Strange New Worlds renewed for a fourth season

Also, first impressions are only dispositive to the closed-minded and incurious.

 

Ok. I cannot.

Kind of. Just very cumbersome and stuffy and old in some ways.

But, even the producers say it's an exaggerated portrayal.

How I treat TOS. It is not needed to be in continuity with the rest of the franchise, films included.

While I can appreciate this I don't even go this far. TNG had the worst first impression on me bit I didn't think it damaged anything.

5 is fine.

Into Darkness is fantastic.

 

Sure, fair to a point. I did give it a chance. It didn't really get much better, and actively doubled down on some it's core issues (mostly Burnham being horrible. Only now in the final season is she not absolutely insufferable.)

That's fair, but I prefer even a nonsensical reason over... no reason.

Did the "visual update" actually fix any of that? It has essentially the same profile. They just changed some details. Does having a plastic strip down the arm make something more modern? I can give that looking at the two side-by-side, the newer version may have slightly less of a shoulder pad, although not much.

I have mixed feelings on the "new" TWoK uniform. Like... I appreciate that it's such a minor change over the old one and is instantly recognizable to the point that I had actually at first just though they straight up used the old uniform for a second. One the other hand though... I feel like, "Buy why?" They did so little to change it, why even bother? DSC and SNW seem to just really like changing things just because, not for any real reason. Some of the changes I understand, I might not like them, but I understand. Some I just... don't.

That's fair. I'm only particularly partial to TOS being "fully" in continuity due to it's inclusion in later shows. Had TOS been mostly just ignored by TNG, DS9 and ENT I probably wouldn't care. It bugs me now because were able to consistently portray TOS as part of the same continuity for 50 years... until now.

 

Because it's art. Not science.

I mean, yes and no. TOS might be in continuity but then ignores other things within the shows details. So, if the set dressing and uniforms are that important then I could see it standing out, and it's why TMP stands out. To your point above, it changes things for no reason except because.

But, to me, TOS is very much its own thing. It operates in a bigger galaxy, with a lot more strange aliens and a different warp scale. TNG paid lip service to it but really just acknowledged it for brief winks to the audience. It upends some of TOS' views for its own stories. TMP does the same thing, so treating it as its own thing, with the UESPA, and such, sits a lot better than some of the later shows.

The reason comes back to an idea that I think many Trek fans disagree with and that is Trek is an art, not a historical piece. So, the change comes from artists and their desires to be creative, even within an established property. Even Star Wars went far afield of this with the Prequels, because it's meant to be as much an expression of the designers ideas as it is to work within the universe.

Now, I come at this because I have several friends who are artists and like to adjust things because they can. They see things differently than I do. Do I always agree? No, not at all. But, I can accept a change because of it because it is meant as an art.

 

been saying that for a while too. Basically you should be able to blur pictures of the two bridges in photoshop, and not be able to see the difference once its fuzzy.

 

My issue here is that it's actually really easy to have essentially a blank creative canvas... stop doing prequels. That's it. Easy as that. Stop revisiting things we already know because at that point... it kind of is a period piece, within its own continuity.

Damn near every single one of the aesthetics complaints go completely away if Discovery didn't get shoehorned in as a prequel, and was in the like, the 25th century.

At that point, maybe I don't like what they did but there's no issue with the continuity for having done it. Take for example the DSC Ferengi. I don't like them... I think it's another unnecessary change BUT at least it's the future. I haven't seen 32nd century Ferengi before. They just look different than they did in the 24th century. We don't know why, but it's 800 years in the future. They look different. Something happened. Cool. I can buy that.

 

As soon as they stop making money maybe they will.

 

I largely wish they had left the new Klingon prosthetics and ship designs for the 32nd century. I feel like they would just work better, feel more in keeping with what we've seen in the last 3 seasons and generally been given a fairer reception. Still divisive of course, but nothing like it was.

SNW seems to have retconned them completely, including flashback scenes set in the war. Obviously costs factor in, but surely the uniforms could've been used.

 

That is one visual retcon I can actually get behind, but it was really more of a correction to a retcon. The Discovery Klingons were absolutely terrible. I'm glad to see them go. The SNW Klingons look great. That's what they should have been the whole time.

I'm a purist with all of this so i'm still going to acknowledge that they existed. My eyes saw them. I'm just happy they didn't see them for too long.

 

I miss Discovery Klingons something fierce. I don't mind the SNW designs, but it just is so repetitive of the past.

 

It was a course correction well received from what I've seen. Also, the nacelle disruptors were an interesting decision too. We never saw where these weapons came from in TOS, only a rough placement.

I'm telling ya, retcon them in a 32nd century setting and I'd get it. They're bound to show up at some point.

 

I'd rather they didn't. They work well enough in SNW and can leave it there.

 

I agree. SNW Klingons look great. That right there is how you do a "visual update" the right way. They look... like Klingons. With more modern makeup techniques applied.

And even though their uniforms are much different than TOS... I can kind of handwave it. I appreciate they used a similar color scheme. They've got that gold tinge going on.

Not now. The makeup that was the DSC Klingons could have been cool... as some new race that wasn't Klingons. Now they've blown it, and I think the very fact that three seasons of DSC went by with zero Klingons speaks volumes... those S1 Klingons are dead and buried. Even S2 improved them significantly.

I guess i'm wired different though. I see things like "but they look old ones that's boring"... to me it seems like if you don't like the stuff from an IP... why stick around? There's lots of other things around that can be all sorts of different, creative new things. When I find an IP I like I tend to want more... of that IP. I don't want something that's kind of like it. I just want the thing.

I don't want to play a new Super Mario game, but now Super Mario is a photorealistic 6 foot tall Sylvester Stallone looking dude who wears blue overalls. I want... Super Mario. When I watch Star Wars, I don't Chewbacca to look like a gorilla with horns, I want him to look like Chewbacca.

Is that weird that when I watch Star Trek I want it to look like... Star Trek?

 

That's the thing for me: it does. The uniforms are "close enough" as is the shape of the bridge, ship, and transporter. The Klingons are disappointing.

To use Mario as an example, why isn't he still 8 bit and 2D? Why does he have all these weird powers and suits and things? Mario from the 80s isn't Mario from today. In fact, Mario 2 in the United States isn't even technically supposed to be a Mario game.

 

I miss the TOS Klingons.

 

Which Star Trek?

 

The one that persisted from the late 60's through the early-2000's.

I understand the perspective of the person from that article. I absolutely do. We all kind of have a line. I can absolutely see fans of the original Star Trek not liking the changes for TMP, mirroring my own arguments of it... not looking like Star Trek. 100% understand that.

Everything is always going to come down to individual perspective. I primarily like Movie-Era through 90's-Era Trek, so that's what I want Trek to look like... which also, perhaps retroactively, ALSO kept the TOS look intact when referencing the era.

I also don't really think the Klingons from TMP onwards look particularly different. It's all subjective, but everything from the TMP Klingon Commander on through the ENT Klingons to me just look like variations of the same thing. I can even accept the Kelvin Klingons as being close enough. Hell even the DSC Klingons would have been... probably ok if you take it from them strictly the front view, without the giant Xenomorph alien skulls. Like THAT SPECIFIC picture of T'Kuvma? Yeah that's fine... but it's not representative of what they truly look like.

But yeah. It's all subjective.

 

So, at least three contradictory versions, then.

 

3? TOS, TMP and....?

 

TOS, TOS-derived movies, and TNG era.