Pros and Cons of the season (and series) thus far?

But what other way to get rid of a horrid character once and for all?

 

She was a placeholder character. They made here as unlikable as possible so that the audience was glad she was replaced with someone who was presented as much nicer: Tyler/Voq

 

Pros,
Great characters
Great acting
Top notch effects
Compelling story arch

Cons
Episodes stuck in regular tv format, noticeably too short

A season broken up into two halves? Oi.

Instead of one dimensional drunk russian pirate klingons we get one dimensional whiny klingons

 

Anything to add or amend as the second half of the season comes to a close?

 

Well since you asked...

This was (my) Nov 25, 2017 assessment:

Pros:
It has 'Star Trek' in its pedigree.
It is the only new Star Trek in the franchise.
The acting ranges from pretty good to compelling.
The vessel 'Discovery' has eye appeal.

Cons:
Its story lines are disjointed and unsatisfying.
It has a silly piece of technology at its core.
There are no likeable characters.

Update:

Pros:
The War is hopefully almost over.
Been reminded how the music sets the mood.
Is talked about.

Cons:
Killed or 'reinvented' too many characters.
Gimmicky.

 

I wasn't glad at all. Damn she's so hot. Probably my #1 hottest Trek character.

 

Agreed with all of that. I think there is also too much alternate universe/dimension/spore drive and even time travel. Stuff like that must be used in moderation, if at all.

 

Pros:

• First new Trek I'm following as it's aired
• The acting's generally very good
• Lorca, Saru, Tilly and Stamets I've found great and compelling characters
• CGI and sets look great as well as most of the alien make-up designs
  
• I generally dig the updated production design
• Most importantly, I'm glad there's finally a Star Trek series that doesn't feel an overwhelming need to explain every single question and plot twist in the very episode they're introduced in.

Cons:

• Klingon make-up could've been better (hair, beards + eyebrows would be a huge improvement)
• Speaking of Klingons, it's obvious many of the actors had difficulties acting around an alien language and restricting make-up (kudos for Mary Chieffo for still managing to emote through that thick layer of latex though)
• On Lorca's exit: my main problem with it is that it was rushed. We didn't see enough of him, almost as if he was expendable now that he turned out to be evil.
• The secondary cast could've been better fleshed out, including the Discovery crew and any Klingon not named Voq or L'Rell.
• There could've been more scenes shot on location.
• Despite being the main character, Burnham often fails to engage me. She works well with the cast but she has problems carrying a story on her own.

 

Pro

Star Trek is back on telly.

Cons

It hasn’t found its feet or it’s stride

The external shots of the ships are cluttered and difficult to follow

It insults its audience with unfathomable contrivances like secretly installing an evil dictator in s position of power. WTF.

 

ITT: Good information on who's opinions I should ignore lol.

Seriously how in hell do people in this thread consider Sonequa Martin Green or Shazad Latif good actors? Dear god, they're absolutely awful by every objective measure, I think a rock has more natural emotional range than either and I don't mean Dwayne Johnson, I mean, an actual physical lump of mineral. SMG is an absolutely terrible actress, it's actually astonishing how laughably bad her acting and delivery is, in what universe is her acting good?

Anyway

Pro:
- Lorca, Stamets, Saru are/were interesting enough (until the writers character assassinated Lorca)
- Interior of the Klingon Sarcophagus ship had amazing craftsmanship.
- Sarek is portrayed well.
- Nice redesign on Andorians.
- Tardigrade had nice VFX
- Mudd update was nice and acted well.
- It's free on Netflix for those of us who aren't American.

