Spoilers Season 4 Trailer

[Timo]

Yeah, Trek ships have always moved at the "speed of plot." That said, I do feel like there are two major changes with Discovery versus earlier Treks which make it feel different.

One is that artistically speaking, they depict departure and arrival in a very different way. Instead of seeing a ship serenely glide into orbit, they jank out of warp instantly - often with a planet, asteroid, or another ship dangerously close to them. This is a relatively cheap way to add suspense - the Trek equivalent of a "jump scare" in some cases - but it's not necessarily more or less "realistic" than the classic beauty shots.

Indeed. TOS did have its moments of ships arriving all of a sudden, but those were done purely with dialogue, and expedited the plot by omitting dead time. The TOS movies went out of their way to show the serene gliding simply because they could. But TNG did not have that luxury, so it was back to the "Now we are here, orbiting X" dialogue, with even the "hero ship approaches red planet as viewed from astern" shot omitted from the stock.

DSC understandably does the best of both worlds. There's money and bits to burn for showing the arrival, but no time to show the gliding. So why not go for the scare factor as a bonus?

The other is I think it is the case that Discovery focuses a bit more on the destination and less on the journey. In Berman Trek there were plenty of episodes where the destination was more or less a framing device and some sort of negative space wedgie got in the way of the crew, causing the crisis of the week. Hell, I think in Enterprise's first season they were "heading to Risa" for around six weeks straight, but awful stuff kept happening. The ship here is more just a means to an end, but I think to a large extent the Spore Drive bakes that in. I mean, Picard had plenty of those slower-paced shipboard moments aboard La Sirena.

Destination mattering really is a Star Wars thing, an opportunity to show multiple locations within the single effective half-hour - another thing far beyond the budget of previous Trek TV shows. And yes, it's a natural result of the heroes having the spore drive. But there is a further level to travel in DSC, all-new yet not related to Stamets' invention in any way.

The thing DSC introduces is the ability of characters to appear and disappear within a single adventure, in what otherwise are bottle shows despite the multiple locations portrayed. Previously, we would get the mechanism by which a guest star joins the team, and then departs; say, there's a pickup at a starbase, or mention of a rendezvous usually complete with stock footage. In DSC, people come and go, not only being present when required by drama, but also suddenly explicitly being absent when either required to be absent, or even when not required to be present. That is, not just in the sense of "Sarek needs to be on Vulcan", but in the sense of "Sarek needs to be unavailable to talk with Burnham"!

This was not a luxury available to the writers of any previous Trek incarnation. But all of a sudden, characters can pop in and out, presumably by shuttlecraft, which for the very first time are suggested to have speed comparable to the big ships (in-universe first time; TAS has big shuttles do good speed a decade later). This is quite jarring when the role of Sarek is to be a mentor and/or foil to the main character, and her need for mentoring/foiling never goes away. But we get at least some consolation as regards Cornwell when in the S2 finale we're told she was a Section 31 bigwig after all, and quite motivated to move in the shadows.

S3 onwards, this activity is made even easier with the personal transporters...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mike Doyle]

Size matters not--oh wait, wrong franchise. Regardless, just one Borg cube is much smaller than 5 light years wide, and the whole galaxy goes into a panic over just one.

Aren’t there literally thousands of Borg Cubes in the galaxy most of the time.

People don’t go into a panic unless one is next to them/ok the way to them.

This is the same thing. We’ve never seen the whole galaxy go into a panic.

 

[Mike Doyle]

Yes, quite...! LD has completely thrown that!

It's even two different com badges...

I think different badges for different ships goes back quite a bit further than Lower Decks (TOS)

 

[Amasov]

I'm going to laugh so hard when that pops up.

I've started to notice it happening with Discovery already with the first season. I've seen in various places that some are starting to see the first season of the show wasn't so bad. Personally, I didn't think the first season was bad, myself. I always liked it.

 

[Tuskin38]

Kurtzman (?) said that the enemy this season wouldn't be a living thing. So the anomaly probably won't be a living thing but just a force of nature.

 

[Rhodan]

Kurtzman (?) said that the enemy this season wouldn't be a living thing. So the anomaly probably won't be a living thing but just a force of nature.

