Spoilers So now Discovery is 'synched-up' with canon

[anh165]

Hahaha. Someone actually said this^

I think 1 seaQuest season 1 has a great mix of exploration, political intrigue, and character drama.

Yeah? And how did SeaQuest fair after that?

Today's TV programming is shaped around today's BYOD generation, with so many competing programming and streaming services out there, that a series wide story arc / cliffhanging is the norm now to keep viewers hooked.

 

[Nyotarules]

If they want to reflect the real world era, they should have jumped to the 26th century with Vulcan or Earth voting to leave the Federation, a rise in xenophobia, Terra Prime and Logic Extremists planting bombs. A seemingly respectable 'Earth First' style party being created and running for President of United Earth. Humans complaining about alien immigrants taking over the Sol system, human hybrid adults and children being terrorised, 'pure' humans worrying about the rise in mixed species relationships and families.

 

[Amasov]

You're complaining about something that has not been started and does not exist yet.
You're pre-planning to be upset about an outcome that may or may not happen. Why do that to yourself?

Don't all Star Trek fans do that?

 

[XCV330]

Don't all Star Trek fans do that?

No

 

[Alan Roi]

Oh, I have already noted that this production team cannot win at all with fans. No matter what they do they will get accusations of "not real Trek" or "too much pew-pew" or some nonsense.

Right...see that would never happen because then it defies the "only ship in the quadrant/sector/galaxy" trope.

This. By mid-season they were complaining about the ship having not yet used it phasers the entire season, and then after the last episode complaining that the show was all about pew-pew space battles, when there was exactly 1 space battle over the entire season. You ever give these people what they say they want, they'll just move the goalposts.

 

[fireproof78]

This. By mid-season they were complaining about the ship having not yet used it phasers the entire season, and then after the last episode complaining that the show was all about pew-pew space battles, when there was exactly 1 space battle over the entire season. You ever give these people what they say they want, they'll just move the goalposts.

It is quite exhausting.

 

[Starflight]

Why is this odd? How often do main characters, (especially Spock) talk about their relatives? Only when its in the script. No one knew Spock had a fiance until Amok Time, not even the in universe characters knew.

It's not necessarily odd in-universe, but in the real-life context of when Discovery was made, they're revisiting a 50+ year old character and asking us to accept their newly-written character as a major part of his life. The existence of Burnham colours the way we see Spock throughout all of existing Star Trek. "Odd" might not be the right word, but it's a huge writing challenge/responsibility they set for themselves, and they must have known that fan expectations would be stratospheric.

 

[ITDUDE]

Right...see that would never happen because then it defies the "only ship in the quadrant/sector/galaxy" trope.

I know
I rewatched first episode of The Expanse yesterday, trying to get my wife into it. And they played that trope for laughs (well, they weren't exactly laughing for long, the ship got blown to smithereens shortly after). Basically they receive a distress call from some small ship and their ship was the only one in range to respond. The captain was like "Well, of course we are". Definite dig at Star Trek (or any other sci-fi show really, but definitely Star Trek firstly)

 

[Alan Roi]

It's not necessarily odd in-universe, but in the real-life context of when Discovery was made, they're revisiting a 50+ year old character and asking us to accept their newly-written character as a major part of his life. The existence of Burnham colours the way we see Spock throughout all of existing Star Trek. "Odd" might not be the right word, but it's a huge writing challenge/responsibility they set for themselves, and they must have known that fan expectations would be stratospheric.

But something that will get them talking,arguing and more importantly, watching.

 

[Alan Roi]

I know
I rewatched first episode of The Expanse yesterday, trying to get my wife into it. And they played that trope for laughs (well, they weren't exactly laughing for long, the ship got blown to smithereens shortly after). Basically they receive a distress call from some small ship and their ship was the only one in range to respond. The captain was like "Well, of course we are". Definite dig at Star Trek (or any other sci-fi show really, but definitely Star Trek firstly)

To quote Douglas Adams:

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

 

[fireproof78]

It's not necessarily odd in-universe, but in the real-life context of when Discovery was made, they're revisiting a 50+ year old character and asking us to accept their newly-written character as a major part of his life. The existence of Burnham colours the way we see Spock throughout all of existing Star Trek. "Odd" might not be the right word, but it's a huge writing challenge/responsibility they set for themselves, and they must have known that fan expectations would be stratospheric.

