Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x01 - "Brother"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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G
Gonzo
Guest
Yeah a step in the right direction and definitely a soft reboot, in fact when Pike was speaking it sounded to me like it was aimed at the audience as well which was a nice touch, he could easily stay on if he is well received by fans, then when he returns to the Enterprise they could launch that show at the same time at the end of this season or maybe even season 3.Damn, it's almost impossible to keep up with these kind of threads. Overnight it has easily doubled in replies!
Overall I really liked “Brother”. A big improvement over much of season one's episodes and I hope it's a sign of a change in approach. Much of the episode did feel like a course-correction and soft reboot to me. Unlike others I'm not convinced this would have worked as the original pilot without much retooling, but really I welcome the somewhat lighter tone of the show as well as the somewhat shifting of the focus away from Burnham to the whole of the Discovery crew.
They really stress that the crew is in need of some healing and trust-building after Lorca. And in Pike they seem to have found the perfect Captain for that process. I almost wonder if they'll find a way of keeping Pike on as Discovery's captain for the remainder of the show after the season ends.
Still can't say I'm overly enthusiastic for the return of Georgiou, Section 31 and the Klingons in the following episodes, but I'm still hoping their involvement will be minimal.
I absolutely did!
Yes, this is something I noticed as well. In the first season, Tilly often functioned as a welcomed antidote to the serious tone of the story, but in an episode where everyone seems to quip left and right and the general approach seems to be much lighter, Tilly seemed a little over-the-top to me. Going forward I hope they'll find a less irritating way of integrating her.
Loved it! And for a moment there I wondered if they had completely reworked the title sequence. (Which they actually did for the proper title sequence. Not sure I need the stupid Section 31 badge in there, though.)
That's why Airiam looked so weird! I guess it'll grow on me, but the make-up looked much better on the original actress, I think. Do we have anything official about why they recast her other than the speculation upthread?
Yes, the incredibly looooong way those pods travelled through the tunnel before they finally left at the back of the ship was just ridiculous, especially once you consider they entered the pods in the shuttle bay, which already is at the back of the ship!
This, I think, was even more stupid than the pod thing (since we're likely never to see them again). Why the hell would the turbolifts travel inside such gigantic rooms?! Where is this even supposed to be on the ship? This completely contradicts every prior depiction of the turbolift tube system on Star Trek. When I saw the shot of those rollercoasters in the trailer I was convinced I was seeing some alien world or something, not the inside of Discovery! Now, not everything they decide to show has to look completely like I personally thought it would. But at the very least it should look logical and practical, which to me this does not.
Yes, they need to tone done the whole hologram thing! I don't think I ever need to see a character grabbing an invisible hologram thing and throw it in the air again. It just looks stupid to me. I mean, once even frickin' candles (!) have to be holographic you're definitely going overboard with the whole idea.
I agree. James Frain is doing a marvelous job as Sarek. I still think his casting was a stroke of genius.
Yeah, this didn't make a lot of sense. I mean, what has this woman not done in her career?! Where does test-piloting weirdly specific pods for a secret testbed class of ship even fit into here vita, timeline-wise?
Very nicely put. I completely agree.
Other observations:
A question for those who are more knowledgable in these matters: Does it really make sense for those photographic (?) units on the underside of the sauce that they use to make images of the asteroid field to use actual flash-lights? I get that it's probably a visual shorthand for “Look! Those are cameras taking photos!”, but nowadays you would never use flash-lights with a tele-lense, would you?
In a similar vein, I really don't know how to think about Sarus eyes being better than Dicovery's sensors. They did something similar in the pilot where they used Georgiou's telescope to see something their high-tech, 23rd century sensors couldn't, and it did make as much sense to me then as it does now.
Am I the only one who's bothered by the completely unbelievable anecdote about Kasseelian opera singers, who train their whole life for a single performance only to commit suicide immediately after?
Something else I didn't see anyone mention thus far: the music in this episode was wonderful! The quiet/tragic tones as young Michael is brought into the Sarek home; the energetic, percussive tune right before they slip into their Power Rangers suits; or the somber music when Michael steps into Spock's quarters on the Enterprise, that almost sounded like it tipped the hat to Gerald Fried's original Mr. Spock theme from “Amok Time”.
There was no S31 or Georgiou in this episode which was probably intentional as its a pretty big sticking point for some, we shall have to see how it is handled.
