Spoilers Missed opportunities in DSC?

[shreefe]

For a show that was supposed break away from the bog standard Trek formula of the Captain is the lead and the rest of the cast are the senior staff and bridge officers, this show stayed true to it, for the most part. Okay, the captain really wasn't the lead, but the captain is still in the main cast, or was anyway. The rest of the cast consists of the XO, chief of security, chief engineer, and now the head science officer. And in the supporting cast we have a medical officer who basically serves the same narrative purpose of a CMO except for a throwaway line stating he isn't.

Okay, the bridge officers aren't in the main cast, but aside from that they're basically getting the same amount of attention as characters like Mayweather or Harry Kim got.

I didn't watch much of Enterprise, but Harry Kim got a lot more attention than Detmer, Ariam and, um, those other three whose names I don't remember.

I think the greatest 'missed opportunity' of this season revolved around Prime universe Georgiou. I liked her a lot. I wish the Klingons hadn't killed and eaten her. She was great. MU Georgiou can be fun to watch, and she has some good moments, but I much prefer the prime version of her. MU Georgiou's best moments are when she briefly seems like prime universe Georgiou: when she seemingly intends to sacrifice herself to buy Michael time to get away; when she declared Michael 'lost'; when she briefly pretends to be teaching Michael something. Unfortunately, even when MU Georgiou (I could just start typing MUG instead, but... I won't) is supposed to be pretending to be Prime Universe Georgiou, she doesn't spend much time acting convincingly as the prime version.

In season two, I would like to see a third universe version of Georgiou. It can be the universe in which everything happened the same except that she didn't recover in time from the Vulcan neck pinch and Michael succeeded in her mutiny (or whatever you want to call it). Somehow, Third Universe Georgiou and Third Universe Michael both survived that incident. The point would be to get Prime Universe Michael to work her way through lingering emotions about the event and to help break the bond with Mirror Universe Georgiou, who is no doubt going to cause a lot of problems in the Prime Universe.

In season three, they can introduce Fourth Universe Geor... ok, perhaps not.

 

[cultcross]

For a show that was supposed break away from the bog standard Trek formula of the Captain is the lead and the rest of the cast are the senior staff and bridge officers, this show stayed true to it, for the most part. Okay, the captain really wasn't the lead, but the captain is still in the main cast, or was anyway. The rest of the cast consists of the XO, chief of security, chief engineer, and now the head science officer. And in the supporting cast we have a medical officer who basically serves the same narrative purpose of a CMO except for a throwaway line stating he isn't.

Okay, the bridge officers aren't in the main cast, but aside from that they're basically getting the same amount of attention as characters like Mayweather or Harry Kim got.

Your post seems to argue against its own conclusion. We broke away from the standard Trek formula because, as you point out, the captain wasn't the lead (didn't even see out one season) and the bridge console fillers don't finish off the main cast.
The main cast are instead the lead, an unranked specialist on day release from federal prison, the XO, chief of security, a scientist (he wasn't chief engineer, the graphic saying that had been acknowledged as a mistake and what would a fungus scientist know about running a warp engine anyway?), a cadet, and a junior doctor. Characters which aren't part of the narrative aren't shoehorned in because they fill a spot on the crew roster, those spots are filled by background characters. In other words, it avoided the Command Roster trope, of which Star Trek is the acknowledged master, where they cast as if they are filling a real life ship, instead of a story.

 

[ALF]

Biggest for me is not having a Lorca POV episode following his reveal, showing how he figured out where he was as he took his counterpart's place and hatching his plan to bring the Discovery crew together. The Walking Dead did some good episodes from The Governor's POV and it could have been awesome, and given Lorca's finale a bit more depth and meaning.

They also could have featured Staments/Culber flashbacks instead of just telling us about it, especially with all the Mycellial Magic™ going on.

Anyone else thinking they missed opportunities this season?

Lorca POV episode is a great idea. Perhaps they are planning something like that for S2?

Oh yes, and exploration. They should explore some strange new worlds when they get a chance. Trek fans love strange new worlds.

Agree with other posters who said Burnham was underdeveloped. Elsewhere, someone suggested that Discovery was kind of like OITNB in that Piper Chapman, the lead character, is the least interesting or even believable of all the ensemble cast.
It is PU Phillipa Georgiou that balances out Burnham's shortcomings - this contrast is explored in the first episode of Discovery. Phillipa is sarcastic and cheerful and kind of a template for previous TNG era Trek characters. Her foil is Burnham, who takes everything very seriously - a result of her painful childhood experiences and growing up on Vulcan.
I submit that at the end of this series, Burnham will become a lot more like Georgiou was in the first episode. They are probably keeping MU Georgiou alive for this payoff.

