Spoilers A lack of uplifting optimism and cerebral stories will kill this show

[Gray Fox]

"A plot device, or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A contrived or arbitrary plot device may annoy or confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief. However a well-crafted plot device, or one that emerges naturally from the setting or characters of the story, may be entirely accepted, or may even be unnoticed by the audience."

I totally noticed, "Hey you know that plot device in The Martian where the PRC get to save the day with their rocket? Let's do something like that so we can make lots of money." I guess that CBSAllAccess will never tell us how much money was made to a Chinese market. Nah! No way that would prove me right.

Maybe when the relay stopped transmitting, then the crew at the receiving end would sort of notice? Really, really long range sensors failed to pick up the part that it was shot. The only "long range sensors" I remember could pick up a cloaked Romulan warship when it was pretty much in phasor range.

Science, it's like magic without the lies.

 

[zar]

"A plot device, or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A contrived or arbitrary plot device may annoy or confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief. However a well-crafted plot device, or one that emerges naturally from the setting or characters of the story, may be entirely accepted, or may even be unnoticed by the audience."

I totally noticed, "Hey you know that plot device in The Martian where the PRC get to save the day with their rocket? Let's do something like that so we can make lots of money." I guess that CBSAllAccess will never tell us how much money was made to a Chinese market. Nah! No way that would prove me right.

Maybe when the relay stopped transmitting, then the crew at the receiving end would sort of notice? Really, really long range sensors failed to pick up the part that it was shot. The only "long range sensors" I remember could pick up a cloaked Romulan warship when it was pretty much in phasor range.

Science, it's like magic without the lies.

Yeah... Remind me again how the fact that Shenzhou is Chinese moved the plot forward?
You theorize that it helped the show make more money. Whether that's true or not, this doesn't remotely fall under "plot device". Sorry.

These are your first posts here so I don't know how much Trek you've watched, but assuming this isn't your first rodeo I'm honestly shocked you haven't noticed the ability to detect remote activity faster than light travels. Long-range sensors in Star Trek have always had ranges in light-years... but no, they wouldn't physically see the scorch marks or the object itself. If next episode Sarek has actual photographs or is peeping at Burnham across star systems through a telescope I'll agree with you. Until then, this is nothing unusual for Trek.

 

[Gray Fox]

The episode has a plot device where a Chinese captain of a ship with a PRC spacecraft name is plugged in...to make money. Google it. I'm not the only one smart enough to see this. Well, present company excepted.
Since this is science fiction, the udescribed LRS might be something like LIGO or an interferometer of telescopes. If you prefer something designed by Harry Potter, then why wouldn't the LRS instantly reveal to Sarek that the light source is actually a Klingon ship? Alakazam! My disbelief is not suspended.
Yeehah!

 

[zar]

The episode has a plot device where a Chinese captain of a ship with a PRC spacecraft name is plugged in...to make money. Google it. I'm not the only one smart enough to see this. Well, present company excepted.
Since this is science fiction, the udescribed LRS might be something like LIGO or an interferometer of telescopes. If you prefer something designed by Harry Potter, then why wouldn't the LRS instantly reveal to Sarek that the light source is actually a Klingon ship? Alakazam! My disbelief is not suspended.
Yeehah!

Google it, and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone else "smart" enough to refer to a casting and naming decision as a "plot device", much less a self-proclaimed writer. Present company excepted.

If you wish you were watching some strict hard sci-fi instead, fine. Just don't go around pretending something that has existed in Star Trek for decades is suddenly a story mistake just because it doesn't satisfy your suspension of disbelief.

 

[Gray Fox]

Look, all I'm pointing out is that CBS wants to make money. They could just as easily had the captain be a Tibetan actress and called the ship the Dalai Lama, but then they would have kissed a fortune goodbye.
The writer wanted Number One's mentor to be two steps ahead of her and not be caught flat footed. So Sarek already knows about a "new star". Apparently, 99% of the viewers were fine with that. However, either that is impossible, or he should have just known it was a starship. It's Star Trek, not Buck Rogers. Star Treks have inspired children to study science, not magic.

 

[zar]

Look, all I'm pointing out is that CBS wants to make money. They could just as easily had the captain be a Tibetan actress and called the ship the Dalai Lama, but then they would have kissed a fortune goodbye.
The writer wanted Number One's mentor to be two steps ahead of her and not be caught flat footed. So Sarek already knows about a "new star". Apparently, 99% of the viewers were fine with that. However, either that is impossible, or he should have just known it was a starship. It's Star Trek, not Buck Rogers. Star Treks have inspired children to study science, not magic.

Last I checked subspace isn't established science, so we'll need to throw the whole show away I guess. Look, you can argue that kids aren't going to be inspired by Star Trek because of this, but given the fact that it's already existed as such and did inspire kids, the argument is dead on arrival. More importantly, it wasn't your argument in the first place and you're just moving goalposts now. You initially said it was a story mistake. It's not, period. Your opinion that long-range detection is Harry Potter magic doesn't change the fact that it's part of the story and this is not inconsistent. Similarly, your assertion that it should be full-resolution is also something you made up that contradicts the story universe.

