Michelle Paradise: Seasons 3 and 4 covered rebuilding Federation arc; seasons 5 onward = new
- Thread starter Quinton
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Yes!
In my head, the Kirk-class Enterprise-P was destroyed in the Burn and we get a brand-new Enterprise-Q. Because Q always follows P(icard)!
And then, finally, the Enterprise-R(iker). It takes him a long while before he gets his own ship, but it happens in the end.
See you next season.
On a more serious note, I just read the article. A few take-aways:
1. I'm glad Michelle Paradise envisioned getting Earth back in the Federation and putting the Federation back together(-ish) again as a two season arc.
2. While I see her point about Tilly reaching a point where she wants to give something back and teach at Starfleet Academy, I don't think they should've written her out of Episodes 5-12. Even if she were off of Discovery, they still could've had a sub-plot cutting back to her. It's the one serious thing I fault the season for. But, that having been said, I do like that Michelle Paradise's plan was to make Tilly more grounded.
3. From what Paradise said and didn't say, I'm guessing that we'll see what's been going on beyond the Federation. I didn't say Borg or Klingons. Just beyond the Federation in general.
4. Burnham's Kobayashi Maru. There's some unpacking here. Unpacking that I don't have time for since it's late and I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning. It's coming. And no, bashers, don't even think about saying "There! You see? You see?!" I'm not turning on the show. I just think the "no-win scenario" was teased but it didn't cost her where it matters the most. On the other hand, I didn't want Book dead or in prison. So I can't fault them too much here.
Which leads me to something else: I'm glad that the justice system of the 32nd Century is more enlightened. Prison isn't the only answer. I was fearful Book would become another black man killed or imprisoned, which sends the wrong message. Instead, they looked at his intent (he meant well) and they gave him what's effectively community service on a larger scale. They're making him help worlds rebuild. They're making him do something constructive and i approve. This is a Federation that believes in rehabilitation and/or building up. That, believe it or not, is the truncated version of what I want to say in regards to Book. The "tough on crime" mentality that both Reagan and Clinton had in the '80s and '90s did more harm to our society than good and I'm glad Star Trek no longer has those views in regards to justice. TNG, DS9, and VOY had prisons, which was a regression from TOS, where they had rehabilitation facilities. So Star Trek's 24th Century was actually less tolerant in regards to criminal justice than the 23rd or 32nd.
That paragraph above went on longer than I thought it would. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what they do in the fifth season. What I'm most interested in is Zora's continued development, what Kovich does behind the scenes, and I'd like to see what Gray is up to. And how they'll work Tilly back into the picture. And what's next on the growing political front between Earth, Ni'Var, the Federation and other worlds. And how the Saru/T'Rina relationship develops. And... and you get the idea.
1. I'm glad Michelle Paradise envisioned getting Earth back in the Federation and putting the Federation back together(-ish) again as a two season arc.
2. While I see her point about Tilly reaching a point where she wants to give something back and teach at Starfleet Academy, I don't think they should've written her out of Episodes 5-12. Even if she were off of Discovery, they still could've had a sub-plot cutting back to her. It's the one serious thing I fault the season for. But, that having been said, I do like that Michelle Paradise's plan was to make Tilly more grounded.
3. From what Paradise said and didn't say, I'm guessing that we'll see what's been going on beyond the Federation. I didn't say Borg or Klingons. Just beyond the Federation in general.
4. Burnham's Kobayashi Maru. There's some unpacking here. Unpacking that I don't have time for since it's late and I have to be somewhere tomorrow morning. It's coming. And no, bashers, don't even think about saying "There! You see? You see?!" I'm not turning on the show. I just think the "no-win scenario" was teased but it didn't cost her where it matters the most. On the other hand, I didn't want Book dead or in prison. So I can't fault them too much here.
Which leads me to something else: I'm glad that the justice system of the 32nd Century is more enlightened. Prison isn't the only answer. I was fearful Book would become another black man killed or imprisoned, which sends the wrong message. Instead, they looked at his intent (he meant well) and they gave him what's effectively community service on a larger scale. They're making him help worlds rebuild. They're making him do something constructive and i approve. This is a Federation that believes in rehabilitation and/or building up. That, believe it or not, is the truncated version of what I want to say in regards to Book. The "tough on crime" mentality that both Reagan and Clinton had in the '80s and '90s did more harm to our society than good and I'm glad Star Trek no longer has those views in regards to justice. TNG, DS9, and VOY had prisons, which was a regression from TOS, where they had rehabilitation facilities. So Star Trek's 24th Century was actually less tolerant in regards to criminal justice than the 23rd or 32nd.
That paragraph above went on longer than I thought it would. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what they do in the fifth season. What I'm most interested in is Zora's continued development, what Kovich does behind the scenes, and I'd like to see what Gray is up to. And how they'll work Tilly back into the picture. And what's next on the growing political front between Earth, Ni'Var, the Federation and other worlds. And how the Saru/T'Rina relationship develops. And... and you get the idea.
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Like how they were in TOS
Rebuilding the UFP thus far seemed a bit... weak-ish. It was completely overshadowed by the DMA. We hadn't seen any superstructures being built in various member planets orbits (or around their stars such as UFP built Dyson Swarms- even though the UFP has the ability to do that).
I'd like to see a more engineering focused rebuilding... creation of 32nd century infrastructure so to speak... re-deployment of hypersubspace long range real time comms and deep space real time scans... transwarp beaming throughout the galaxy (and using it to materialize massive structures in place which would be replicated, etc).
If the rebuilding of UFP isn't over, it should probably take over as a loose main story coupled with 2 major story arcs (each being 5 episodes long).
UFP also need to move away from Dilithium and M/AM entirely... they had more than enough from VOY alone when it got back home to do just that... I am still irked Disco writers never pushed the bar forward in any appreciable capacity.
