Is it worth watching Disc?

[CaptainCalvinCat]

If one should watch Disco is one question - the other one, is: "Is the show good"? And to me - and yeah, it comes down to taste - it is. The first season was a bit on the slow side and took itself waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too seriously, than it had any business of doing so, but it got better with Season 2.

 

[TalkaboutTrek]

If you are a Trek fan just watch it all and form your own opinion. For me Discovery gave me one of my favorite all time characters with Doug Jones's Saru and the intro to Strange New Worlds was great.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

If one should watch Disco is one question - the other one, is: "Is the show good"? And to me - and yeah, it comes down to taste - it is. The first season was a bit on the slow side and took itself waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too seriously, than it had any business of doing so, but it got better with Season 2.

Am I the only one who liked this about the show?

 

[Daedalus]

Am I the only one who liked this about the show?

There were far worse sins in the first season than it's slowness.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

There were far worse sins in the first season than it's slowness.

Like the Klingorcs and their video game ships?

 

[Daedalus]

Like the Klingorcs and their video game ships?

Those definitely have plenty of detractors, but the full list is quite extensive.

 

[Will_Carter]

I've been reluctant to watch Discovery since... well, since I was made aware of its existence. I've heard some pretty bad things about it, but I've also heard people only hate it because it's new. I've recently been considering giving it a try, though. Is it actually any good/worth watching?

I genuinely hated Disc when it first aired. 'Great they made her spock's adopted sister. Great she lips off at the captain and causes an argument in front of everyone.' 'Great there's all these Oh look she's f'ing CRYING again' moments.

I say give it a try with the caveat that first seasons are generally the worst in trek shows, and it does genuinely get better when they get past the klingon war, and gets even better when they're in the 31st century. I'm still not a fan. I eyerolled at Disc adjacent content in STO, but I want others to see for themselves and make up their own mind.

 

[fireproof78]

Am I the only one who liked this about the show?

I love Season 1. One of my favorites of Discovery. It had a great tone and style.

 

[Shikarnov]

I've been reluctant to watch Discovery since... well, since I was made aware of its existence. I've heard some pretty bad things about it, but I've also heard people only hate it because it's new. I've recently been considering giving it a try, though. Is it actually any good/worth watching?

I've seen the whole series, and I think it's worth watching at least once. In the end, I feel that Discovery isn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's a bad program. Plenty of people loved the show and the stories (so much so that it ushered in a whole new era of Star Trek content production), and you might be one of those people. Don't miss out on something good because of cranky folks like me clutching VHS tapes of the original series and binging TNG being vocal about Trek not being made for us anymore.

 

[evilchumlee]

Because i'm a masochist and wanted to punish myself, I recently rewatched a few episodes on S1. I vowed I never would, but... it happened.

I have a... slightly different opinion of it then when I had first watched it. Not hugely, but slightly. Now that the "shock" has worn off of how it looked and felt, and i'm just in general used to the aesthetic of it all, it's less distracting.

I still think the show is... not good. I still think Burnham is an absolutely godawful character. But in the grand scheme, it's a... decent little sci-fi show with good CGI work. It's almost more annoying now on a second watch because even though i'm less "argle bargle" angry about the aesthetics and general "Star Trek" of it all... I honestly think the show suffers even MORE now. In trying to slap a Star Trek skin onto whatever the hell its doing, it takes something AWAY from the show. It's odd but this show would be better if it wasn't Star Trek.

OR, the show should have just zigged when it chose to zag. Take the same show, make some relatively minor tweaks, and it's mildly better... at least the Star Trek aspect would weight it down less. Set the show Post-Voyager some point. Keep the "Klingons" visually identical to what they are... but make them a new alien threat. Change T'kuvma slightly... he's one of these NotKlingons who has been on the frontier of their space and knows how they work. He's desperately trying to warn his fractured people that this Federation that is creeping towards their territory is a threat to them, their war cry being "We come in peace". First contact is Burnham killing the Torchbearer.

We don't need Sarek. We don't need Burnham being Spock's sister. If you absolutely must have a Spock connection, replace Sarek with Spock's son, and have play the same role Sarek did. There you go. Spock's son is Burnham's surrogate father/mentor. Bam. Done.