Please, this would be SO MUCH delightful, if done right!

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Too logical and reasonable

Also, it reminds me almost exactly like V'Ger or the Crystalline Entity or something like that from the dialog.

Yeah. It reminds me of V'Ger or maybe the Nexus as well.

 

[TedShatner10]

I've started to notice it happening with Discovery already with the first season. I've seen in various places that some are starting to see the first season of the show wasn't so bad. Personally, I didn't think the first season was bad, myself. I always liked it.

Season 1 is still an unrefined mess and suffered from TNG Season 1-itus, but still had its moments.

Season 2 is possibly my favourite season (I'm still processing S3) it felt the most lavish and looked beautiful, even if it felt a bit empty and disjointed (with Control too vague and monolithic as an antagonist to leave an impact), with outer space and time itself feeling the most frightening and alienating in the Trek franchise in years.

 

[The Wormhole]

What's at the core of the anomaly light years across?

Kovich. Because he's bored.

 

[eschaton]

Season 1 is still an unrefined mess and suffered from TNG Season 1-itus, but still had its moments.

Season 2 is possibly my favourite season (I'm still processing S3) it felt the most lavish and looked beautiful, even if it felt a bit empty and disjointed (with Control too vague and monolithic as an antagonist to leave an impact), with outer space and time itself feeling the most frightening and alienating in the Trek franchise in years.

The issue with the first two seasons is they both closed poorly. Having a bad ending - to a season or an entire serialized drama - can destroy its reputation. Look at what happened with Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Game of Thrones. There is still a lot of good content earlier on, but to some extent knowing what is waiting at the end has ruined a lot of fan enjoyment.

 

[fireproof78]

There was good at the beginning of Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica?

 

[Amasov]

Season 1 is still an unrefined mess and suffered from TNG Season 1-itus, but still had its moments.

Season 2 is possibly my favourite season (I'm still processing S3) it felt the most lavish and looked beautiful, even if it felt a bit empty and disjointed (with Control too vague and monolithic as an antagonist to leave an impact), with outer space and time itself feeling the most frightening and alienating in the Trek franchise in years.

I mostly agree with you. Season 2 might be my favorite for several reasons, but, it seemed to be the most consistent as far as the story they were telling. There were a few minor deviations to unrelated stories, but, overall, it was a constantly-evolving plot that kept adding more and more to the point over overcomplication. But, despite that, it was all toward the same goal. Season three just had half a dozen unrelated stories; most of which I just found boring and poorly-done.

 

[TedShatner10]

The issue with the first two seasons is they both closed poorly. Having a bad ending - to a season or an entire serialized drama - can destroy its reputation. Look at what happened with Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and Game of Thrones.

Game Of Thrones and House Of Cards stick in the mind for having particularly rushed, messy egregious endings - S1 of DSCO stuck in the mind of being shitty, because it felt like two messy season finales after another followed by a more tidy (but boring) epilogue.

S2's finale was still cluttered and wobbly, but it didn't bore, and I loved the trip into the future.

 

[eschaton]

Game Of Thrones and House Of Cards stick in the mind for having particularly rushed, messy egregious endings - S1 of DSCO stuck in the mind of being shitty, because it felt like two messy season finales after another followed by a more tidy (but boring) epilogue.

S2's finale was still cluttered and wobbly, but it didn't bore, and I loved the trip into the future.

I personally feel although Season 1 was flawed, I was "along for the ride" until the third to the last episode. Then we had Lorca become a mustache-twirling shitheel, Stamets saying all life in the multiverse would die if they failed, and Georgiou saved by Burnham because the writers wanted an excuse to keep Michelle Yeoh around. Then the last two episodes were similarly dumb as rocks and contrived, but also incredibly rushed to boot.

Season 2 I feel like started falling apart earlier - around the ninth episode (The Red Angel). Then we had to strap in for two episodes of almost pure exposition where they tried to awkwardly weld Control onto whatever arc was planned by Berg and Harberts before they got shitcanned. I will admit it rallied a bit at the end, unlike the first season - but it still didn't make much logical sense.

