I could care less who writes the scripts as long as the scripts and the execution/ production of said scripts are good.
And so far SNW is 3 for 3 in the good column as far as I'm concerned.
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x03 - "Ghosts of Illyria"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
And so far SNW is 3 for 3 in the good column as far as I'm concerned.
Not as good as the last two episodes but still highly enjoyable.
I love SNW. By far, it's the best of the new live action shows.
Strange New Worlds
Picard
Discovery
I love SNW. By far, it's the best of the new live action shows.
Strange New Worlds
Picard
Discovery
I think neither DIS nor PIC had terribly bad writers (okay, some of the speeches and dialogue on PIC WAS bad).
IMO the problem was the lack of organising a cohesive story and vision.
It's difficult enough to write a single episode for television, and it's easy enough to fuck that up. Writing dozens of connected episodes is a nightmare, and takes some real commitment from the higher ups and a very clear & concise vision communicated between dozens of writers and stories. And that was just not there, that's why the plots just fizzled out after each season premiere.
Ironically, I think it's exactly that hands-off approach from the higher ups that SNW really profits from, since every episode is allowed to have a clear, distinctive voice & direction, and the writers are allowed the write what they care about in their stories without it throwing the main arc of a season off-course
IMO the problem was the lack of organising a cohesive story and vision.
It's difficult enough to write a single episode for television, and it's easy enough to fuck that up. Writing dozens of connected episodes is a nightmare, and takes some real commitment from the higher ups and a very clear & concise vision communicated between dozens of writers and stories. And that was just not there, that's why the plots just fizzled out after each season premiere.
Ironically, I think it's exactly that hands-off approach from the higher ups that SNW really profits from, since every episode is allowed to have a clear, distinctive voice & direction, and the writers are allowed the write what they care about in their stories without it throwing the main arc of a season off-course
I think too few people understand this very important reality. Writing good stories is TOUGH.
Brannon Braga could pen complete garbage but he also penned some of the better episodes of TNG, VOY and ENT. He was all over the map but then that's most professional writers. You're not always going to knock your story out of the ballpark and once you've been on the job for so many years the ratio of winners to losers is going to change and not always in the best direction.
Whoever is writing the music deserves huge props. It’s basically TOS style musical cues seamlessly transitioned to a modern context.
Well done.
Well done.
Nami Melumad, she also composed the music for Prodigy.
Come on. Fans write way better stuff all the time...
Ok, I couldn't keep a straight face on that one.
TOS music is damned amazing, too. It was as essential a part of the show as the actors and sets. Later series toned it down, which is, on the whole, a damned shame.
Yeah. Fans generally have a very indistinct idea of what they'd like, but they couldn't make that into a commercially-successful episode if their lives depended on it. Worse still, they get angry at the actual writers when they feel the real episodes don't live up to their vague expectations...Come on. Fans write way better stuff all the time...
Ok, I couldn't keep a straight face on that one.
Only for Cardassians. Erm, Kardashians.
Totally fair. I'm probably going to argue a bit against what you say here, but I appreciate that these are thoughtful critiques and not just haterade.Well, I suppose I would indeed argue that neither M'Benga's nor Una's secrets are dark. I would consider them dramatic secrets but not dark.
And I don't know that the Federation in oldTrek would have helped with M'Benga's child by essentially "freezing" her in a transporter. We've never heard of anyone from the TNG or TOS era essentially freezing a loved one with a terminal illness long-term, whether in a transporter or in cryogenic freeze or stasis. McCoy didn't freeze his dad, for instance.
I'm sure there are Federation scientists trying to cure her disease back on UFP worlds.
I believe the implication is that nobody else's life is at risk, only Rukiya's.