 

[eschaton]

Your post seems to argue against its own conclusion. We broke away from the standard Trek formula because, as you point out, the captain wasn't the lead (didn't even see out one season) and the bridge console fillers don't finish off the main cast.

It's funny, because this makes me think about DS9 - which is a show where the captain arguably wasn't the lead. I mean, in one way, Sisko was central to DS9 in a way no other captain was to their show, since the show focused around his personal arc as the Emissary, following him from being a broken Starfleet officer to becoming (essentially) a god. On the other hand, on a week-to-week basis Sisko was less present in DS9 than any other captain. Not only were there plenty of episodes where neither the A or B plot revolved around him, but sometimes he just had a couple minutes of screen time at the beginning or end of the episode.

Discovery could have taken lessons from this - and still can. It's possible for Discovery to be at its broadest "Burnham's Story" without having her be the action girl every single week.

 

[The Wormhole]

The main cast are instead the lead, an unranked specialist on day release from federal prison

Well, her rank was restored at the end of the season, making her now the third in the ship's chain of command. Although, for the time being with Saru acting captain, she's likely to become acting XO.

a scientist (he wasn't chief engineer, the graphic saying that had been acknowledged as a mistake and what would a fungus scientist know about running a warp engine anyway?),

I was aware of that when I wrote the post. Thing is, Stamets is still serving on the ship at the end of the finale even though logically speaking, with the Spore Drive research suspended, there really isn't any reason to have a fungus specialist on board. And he's been promoted too, so we got a Lt. Commander hanging out on the ship with no real purpose. Either he really is the Chief Engineer, or he's TNG movie era Worf.

 

[cultcross]

the Spore Drive research suspended

use was suspended while they look for a non human navigator - nothing to suggest the project is shelved.

 

[The Wormhole]

Still odd they would keep him on board the ship though, you'd think returning to a planet-based lab would be more beneficial to his research, as he tried arguing with Lorca early in the season.

 

[Mudd]

It’s a tricky task balancing gritty,realistic ,and entertaining war stories with the Trek ethos.

I’m sure it could be done, but not by the hacks on ST-Discovery’s writer staff.

It would help if they displayed any real grasp of what war is, for starters.

 

[Shawnster]

Missed opportunity? Doing their own thing without leaning on previous incarnations. No Sarek. No relationship with Spock.

On the other hand, if they wanted to lean on TOS... Why not make the show about Pike's Enterprise? It would require Spock, but give us a chance to really flesh out Pike's era. Klingon war could still work.

The spore drive was really unnecessary and ultimately only served to cross into the mirror universe. Speed has always been relative to the plot.

 

[Donker]

Huge missed opportunity with having an analogue to the Refugee crisis. It's astonishing you have a war setting, in a modern Star Trek show, and the word "Refugee" is not mentioned once.. in 2017/18.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/star-trek-discovery-needs-to-evolve.html which discusses Discovery's poor character development and uses Michael and Ash as examples.

Great article. I noticed the Burnham hair thing as well. Burnham running around with a half afro also just seemed bizarre because.. wasn't she supposed to be Vulcan mentally? She looks so much better with the Vulcan haircut as well we see during flashbacks. It's one of just the many small things that pull me completely out of Discovery. I know I've said it a million times before, but that party scene is where I flipped on Discovery from putting up with it to just completely realising how lazy the writers and designers were being.

The party scene is pretty much to me one of my biggest pet peeves with discovery, massive missed potential and sums up much of what is wrong with the show.

Everything in that party scene was wrong, it felt like a scene from a frat party college movie from 2001 which already raised the feeling that this crew were a bunch of cliquey high school/college students, not professional servicemen, it was EXTREMELY contemporary instead of being a really good time to show that outside of Starfleet, a 1960s futurism style is in fashion like is supposed to be in that era and then it ends with "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, HOO HAAA, PRAISE THE SOLDIERS!" American military propaganda nonsense which is just such a slap in the face of Star Trek it was actually sickening. The thing was, even Enterprise with MACO handled the militarisation stuff better within the Trek universe. That speech was honestly just disturbing American jingoistic troop worship culture seeping into Star Trek and it was physically repulsive to me.