Season 3 was much more consistent, though I do feel like it more slowly lost steam (and vision) as the season wore on.

 

[Danny99]

Count me in the "Season 2 was my favourite" column, even though I didn't like Control as an antagonist. I think a lot of that had to do with Anson Mount bringing some stability to the show as Discovery's commander.

I'm hopeful that finally putting Burnham in the captain's chair will bring the same stability. She doesn't have to rebel against a captain that she disagrees with, the decisions are hers.

There isn't a lot to go on from the trailer to really get a grasp on what the season will be about outside of a dangerous anomaly. I can only hope that the season was plotted out and nothing will be shoehorned in or rushed like every other season has.

The uniforms are miles better than the ones from the end of season three. I still hate the neck lines and the rank patches or whatever we want to call them, but that won't be held against the season.

I think the writers knew people randomly loved Grudge and had to get a shot of her in there. I am happy to see Book still involved in some way.

 

[fireproof78]

Glad Book is back but Grudge could go.

 

[DigificWriter]

we had Lorca become a mustache-twirling shitheel

Lorca didn't 'become' anything.

The writers completely telegraphed - on multiple occasions - the true nature of the character from very early on in the season.

 

[Jayson1]

My feeling is the LGBTQ characters are the only thing working for the show right now. I think that is the stuff the writers are most interested in so you can see the quality of character development you don't see elsewhere. Burnham was Fuller's vision so she has suffered the most in having to be written by people who don't know how a Star Trek lead works in terms of being strong and competent. Tilly and Saru are just kind of their now with no interesting character arcs. Both even had sort of the same arcs of becoming captains which was so dumb when your doing the same with Burnham. Basically 3 characters with the exact same arc. It made no sense. Plus the story arcs tend to be boring and don't utilize the potential of the show's very setting. You send them to the future and best you have to offer is space pirates and a weeping manchild alien. Week sause. Jason

 

[eschaton]

Lorca didn't 'become' anything.

The writers completely telegraphed - on multiple occasions - the true nature of the character from very early on in the season.

I didn't have issue with Lorca being from the MU - and it was well-telegraphed. I think it was a mistake however to have him rip off the mask and be a cartoon villain underneath it. They could have kept some nuance to the character even if he became the antagonist.

For example, maybe he realized once he went to the Prime Universe that non-humans are capable crewmembers and would be a valuable asset to the Empire. He's still a totalitarian, but he's not a racist, and genuinely wants to reform things help make the Terran Empire stronger. Then there's a sense of real tension in the Discovery Crew siding against him, because he's not "all bad" and there would be some incremental improvements if he won over Georgiou. Even if they ultimately had to kill him, at least there would be some sense of pathos/senseless loss.

 

[eschaton]

My feeling is the LGBTQ characters are the only thing working for the show right now. I think that is the stuff the writers are most interested in so you can see the quality of character development you don't see elsewhere. Burnham was Fuller's vision so she has suffered the most in having to be written by people who don't know how a Star Trek lead works in terms of being strong and competent. Tilly and Saru are just kind of their now with no interesting character arcs. Both even had sort of the same arcs of becoming captains which was so dumb when your doing the same with Burnham. Basically 3 characters with the exact same arc. It made no sense. Plus the story arcs tend to be boring and don't utilize the potential of the show's very setting. You send them to the future and best you have to offer is space pirates and a weeping manchild alien. Week sause. Jason

My biggest consistent issue with Discovery is it feels like it's written from a plot-focused standpoint, rather than a character-focused one. Basically there's a set of things the writers want to happen each episode/season, and they bend the characters to fit the plot rather than changing the "grand plan" to fit the characters.

Just one random example - Ash Tyler becoming a Section 31 true believer in Season 2. It makes perfect sense that he accepts the offer of a job, since he has nowhere else to go. But nothing we know about regarding his character would suggest he'd start defending them to Michael and others when they meet up again. The only relationships with other Section 31 agents we really see are with Leland and Georgiou, and he certainly is not warm with either one of them. The values of Section 31 don't really comport with what we know about him. But he becomes a true believer because the story needs to have a "nice" black ops character to balance out the "mean" ones - and they wanted some excuse to keep him relevant that season.