Great, so as a thought experiment
So we're clear, as much as I like
Discovery, I think
Better Call Saul is the better show. Just want to get that out of the way, before the rest of my post.
if DSC were written like Better Call Saul, we might have an entire episode fully flashing back to how Culber and Stamets met.
I think it would be a pre-title sequence. Then maybe referred back to, post-intro. Or otherwise shed some light on something post-intro.
Picard did this in almost every episode of its first season.
Another episode could focus on Reno.
Only if the story had a direct bearing on how it effects Burnham, Saru, Tilly, or Stamets. Stamets is the most likely character choice.
The writers wouldn’t have a clue where DSC would end up in terms of plot, but if it’s called Discovery, the thematic sense would be where we’re going and what we’re discovering, about ourselves as well as the universe.
Frankly, I don't think the DSC writers know where
Discovery will end. It's obvious they wanted to get up to the point where Burnham is Captain of Discovery. But beyond that? No idea. I think Burnham becoming Captain is what they had in mind as a Turning Point. Not a Finishing Point.
Better Call Saul on the other hand, has a VERY definitive ending point. Jimmy becomes Saul. By the fifth season he's Saul, but he's not Full Saul. In the sixth season, he'll almost assuredly become Full Saul and it will lead into
Breaking Bad. But then Saul becomes Gene. We don't know what will happen to Gene. But we definitely know that Jimmy becomes Saul and then becomes Gene.
What should be the difference in focus that would make this distinct from the Enterprise’s mission?
This is easy. The Enterprise was on a mission of exploration. The Discovery wasn't. It was a science-vessel whose mission changed depending on the situation.
In the first season, its Spore Drive was used as an advantage in fighting the Klingon War.
In the second season, its mission was to use the Spore Drive to seek out the seven signals.
In the third season, there wasn't really a mission. Vance kept Discovery on a tight,
tight leash. As the only ship with a Spore Drive, he made Discovery a Rapid Responder.
At the end of the third season, and heading into the fourth, it looks like its mission will be delivering dilithium to other Federation worlds and to try to get former Federation worlds to rejoin. Discovery will presumably use the Spore Drive to get from planet-to-planet quickly.
What do all these missions have in common? What do all these assignments have in common? Taking advantage of the fact that Discovery has a Spore Drive. Its missions are centered around how Discovery's Spore Drive can help Starfleet achieve its objectives.
Different and distinct from the Enterprise's mission. Not to mention specific to the situation, unlike the broad premises of TOS, TNG, and soon SNW.
The vessel is newer and has a spore drive. So we’ve updated the show, but to avoid the obvious contradictions, let’s just use the established spore drive to go elsewhere in the galaxy — then again, this is not VGR, and return trips are always possible.
They're not going to go just anywhere. They have to rebuild the Federation. I just hope it's not rebuilt all within the fourth season. Like Tilly's promotion to First Officer in "Unification III", that's something I will
not defend if they do it.
Should it be more about scientific discovery than first contact? What is the life of a Starfleet scientist? Brick-by-brick, step-by-step, the series would take its characters in undetermined directions, focusing on the main cast but giving development as needed to the highly-promoted co-stars also.
We'll see what they do. I thought "Forget Me Not" did a good job of showing the slice-of-life side of Discovery in the B-Story, while doing also doing a good job of introducing Adira's character and their background in the A-Story. So
Discovery can do stories like these.
And I know you don't like Mirror Georgiou, but -- just as an example -- they did do a character-study in "Terra Firma" to show how much the Prime Universe changed her, when Carl put her back in the Mirror Universe to put how much she'd actually changed to the test.
I also think Detmer's depression during the first half of the season was a good character study. I never would've thought about how much someone who prides herself on her piloting would be shattered by having crashed the ship. But to them it would be a huge failure. So it made me think about something I took for granted. Just like she tells Stamets in "Forget Me Not". Everyone talks about how awesome the Spore Drive is and the person who operates it. No one thinks about the piloting or how critical that part of ship operation is. That is, until the ship can't fly or move anymore. So the only parts that are noticeable are the parts where things go wrong.
), I highly, highly recommend The Queen's Gambit. Phenomenal series.
