The novels so far are the only good thing to come out of Space Show Discovery so far. Trust me, you’re not missing much except for a headache.
Spoilers DSC: Fear Itself by James Swallow Review Thread
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The novels so far are the only good thing to come out of Space Show Discovery so far. Trust me, you’re not missing much except for a headache.
Nope. Wrong.
The novels are indeed cool (some more than others, but that's besides the point), but (going into OT territory) "Space Show Discovery"? you mean the Trek show with the best first season in the franchise's history?
Your opinion. Valid though it may be, it's just that
I found the story to be quite coherent and engaging. No story is perfect and hindsight is 20:20, but it was very enjoyable IMO. The characters were fleshed out the right amount (as they have/need to grow and evolve in the future), and whie not all were likable, I don't think all them were planned to be..
In any case, was the season perfect? far from it. But IMO it was the best *first* season of any Trek series.
Other than TOS, DS9, and VOY, I absolutely agree with this.
TOS's first season was basically interchangeable from the 2nd and 3rd, but that was AFAIK the nature of weekly TV (at least back then), so yeah - as a *first* season? Much better than than TOS.
Also, DSC's first season had a structure, a cohesive narrative arc building from the first episode to the last - that's something none of the other series had (or attempted). Maybe ENT tried..
Last, IMO the acting and writing were superior to the first seasons of the earlier series (not to the entire series, or to the better episodes).
I wouldn't say that. Each season had its own distinct character. Season 1 was a show feeling its way toward what it wanted to be, starting out as a show about an Earth ship that dealt mostly with human problems and occasional alien monsters or superraces, but evolving into a show about a ship that belonged to a multispecies Federation and routinely dealt with humanoid aliens. It was also the most ensemble-driven season, though it evolved toward the familiar Kirk-Spock-McCoy focus as it went. Season 2 was more polished, mature, and fun than season 1 in a lot of ways, with a lot more focus on aliens and a greater emphasis on Spock and McCoy, but also more garish and more superficial, with more episodes built around fighting and destroying an enemy rather than resolving moral dilemmas through reason and intelligence. Season 3 had generally weaker, sillier writing and less conceptual discipline than the previous two and was hampered by budget restrictions, but also had some of the series' best music and visual effects and was better than season 2 at prioritizing moral dilemmas and peaceful solutions over fighting and destroying.
I wouldn't call that a matter of quality, just one particular way of doing things. Just because it's currently fashionable, that doesn't make it objectively better for all time. Indeed, there were plenty of serialized shows in the '50s and '60s, namely daytime soap operas and children's adventure serials, and they were considered cheesy and lowbrow. The classiest TV shows in the early days were anthologies, things like Playhouse 90 that presented a different adapted or original play each week, so anthology-style storytelling was seen as more intelligent and sophisticated than serialized storytelling, the inverse of today's perception. Even shows with continuing characters and situations strove to be as anthology-like as possible, focusing on guest stars of the week that the main characters helped with their problems.
I see your point. With that in mind, when looking at the first season (only) of each, IMO DSC still has the stronger (better) season. The other (longer) Trek series have better episodes (than DSC's 15 S1 episodes) in later seasons, but looking only at the first seasons? I'd pick DSC over any of them (even TNG which was the "Trek I grew up with"or DS(, which is my all-time favorite).
I wouldn't call that a matter of quality per se, either, and I didn't. My first point was in regards the acting and writing were superior to the first seasons of the earlier series (see my reply above). This point is simply about noting/acknowledging the existence of an overall structure, which is a more modern way of TV production/writing. I hope this clarifies it
I kind of fall in the middle between you two, I thought it started out rough, but improved as it went and ended up really good by the end.Your opinion. Valid though it may be, it's just that
I found the story to be quite coherent and engaging. No story is perfect and hindsight is 20:20, but it was very enjoyable IMO. The characters were fleshed out the right amount (as they have/need to grow and evolve in the future), and whie not all were likable, I don't think all them were planned to be..
In any case, was the season perfect? far from it. But IMO it was the best *first* season of any Trek series.
I take you must not be a fan of many current shows then, since the vast majority of them have season long arcs. While there are some great shows with stand alone episodes, if given a choice I definitely prefer longer arcs.
Ugh, TNG season 1 is my least favorite season in the entire franchise. It had some good episode, but overall it was a bigger mess than DSC Season 1 was at it's worse.
True enough, but as I noted up-thread...
Yeah, I'd just finished reading Fire with Fire before I started work in Fear Itself, so it's in there as a little salute to Christian and Bernd's books.
No-one's picked out the Kelvin Timeline reference yet, though...
I'll have to be on the lookout on that. I just finished chapter 1 (I don't recall seeing anything there). Thanks for the tip that it's there.
With Star Trek serialized storytelling has been a gradual process I think. In the original series it was almost nonexistent, except for the occasional reference or character from an earlier episode. TNG started pretty much as standalone episodes but by season 7 there seemed to be a greater emphasis on a more consistent continuity. I think DS9 was really where serialized storytelling was given greater emphasis. But even there, there were a lot of standalone stories. Voyager and Enterprise I thought continued the trend within the shows themselves.
Discovery does seem to be the first attempt that I've seen to keep everything, including books and comics, consistent. In that past novels and comics had to try to stay consistent with on screen canon, but almost no attempt was made for the reverse. Discovery is the first time where I've seen the show runners indicate they want everything tied together. Now that can change in the future, but for now that seems to be the goal.
I think both have good points. Sometimes it's nice to watch an episode that's a standalone story. Something just for the fun of it that doesn't really have any major consequences for future episodes. At the same time serialized storytelling can be compelling as well. One thing I enjoyed a lot about DS9 is they seemed to have a good balance of the two. There was an overall storyline that ran from the beginning to end of each season (and moving on to the next) but within each season there were a number of standalone episodes that didn't impact the seasonal story arc significantly.
I sort of feel the same way about the relaunch novels. I'm a huge fan of the continuing storylines of the various series and very much want them to continue. But I wouldn't mind an occasional book that took place during one of the series runs outside the relaunches.
No clues.
Aaagghh. It's driving me crazy looking for it. I'm almost halfway through the book at this point. Can you at least say if it's in the first or 2nd half of the book? I hope I didn't miss it.
Just finished it. I confess that I didn’t see the JJVerse reference. The way Nathal’s Father died was similar to that of George Kirk but that’s it.
Maybe the drones scene as well; similar to the ones in Beyond.
The ones I picked up were the:
Maybe the drones scene as well; similar to the ones in Beyond.
The ones I picked up were the:
- Lembatta Cluster - an area that is currently being explored in the Prometheus novels.
- Dimorus System - In the TOS episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” a planet was mentioned there to contain rodent like creatures that emit poisonous darts and Mitchel saved Kirk from one.
- The D-10 Klingon Batte Cruiser - at first I thought this was a mistake and that he was referring to the D-7 but I do recall there might be a FASA ship with that designation.
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