Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x04 - "Face the Strange"

[jackoverfull]

Fantastic episode, one of the best of the series. Classic Star Trek problem with a pinch of discovery’s themes in the solution.

9

 

[Nerys Myk]

There is more of an audience than just what's on this board.



The complaints are out there, enough so that even the positive takes on it feel the need to refute that particular criticism.

Still not enough to be called a "majority".
Frankly none of the "bridge crew" are interesting enough as characters or actors to deserve more screen time. They're a collection of Mayweathers (and that's being generous) I'm perfectly fine with limiting them to opening hailing frequencies, spouting off percentages and letting us know what warp they're at.

 

[Cr0sis21]

Still not enough to be called a "majority".

How do you know?

Frankly none of the "bridge crew" are interesting enough as characters or actors to deserve more screen time. They're a collection of Mayweathers (and that's being generous) I'm perfectly fine with limiting them to opening hailing frequencies, spouting off percentages and letting us know what warp they're at.

They're more interesting than Gray and Adira...

 

[cooleddie74]

Owo's the closest. And probably as a result the one who's gotten the most to do and the most screentime off the bridge.

 

[fireproof78]

Frankly none of the "bridge crew" are interesting enough as characters or actors to deserve more screen time. They're a collection of Mayweathers (and that's being generous) I'm perfectly fine with limiting them to opening hailing frequencies, spouting off percentages and letting us know what warp they're at.

Regardless, they are not the focus. This is like me wanting more of Mr. Leslie, or Stiles, or expecting to see more of Commander Giotto. These are not main characters, are required no more story time.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I knew Tig Notaro had breast cancer and a double mastectomy, but I wasn't aware it limited her that much.
My biggest issue with Georgiou and Lorca is, nothing ever really filled the hole left by their absence. And it didn't feel like they really even tried.

TBF you can't just snap your fingers and replace an A-list and a high B-list actors.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Agreed. It's quite the problem when you don't even know what some of the bridge crew does. The bridge seems like an odd place to have so many end credit actors. I mean, you know a lot of key scenes will be there.

Where else would they be credited? Why would the location of "key scenes" determine where an actors credit was placed? If all they're doing is spouting stats, they probably aren't "Opening Credits" actors.
They do what bridge crews have always done
Comms (Bryce & Christopher)
Tactical (Rhys)
Helm (Detmer)
Navigation/Ops (Owo)
Science (Tilly, Linus, Adria)
Engineering (nameless extra usually)
Disco has an extra one Spore Ops (Airiam, Nilsson)

 

[cooleddie74]

And sometimes Tactical is manned by the big headed squid alien officer.

 

[Nerys Myk]

How do you know?




They're more interesting than Gray and Adira...

Because the audience is more than pundits and comments on the internet.

No they're not. Adria and Gray maybe played by so so actors by they're still more interesting concepts than person who flys the ship and Speaker of Stats. They have glimmers of pesonalities at least.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And sometimes Tactical is manned by the big headed squid alien officer.

Lt. Diddly

 

[cooleddie74]

Lieutenant Neckhole.

 

[Nerys Myk]

TBF you can't just snap your fingers and replace an A-list and a high B-list actors.

DISCO had a good run in that "part" Issacs, Yeoh and Mount.

 

[Cr0sis21]

Because the audience is more than pundits and comments on the internet.

Okay. But how much more by this point?

No they're not. Adria and Gray maybe played by so so actors by they're still more interesting concepts than person who flys the ship and Speaker of Stats. They have glimmers of pesonalities at least.

Interesting concepts? Sure. Too bad the writers chose to ignore anything that's actual interesting about them in favor of the blander romance ever seen in Trek.
And if you really think Owo and Detmer have not even glimmers of personality, there's really not much I can say except you appear to be in the minority on that one.

 

[Nerys Myk]

And if you really think Owo and Detmer have not even glimmers of personality, there's really not much I can say except you appear to be in the minority on that one.

Sell me on their “personalities “. I can’t think of much for either in that regard.

 

[Cr0sis21]

Sell me on their “personalities “. I can’t think of much for either in that regard.

