My thoughts about the actual topic itself: While I think five seasons is a good run, more than ever, I think DSC should've run seven. That it ran less than seven is giving conservatives too much of a field day. My thoughts on this have been completely reenforced by what I've seen. As far as depictions of the future: times change. We can't compare 250 years from now or 1,150 years from now to Today. Today is still pretty backwards, thanks in no small part to the Culture War. So I hope to Hell that how things are in 2023 isn't how they are in 2256 or 3188.
I daresay five seasons will be the best any of the current series will manage. None have been breakout hits and long runs aren't really the norm for streaming.
Speaking of Mary Sue and "author's idealized self-insertion". Michael Burnham is a self-insertion. In her own Holo-novel! I hope Discovery gets a "These Are the Voyages"/"Hollow Pursuit" treatment. Burnham modified one of Barclay's programs. The adopted sister of Spock? Really? All the praises she gets? "That Hope Is You"? Come on! Her adventures are a Holo-novel. That's the only plausible explanation.
But on another note, here's an interesting video about Netflix and the streaming model in general. It's only 15 minutes.
You could argue actually that Kes embodies more of those traits when you go through them - although I would never have described her as being one. Now what is different about Kes to Burnham...
A single episode long after her initial departure from the series doesn't discount how she was written in those first few years - target of multiple people's affections, universally loved by the crew, commented on her exceptional intelligence and ability to retain knowledge, develops super powers. Would fit the description - although I still wouldn't call either of them a Mary Sue
Yes they should retcon out the entire series because you personally didn't like it, that's a totally reasonable thing to do
I've always viewed Michael Burnham as a very talented Starfleet officer and a flawed personality . . . like the leads of the franchise's other shows. Well, I'm not so sure about Pike. This third version came off as a bit too ideal for my taste.
I disagree. I think DSC jumped the shark with a fourth season. The way they handled the show (i.e. fast forwarding into the future because the ten-years-before-TOS premise wasn't working, to find a mystery they had to solve to reunite the former Federation worlds) was good, but once the mystery was solved, there really wasn't any more story they needed to tell, IMHO. Same with PIC. There's no reason why they'd need to continue on with a fourth season, as we're getting Picard and his former crew's denouement now. Any fourth season would just be a restructuring like they already did after the second season. You might as well just make a new show. With SNW, I also see that show lasting no more than three seasons. I mean they've already started killing off or removing 'old' characters and added the main character from TOS, so by season 3 I fully expect to see the entire TOS crew on that ship.
I mean, eventually, but they've already cast a new character, and are bringing back Hemmer's actor, so it's not like there is a huge change to the crew right now.
I freely admit that my reasons are more politically motivated than anything else. I just want certain people to be denied the "Happy Day" they crave so much. Because they crave it a little too much, so I think they need to be denied that. But anyway... The fourth season is my favorite season of DSC, but the way it ends, I think the series could've stopped right there and I'd have been fine with it. I wish they'd put out DSC Season 5 this year. I'm in the mode of, "My Trek is ending, have it at with Your Trek". I don't like dragging things out. Though, I understand why Paramount+ is doing it. If I were them, I'd do it too.
The very fact that they view it as valuable to prolong the show by pushing it back speaks to me as evidence that they still regard it more highly than what you'll typically find when a series is canceled. It pays to be Star Trek, ha.