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Anson Mount as Pike SAVES This Show! Wow.

I was completely confused what a "masculine" alpha male means, and what other type of alpha male there might be?
:guffaw: Indeed.

I'm only imagining one "omg yay" right now, he's going to put an uppity woman lead back in her place, I mean who does she really think she is thinking she can carry a Star Trek series mostly by herself, and all she's offering is an amazing and award winning performance, right?
Yeah, it sounds that way for sure.
 
The old paradigm is crumbling and some just can't stand it.

Katee Sackhoff took a sledgehammer to it with Starbuck in Galactica.

Such a refreshing change from Dirk Benedict's whining.

Well, that was just the character!

Yeah---funny how Face, in The A-Team, was an almost carbon-copy whiner....
 
I like how Burnham is like the next step in the evolution of the archetype. For example, the other SMG was always ultimately victorious in one on one fights because of her strength and/or fighting prowess. But with Burnham, while she is certainly a capable fighter, the deciding factor always comes down to her scientific knowledge.
 
Cool. You're entitled to your opinion, but many would agree (even on this forum) that Jason Issacs easily overshadowed Sonequa/Burnham last season and commanded the screen. I anticipate Anson Mount will do the same this year.



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A massive oversimplification, but I expected nothing less.



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Paul Feig approves of your post.


Sonequa's Burnham being terrible has to do with the way the character is written and presented, not her race/gender.

Lest we forgot my love for Danai Guirra (Okoye) and how she would have been a far better lead for this series, with a strong engaging presence.

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There's also nothing wrong with having a Masculine alpha male lead on the cast to balance things out. Worked well with Jason Isaacs and it will again with Anson Mount. It adds to the diversity of the cast.

Nope. Issacs might be the most experienced actor but he didn't 'overshadow' anyone. The rest of the cast, SMG included, more than held there own with him. But in your world he did overshadow, because 'masculine alpha males' have to take charge and dominate, right?

You show your cards when you insist that a masculine alpha male is what is needed to save the show, not that it needs saving, mind you. Why not a Captain in the vein of Picard (who whilst masculine) was not a traditional 'alpha male' or a female Captain written the vein of Ripley or Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor?

Real men don't feel the need to be 'Alphas' they are sure of themselves, confident in their abilities, lead by example and have empathy. If that's the type of male lead you want, then cool, I can get on board with that. But if you're after a gung ho guy who dominates, and puts the women characters you don't like in their place, then no, absolutely not.
 
Even then, I don't think the writers were "problematic" per se. They simply weren't up to the task, which may have well been an impossible one. I think all of season one's issues were a result of the behind the camera politics. I don't think Kurtzman or Fuller ever got along or saw eye to eye, which only worsened as they each tried to install their own people in what were obvious power plays.

The writing suffered because this all boiled down to there being two distinct ideas/pitches/concepts on what the show was supposed to be and the writers' room had a difficult time conflating them.
 
Did the show need saving?


This is a topic of its own, unrelated to the show's putative testosterone count.

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I think, though, that it's hard to mistake what the intention of the All Access marketing department was with this ad. It's aimed at people who don't yet watch the show, or have perhaps sampled it only occasionally, and it's chock full of whatever the bosses think will attract them.
 
Worked well with Jason Isaacs and it will again with Anson Mount. It adds to the diversity of the cast.

Meh, what made Isaacs interesting had diddly-squat to do with his perceived Alpha Male-itudity.

It was just so refreshing to have a character driving the story week after week on Star Trek that most could agree was a self-interested, borderline sociopathic dick.

But, alas, they couldn't commit. He had to be explained as being from the Universe of Dicks.*



*Which is weird when you think of it, because it's a matter of established Star Trek canon that most Starfleet admirals are dicks. And where do you suppose they come from? They must all have been captains somewhere, at some point.
 
Now that a woman is in the lead, some men feel threatened. Having some “masculine alpha male”-ness makes these individuals feel better about being a man.

Or something.

The way that the change is progressing, makes some women feel threatened, too, for different reasons.

My wife and I disagree on the example I gave about Katee Sackhoff. She feels that the performance was grossly over-the-top and foolish and did a disservice to women. She feels that it was slamming the pendulum up against the other side and promoting the idea that strong women need to be caricatures of over-the-top alpha-males.

I feel that Katee's Starbuck was realistic because I believe that levels of 'alpha-ness' vary widely across all of humanity, regardless of gender. I think it all comes down to the individual person.
 
SMG owns this show. She is clearly the lead and the cast all look to her. I saw her and the cast at SDCC 2018. She's the leader of the troupe. And the producers intend her character to be the show's "captain to be" not Saru or Pike or (insert white male here).

Whether it happens this year or next, Burnham will be commanding the Discovery. I predict at the end of this year because of the season's events.
 
SMG owns this show. She is clearly the lead and the cast all look to her. I saw her and the cast at SDCC 2018. She's the leader of the troupe. And the producers intend her character to be the show's "captain to be" not Saru or Pike or (insert white male here).

They definitely need to up their game on the writing if that is the case. They really don't seem to understand how to write the character. Hopefully, season two will change that.
 
They definitely need to up their game on the writing if that is the case. They really don't seem to understand how to write the character. Hopefully, season two will change that.

While I agree that the writing is all over the map, the show is very clear that SMG/Burnham is the lead. In the climatic Mirror Universe episode, Burnham is Kirk to Saru's Spock. The latter may be in command, but it's Burnham who takes the decisive action and informs Saru what she's about to do. The exchange is very Kirk-like. She has more of a commanding presence.

My major issue with Discovery is that it lacks a clear premise and vision for what this particular Trek is. Fuller may have had one but he was ushered out. His successors seemed to lack one at all. Now with them out, perhaps the show will crystalize much like TNG did after season one.
 
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