The Mirror Universe stuff would still be a bit of a mess, but it lands somewhat better just shifting the time period.

 

[Daedalus]

The Burnham/Spock/Sarek thing will always be an oddity to me. It seems totally unnecessary but served the plot, I guess?

I'm a little bit fond of the aesthetic, in a "heh, crazy" sort of way. I actually prefer the Discovery phaser to the SNW phaser, in terms of design and how sturdy it looks. Some of the ships looked cool too, and I think the Magoo class and the Mike Wazowski class are my favourites of the first season

I'll give the first two seasons of DSC a watch if an SNW rewatch is on my cards in the future. The second season almost feels like a handover to Pike's crew if you don't look too close.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

What's wrong with Michael being Spock's adopted sister? No one knew about Sybok till he showed up. Spock's not exactly chatty about his family.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Any time a hidden family member is revealed in fiction it can get a bit eye-rolling, doubly so if it took 50 years before we found out about them. Tying Burnham to Spock seemed like a very cynical and contrived way to boost interest in the character and I think it mostly backfired. Lethe was good though.

 

[Daedalus]

What's wrong with Michael being Spock's adopted sister? No one knew about Sybok till he showed up. Spock's not exactly chatty about his family.

The concept behind a secret sibling is fine, since there was a precedent in Sybok, but therein lies the issue with me. It all gets a bit tropey after a while.

It's the same with La'an, how much does her parentage add to her character? Not a lot in actuality, but her surname is there to link you to a famous character in the show.

 

[Steve Roby]

Just had this pop up on my radar, so... Discovery is effectively at least three or four different shows. You can't really judge whether you'll like one season by watching a couple of episodes of another season.

I've watched all of Discovery, rewatched the first two or three seasons, will rewatch the rest, and I'll do the whole thing again, because I've bought the blu rays. (Of course, I've bought all of Star Trek on DVD or blu ray.) From the perspective of a fan since the early '70s, Discovery is a breath of fresh air and about as purely Star Trek as a show can get. Also, if you don't care about how TNG flipped the Romulan and Klingon cultures so that suddenly it's the Klingons who care about honour, if you don't care about the changes in the ways the Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians look from TOS through Enterprise, you don't get to complain about the changes in Discovery.

Enterprise and Nemesis proved conclusively that Berman Trek was played out and audiences didn't want more of it. Discovery had to be different to survive and to restore Star Trek to life. It succeeded.

What's wrong with Michael being Spock's adopted sister? No one knew about Sybok till he showed up. Spock's not exactly chatty about his family.

Nobody knew he was trying to take Pike to Talos III until they realized they couldn't change the ship's course.
Nobody knew who his parents were until they showed up.
Nobody knew he was betrothed to T'Pring until he experienced pon farr. (Although SNW retconned that. People complain a lot less about SNW than Discovery, strangely enough.)
Nobody knew he was going to sacrifice himself to save the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan until it was too late.
Nobody knew he went off to Romulus to support unification until he popped up on camera footage.

Not telling anyone anything, even when it would have been the smart thing to do, is what Spock does. That he had a human adopted sister is hardly the biggest surprise. Not to mention that an episode or two of Discovery did more to flesh out Sarek and Amanda and their relationships with Spock than anything since, oh, maybe "Yesteryear."

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Everyone gets to complain about the changes to the Klingons in Discovery. There must be no gatekeeping for Disco Klingon complaints.

 

[fireproof78]

Discovery is a breath of fresh air and about as purely Star Trek as a show can get. Also, if you don't care about how TNG flipped the Romulan and Klingon cultures so that suddenly it's the Klingons who care about honour, if you don't care about the changes in the ways the Klingons, Romulans, and Andorians look from TOS through Enterprise, you don't get to complain about the changes in Discovery.

My one regret is I have only one like to give.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

My one regret is I have only one like to give.

My only real complaints regarding Discovery are the Klingon-orcs, really. Really, just the makeup and their ships looking like generic sci-fi "spaceships." I did like the Klingon war arc in S1 and their continued storylines in S2. They never showed up in S3-5?

 

[fireproof78]

They never showed up in S3-5?

No.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

No.

Weird, considering their proximity to Earth and the Federation. Not ONE Klingon drunk somewhere or brawling? Spooky.