I think season 2 is better but only slightly. Season 1 contains a lot of twists and turns. For example, we progressively see that there is something wrong with Lorca, also with Landry, her behavior is not Starfleet (the way she lets Michael get attacked and only intervenes when the fight is over is downright evil, she's practically a twin of her mirror counterpart). Still, Lorca's belonging to the mirror universe comes as a surprise.
Season 2 had a lot of stuff that made little sense on an episode-by-episode level. But I don't think the arc as a whole was as poorly done as the second season, where there seemed to be some hasty mid-season abandonment of whatever Berg/Harberts had planned. Instead it sort of felt like the season was building upon itself in a roughly logical fashion, until the last two episodes, when they remembered the supposed point of the season (the Klingon War) and tried to resolve things in a hasty and unfulfilling manner.
I voted for season 2. Episodes 2x01 and 2x02 were relative enjoyable to watch. Of course it went completely downhill after that, but still better than season 1 which was always at the bottom of the barrel. Season 2 also had Pike, clearly the best DIS character so far. And as bad as the whole Red Angel, Section 31 and Control story arc was told, at least season 2 had less scenes with tedious, mumbling Klingons.
In retrospect and to my great surprise, I’d have to go with Season 1 because it didn’t have time to backpedal on the few risks taken and introduce further safe elements like Section 31 or the Enterprise. (The show as a whole remains average and derivative, of course; I just noticed I wasn’t in the mood to finish my second viewing of S2, mainly because of the poor aftertaste left by Section 31 and Control.)
The problem with the Klingons is that most of them (although not all of them surprisingly) were speaking way too slowly (in Klingon) and it felt unnatural. I am thinking in particular of the guy who played T'Kuvma. I mean I know this is just TV but they could have put in a little effort to make it seem like it's their first tongue!! It's their JOB after all!!!
But how would you know unless you understood Okrand’s Klingon, not to mention that some of it was ceremonial? I was just glad they made a serious effort (as opposed to the classic Bermanverse mispronunciation, corrupted grammar or flat-out invention, some of which would later be retrofitted into the language, eg. betleH for bat’leth).
I admire your expertise but I was just speaking of the number of syllables they say in Klingon. No matter what language you speak in, the number of syllables per minute (for example) is usually rather high when it's your first tongue unless you're suffering from some serious impairment.
I never really cared about that. I was more bothered by their look and their ships. Their language, slow as it was for them to speak, was actually closer to what we know of Klingons than the above things I mentioned.
But this entire subculture is ornate and ceremonial, so it’s easy to believe they’d be taught to speak a formal version of Klingon and never rush through a sentence if they can enunciate each word clearly. These 24 “orthodox houses” would’ve come to the forefront temporarily as their very distant relatives (sharing some famous, traditional names such as Kor) were being thrown into disarray by the forehead issue or other difficulties.
But that’s the purpose of in-universe explanations, to make the show more interesting when the main story is predictable.
I thought the purpose of in-universe explanations is to make sense of continuity errors due to sloppy writing?
I've never gone for that sort of fanon. It's either interesting to watch or it isn't. If it isn't, it's even less worth thinking about, in my book.
That is only a small part of it, another being elaboration upon any elements that are released without explanation. Fanon is fan fiction, whereas this is actually head-canon. Without it I’d be missing out on a lot of Star Trek because it just isn’t amazing television, especially when compared with so many other shows accessible via streaming or disc in 2019.
That sort of fan distinction also isn’t of interest to me, but i agree about the proliferation of better programming. That’s one reason I’m not interested in cutting Discovery slack just because it’s called Star Trek.
Season One eeks out for me, but just barely. I love Pike and Spock and discovery more about the Red Angel was interesting. But, I liked the Klingons in Season 1 quite a bit, with Tyler's weird backstory. Season Two has Pike and Spock and I really enjoy Pike. But, there were elements that kind of dragged for me, so it's hard for me to put it solidly above Season 1. Personally, I hate this sort of arbitrary starship measuring contest because I like both for different reasons. Both seasons are fine additions to Trek, in my opinion.
Season 2 is way better overall for me. Season 1 had a less cohesive narrative, and the unnecessary trips to the MU and the annoying portrayal of Klingons were big negatives.
I am not really interested in Starships so I thought it was cleaned talk for another kind of measuring contest, aka pissing contest.