Exactly. It blows my mind how there needs to be justification for not liking something. I do I think the DSC Klingons all look great? Nope. Do I think it was a needed expansion to a preexisting species? Yup.
Would you say Picard is prime timeline or part of the Discoverse?
- Thread starter Yes Man the Great
- Start date
Remember when people were mad at the Into Darkness Klingon design with it's pointy ears, piercings and bright blue eyes? Wow that feels like a lifetime ago now it's all "they're all Klingons except the Discovery ones"
I wasn't on the internet at the time so I missed that debate. Seems weird though. Seems very out of character for Trek fans to get out of sorts over something like that.
Jason
It was very strange...you can't make this stuff up!
Reminded me of the fit pitched over Abrams not being a Trek...completely surprising.
In my opinion, the elephant in the room is the decision to use predominantly humanoid aliens.
From the standpoint of producing television shows, it's a great decision. It makes production affordable. And without it, we wouldn't have Spock, or other favorites such as the Daxes or Worf.
It does, however, indicate a theatrical, rather than literal, approach to at least this class of aliens, and such a non-literal approach runs into conflict with the expectation many fans have of their sci-fi entertainment. YMMV.
From the standpoint of producing television shows, it's a great decision. It makes production affordable. And without it, we wouldn't have Spock, or other favorites such as the Daxes or Worf.
It does, however, indicate a theatrical, rather than literal, approach to at least this class of aliens, and such a non-literal approach runs into conflict with the expectation many fans have of their sci-fi entertainment. YMMV.
Like Jayson, I also took a 10-year break from TrekBBS. Then when I came back, I'd like to say I was surprised nothing had changed except for the name of the series and the names of some posters, but I really wasn't.
When I came back, I didn't even bother to look at any of the old threads. I already knew what was in them without reading.
Remember when people were mad at the Into Darkness Klingon design with it's pointy ears, piercings and bright blue eyes? Wow that feels like a lifetime ago now it's all "they're all Klingons except the Discovery ones"
The into Darkness Klingons sucked as well. But still the Discovery ones are the worst.
I don't think it was quite 10 years. More like two breaks broken up with a short return in the middle. You know it could have been 10 though. I do know my return was in 2016 or late 2015. That much I know for sure.
Jason
Its not like non-humanoid lifeforms don’t exist.
Aquatic Xindi, Insectoid Xindi, Tholians, Organians, Wisps, Trill Symbiont, Changelings, Crystalline Entity, silicon-based species like the Horta, and technically the Q are a few examples.
Non-humanoids lifeforms are more common in the ENT and TOS eras. Whereas humanoid lifeforms are more common in the TNG/DS9/VOY era.
With CGI, its easier to depict non-humanoid lifeform than it used to be.
The change to Klingons was the best thing this current era has done - for many reasons both artistic and pragmatic. It's unfortunate people couldn't see past the mere-exposure effect to get that. The regression in Disco season 2 was tragic and makes for a good microcosm for why the franchise will continue to remain stuck in the mud.
But not as crewmembers or regulars.
Yup. We want new Star Trek just don't change it.
So why make new Star Trek?
Why have black, brown, yellow and red humans when they could all be white? (Or "flesh" as the pancake makeup used to call the shade.)
It works fine.
To clear up any confusion, let's officially rename the "prime timeline" to be The Discoverse. It sounds funky and would unite all Trek fans everywhere. 
Well...that's just unbelievable...sounds funky and would unite all Trek fans everywhere.
I'd be interested to see how you came to this conclusion, particularly in the case of TOS.
Odo – a changeling was a regular and a crewmember on DS9. And both Jadzia and Ezri had the Trill Symbiont.
But that’s the exception to the norm.
Um, I watched the shows.
I thought, the Discoverse would be nothing different than the Prime universe? I would understand the question, when you would have talked about the "Abramsverse", but this isn't the case and so I don't see the point...
So tell me... what happened to the Brophy-thread?
So tell me... what happened to the Brophy-thread?
When DSC came out people were outraged about the new designs and proclaimed the show wasn't part of the prime universe, and when it became clear that it wasn't set in the Kelvin timeline some proclaimed it to be in its own universe, which some people call Discoverse.
Guess what? So did I. So did most of us here.
With respect to "the decision to use predominantly humanoid aliens," the metric that matters most is time spent on-screen. What you're saying just isn't so.
Even Odo, officially non-humanoid, spent the overwhelming majority of his time on-screen in humanoid form. It's one thing to say that a species is non-humanoid, but it's another to show it. Q, the Organians, Trelane, the Thasians, the "Catspaw" aliens, The Kelvans, The Founders, etc. were all said to be non-humanoid, but the overwhelming majority (or all) of their time on-screen was spent in humanoid forms.
TOS had a fairly appreciable number of non-humanoid aliens. But if an episode required more than one of member of a species, the rule was that they were humanoid, and quite often they had minimal-to-no special makeup. Examples include (but are not necessarily limited to): "Journey to Babel," "A Taste of Armageddon," "A Piece of the Action," "Patterns of Force," "The Apple," "Gamesters of Triskelion," "The Omega Glory," "The Mark of Gideon," "Wink of an Eye," "Bread and Circuses," and "Miri." That's just off the top of my head.
In "Arena," we see two new species, one instance of each. One is definitely humanoid (The Metron), the other is a person in a Gorn suit. Is the Gorn humanoid? It depends on how strict your definition is.
If we take a look at "Day of the Dove," you have one pinwheel alien as an optical effect in certain shots on one side of the scales and a bunch of humanoid Klingons, often in the same scene with the pinwheel, on the other.
Then, Spock is in every TOS episode and getting a lot of screen time.
In "The Cage," you have at least four humanoid species: The Talosians, the Kalar on Rigel VII, the Orion, and the Vulcan. The person in the bird suit is arguably non-humanoid but is barely visible.
The non-humanoids are certainly there, but they don't appear on-screen in as great numbers or for as much time.
I could go on, but I'm reluctant to invest in making a chart of aliens when there's little doubt (IMO) that the humanoids are going to win the contest of which type of alien had the most visible screen presence on TOS (or any of the other shows for that matter).
Seriously, look at the Xindi. Most of the time was spent with the humanoid varieties. Despite that, it was impressive that they pulled off the scenes with the Aquatics and Insectoids as well as they did. It's also somewhat amusing that they conveniently made what would arguably have been the most problematic to do justice to, the Avian form, extinct!
Exactly.
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