If you were to introduce a Trek fan to Discovery, would you tell them ahead of time that Lorca was from the mirror universe, who found himself in the regular universe, and was looking for a way to return to the mirror? Deliberately give them a major spoiler. I was less than happy with Discovery on first viewing, but season one makes much more sense now that I understand Lorca's motivations in every episode that he appears in. I'm not saying lay out every last detail, just clue them in on what going on with Lorca.
Nope, because the earlier episodes are much stronger when you think Lorca is just an interesting, flawed character. They can at least imagine for a while they aren't going to pull the rug out from under that.
Nah, let them be disappointed with how Lorca arc was handled like the rest of us were when we watched it week to week.
While I fucking hated what they did with him at the end, Lorca's MU reveal got the most emotion any TV show has out of me in ages. It wasn't what they were going for, but it was something. Who would deny someone that?
Why would you want to spoil anything for anyone when trying to show them something new? This idea is baffling. What purpose would it serve other than to influence the outcome of their reaction to it with bias, rather than seeing how they react to it naturally?
I'm not sure how anybody could not be spoiled at this point, but if they can be protected, don't spoilt the fun.
I agree that it's probably a bad idea. Everyone has different tastes and expectations. They may enjoy the character and the twist to a greater / different extent than you did.
First time viewers are on their own, they get nothing from me, Let them watch and think - yeah this Lorca guy is a sociopath. Then when they realise he's a paper tiger, a cartoon one at that, they can 'savour' the reveal just like we did.
Just adding to the chorus: hell no! I wouldn't even mention that the Mirror Universe comes up at all in the series. That should be a surprise too. (Unless your fellow Trek fan has for some reason specifically asked for spoilers. But that would be unusual...)
Let these hypothetical viewers watch in peace, because they're most likely not insane like us who hive-mind analyzed the show and predicted every big plot twist. If anything, you should see how their innocent and pure minds react to it in the wild without the influence of us crazies.
It's a good point. My wife is only a few degrees above a "casual fan" but she does like sci if in general. She read nothing about DSC and I revealed none of the chatter / predictions / theories out here and she loved the hell out of season one, twists and all.
I actually had this happen, twice. I watched the entire series with two different casual fan groups of friends/family and both times I didn't tell anyone jack squat about anything, no matter how hard they tried to break me. The usual reactions to the eventual reveals were open jawed stunned silence, followed by unanimous agreement that it was an enjoyable trip, and they all couldn't wait for next season. One negative about it though, all were in agreement the War's quick resolution was a weak point, but not an overall deal breaker. Some important things I took careful note of their reactions throughout was, hairless Klingons, updated tech/holograms, another unknown sibling for Spock, all the things we here argue over - they never complained about any of it. Even when I brought them up after the fact, nobody gave one shit about any of that.
Interesting. I watched the opening two-parter with a friend (and casual fan) last fall, and I've subsequently discussed the show over beers with him and a couple of other local fans, and the one commonality to everyone's reaction was basically "wait, hold on, those are supposed to be Klingons?" Less concern over some other details than those of us on these forums, but the Klingons, they were an issue.
They won't, it's only really a certain highly vocal subset of the audience who have took issue with these things, as happens time and again
No I wouldn't give them any information at all, just let the show fall upon them fresh and see where it goes from there. But after they finish the season definitely show them the bonus scene then.
Lucky you. My casual fans love Star Trek and will really get into it during new episode watches. But if I bring the subject up at just about any other time, their eyes get all stern and rolley and then I know if I continue I risk triggering the "It's just a TV show, *Keeper*!" speech. Apparently, for some reason I cannot fathom, they seem reluctant to discuss it outside our viewing party's. Weirdo's