Nature of the visual reboot
- Thread starter Groppler Zorn
- Start date
Here's what I don't get about Discovery's approach: I could understand the tremendous design liberties if they were going for a big splash among the mainstream audience, a la the Abrams films. But this is the most fan-focused production in Trek history. It's a prequel, trading in existing characters (Sarek, Mudd) and fan-favorite Trek tropes (Mirror Universe) with stunts calculated for maximum fan appeal (Klingon war, arrival of the Enterprise), all relegated to a niche streaming service that offers almost no other original content. Clearly, All-Access is being built on the back of existing Trek fans, which I'm fine with, if it makes Trek viable. But why, then, is the design work the one aspect that deviates from what is otherwise slavishly fan-friendly? If you're catering to the fans, cater to the fans.
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Or if you’re going to reboot Star Trek then go for it - say it’s a reboot. The notion of a “visual reboot” is... confusing (to say the least!). OTOH, we *have* all been talking about it for a while now - which was probably the point this whole time...
Nostalgia is a helluva drug.
I don’t see how, it’s right in the name.
It's a pretty simple idea. Its using contemporary tech to update a visual product.
To your second point, yes, we're talking about it and that is all that matters. Good, bad or indifferent, word of mouth is still considered just fine. Also, we are living in the day and age of hate watching so, again, money in CBS' hands, regardless of the reception.
Simple-CBS doesn't want to just cater to fans.
They wanted to update the look but keep the backlog and cherry pick the best stuff. "But all the hundreds of hours!!!!" The only hours that matter -- as far as Discovery is concerned -- are the ones that are brought up. As long as they effectively bring everyone up to speed on what they need to know, without making it feel like they're going to school, it shouldn't be an issue. Someone watching Discovery wouldn't need to watch a series besides Discovery, unless they wanted to.
Of course, I highly doubt DSC is anyone's first exposure to Star Trek. Depending on how old they are, it was probably TOS, TNG, or one of the movies.
Of course, I highly doubt DSC is anyone's first exposure to Star Trek. Depending on how old they are, it was probably TOS, TNG, or one of the movies.
I know a few who were familiar with Trek, how can anyone not be at this point. But DISCO was the first they got into.
First exposure? Probably not. First full watching? Possibly.
Also, all the "100s of hours" relate more to TNG era than TOS era.
Yeah, I know, but I didn't need a Crystal Ball to tell me there'd be at least someone who'd bring up the 700+ Episodes Argument if I didn't address it right there.
Fair point. I find it amusing that there is 700 hours of Trek and yet a lack of recognition of how much that doesn't involve TOS and the era Discovery is in.Yeah, I know, but I didn't need a Crystal Ball to tell me there'd be at least someone who'd bring up the 700+ Episodes Argument if I didn't address it right there.
What's more amusing is how many of those non-TOS hours people outside of fandom don't care about.
Truly.What's more amusing is how many of those non-TOS hours people outside of fandom don't care about.
Because Discovery is a purely corporate product designed by a committee of suits. Look at how many producers the show has.
The show is both trying to have it's cake and eat it in the most shallow way possible. Most of the show just shallowly apes trends from other major TV shows (Grimdark, random deaths, extreme melodrama) to appeal to the "prestige TV" audience, copies it's aesthetic from a sci-fi popular video game to appeal to the youth and throws in shallow Star Trek fanwank to appeal to Star Trek fandom. This is why you get the absolute facepalm crap like walking a delta in the sand.
This is because the show isn't Star Trek at it's core, it's a generic Sci-fi cashgrab with the Star Trek label smashed onto it to sell All Access. I have no problem with updating the TOS aesthetic, but you can still update something with better materials and bigger budget and keep the overall design aesthetic of TOS. Discovery doesn't do any of that at all, it copy pastes its aesthetic from a popular video game (Mass Effect) an then throws deltas on everything.
It's clear that this show did very little if really anything at all to actually play to any established TOS aesthetic aside from the phasers and communicators (because these make good merchandise). Even the Federation ships in Discovery look like Mass Effect ships with just saucers thrown on them.
Producers credits have exploded over the last few years. Very few are actually involved with making shows.
As @King Daniel Beyond already pointed out, that rationale does not remotely begin to explain what was done with the designs of the Klingon ships (or the Klingons themselves, for that matter).
They wanted aliens to look more alien. Seems simple enough. Same as in 1979.
That may or may not have been the motivation. If so, there's no denying it was kinda arbitrary, since in the absence of any aliens IRL we have no idea what "more alien" actually means, and the Klingons were bound to be humanoid no matter what, which is probably pretty implausible biologically speaking.
More importantly, though, if that was the motivation it was obviously a creative one, and as such had nothing to do with an "update" to utilize "contemporary tech." (Which, where makeup is concerned, is not radically different from what it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago, anyway.) And insofar as that was the motivation, it was also made in defiance of the entire history of the Klingons across all of Trek, since they were never used as to represent "alien-ness" so much certain aspects of human politics and culture — which is, in fact, what the DSC creators said they wanted to explore back at the beginning.
Conversely, if they wanted to really explore "alien-ness," there was no reason to use Klingons to do it with... there's certainly nothing about the show's concept that would prevent them from creating new aliens.
They wanted to have their cake (It's PRIME UNIVERSE! Die-hard fans will subscribe if we say that!) and eat it too (let's completely reboot and reimagine the Klingons from SCRATCH) but the two are fundamentally incompatible.
Yet the Klingon ship looked the same as the one from TOS. Just better detailed of course.
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