This season and its characters sucked big time and I hate feeling that way, cos I loved the show.
Don't know what happened.
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Don't know what happened.
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Season 4 = Poor
- Thread starter Valandil
- Start date
4 had some glimmers of what could have been a better season, but for me it is absolutely bottom of the barrel worst of Discovery.
The plots crawled.
Even by trek standards, which aren't high in this regard, there are too many plot holes.
SMG just kind of breathes and whispers her lines. I don't know if its her choice, if she had a respiratory ailment last year, or each director's view that monologuing so low you have to turn the CC button on is pithy, but it has become annoying.
Getting Tilly off the show was a gigantic huge mistake. YOU TOOK MY TILLY AWAY BURN IN HELL YOU BASTARDS.. sorry.. I can calm down now. With her gone, Reno not around, and too many others going through long dark nights of the soul, etc, it became a mix of bleak and bland. They could have at least have cut scenes of her getting used to teaching at Academy or getting advice from Vance, another underutilized stand-out character. Each episode EASILY had ten minutes of fat that could have been trimmed off for those scenes.
Culber can't do everything. At least the writers kind of admitted that bit in his storyline as they still tried to make him do everything. I get that the showrunners realize what treasure they have in Wilson Cruz, finally, but they should decide if he's ship's doctor or counselor. Preferably the former. DISCO writers are not capable from rising above 40 second Dr. Phil-ism's when it comes to mental heath.
Saru: Saru is one of the bright spots in Discovery and always has been, but what do they want to do with him? They made him captain, and one of the interesting things in season 3 was seeing him get used to being captain, with mistakes and successes. Then they took it away so Burnham could be captain Burnham. But then they brought back Saru and it's just kind of balancing on awkward, now. Theres no longer any tension between him and Burnham. There's hardly any tension, anywhere.
The plots crawled.
Even by trek standards, which aren't high in this regard, there are too many plot holes.
SMG just kind of breathes and whispers her lines. I don't know if its her choice, if she had a respiratory ailment last year, or each director's view that monologuing so low you have to turn the CC button on is pithy, but it has become annoying.
Getting Tilly off the show was a gigantic huge mistake. YOU TOOK MY TILLY AWAY BURN IN HELL YOU BASTARDS.. sorry.. I can calm down now. With her gone, Reno not around, and too many others going through long dark nights of the soul, etc, it became a mix of bleak and bland. They could have at least have cut scenes of her getting used to teaching at Academy or getting advice from Vance, another underutilized stand-out character. Each episode EASILY had ten minutes of fat that could have been trimmed off for those scenes.
Culber can't do everything. At least the writers kind of admitted that bit in his storyline as they still tried to make him do everything. I get that the showrunners realize what treasure they have in Wilson Cruz, finally, but they should decide if he's ship's doctor or counselor. Preferably the former. DISCO writers are not capable from rising above 40 second Dr. Phil-ism's when it comes to mental heath.
Saru: Saru is one of the bright spots in Discovery and always has been, but what do they want to do with him? They made him captain, and one of the interesting things in season 3 was seeing him get used to being captain, with mistakes and successes. Then they took it away so Burnham could be captain Burnham. But then they brought back Saru and it's just kind of balancing on awkward, now. Theres no longer any tension between him and Burnham. There's hardly any tension, anywhere.
Yup, they undid the tension and distrust, and he became like family to her by the time she had to bump him off or something, but it didn’t need to happen.
The show got progressively sappier, then jumped the shark for me at the group hug and “love you guys” that occurred at the end of S3, iirc.
Needs Lorca, snarky Stamets, the less dorky Tilly we got there for awhile, cool Saru in the captain seat.
The show got progressively sappier, then jumped the shark for me at the group hug and “love you guys” that occurred at the end of S3, iirc.
Needs Lorca, snarky Stamets, the less dorky Tilly we got there for awhile, cool Saru in the captain seat.
I would not recommend watching "No Way Home."
USS Whisper...sneaking through space in superstealth whisper mode....
While everybody is feeling their way through everything.....
Hope next season will be alittle less sedate and whispery.....
They have removed all the little fun quirks...sanitised the whole thing...roaringly whisped it all out....
Let's all hug and whisper to each other....
Scchhh!
No Reno, no Tilly, no Stamets being Stamets, it is like they do not what to do with these people!
While everybody is feeling their way through everything.....
Hope next season will be alittle less sedate and whispery.....
They have removed all the little fun quirks...sanitised the whole thing...roaringly whisped it all out....
Let's all hug and whisper to each other....
Scchhh!
No Reno, no Tilly, no Stamets being Stamets, it is like they do not what to do with these people!
