Fully agreed
Discovery is losing me in Season 3, anyone else?
- Thread starter Ometiklan
- Start date
Fully agreed
Plus, they are featured in many scenes with Tilly that suggest they're all a pretty tight group of officers, but, as a viewer, I find it hard to give a shit because beyond just the reactions shots and the occasional line of dialogue, the series hasn't given me a reason to care about them. And I don't mean that to sound cruel or hostile, it's just they barely have anything to do.
I cared about Rhys...since season 1.
I've known his name since season 2...
I am just...I don't know anymore. I grew up with caring about characters in one episode. Sometimes they even...*whispers* died.
Now, its like we need a resume to give a
about characters and maaaybe we'll care.
Now, its like we need a resume to give a
about characters and maaaybe we'll care.
I can't imagine them doing anything that will make you care in S4. There's no way to know if this is genuine apathy. Maybe, maybe not. But you seem like you've dug your heels in. I wouldn't say it's "cruel" or "hostile", just that you're stuck on it.
I'm guessing the Detmer plot did nothing for you. That's fine. But I will say you either care about characters or you don't. I care, you don't.
I can connect with people or characters I just met. I still don't connect with some people or characters I've known for three decades. You can't quantify it. Or I can't, anyway. It either is or it isn't.
I could take someone for granted and not realize I took them for granted as always being there, until they're not.
I can't connect with characters from ENT. I do connect with characters from DSC. It's all about what speaks to me and what doesn't. What speaks to you and what doesn't. I'm guessing you're an LD Fan, judging from your avatar. I liked LD well enough, but I can't say I really care about the characters. Not that I dislike them. I like them fine. But I'm just there for the gags.
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Me to: characters that were featured and that we got to know. 3 seasons in I know he studied under a very big tree and knows Morris code.
I'm not sure I "connect" with the characters, but they have actually fleshed out Detmer and Owo fairly well. I was beginning to get some romantic subtexts to their interactions this season. I hope they make it explicit next season - particularly because I know that it will make the worst aspect of fandom angry at yet another LGBT portrayal in the series.
Linus is funny, but he's not really bridge crew.
Bryce, Rhys, Lt. Nilsson, and now Ina...they are still blank slates. You could literally give the lines they say to any other character and the episodes would work just as well. I honestly don't even have a good idea what their roles on the bridge are.
Linus is funny, but he's not really bridge crew.
Bryce, Rhys, Lt. Nilsson, and now Ina...they are still blank slates. You could literally give the lines they say to any other character and the episodes would work just as well. I honestly don't even have a good idea what their roles on the bridge are.
I think we care about characters in different ways.
I care about background, secondary, one episode appearing characters in one episode. I don't need their life story to feel that way.
I learned his name from Memory Alpha.
That's interesting. I didn't get any romantic subtexts but I suppose it's possible. I would personally be against it because more relationships would represent the continued pivot away from sci-fi and into soap opera style drama which I'm not a huge fan of. They already have the Adira/Gray, Book/Burnham, and Sammets/Culter romantic relationships and the Adira/Sammets familial relationship. I don't care about any of that crap, I want to know about how they can reverse the polarity of the deflector dish to create an inversed tachyon beam.
But in all seriousness, the only relationships I really liked were Sammets/Culber in S1/2 and Adira/Sammets familial in S3 (which was really sweet). The rest I could do without.
I personally think the less romance the better. But, that's not going to happen.
I don't know. I wanted to like Discovery. Had they set the show 70+ Years after Nemesis and told us the DSC-Klingons were a new, strange alien species it would've been okay.
The wrote themselves into a corner with making it a prequel but it doesn't look or feel like it belonged into the timeframe they placed it in.
Season 3 had its ups and downs. I felt the story arc for the season wasn't planned ahead, more like they made it up on the go. The need to have Burnham at the center of every.single.episode just because she is the main character felt often very forced and not natural.
At times throughout the season I wouldn't been sad if Burnham had decided to leave Discovery with Booker. I think Sonequa is a terrific actress but the writing for her was a disservice. She is supposed to be a strong female character. I felt the strong part was her doing what she things is right, without the consent or against her superiors and the female part was her crying everytime the is presented with the fallout of her actions.
The moment I lost all interest was the vast poket universe interior, that felt like a big fat middle finger to everyone who ever owned a technical manual of a trek ship. Yes, I know there was the time ship in Enterprise Season 2 that was "bigger on the inside"
At least Burnham has her command now and I hope we get a more ensemble like story telling in the next seaon.
The wrote themselves into a corner with making it a prequel but it doesn't look or feel like it belonged into the timeframe they placed it in.
Season 3 had its ups and downs. I felt the story arc for the season wasn't planned ahead, more like they made it up on the go. The need to have Burnham at the center of every.single.episode just because she is the main character felt often very forced and not natural.
At times throughout the season I wouldn't been sad if Burnham had decided to leave Discovery with Booker. I think Sonequa is a terrific actress but the writing for her was a disservice. She is supposed to be a strong female character. I felt the strong part was her doing what she things is right, without the consent or against her superiors and the female part was her crying everytime the is presented with the fallout of her actions.
