Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x01 – “Kids These Days”

[cooleddie74]

I guess there were Cheronians offworld when their planet was burning rubble and dead cities in 2268. Makes at least some sense. Any planet where individuals can live for 50,000 years, have warp travel and even invisibility cloaks more advanced than any encountered by Federation science should have colonies or settlements in other star systems.

 

[Campe]

The pilot episode will also be streaming on Pluto for free from today to the 28th per TrekMovie.

 

[Tuskin38]

Okay…

Okay what?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Why isn't ZERO one of the teachers? They'd still be alive after all.

It's a big school. I doubt we've seen every instructor.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

So logically, by the 31st century, every humanoid should be immortal by transferring their consciousness to android bodies like Altered Carbon.

The "Soong Method" to transfer Organic Minds to Golem Bodies has a "Low Chance of Success".

In 2399, the Soong Method was used to transfer the mind of retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard into a new body, without the brain defect that had caused his Human body's death. After this initial success, the process was attempted several more times, though the success rate was so low that it was eventually all but abandoned.

 

[fireproof78]

He's the CnC, so yes.



Based on a real thing. Call it "Graduate School" for military (GASP!) training.

How dare Star Trek plagerize from real life! How dare they! Hacks.

Why would the Doctor have his memory erased? Given how important his experiences were to him from back on Voyager the whole "nu-trek is too emotional" implication feels very forced.

Lobotomies: not just for the 23rd century anymore and it's the most painless way to deal with trauma.

I guess there were Cheronians offworld when their planet was burning rubble and dead cities in 2268. Makes at least some sense. Any planet where individuals can live for 50,000 years, have warp travel and even invisibility cloaks more advanced than any encountered by Federation science should have colonies or settlements in other star systems.

For real. The implications of the Cheron tech are huge and that's ignored a lot but there would reasonably be more than just two.

 

[Tuskin38]

Bajor had two moons in the scenes set there. Lore accurate, 10/10

 

[sevenstars]

There’s a kernel of an interesting idea in there in that originally he genuinely seemed to want to help Caleb’s mother, and I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to lean more into that aspect and have him be less of a black-and-white cartoon villain and more of a nuanced character in grey tones.

Nice point.

 

[Fateor]

What would be the budgetary cost to animate the character in live action?

It'd probably be too high to justify having him as a regular character.

Why would you need to animate them?

It's been 700 years, you could paint some lines on the actor, give them contacts, and just say that's the current body they feel like using.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Okay…

And...?

 

[Turtletrekker]

If I recall correctly, Paul Giamati has stated that he played Brakka as being drunk out of his gourd in the first episode.

 

[Rahul]

Yeah, for now I would have to agree. Some of the reviewers claim his portrayal gets better at later points in the season and I’m curious to know how they will do that. What’s unfortunate is that someone like Paul Giamatti would absolutely have been capable of playing an antagonist with more depth and nuance. Heck, a misunderstood Robin Hood type criminal who’s ideologically opposed to the Federation would arguably be something that would have catered more to Giamatti’s strengths as an actor.

Some actors sometimes just don't wanna play nuanced, but ham it up to the extreme. And I respect that. It's probably way more entertaining to play.
Sometimes the result is great - think Cpt. Jack Sparrow & Cpt Barbossa.
Sometimes it's awful - I love Michelle Georgiou, but her having so much fun while talking about literal genocides she committed - and everyone around was kinda' vibing with it - just gave me tonal wiplash.

Paul Giamatti here reminded me of him playing the Rhino in Amazing Spiderman 2. He just likes to ham it up some times. It's not exactly Shakespeare. But it works for badguy of the week - and that's what the character is currently written as.

 

[Tuskin38]

Paul Giamatti reminded me on him playing the Rhino in Amazing Spiderman 2

I forgot that was him.

 

[Verteron]

Dr Ira Graves transported his brain patterns into Data and then to the ENT-D memory banks.
PIC had Soong type androids that were deliberately kept at low intelligence mode for labor in Mars.
Picard himself had his consciousness transferred to an ndroid replica of himself.
So logically, by the 31st century, every humanoid should be immortal by transferring their consciousness to android bodies like Altered Carbon.

You assume that Humans in this future will still harbour the same fear of death that we do. I think we saw in countless examples even in 24thC Trek that they do not. They accept and even cherish their mortality, and don't see artificial life extension as anything more than prolonging the inevitable.

"It's our mortality that defines us"

"Live now; make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again".

 

[cooleddie74]

He also played over-the-top in Private Parts as Howard Stern's boss at WNBC. He deliberately chose the most exaggerated Southern accent to use in the role and wanted him to come off as perpetually on-edge and wanting to dominate Stern. He likes over-the-top characters, and I can't blame him since most of them work.

 

[Kraig]

How would KBL or anyone know? Silly question.

We met two out in "the wild". There could be more. The planet is waste land in the 23rd Century. A thousand years later, who knows?

Also being a space faring race, they might have colonies on other planets that didn't have the same level of unrest, as their home world, and over the centuries they could return to Cheron, and rebuild.

