Spoilers Strange New Worlds 1x02 - "Children of The Comet"

[eschaton]

The issue with Discovery IMHO is not the episodic/serialized balance at this point. It's story pacing, and the relentless focus on Michael as the POV character.

If they had a "Saru episode" or a "Stamets episode" in the middle of the arc, I think people would get much less bored.

 

[jackoverfull]

What Voyager did well was introduce alien races with distinct motivations/philosophies to keep things interesting. Kazon, Viidian, Hirogen, 8472 etc. each had their mini plotline as the ship moved through the quadrant. And of course the Borg were there.

I think so far SNW is going the TOS and to a lesser extent TNG (they had the Klingon and of course the Borg storyline) way with alien/problem of the week. But it's early days, hopefully they will also introduce some parallel threads spanning across a season perhaps. Just a weekly problem can get repetitive also.

I hope they haven't taken the feedback to make it episodic to literally. Apart from TAS/TOS none of the shows were purely episodic. It was always a combination of episodic stories blended into a parallel multi episode theme.

pike has clearly an arc going and I think that the comet is the start on another one.

 

[eschaton]

I think the 8472 and Hirogen plotlines continued across multiple episodes even if we don't call them exactly serialized. Also in both TNG and VOY the Borg plotline was not purely episodic. Neither show were purely episodic in the way TOS was.

Recurring baddies doesn't make it serialized.

For example, looking at Species 8472, after their introduction in Scorpion as inhuman monsters, we saw a single one again in Prey as an individual being hunted by the Hirogen. Then In the Flesh retconned them to being exactly like humans and completely understandable "on the inside." Then they were done.

That is not serialization, any more than seeing Harry Mudd twice in TOS was.

 

[XCV330]

Yeah, I realized this morning that it's more like - who hasn't lost most of their family to some tragedy in Trek world. Right now in the primary trek verse the Kirk boys still have parents, but tragedy's coming. I'm thinking peripheral characters like Lt Kyle don't require the motivation of tragedy to answer the recruitment call.

James Kirk witnessed the mass murder on Tarsus IV, so he's got his own tragedy baked in. Not sure where his brother was.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Recurring baddies doesn't make it serialized.

For example, looking at Species 8472, after their introduction in Scorpion as inhuman monsters, we saw a single one again in Prey as an individual being hunted by the Hirogen. Then In the Flesh retconned them to being exactly like humans and completely understandable "on the inside." Then they were done.

That is not serialization, any more than seeing Harry Mudd twice in TOS was.

It was pretty cool that Harry Mudd was in the show twice. It linked the eps that everything they did was not forgotten. Also every now and then in the show they would acknowledge a tiny bit of past going ons. Not much but it was there.

 

[Saumyajit]

Recurring baddies doesn't make it serialized.

For example, looking at Species 8472, after their introduction in Scorpion as inhuman monsters, we saw a single one again in Prey as an individual being hunted by the Hirogen. Then In the Flesh retconned them to being exactly like humans and completely understandable "on the inside." Then they were done.

That is not serialization, any more than seeing Harry Mudd twice in TOS was.

Yes not exactly serialised, but not a set of totally discrete episodes either. Of course there was the overarching theme of returning to the alpha quadrant as well.

For me the sweet spot was really DS9. TNG being early trek didn't have the baggage of repitive stories so much. And I do think format wise Discovery got it right from season 2 onwards.

 

[Captain Robau]

Or he can be honorable and save the lives of the Cadets and still avoid a bad end now that he has fore knowledge.


Given how the "Go-Go Gadget / Ironman" style of helmet nearly failed to deploy at a critical juncture in DISCO S2.E01 when he was on the EVA lander, I'm sure Captain Pike had "Choice Words" for the designers / engineers of the Helmet system and told them to redo the entire deployment system to be "MORE RELIABLE" and less fancy.
Sometimes reliability is more important than cool factor, ergo simple is better.


They did up the size of the USS Enterprise compared to TOS.

They REALLY upsized the Captain's Quarters that it's ridiculous.
It's nicer & larger than what JLP had.

So I can absolutely tell you with certainty that the Captain’s quarters for a US aircraft carrier is not only huge (think of a hotel suite with an adjoining dining room) but distinctly different in terms of esthetics from the rest of the carrier like carpet, normal double bed, adjoining bathroom, etc. Pike’s quarters are directly inline with the evolution of Naval vessels to spacefaring vessels if we assume that Star Trek is a future US Navy in space. I speak from experience performing Naval Architecture work in this area.

 

[Jax]

I like the character interaction in this show bar La'an Noonien-Singh who is quite abrasive. She's not poorly written, I get why she's like that but still makes her somewhat dislikeable when around the other characters.