 

[F. King Daniel]

How dare they include the Chinese! Conspiracy!!

 

[seigezunt]

I want a musical episode.

Kor

With the hit song "Glorious!"

 

[Gray Fox]

I bow to your genius. Besides, I won't be watching the show.

Gerry out.

 

[Kor]

How dare they include the Chinese! Conspiracy!!

And the earlier post was a conspiracy theory complete with an insulting "fortune cookie" stereotype, to boot.

Kor

 

[Griffeytrek]

Um, they showed one more episode public ally then NETFLIX shows for new streaming content - and that never seemed to hurt the viability/profitability of that content for NETFLIX.

CBS showed episode one as a marketing tease to see if they could get a few more people to 'bite' and try the service. That's the only reason one episode ended up being broadcast on their Network. It was a commercial. Frome this article, the move appears to have been successful:
http://tvline.com/2017/09/25/star-trek-discovery-ratings-season-1-premiere-cbs/


But I would say ultimate success for ST: D on CBSAA will depend on how many STAT subbed after the one week free trial.
^^^
That's when you can claim one way of the other that this CBS marketing move succeeded or failed.

Netflix's subscriber base and commercial success is not tied to attracting viewers for another new streaming show. They built their subscriber list over years using a broad, deep and evolving catalog. At a time when there really was no competition for what they offered. Now their exclusive streaming offerings are a nice growth engine, but one failing will not bankrupt the service.

Whereas CBS All Access? They are seeking to enter a saturated marketspace with the weakest catalog of offerings of any of the players. It all hinges on Star Trek. Star Trek is the only thing on the service that anybody would even think of paying for. So Trek has to hook them in at the start. They need for the fans to be rabidly craving more. To be willing to pay to see what happens next. That first glimpse had to be amazing. It had to tell you everything you needed to know about those characters up front and leave you wanting more of them. An example of a good first (series) episode that likely could have accomplished such a feat was nuBSG's "33". I just don't think STD offered what they needed to do in order to draw curious or non committed viewers into paying for the streaming service to see more. And that is the huge problem for them.

 

[Noname Given]

Netflix's subscriber base and commercial success is not tied to attracting viewers for another new streaming show. They built their subscriber list over years using a broad, deep and evolving catalog. At a time when there really was no competition for what they offered. Now their exclusive streaming offerings are a nice growth engine, but one failing will not bankrupt the service.

While that is true for U.S, Netflix, their offerings on their Internatyional service leave a lot to be desired <--- And that's why tnhey made this deal and ponied up a lot of the Production costs for the first season. netflix Execs believe this show will help boilster International subscribers.

Whereas CBS All Access? They are seeking to enter a saturated marketspace with the weakest catalog of offerings of any of the players. It all hinges on Star Trek. Star Trek is the only thing on the service that anybody would even think of paying for. So Trek has to hook them in at the start. They need for the fans to be rabidly craving more. To be willing to pay to see what happens next. That first glimpse had to be amazing. It had to tell you everything you needed to know about those characters up front and leave you wanting more of them. An example of a good first (series) episode that likely could have accomplished such a feat was nuBSG's "33". I just don't think STD offered what they needed to do in order to draw curious or non committed viewers into paying for the streaming service to see more. And that is the huge problem for them.

Oh please - Star trek fans aren't the only people subscribing to CBSAA - and it's not the ONLY SHOW someone will subscribe for. many people subbed for "The Good Fight" (which many critics seems to like, don't know as I've never watched it myself.) Want more proof? I'm not subbed (I'm going to wait for the Blu-Ray release in a year or two); but I'm still going to be watching every week legally? How? A female friend of mine is a BIG NCIS fan (earlier I was confused and thought it was CSI she liked, but it's NCIS). She subbed to CBSAA for quick and easy access to past seasons. She likes Star Trek (and enjoyed the first eps. of ST: D enough that she said - "I'm going to catch it every week as the episodes drop - if you want to come by and watch it too, you can - so a number of my and her mutual friends said yes, so we're effectively having small 'viewer parties every week going forward.

Yes, 'Star Trek' is a draw, but no, it's not the only draw. Hell, only CBS and Netflix will know how successful it was in retaining subscribers beyond any 'free trial' period. if it does well, it may get a second season order. If it doesn't, it won't.

 

[kguru]

One thing to remember is that this series breaks even on being on Netflix in most of the world, so if Netflix viewers who could see it, are watching it a lot, Netflix will want to pay a lot of money for a season 2. If Netflix viewers find it to be boring and stop after the first episode, or don't watch it at all, then they will not want to keep paying for more seasons. I can remember the reactions on Trek BBS when Enterprise started, and comparatively Discovery seems to be better received based on the ratio of positive reviews with some critical comments, to Enterprise I recall a lot of people were pretty unhappy about the crew, the ship, even the opening theme song was very poorly received, and eventually was changed during the series run.