I don't agree with that assessment. There have definitely been times when the Federation did dumb or prejudicial stuff, but there have also been plenty of times it hasn't. It was Michael whose prejudice helped ignite the Federation-Klingon War in S1, for instance; Federation principles might have avoided conflict if Michael hadn't attacked the Torchbearer. It was Section 31 that unleashed Control and almost got everyone killed in S2, and it was Starfleet proper that saved everyone. Pike may have violated General Order 1 by revealing himself to the Kyleans, but he preserved the intent of the order by refusing to intervene any further than telling the Kyleans what had happened to Earth in WW3, and his actions in "Children of the Comet" were framed as the Federation's will rather than defiance of the UFP's will. The Federation is absolutely framed as doing the right thing most of the time in DIS S3 and S4 -- the Federation's rejection of Emerald Chain greed is vindicated, and its rejection of aggression and embrace of diplomacy towards Species 10-C is depicted as absolutely the right thing in S4.
Honestly I don't think modern ST depicts the Federation as a power structure as being in the wrong any more often than TNG, DS9, or VOY did back in the day.
I just can't relate to this criticism. I would generally err on the side of characters with interesting backstories than ones without. But so far, Ortegas, Chapel, and Hemmer all just seem like professionals doing their jobs -- no dramatic backstories as far as we can see.
Yeah, that's part of why I interpret the Illyrians as Humans. To me it makes more sense that Earthers would feel entitled to discriminate and "other" the Illyrians if they're a nation of Humans who left Earth to practice genetic augmentation than if they're aliens.
Well, we know from TOS that by the 2268, he's serving aboard the Enterprise again but he's no longer CMO. So that strongly implies to me that he's going to face some sort of accountability for his decision to smuggle Rukiya aboard but that the punishment won't include expulsion or imprisonment. Which I think sounds reasonable, and speaks to the Federation as a more just organization in modern ST than you were arguing.
Oh, I liked it! I can relate to a guy willing to break a large bureaucracy's rules more than I can to a company man.
Totally fair point! Like I said, it's completely legitimate to interpret the SNW Illyrians as the same species as the ENT Illyrians. I don't share that interpretation but it's totally legit.
Too soon… too soon!
Which strikes me as broadly what SNW has,
True!
Picard: In love with best friend's wife, best friend dies under his command, ship gets destroyed and then his girlfriend betrays him at the court-martial
Riker: Mother dead, estranged father
LaForge: Fine
Data: Creator disappeared and colony destroyed, evil twin tries to kill him multiple times
Worf: Parents killed and colony destroyed, raised by Humans, torn between the Federation and Klingon Empire
Yar: Parents abandoned her, grew up on planet with no government, subjected to sexual violence from street gangs
Troi: Father dead, later we learn of a secret dead sister
Beverly and Wesley: Husband/father died under Picard's command
Lots of tragedy in the TNG backstory even before PIC's revelations about Picard's early life!
If they can sell bluray/dvd player composite players for the same price as the cheapest dvd player that might work.
200 dollars Bluray player from America or 30 dollar dvd player from China.
That's called capitalism, because there's more than one manufacturer.
And even if there's a monopoly, internally the divisions of a large company are separate and at war with each other to look good for the board and get the big year end bonus.
I think I just rolled my eyeballs into the next STATE.
srsly, I personally have just never felt the need to own a lot of stuff. I don’t need “corporations” or some mythical “state” to tell me that. I’ve always been fairly minimalist.
The way I see it is, given that I have to subscribe to streaming services anyway (otherwise I would not be able to see current Trek), why not make the most of it? Paramount+ has every Trek series in existence, so why NOT rely on it? It’s not going anywhere. I just don’t see any personal need to own a lot of “discs” when I can get the same stuff included with the service I already have.
I have the same attitude towards the various L&O series. I have to subscribe to Peacock to see new episodes of SVU, OC and the mothership, so logically, why own physical versions of what that service can already get for me? (In the interest of full disclosure, I do own the first twelve seasons of the mothership on DVD, because Peacock doesn’t carry them.)
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Splitting the reveals into 2 episodes might've given Pike and Spock to do, and would've allowed them to expand a bit on the virus A plot.
