.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Meh. Star Trek already did a war and it was borning. I'm actually glad it was relegated to the background.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I like the Lorca POV episode idea - and I'd have been down for some additional fan service stuff in the MU, because really, I pretty much always am. But I'm pretty darned happy with what we got - aside from hoping that maybe further developments with PU Lorca or whatever MU Lorca had brewing over in the PU to back him up in his MU conquest (cause you just *know* there was *something*, and the Emperor alluded to that, too) will continue to flesh some of that part of things out.

 

[seigezunt]

TBH I would have liked to have seen more of Saru's people in the Prime Universe.

 

[eschaton]

Meh. Star Trek already did a war and it was borning. I'm actually glad it was relegated to the background.

Fact of the matter is, war stories are pretty boring to watch when told a 10,000 feet up. Just a bunch of admirals and generals in meetings. If you want the human element - to make it personable and something people can relate to - you have to tell it from a more limited position of a soldier or small group of soldiers on the front lines.

There's a saying which goes something like "One dead child is a tragedy, 10,000 is a statistic" - people just aren't good at contemplating large-scale tragedies, and can relate better when they are dealt with through a personal story instead.

 

[lab rat]

Watching the last episode it seemed like the birth of of Star Trek. Burnham's speech at the end sounded like the creation of the Star Trek mission statement for the Star Trek we all know.

Watching the mirror universe episodes it looked like a remake of Flash Gordon of the 30s. Battling emperor Ming.

Could someone have had the idea that Discovery would touch bases with the history of space science fiction ending up with the birth of Star Trek. An interesting idea that might have been dropped, because they felt that much of the audience would not be able to connect with what came before.

 

[Galaxy]

While using the Enterprise pizza cutter it just occurred to me that it is a missed opportunity that a Discovery pizza cutter does not exist. Would be more authentic since the saucer literally spins. Someone make this happen.

 

[seigezunt]

Fact of the matter is, war stories are pretty boring to watch when told a 10,000 feet up. Just a bunch of admirals and generals in meetings. If you want the human element - to make it personable and something people can relate to - you have to tell it from a more limited position of a soldier or small group of soldiers on the front lines.

There's a saying which goes something like "One dead child is a tragedy, 10,000 is a statistic" - people just aren't good at contemplating large-scale tragedies, and can relate better when they are dealt with through a personal story instead.

I've often thought something along these lines whenever fans talk about wanting a Romulan War series. There's a lot of that that is just better left offscreen.

 

[Silversmok3]

I've often thought something along these lines whenever fans talk about wanting a Romulan War series. There's a lot of that that is just better left offscreen.

It’s a tricky task balancing gritty,realistic ,and entertaining war stories with the Trek ethos.

I’m sure it could be done, but not by the hacks on ST-Discovery’s writer staff.

 

[pst]

i think michael burnham was the biggest missed opportunity of the season. forget the continuity stuff or the overarching klingon vs federation politics, the show failed to live up to its most interesting premise: focusing on michael burnham, non-starfleet captain or even commissioned officer, semi-mutineer, starter of the war, child of two worlds, survivor of a massacre, forgotten sister of spock. placing michael in the center of the action promised a completely new, more personal perspective on the star trek universe, but the show devolved into tearing her wounds open over and over again.

who was michael burnham outside of her pain and guilt? she’s beautifully portrayed by sonequa martin green and that almost makes you forget how sketchily written her character is. but damned if i don’t know anything about michael burnham except what the universe has done to her. she doesn’t even have any hobbies (note: jogging isn’t a hobby any more than eating breakfast burritos is one).

 

[The Wormhole]

For a show that was supposed break away from the bog standard Trek formula of the Captain is the lead and the rest of the cast are the senior staff and bridge officers, this show stayed true to it, for the most part. Okay, the captain really wasn't the lead, but the captain is still in the main cast, or was anyway. The rest of the cast consists of the XO, chief of security, chief engineer, and now the head science officer. And in the supporting cast we have a medical officer who basically serves the same narrative purpose of a CMO except for a throwaway line stating he isn't.

Okay, the bridge officers aren't in the main cast, but aside from that they're basically getting the same amount of attention as characters like Mayweather or Harry Kim got.

 

[waxon]

i think michael burnham was the biggest missed opportunity of the season. forget the continuity stuff or the overarching klingon vs federation politics, the show failed to live up to its most interesting premise: focusing on michael burnham, non-starfleet captain or even commissioned officer, semi-mutineer, starter of the war, child of two worlds, survivor of a massacre, forgotten sister of spock. placing michael in the center of the action promised a completely new, more personal perspective on the star trek universe, but the show devolved into tearing her wounds open over and over again.

who was michael burnham outside of her pain and guilt? she’s beautifully portrayed by sonequa martin green and that almost makes you forget how sketchily written her character is. but damned if i don’t know anything about michael burnham except what the universe has done to her. she doesn’t even have any hobbies (note: jogging isn’t a hobby any more than eating breakfast burritos is one).

Yes I would agree with this, there was an interesting vulture article: http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/star-trek-discovery-needs-to-evolve.html which discusses Discovery's poor character development and uses Michael and Ash as examples.