I wish the writers would avoid the trope of having these brand new aliens that have ships way more powerful than a Federation made up of dozens of worlds throwing their combined resources into Starfleet.

 

[Jax]

How did the universal translator instantly translate the language of the Shepperds when they had never spoken before?1?!

To save plot time - TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY & eventually Enterprise all did this + 99% of Sci Fi in general.

I guess the other ship could of been monitoring Enterprise communications for some time and their UT helped.

What should bug you more is how does a race become advanced for Space travel and not understand how Asteroids/Comets work

 

[cooleddie74]

The Universal Translator works as required by the given episode or film. It's just another vehicle to convey that a race is unfamiliar to a crew and heighten the tensions over communication. Sometimes it works instantly, sometimes it takes the software a little time to work out a translation.

 

[Saumyajit]

Without a universal translator interaction with any new alien would be Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra, until Shaka when the walls fell.

Thank god for the marvellous invention.

 

[cooleddie74]

And even when the aliens are being heard in English there's often tons of confusion so it's not as if even the Universal Translator solves all the problems.

 

[XCV330]

I wish the writers would avoid the trope of having these brand new aliens that have ships way more powerful than a Federation made up of dozens of worlds throwing their combined resources into Starfleet.

I don't know that it was that much more advanced as much as it was just a lot bigger. Even at that, after holding back a long time, and not trying to be a hard target, at first, Enterprise managed to get a very good hit on the ship. In a larger fleet action, ships like that would be a big flying target.

At the same time, they seem to have been around a lot longer than the Federation. It makes sense that occasionally the Federation runs into more powerful neighbors, maybe even a First Federation? If you're some species of religious zealots, intent on these pilgrimages/protection operations for living relics, you don't really have the same goals. You don't necessarily have territory or commerce to protect, or maybe even large population centers, just the things you revere. It's probably long journeys in hostile territory, so you build big ships, built to last and loaded for bear.

 

[Jedi Marso]

So I can absolutely tell you with certainty that the Captain’s quarters for a US aircraft carrier is not only huge (think of a hotel suite with an adjoining dining room) but distinctly different in terms of esthetics from the rest of the carrier like carpet, normal double bed, adjoining bathroom, etc. Pike’s quarters are directly inline with the evolution of Naval vessels to spacefaring vessels if we assume that Star Trek is a future US Navy in space. I speak from experience performing Naval Architecture work in this area.

Flag quarters are equally swank, up to and including the private mess (dining room).

My gripe on this show is that TOS and the later TOS movies clearly show Kirk's quarters to be much less spacious and elaborate. It's merely the continuity thing rearing its head again.

 

[Jedi Marso]

One minor goof with this episode: to the aliens on the surface of the planet, the comet would not be seen tracking across their sky if it was on a collision course. An object on a collision course visually appears to have 'zero bearing drift with decreasing range.' It would simply hang in the sky, getting bigger over days and months, until the very end when it hit atmo and might be seen passing overhead on its way to the impact point. This was something that the movie "Deep Impact" actually got right.

Very minor nitpick, and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the ep at all. I was more bothered by the size of the captain's cabin.

 

[fireproof78]

Ship modules can be swapped out.

 

[Jack Wolfe]

Flag quarters are equally swank, up to and including the private mess (dining room).

My gripe on this show is that TOS and the later TOS movies clearly show Kirk's quarters to be much less spacious and elaborate. It's merely the continuity thing rearing its head again.

In many aspects, TOS treated the Enterprise like a submarine. No, they didn't do so consistently. But the spartan, compact crew quarters certainly play into that design mindset.

 

[cooleddie74]

And if your crew complement more than doubles almost overnight at some point in the coming years then it only makes sense to shrink the sizes of quarters to allow for far more personnel.

 

[XCV330]

Flag quarters are equally swank, up to and including the private mess (dining room).

My gripe on this show is that TOS and the later TOS movies clearly show Kirk's quarters to be much less spacious and elaborate. It's merely the continuity thing rearing its head again.

Enterprise had twice the crew when Kirk was captain. Probably had to cut down on some luxuries and fill in a few walls, put in some new doors.

Plus Kirk didn't seem like the kind of captain to throw a Jack Ransom Luau very often. He wasn't a moon guy. He wouldn't have understood. Pike did. I mean Mojave is kind of like a moon of Los Angeles. Kirk didn't need the extra room.

Kirk did seem to get some room back in the refit.

 

[Noname Given]

In many aspects, TOS treated the Enterprise like a submarine. No, they didn't do so consistently. But the spartan, compact crew quarters certainly play into that design mindset.

And at times - they WEREN'T SUBTITLE about it at all - See TOS S1: "Balance Of Terror". (Hell, the way the Clocking Device worked in that episode they even turned the ship's sensors into more of a Sonar Array in spots.) )