Season 4 reminded me of Bloom County's Steve Dallas after the aliens reversed his brain. 
Yes, please.
The only S4 episode I liked was the one where Tilly and the cadets crash. Mostly I thought the season was rather bland and flat. And NOT ENOUGH KOVICH DAMMIT 
Saru and T'Rina do make a cute couple though.
Saru and T'Rina do make a cute couple though.
I've generally been frustrated with the whole future arc in general. The idea that a 900 ear old crew and ship would show up and become the pride of the fleet just seems so ridiculously cheesy that it defies reality. There's little to no emotional repercussions of leaving their entire lives 900 years in the past. You could have spent an entire season on them trying to learn how to live in the future and the unexpected hurdles they would encounter. Instead all we see is that apparently the rest of Starfleet is staffed by morons who only get in the way of Discovery and it's perfect crew. We get all this hype about how the show was going to introduce a non binary and transgender characters and actors, yet they are barley utilized at all, mostly just trotted out for display then quickly hidden away. You have Tilly, who I've never really been a fan of, but she apparently gained weight during the pandemic, so they just disappeared her off the show.
The thing about it (just as was the case with S3) is how transparent the mystery box mechanics are. You see them nudging it along at a pace dictated by the no. of episodes to fill. After months of watching and a mid-season break, the impending galactic threat doesn't seem so impending.
The writers struggle to craft an engaging and coherent story across multiple episodes. They burst out of the gate with gusto, then hit molasses.
But whatever Discovery's S4 weaknesses, it has one thing going for it - it isn't Picard S2.
The writers struggle to craft an engaging and coherent story across multiple episodes. They burst out of the gate with gusto, then hit molasses.
But whatever Discovery's S4 weaknesses, it has one thing going for it - it isn't Picard S2.
That isn't even remotely in the realms of what happened.
What season 4 said to me was, "We are listening to the criticisms and we are here to please."
The main reason being that Season 4 of DSCO had more episodes that, given a slight re-write, would function OK as self-contained stories in the mould of SNW, plus S2 of PIC had a alternate 2020s setting that outstayed its welcome with the audience by episode 5 or 6 (while S4 of DSCO gave us varied and interesting locations, with the casino ship, snow planet, hollowed out asteroid, and a glimps of ring worlds, etc).
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I can understand people disliking Season 2 of PIC because it took two steps forward and one step back, showing signs of being a awkard transition season (with writers, etc) with some hideous pacing issues (at least S4 of DSCO had episodes and moments that felt less padded).
S4 felt more of a passion project.
I liked S4, but SNW kind of showed that they could have gone episodic and had something much better instead of this season long mystery box no one cares about.
It's still IMO the best season of Discovery though. I can't stand S1 and have no interest in rewatching S2.
It's still IMO the best season of Discovery though. I can't stand S1 and have no interest in rewatching S2.
I liked it...someone somewhere always cares.
I love it when I randomly pop into a thread just to take its temperature and totally agree with the first post I landed on.
They said they loved season S1-S3. Is that hating Discovery? Or do you want to conflate genuine, honest criticism with hate?
I really liked season 1. Season 2 I had problems with but I liked the Pike angle. Season 3 I have massive problems with and did not like at all. Season 4 looked promising in some episodes but fell back in the old mystery box routine and overblown emotional moments.
I definitely agree that more could've, should've, been done to explore the DISCO characters adjusting to the future, but also the future Federation people adjusting to them. Though I have to fault the prior DISCO seasons that didn't do a great job establishing the characters enough so they and the audience could really feel the pain of all they had lost, given up. I still think the self-sacrificing decision at the end of Season 2 should've been more tense and also had more repercussions. Granted, self-sacrifice is a very Starfleet thing to do, but I wouldn't have minded having more familiar DISCO faces stay behind besides Tyler. I didn't really buy them all being so blithe about jumping to the future, especially because I don't think we had really gotten to know them and see them bond as a family like we had with prior Trek crews. I got why some of them made sacrifices, even if I did think that Admiral Janeway changing time to save Seven of Nine in "Endgame" went way too far, but I got it, based on the relationship that we had seen develop between them.
I also wish that there had been a time jump within Season 3. Like after Discovery connects with the Federation, there was nothing stopping them from saying at the start of the next episode "six months, or a year later..." to establish that the DISCO crew has been getting their feet wet. It was a missed opportunity IMO.
I also think they should've changed some characters (but hopefully found ways to bring them back like Nhan or Tilly). Why didn't more want to stay on Earth or their planets of origin? I don't recall any of the Discovery crew seeking out their descendants either, if nothing else for curiosity's sake.
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