It's Star Trek so I think expectations are galactic by nature. But, I think the larger challenge is that it challenges 50 years of fan assumptions.

 

[seigezunt]

I completely get the appeal of prequels. By the time Voyager wrapped up, I was bored, and a chance to see where the Trek I grew up with came from came around, I was thrilled.

 

[anh165]

It's not necessarily odd in-universe, but in the real-life context of when Discovery was made, they're revisiting a 50+ year old character and asking us to accept their newly-written character as a major part of his life. The existence of Burnham colours the way we see Spock throughout all of existing Star Trek. "Odd" might not be the right word, but it's a huge writing challenge/responsibility they set for themselves, and they must have known that fan expectations would be stratospheric.

I love it, to me it has added some more richness into Spock's character and backstory.

The same with Captain Pike too, he seemed to be once portrayed as a weak/unlucky commander (especially when combining the events of from the Kevin universe). Instead he has shown himself to be a model captain, tough/brave as they come and likeable.

 

[Alan Roi]

I love it, to me it has added some more richness into Spock's character and backstory.

The same with Captain Pike too, he seemed to be once portrayed as a weak/unlucky commander (especially when combining the events of from the Kevin universe). Instead he has shown himself to be a model captain, tough/brave as they come and likeable.

Pike has some interesting flaws however. He's the model captain for those who paste their projections on him don't look deep into his character.

 

[uniderth]

Yeah? And how did SeaQuest fair after that?

Pretty badly, becasue for Season 2 they decided to stray into including monsters, telepathy, and greek Gods. Season 1 was pretty grounded in reality which helped make the show believable. Season 3 everything was more militaristic and less exploration(though I admit I haven't watched Season 3 recently, so I may be misremembering).

Today's TV programming is shaped around today's BYOD generation, with so many competing programming and streaming services out there, that a series wide story arc / cliffhanging is the norm now to keep viewers hooked.

And as I said I don't think exploration stories have to be one off solve the alien problem of the week. Today's visual media is more geared towards binge watching. People watch a season all at once so instead of being 10 individual stories they turn it into a ten hour long movie, that's cut up into episodes.

But that's not the only way it can be done. You can tell episodic stories that are tied together with with season long arcs. It's just different ways of telling stories.

 

[eschaton]

Today's TV programming is shaped around today's BYOD generation, with so many competing programming and streaming services out there, that a series wide story arc / cliffhanging is the norm now to keep viewers hooked.

I don't think cliffhanging is the norm at all these days. Off the top of my head:

• Game of Thrones has always had the convention that the big action piece happens earlier in the season (usually the penultimate episode) with the season finale being a quieter, more character focused episode
• There were no major cliffhangers in any of the three seasons of The Expanse
• The different Netflix shows I have watched (Stranger Things, Altered Carbon, Lost in Space, etc) pretty definitively closed their arcs rather than end on a cliffhanger.

Could you please tell me what shows you're thinking of here?

 

[Alan Roi]

Yeah? And how did SeaQuest fair after that?

Today's TV programming is shaped around today's BYOD generation, with so many competing programming and streaming services out there, that a series wide story arc / cliffhanging is the norm now to keep viewers hooked.

That's a bit reductive, but I am glad that after several decades, TV programming in general and science fiction in particular has caught up with what I have wanted TV programming to be since I was young. IE novel length stories. I guess I was ahead of my time.

 

[BillJ]

The TV show based exploration based stories have been done to death with TOS and TNG.

Except for neither one did all that much exploring.

 

[SolarisOne]

If they want to reflect the real world era, they should have jumped to the 26th century with Vulcan or Earth voting to leave the Federation, a rise in xenophobia, Terra Prime and Logic Extremists planting bombs. A seemingly respectable 'Earth First' style party being created and running for President of United Earth. Humans complaining about alien immigrants taking over the Sol system, human hybrid adults and children being terrorised, 'pure' humans worrying about the rise in mixed species relationships and families.

Sad, but true.

 

[JoeZhang]

Except for neither one did all that much exploring.

I was thinking about this - how many episodes of TNG actually start with them on a mission of exploration?