Personality comes from the actor. If Marc Alaimo doesn't play Gul Dukat, we don't have a recurring villain for DS9. If John Delancie didn't play Q, the character becomes a one-note villain from an average at best episode.
The actors for Owo and Detmer both demonstrate more range than Adira and Gray. And they each had good backstories ripe for exploration (Luddite, injured war vet, etc). But that ship has sailed, unfortunately. So really, what we have now is what we've got.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Personality comes from the actor. If Marc Alaimo doesn't play Gul Dukat, we don't have a recurring villain for DS9. If John Delancie didn't play Q, the character becomes a one-note villain from an average at best episode.
The actors for Owo and Detmer both demonstrate more range than Adira and Gray. And they each had good backstories ripe for exploration (Luddite, injured war vet, etc). But that ship has sailed, unfortunately. So really, what we have now is what we've got.

So no personalities to speak of. Just a collection of factoids. Where have these actors shown the range of a DeLancie or Alaimo?
Saying their actors are better than Del Barrio or Alexander (which is a bit of a low bar ) doesn't really give the characters personalities. I've not seen any "spark" from either actor that makes me think give that person more to do! Going back to TOS. Nichols, Takei and Koenig had that spark. Doohan and Kelly especially did. Which is why we remember them. Spiner and Dorn had the spark too. Picardo and Ryan, tons of spark. Wang and Beltran duds.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Personality comes from the actor. If Marc Alaimo doesn't play Gul Dukat, we don't have a recurring villain for DS9. If John Delancie didn't play Q, the character becomes a one-note villain from an average at best episode.
The actors for Owo and Detmer both demonstrate more range than Adira and Gray. And they each had good backstories ripe for exploration (Luddite, injured war vet, etc). But that ship has sailed, unfortunately. So really, what we have now is what we've got.

It would really depend who ended up playing those roles. I mean, we know Geneviève Bujold as Janeway was devoid of any personality or likeability because we saw some actual footage (I personally think she could have pulled off a really stuffy Vulcan).

Unless we have an idea of the potential "other" actor for a given part, we really don't know it would've been better or worse. Though, Alaimo & Delancie really did make those roles something to remember.

 

[JRob94]

There's a good and bad side to all of these. The knee-jerk reaction Ira Behr had to fan reactions to Dukat is what gave us the awful "CrAzY Dukat" of Season 7.
But on the other hand, I can not fathom why the writers on DSC make some of the choices they make.
1) Dump Ash, and then do literally nothing with him ever again.
2) Tease Lorca multiple times but do nothing.
3) Sideline the universally-enjoyed Jett Reno for multiple episodes at a time
4) Write off Tilly, one of your core, most loved, characters for no discernable reason
5) Contrive a reason to completely erase Georgiou, one of your most intriguing characters, from ever showing up again.
6) Create two new characters more known for their genders than who they are, then dump one of them off after a handful of minor appearances.
And that's without even touching on my annoyance that they completely sidelined two of the most potentially interesting characters on the show.

I believe the Jett Reno thing is more related to Tig Notaro’s schedule than anything, but I agree otherwise

 

[Cr0sis21]

So no personalities to speak of. Just a collection of factoids. Where have these actors shown the range of a DeLancie or Alaimo?

I never said they had. All characters are collections of factoids when you start out.

Saying their actors are better than Del Barrio or Alexander (which is a bit of a low bar ) doesn't really give the characters personalities.

But Del Barrio is the one in the main cast.

I've not seen any "spark" from either actor that makes me think give that person more to do!

That's just, like, your opinion man.
My whole point was that it would have been better to use those existing characters than create Adira and Gray.

 

[Nerys Myk]

But Del Barrio is the one in the main cast.

Not my call. Not every choice is a good one. Seen a few main cast Trek actors who skill made me think "why"?

My whole point was that it would have been better to use those existing characters than create Adira and Gray.

To do what exactly? They had a story they wanted to tell. Could they have cast it better? Sure. But it wasn't a story for Detmer or Owo.