The moment I lost all interest was the vast poket universe interior, that felt like a big fat middle finger to everyone who ever owned a technical manual of a trek ship. Yes, I know there was the time ship in Enterprise Season 2 that was "bigger on the inside"
At least Burnham has her command now and I hope we get a more ensemble like story telling in the next seaon.
Probably not. I wish they would though. The Adira / Grey relationship in particular is the worst, It worked well in Forget Me Not but not so well after that. The arc felt like it belonged on a teen drama. It doesn't help that Ian Alexander has a soap opera style of acting. I like Adira though and Blu del Barrio is a good actor, I wish they would dump Gray and move on. Have them go out on them own and either meet someone new or have the show do something different with them character. There's no chance that's going to happen though.
Sorry, I probably didn't articulate it properly. But to be clear, I'm not talking about the entire Discovery cast - I'm just referring to the four-five bridge crew characters.
I shouldn't say that I don't care, because that's not exactly what I mean. I don't have a connection to those characters simply because we haven't spent enough time with them. I see that they're all close, but, I have no emotional investment in it because I know next to nothing about them. They are absolutely featured more heavily now than they were in previous seasons, though.
The Detmer plot, I thought, was interesting, but, a missed opportunity. It was an opportunity to provide some genuine character development for her and give us, the viewers, a chance to know her a little better. But the series considers it resolved the moment she asks for help from Culber and we never hear about it again.
Owo is easily the one I like most and would be genuinely sad if her character had been killed off, but, the others not so much. Sure, I've gotten used to seeing their faces, but, that's about it. I don't know their histories, their strengths, their weaknesses, nothing.
And you COULD probably argue that Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura were not far from this in TOS. The movies definitely expanded their roles and made them more prominent.
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This is my view is that it is closer to TOS, but not exactly. Discovery has taken a different tactic, it isn't an ensemble like many expect, largely because we had characters coming in and out, with Lorca and Pike and Spock and the like.
This isn't to say that people can't want to know more about these characters, but I struggle, genuinely, with the need. Like, the only way I can articulate this is this feeling that people shouldn't care about Tomlinson dying in Balance of Terror because the only thing we knew about him was that he just got married. Now, perhaps expectations have shifted for TV viewing, maybe I watch shows wrong, maybe I am just a sensitive soul who doesn't feel the need to know a person's history to give a
about them in a character sense. At this point, I genuinely don't know that there is anything that will make it make sense to me. I think you either are connected with the characters or not.
My own feeling is basically that the supporting characters are there as needed for the story. They should not be the story "just because." However, if the writers have good reason to flesh them out, then give one or more a dedicated plot.
I mean, back on DS9 Andrew Robinson directly turned down being part of the main cast as Garak in part because he felt that if he was part of the cast the writers would feel obligated to include him in every episode, rather than just use him where Garak was appropriate. And this is likely part of the reason Garak was such a strong character. He only appeared when there was a story reason, so they never had to shoehorn him into a cameo someplace like The Visitor where he just wouldn't make sense.
In my ideal world, all show casting would be like this. Characters would drop in and out as there was a pressing story need, and there would be no pressure to add a worthless B/C plot just to make sure everyone in the main credits got their 5 minutes in.
I mean, back on DS9 Andrew Robinson directly turned down being part of the main cast as Garak in part because he felt that if he was part of the cast the writers would feel obligated to include him in every episode, rather than just use him where Garak was appropriate. And this is likely part of the reason Garak was such a strong character. He only appeared when there was a story reason, so they never had to shoehorn him into a cameo someplace like The Visitor where he just wouldn't make sense.
In my ideal world, all show casting would be like this. Characters would drop in and out as there was a pressing story need, and there would be no pressure to add a worthless B/C plot just to make sure everyone in the main credits got their 5 minutes in.
This is my view is that it is closer to TOS, but not exactly. Discovery has taken a different tactic, it isn't an ensemble like many expect, largely because we had characters coming in and out, with Lorca and Pike and Spock and the like.
This isn't to say that people can't want to know more about these characters, but I struggle, genuinely, with the need. Like, the only way I can articulate this is this feeling that people shouldn't care about Tomlinson dying in Balance of Terror because the only thing we knew about him was that he just got married. Now, perhaps expectations have shifted for TV viewing, maybe I watch shows wrong, maybe I am just a sensitive soul who doesn't feel the need to know a person's history to give a
Nope, I totally get it.
I think for me, it's the way the show utilizes them, sometimes. For instance, in Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2, we see them saying their good byes to their families before leaving for the future. For me, this could've carried more emotional weight if I had a better sense of their characters and their back stories. The show tried to give them just as heavy a goodbye scene to their families as Burnham's was to Sarek and Amanda, only I feel Burnham's more because I'm familiar with who she is and her familial connections.
Or maybe I'm just a cold-heart bastard, too. I'll just leave this topic at that.
Makes sense, it was kind of like Project Daedalus where they tried to give some emotional weight to that character, but because I didn't even know that persons' name before the episode, it didn't carry as much weight because I had nothing invested. The episode tried to compensate with some scenes at the beginning of the episode about that person's personal life but it just wasn't as impactful.
I care about them in that they're people and I don't want to see them hurt, but I am obviously far more invested in characters that...are characters.
Tomlinson was a guest star in one episode, not some one who was supposed to be a cast member...and he still probably got more lines of dialogue than half the bridge crew in the entirety of season 1.
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