The other Trek series for fans of DISCO
- Thread starter Arpy
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Someone has to bring up the elephant in the room, so it might as well be me.
Discovery's not anyone's first Star Trek series. Someone who'd get a subscription to CBS All Access or Paramount+ because of Star Trek would already be a fan of it or interested in it. Anyone who got into Star Trek during the 2010s probably did so through the Abrams Movies or seeing the older series on Netflix. Maybe a Star Wars fan wants to give Star Trek a try. They'll probably start with TOS, TNG, the Movies, or some combination of those three. The ones they've heard of. Those are the entry points into Star Trek.
If Discovery weren't behind a paywall, or if it were behind a paywall most people have like Netflix, then it would've been a different story. We'd have actually had those fans who discovered Star Trek through Discovery.
Discovery's not anyone's first Star Trek series. Someone who'd get a subscription to CBS All Access or Paramount+ because of Star Trek would already be a fan of it or interested in it. Anyone who got into Star Trek during the 2010s probably did so through the Abrams Movies or seeing the older series on Netflix. Maybe a Star Wars fan wants to give Star Trek a try. They'll probably start with TOS, TNG, the Movies, or some combination of those three. The ones they've heard of. Those are the entry points into Star Trek.
If Discovery weren't behind a paywall, or if it were behind a paywall most people have like Netflix, then it would've been a different story. We'd have actually had those fans who discovered Star Trek through Discovery.
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I could see general genre fans in Europe and South America having given it a look on Netflix during season 1.
And one thing to remember as well is Paramount+ as we know it has only existed for a few years. The original CBS All Access was essentially then-currently airing CBS network shows with a scattering of originals -- no Paramount film library, no Showtime. I doubt there were many 18-49s joining CBS All Access for NCIS or something and then happened to discover Star Trek.
So is Prodigy.
Many enjoy Picard Season 3.
There's a lot of Trek to enjoy, especially for me who likes Discovery, and the Kelvin films.
Hey, dead thread revival, sorry.
Exactly as a few of you described, I was introduced into Trek via DISCO as an adult, and because I'm from the UK, DISCO released on netflix which I was already subbed to.
After S1 was over and the realisation that I loved it, as a nerd completionist, I tried to watch the original series but often found it difficult to watch. Only after watching TNG and other Star Trek Projects, mostly S2 of DISCO, the Kelvin movies, and SNW, was I able to enjoy TOS at all.
For me, TNG is what Trek is in it's 'truest' form, and it it is now my favourite. Of course, this is only my opinion and not a debate I am wishing to spark, I feel SNW is the best modern Trek and, mostly because of DISCO's inconsistent writing/setting. I could watch 10 Seasons of Anson Mount's Pike.
My first post, thanks all!
Exactly as a few of you described, I was introduced into Trek via DISCO as an adult, and because I'm from the UK, DISCO released on netflix which I was already subbed to.
After S1 was over and the realisation that I loved it, as a nerd completionist, I tried to watch the original series but often found it difficult to watch. Only after watching TNG and other Star Trek Projects, mostly S2 of DISCO, the Kelvin movies, and SNW, was I able to enjoy TOS at all.
For me, TNG is what Trek is in it's 'truest' form, and it it is now my favourite. Of course, this is only my opinion and not a debate I am wishing to spark, I feel SNW is the best modern Trek and, mostly because of DISCO's inconsistent writing/setting. I could watch 10 Seasons of Anson Mount's Pike.
My first post, thanks all!
I'm not sure it's their first, but I see lots of younger people watching and commenting on social media than here.
What I see is lots of casual fans who were introduced by the 2009 film.
I will say this again: 3rd season Discovery on is TNG being channeled. It has a different style but the themes are all there, and season 5 is a direct celebration of it.
Just curious, but what did you find difficult with regard to watching the original Star Trek?
Maybe you're right.
I've seen Discovery seasons 1-4 and the first episode of season 5 (it's hard to find time to watch it as my kids are not allowed to watch it due to the LGBTQ+ content).