Cons
Where to begin?
- The acting from SMG is god awful and she and the character of Michael Burnham drag down the entire show. It's actually so goddamn bad that there are times I struggle not to skip her character scenes especially anything to do with the absolute awful "romance" between her and Tyler.
- The writing has been extremely sub-par across the board. The entire show is written around lame mystery boxes, which are resolved with lame Nu-Who level Deus Ex making the several episode buildup "mystery" completely pointless. Character dialogue ranges from unnatural to absolutely cringeworthy. (That needs of the many romance scene, party scene etc)
- I feel the writers do not actually like Star Trek or get Star Trek at all. To me it's extremely obvious that the writers wish they could be writing their own Sci-Fi series and not Star Trek. The Star Trek "elements" for the most part feel extremely shallow and fanwanky, like they just skimmed MemAlph for 15 minutes and then just threw something they read that in an episode as a reference. (Voyager also suffered from writers who didn't want to be working on a Trek show)
- Star Trek Discovery to me actually feels more like MASS EFFECT: Discovery than Star Trek. It's extremely obvious that Mass Effect was the main inspiration at least aesthetically for the show rather than Star Trek.
- Everything about the Klingons was an abortion. I mean, there are ideas there that are cool, but they were so, so close and didn't get there and instead made everything awful. Great example is lack of hair, throw hair on those Klingons and they actually look cool.
- The Klingon ships are WTF bad.
- Pretty much all the Fed Ship designs are mediocre. I do not get the wank over the Shenzhou, it's pretty much literally Mass Effect's Normandy with a saucer, it also feels extremely out of place in the timeline feeling like a STO ship.
- We're at the last episode of the 1st season and we barely still have actually any characters. "Character development" through the season just felt hamfisted and done in service for the plot.
-They're not only working with one of the most iconic pieces of pop-culture, they're working in the era of possibly the most iconic aesthetic of pop culture and instead of actually UPDATING the TOS aesthetic, they threw it all in the trash and copy-pasted Mass Effect.
- Episodes feel extremely short. Episodes this short do not work with the pacing or storytelling they are going for. GoT episodes range from 60 minutes to 80 minutes, where Discovery at points has dropped basically to the low 30s at times.
- The space shot VFX are near video game tier.
- No diversity in main characters, aside from Saru they're all Americans.

That is just off the top of my head right now. There is a lot more that I'm missing.

 

My only updates to what I wrote originally would be:

Cons:
-Like with all other Trek series (except TOS) it is a little uneven in the first season while it finds its footing.
-Adios, Lorca
-Please, I beg you, better shots of the ships in space. If you're going to spend a ton of money on digital models, show them, damnit.
-Episodes are too short. Especially for a streaming show. Use another 5 min per episode for character stuff and you'd be golden.

Pros:
-It's DEFINITELY different, which was desperately needed after ~750 hours of "same"
-It looks like a movie every week.
-It features the most overall talented cast of the franchise
-Despite some high levels of foolishness, it is MASSIVELY entertaining and fun. Past series had less foolishness (although not to the extent some pretend), but were far from being anything that resembles fun.

 

Pros:

- It brings some colorfulness back into Star Trek, with new props and alien designs
- Some of the chatterers are interesting
- It has good acting
- It has a reasonable budget
- It occasionally hints at an interesting wider world
- It's the first Star Trek show in more than a decade

Cons:

- It makes some ridiculous and unnecessary breaks with visual continuity (i.e. Klingon ships)
- It's plots are soap-opera like, with little believably, sometimes seeming extremely contrived
- It's ethical and philosophical outlook seems inconsistent, or perhaps arbitrary
- It seems to ape trends in 2000s era science fiction, i.e. Stargate Universe

Overall: I wish it were better, and it could be if the writers turned their ideas around in season two.

 

I’m about pro everthing

Only cons and they are minor

1. Burnham - would rather it focus more on ensamble then just her

2. Klingon ships - not much resemblance to what we expect.

 

Pro

• Good cast;
• Largely unwatched;

Con

• Dull, unimaginative production design;
• Slapdash, arbitrary plotting;
• Superficial characterization;
• Fanwank levels at critical, Captain!

 

I watched the first episode of Discovery genuinely hopeful that a modern,properly written trek TV series had arrived.

At the end of the season, I still await the premier of that Trek TV series.

 

Pro: It's got spaceships

Con: With the death of Lorca, there's no one left I really like. Not a single one of that crew, other than Lorca and Tyler, were interesting to me.

Besides it's having Star Trek in the title and the promise of an Enterprise visitation, I don't have a reason yet to even care about next season. They did say they'd be doing planet of the week stories next season, so I guess that's a reason.

 

Pro Stamets, Culmets,
Ripper,CGI,Andorians

Cons T'kuvma dying
Culber dying,Lorca dying, Burnham \Tyler romance,Tyler.