It was that scene, just a little scene where they could have showed some actual worldbuilding for the era they worked with, and went with the most lazy, copy-pasted, borderline offensive crap, that the rose tinted glasses I was viewing Discovery with completely shattered.

 

[The Wormhole]

Everything in that party scene was wrong, it felt like a scene from a frat party college movie from 2001 which already raised the feeling that this crew were a bunch of cliquey high school/college students, not professional servicemen, it was EXTREMELY contemporary instead of being a really good time to show that outside of Starfleet, a 1960s futurism style is in fashion like is supposed to be in that era and then it ends with "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, HOO HAAA, PRAISE THE SOLDIERS!" American military propaganda nonsense which is just such a slap in the face of Star Trek it was actually sickening. The thing was, even Enterprise with MACO handled the militarisation stuff better within the Trek universe. That speech was honestly just disturbing American jingoistic troop worship culture seeping into Star Trek and it was physically repulsive to me.

It was that scene, just a little scene where they could have showed some actual worldbuilding for the era they worked with, and went with the most lazy, copy-pasted, borderline offensive crap, that the rose tinted glasses I was viewing Discovery with completely shattered.

Wow. I'm anticipating many "fun" conversations with you.

 

[eschaton]

Honestly, everything.

Someone on another forum linked me to this video. Unfortunately she didn't make it to the end of the series, but it's pretty brutal.

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[Danny99]

TBH I would have liked to have seen more of Saru's people in the Prime Universe.

I'm hoping to see this in Season 2. I hope it is really fleshed out instead of glossed over. There is really some potential about how Saru fought his nature to serve in Starfleet.

 

[Lord Garth]

Missed Opportunity for a line from Lorca to Saru in "What's Past is Prologue"...

"Mister Saru, you're the best damn livestock I've ever served. With, that is."

 

[Galaxy]

Missed Opportunity for a line from Lorca to Saru in "What's Past is Prologue"...

"Mister Saru, you're the best damn livestock I've ever served. With, that is."

I think we have come out ahead with Saru mentioning to MU Georgiou that he is not very palatable.

 

[SPCTRE]

Anyone else thinking they missed opportunities this season?

full frontal flaccid Klingon dick

(also the name of my alternative Speed Metal band)

jogging isn’t a hobby any more than eating breakfast burritos is one

*talking through chewing sounds*

pfft, speak for yourself

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Honestly, everything.

Someone on another forum linked me to this video. Unfortunately she didn't make it to the end of the series, but it's pretty brutal.

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They lost me after "all those scenes of character development and feelings."

First of all, it's Tasha Yar we're talking about... the whole reason they killed her off is because Denise Crosby thought her character DIDN'T get enough character development, which was kind of true.

Second of call, they killed off Culber, who had a shit ton of character development and had a lot of emotional investment in his relationship with Stamets, especially with Stamets going into a coma.

Which is actually par for the course for Discovery critics at this point. "This show is terrible because it does exactly what every other Star Trek show did only it does it slightly differently! Fuck you, writers, whose fault it totally is instead of the director!"

 

[pst]

full frontal flaccid Klingon dick

(also the name of my alternative Speed Metal band)

*talking through chewing sounds*

pfft, speak for yourself

i just want to thank you for including me in the flaccid klingon dick post.

 

[RuthlessNate]

Great article. I noticed the Burnham hair thing as well. Burnham running around with a half afro also just seemed bizarre because.. wasn't she supposed to be Vulcan mentally?

No, she never thought of herself as a Vulcan. While she did see the pursuit of logic as desirable, she never tried to completely suppress her emotions. While she definitely acted more Vulcan when she first came to the Shenzhou, we see that she had softened and embraced her humanity more. It may be a fault of the show's that not everybody caught that, but she is very much a person of two worlds and she tries to embrace the best aspects of both.

She looks so much better with the Vulcan haircut as well we see during flashbacks. It's one of just the many small things that pull me completely out of Discovery.

This is just idiotic. A black, female character begins to wear her hair naturally and it ruins things for you? Besides that, we don't see her start to wear her hair natural (i.e., not straightened) until she's been put in prison, where she probably doesn't have as much access to hair products. Furthermore, she looks at herself differently after the mutiny and probably doesn't feel the need to wear her hair that way.

 

[Spot261]

TBH I would have liked to have seen more of Saru's people in the Prime Universe.

Boiled or fried?