I found Discovery, at first, to be a breath of fresh air after I felt Star Trek stagnated over the Berman and Braga era. I couldn't get into Enterprise because it felt like TNG v3 with Voyager being TNG v2 that I didn't like as much as TNG, which I loved (except for the terrible first season, the worst season of ST TV ever imo).
I've really enjoyed the action (inspired by the Abrams films), the serialized storytelling, and the production of Discovery. I loved the fact that it re-introduced the original Enterprise and Spock too. I have a couple of issues with it, though. First, on the whole, I just didn't care for the cast of characters as I did with TOS, TNG, and DS9. Stamets, Culber, and Book are ok, Tilly is kind of irritating, Adira I don't care for at all, and Grey creeps me out. Saru, I like. I also really loved both Empress Georgiou and Jett Reno, who is hilarious.
I have a big problem with Burnham, besides really liking the actress, Sonequa-Greene who plays her. She is overly emotional and has shown she cannot make the hard choices and has been insubordinate, directly defying the orders from both Captains Georgiou and Saru, who really gave her a second chance. I was really dissappointed with how she stabbed him in the back. Yes, things work out for her and then she gets command, but she has done so much to show that that isn't the role for her before that. I don't think the writers handled the development of this character well at all. She starts out being very logical, having been brought up by Sarek but then she becomes more emotional, killing T'kuvma in revenge and thus losing the very opportunity to end the Klingon War (or at least a chance of ending it). She didn't want to kill her friend the cyborg officer and consequently almost let the Section 31 AI get the Sphere Data, which would have doomed the galaxy. She risked the entire ship to save Tilly and was actually called out on that by the Federation President.
If they wanted her to eventually become Captain of Discovery, why have her judgement and choices compromise her again and again? She failed 2 captains as first officer. Maybe she was always better as an independent agent, a courier, like Book.
So, in short, I just didn't connect with Disco's characters, on the whole, like I did for TOS, TNG, DS9, and 1/2 of VOY. Everything else was pretty great except for the characters, particularly the contrary development of Burnham, who was played by a really wonderful actress.
The second thing is what I thought was the excessive LGBTQ+ content. Discovery certainly isn't unique in that, and I can tolerate it even if seeing two guys kiss willl never ever look normal at all to me. I admire the show for really pushing for inclusion, tolerance, empathy, and understanding, but I think it may have laid it on too thick with Adira and, especially Gray. I just could not connect much with these characters at all and, honestly, it feels like the inclusion is virtue signaling and pandering. I thought Stamets and Culber were enough and I liked both of them.
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that really says it all
That's a buzzword I haven't heard in a long time. Haven't we moved on to woke and DEI?
I used to think it was weird, then I got a job with a bunch of LGBTQ+ people and in no time at all it went from "seeing two guys kissing" to "seeing two people kissing" in my head.
It's not scary, it's in no way harmful to anyone. And my work at the time was not unlike Discovery so I can promise you will get that many people or more in one workplace. If your kid's gonna grow up to swing that way, it won't be because they watched Star Trek: Discovery. It doesn't work like that. It'll just show them that being like that can and should be accepted.
How old are the kids anyway? It reminds me of the angry people complaining about the Dax kiss, who were asked by a production member if they would've been ok with Dax shooting someone instead of kissing her, and they said yes, to which the production person (Behr?) said: maybe it's this attitude that could screw up their kids more than DS9 does.
I don't much care to see anybody kissing in entertainment.
No, they're all good.
You can certainly do that, and that's certainly laudable, but don't be surprised if some viewers have trouble connecting with some of those characters or that some folks don't think it's healthy for their pre-teen kids to see it.
I mean, wasn't the plan for Discovery initially to go over 5 seasons? I believe that's what some of the cast members said?
Glad you're comfortable with it. Where I work, we don't have coworkers kissing and the like.
And, yeah, I know kids are born that way. I've told my twins as much and that they should stand up for their gay classmates and that it was ok to be friends with them.
But I do think that, for prepubescent kids, with all the changes to their bodies and with their identities not fully set, that they don't need to be confused by all this multi-gender stuff. As they get older, as my kids are now, I think it's ok and right to make them aware of LGBTQ+ folks and teach tolerance and civility and kindness towards them, like everyone else.
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