Edit - In other words, what cooleddie74 said in post #241, and I didn't see his post until after I posted.

 

[Michael]

By the way, did you notice that when he beamed aboard with his men Braka doesn’t whistle the Star Trek melody anymore as he did in the trailer?

Also, apparently Braka is trying to make the word “Klingarite” happen: “Never pick a fight with a Klingarite, kid!”

I forgot to mention how beautiful that sequence with the ship landing in San Francisco was; loved that version of Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco”!

Oh, and the name of cadet “I ate my combadge” is Pickford, as per the subtitles.

Some actors sometimes just don't wanna play nuanced, but ham it up to the extreme. And I respect that. It's probably way more entertaining to play.
Sometimes the result is great - think Cpt. Jack Sparrow & Cpt Barbossa.
Sometimes it's awful - I love Michelle Georgiou, but her having so much fun while talking about literal genocides she committed - and everyone around was kinda' vibing with it - just gave me tonal wiplash.

Paul Giamatti here reminded me of him playing the Rhino in Amazing Spiderman 2. He just likes to ham it up some times. It's not exactly Shakespeare. But it works for badguy of the week - and that's what the character is currently written as.

Hm, I dunno. For me it’s not necessarily a question of hamming it up versus not hamming it up. Giamatti is giving it his all, but the character just isn’t written with enough depth. I’m sure he could be playing him equally as over-the-top, but with more nuanced motivations. The way his dialog is written seems designed to just make him as vile, mean and evil as possible. There just doesn't seem to be room in there for him being driven by relatable and reasonable motives. I think what I’m saying is that I don’t really find fault with his performance.

 

[BillJ]

Dumb as fuck, but not unwatchable.

The ending did bother me on a couple counts. Not offering any kind of surrender to the other ship and Mir staying after betraying his ship and nearly getting everyone killed.

Not sure I’m in for the long haul.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Ok. Review time. I just finished the first episode.

First The Doctor. Picard did a great job. Nice seeing him back. Hes the same so far so I like that. Im also glad hes still a doctor and not just a teacher. Liked that he still sings. Also liked the Shakespeare bit. No one signed up for his workshop. Lol
Second. Captain Ake. I like Holly Hunter and she does a great job. Laid back enough for a chancellor and serious enough for a captain.

The students. Im not going to give each one a review because I haven't seen enough. I will say this. Most of them were annoying. The Klingon Jay den surprisingly annoyed me the least amount. The actor Karim seems to have really studied up on klingons before he took the role. So far hes doing a good job. We'll see what happens in the next few episodes. The other students were kind of meh. The holographic student was too silly for me. Ill get in more detail as I see more.

The story was ok. Nothing special. The villian was not to my liking. I also didnt care much for the story of Caleb and his mom and him trying to find her. Just dont get how they were starving with all the resources the federation had has in the 32nd century with advanced replicator tech. I was bored at the beginning part of the episode because it made little sense. Caleb also reminded me of an angry Anakin after he left his mom in star wars. Lol. This show with student going to school and having the whole Dawson creek vibe just isnt for me really. That kind of story and youth school melodrama isnt my cup of tea. Even when I was a kid I looked up to captain Kirk. I wouldn't have enjoyed a school show nearly as much. Im glad the two best characters are much older because they are the ones that are the most interesting characters in my opinion.

The effects were ok. But I did not like that nothing has really changed for starships in 800 to 900 years. The bridge looks like an amalgam of the STD bridge and the SNW enterprise bridge. I find it hard to believe they havent changed it hardly at all in a 1000 years. It could have easily fit in with the 23rd century std starship bridges. They are still using the same red alert klaxon sound and the same screen animation for it they they've been using since the 23rd century kurtzman shops and the tos movies. That really bothered me a lot. Also whatever happened to the ship being made out of programmable matter and solid holograms? It just seemed like the same old same old. Things seemed to blow up and burn even easier than ships in the Berman era 24th century ships. They are using similar touch screens and graphics on their computers. They really could gave come up with better designs. The Titan from the picard season 3 series looked just as advanced.


Im scoring this a 5 out of 10. I might go higher or lower as time goes by but the look of it really bothers me. Also the story was not great. Most of the 5 points are for Picardo and Hunter and a bit for what little we saw of Karims Klingon.

If they would have set this show at an earlier century it would have been better. Maybe late 25th.

Haven't bothered to watch the second episode. Not really excited to sit through it. I think they used a lot of the budget for the first episode .

 

[TRON JA307020]

Dumb as fuck, but not unwatchable.

The ending did bother me on a couple counts. Not offering any kind of surrender to the other ship and Mir staying after betraying his ship and nearly getting everyone killed.

Not sure I’m in for the long haul.

Oh. I forgot that in my review. Yup. I would have kicked Caleb out or even put him in a federation prison. Hacking into the communication system was bad enough but he nearly got everyone killed. The kid is a total idiot. I hope they kill him off. I think people are in awe of the exolosions and special effectd to have paid attention to his idiocy and the idiocy of the academy to keep him on. Lol