Well, to be fair, its not uncommon for people who served on a ship for a while to change their priorities and leave.
Maybe mention occasionally what's happening with Tilly, but otherwise, she doesn't need to come back necessarily.
We have a very unclear picture of what's happening with previous species we've seen up until the late 24th century.
Some DQ species could be revisited perhaps... maybe the Ocampa... the Founders from the GQ, etc.
The no-win scenario is overrated in Trek. It seems to only exist mainly in simulations... when it happens outside the simulations, situations are usually portrayed as being able to have a different outcome... although in past Trek, we've seen that not outcomes had a happy ending... maybe the ending was 'better than expected' but it was a very 'weak' success.
That was one aspect that came unexpectedly... but I do agree that the UFP justice system does take into account intent.
Prison in real life is not a solution either... in fact the justice system is not in line with our latest understanding of epigenetics and neuroscience... and completely misses the mark on rehabilitation (some countries like Norway use a different approach more oriented towards rehabilitation and treating offenders like actual people).
Yes... and while that's fine... I'd also like to see UFP making some major headways and advancing further like we know it can (and should).
We should also see how life in UFP is changing due to more rapidly advancing technology and its implementation on a wider scale.
Keeping things as they are is keeping things a bit static (and almost goes AGAINST Star Trek as a premise which is supposed to emphasize continuous advancement and change for the better) . It is the 32nd century... and UFP is lagging too much behind compared to where it should have been (realisitcally) by this point when we take into account all that we saw in the 24th century.
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Then there's the Enterprise-T but it crashes immediately
The main reason Riker remained on the Enterprise-D and E for so long was mainly because he was part of the main TNG cast.
In-universe wise, Riker didn't feel like he needed to move on by becoming a captain earlier because he was happy on the Enterprise.
At the very least, I do think Riker should have retained his field promotion of Captain from when Picard was assimilated.
Downgrading him back to Commander status was a bit strange and he had enough experience under his belt to retain his captaincy rank.
It'll be the ultimate reversal of "These Are the Voyages", Riker is the hologram in command of a crew of flesh-and-bloods on the Enterprise-R.
Emergency Riker Hologram.
Emergency Riker Hologram.
Gettin awful worked up over a storyline you're making up there.
I mean, of course it would. Star Trek: Discovery, like every Star Trek series before it, is fundamentally an action-adventure drama about the people out in the field. It is not and has never been a series like The West Wing or The Crown, about people in rooms talking to one-another about politics. It has always and will always feature scenes like that, but at its heart this is a show about the people who go out and do things. So of course re-building the Federation was always going to be the ongoing background sub-plot, not the main plot. Just like The West Wing was never gonna be a show about the guys aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln when President Bartlet orders them into the Persian Gulf, Star Trek: Discovery was never going to be about the backroom horse-trading that goes into negotiating reunification.
Nothing in VOY ever established or implied that dilithium was not still needed to regulate the power outflows of those super-FTL technologies.
The sad part is is that they don't really want "new" because that is potentially offputting to the audience, or so the thinking appears to go. I don't know.
If you're referring to the phrasing in the thread title, I had to condense the heavenly hell out of things or I wouldn't have been able to fit it all. Paradise wasn't saying this is the first new thing or anything to that accord. She said the third and fourth seasons were about rebuilding the Federation and the fifth season will cover something else.
Except for the fact that TNG wasn't too heavy on the action at all times and focused more on exploration, diplomacy, etc.
Discovery I think had a unique opportunity to focus more on the engineering side and infrastructure construction for UFP rebuilding.
We could have also explored what life is like in the 32nd century with far more advanced tech in circulation - the setting was also virtually unchanged from the 24th century and nowhere nearly as advanced as it should have been.
We could have seen more diplomacy building between ex UFP worlds which left due to the Burn, etc.
Except for power generators which never used dilithium in the first place.
Quantum Slipstream as encountered on the fake Dauntless never used Antimatter... or dilithium.
Nope. Absolutely not. I'd rather wash paint dry. Star trek is fundamentally NOT about technology. It's about people. The technononsense is just wallpaper.
Of course we didn’t need to see months long negotiations in action. But there is an opportunity to explore the inner workings of the Federation politics and display conflict resolution through Rillak.
- Build off of the century long independence a number of worlds have had from the Federation, and the general skepticism to re-establish Federation membership, even after rejoining. There must be something to say on how the Romulans on Ni'Var are more pro-Federation than more skeptical member, considering the history of the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation.
- It was alluded to during the negotiations with Vance and Osyraa in S3 that “hard choices” were made by everyone – including the Federation and the former Federation members - that clouded “moral clarity”. Surely an area where Rillak's conflict resolution skills can be put to good use.
- What if the Emerald Chain tries to push the armistice again and still want to be seen as a valid and ethical culture? Would it not be interesting to see how Rillak handle's it, compared to Vance?
- The history of the Federation being Earth-centric and human-centric organization and that it might be time for a change in the 32nd century.
There are also opportunities to build on Rillak-Tilly (trained diplomat and the daughter of a 23rd century diplomat) and Rillak-Vance (exploring the dynamics of Federation politics and Starfleet politics), and create a more well-rounded persona of a Federation president. All past iterations have been quite shallow. All while it made sense then, it does not make as much sense for Discovery, particularly if the crew are going to be staying close by.
Its all still exploration, just a different type of exploration that doesn't require starships. The focus is still on people.
Rejoin? Do we know they joined?
Wasn't the actor busy doing a play?
I thought they were referring to the lack of technological advancement, especially in power and FTL fields.
In the 26th century, the Klingons were one of the many races to have joined the UFP according to the official timeline.
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