Yeah at first I thought they had a new title sequence, the original is fine but something with a bit of punch would have been nice.
The pods and turbolift sequence were a bit of a "you what" moment but the scenes looked good and were added just for the spectacle so they didn't bother me, unlike the case of the holo Sarek and the desk from last season which made me laugh.
The special effects were all top notch and well done.
A solid start to build upon.
canon purists would have a heart attack, me myself,I'd love to see more diversity in alien cultures and fashion, so bring it on
Yeah, that did't make any sense.
What bothered me most about that was how reverently the anecdote was told like it was something awesome and inspiring rather than totally fucked up. Though I think it could form a basis of a really cool TNGesque episode about choice, social norms and peer pressure.
i hope we don't see any tng-esque episode at all - timeline-wise a couple of days have to pass untill we arrive at that peak of boredom
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Right. To me pointless CGI chases are the peak of boredom, I'd take dealing with important social issues over that any day.
Hey, there are black Romulans. There have to be at least some Vulcans who grow beards.
Yeah, the pod chase got boring fast and became little more than a blur of CGI and quick cuts between the pods and their occupants. It's one of my issues with the episode that prevented me from giving it a higher grade.
Yeah but how big is it, that's the real question.
It looks to me like that's in the neck, its the only part of the ship with enough height, assuming we are looking bottom up or top down.
There are several things in Star Trek that are bold and visible, right up on the screen, and punching you in the face with their stupidity/implausibility/lack of common sense
It is in those times that I choose to sigh deeply and forget.
This is one of those times.
did i say that? i liked a lot with tng - what i can't stand is that aura of superiority and rightfulness. this overflowing knowledge of being the good guys. not even Q would ever dare to squash them - and not just because that'd end the show; he just wouldn't dare.
were you ever afraid picard and his crew were seriously in danger. when they killed off tasha yar it came out of the blue (and in a rather bad show) but with a purpose (again): to remind us of our mortality.
for the record:
- cgi is overdone (if yo u ask me: a lot)
- those launching tubes are ridiculuos
- the pods are ridiculuos, too (starfleet small craft always looked like bricks)
- i'll have to revisit the turbolift as i kinda missed it
i believe that cgi overdose and the way guns work are the 2010s as bakelite switches and miniskirts were the 1960s - we may like it or not but we have to live with it.
if i want a tng-esque scene i just watch tng. i don't expect discovery to be anything but discovery.
... btw, was there ever a tos-esque episode in tng?
nix fia unguat*
---
*bavarian for no offence intented
Gotta be with @oberth on this one. I've got 100s and 100s of hours of "TNG-like episodes," all produced with declining quality and poignancy back in the 80s and 90s under the guise of "dealing with important social issues" (which is almost a vomit-inducing joke of a trope at this point). I'm good. That repetitive formula drove me into hibernation with Trek for years. I don't need Star Trek to shine a light on society or politics for me. I need it to entertain me and allow for some escapism by doing cool sci-fi , great character drama, action/adventure, some over the top spectacles, and a few unexpected twists.
i wouldn't go that far as distant origin is among my most favoured trek shows ever
what i want to say with that is: if they want to do social issues i'm all fine with it but they need to do it the disco-way
G
Gonzo
Guest
After this episode would anyone dare attempt to do an internal deck layout of the Discovery.
I do think what we saw could have been the main turbolift junction of the ship looking directly down or directly up, it would fit in the neck with branches then going off to the nacelles, shuttlebay and saucer.
I don't think those pods were in the main shuttle bay either, they looked like they were in a science area so the extended travel required to leave the ship could be possible, it would waste a lot of space though, unless they made it a part of the escape pod system which runs throughout the ship.
Sort of like a testbed for the system as a whole, it is doable and it could all fit but its going to be tight.
The flatter profile of the ship is ultimately more efficient than a taller design simply due to less need for vertical travel or stairs if we were talking about a building, I mean just look at some of the tallest buildings in the world, they are very efficient with a very small footprint and space taken on the ground but they have to have so many lifts and emergency stairwells the entire core of the building is filled with them which ultimately defeats the purpose as they lose so much internal space.
Its one of the reasons why I like the Mega Star Destroyer in the new films, the flatter profile is more realistic and space efficient than many ship designs we see in other shows, especially when you start talking about ships that have populations in the hundred of thousands or millions.
Better for Star Trek ships to just rely on site to site transporters with a basic manual system used for emergencies to keep the space waste to a minimum.
G
Gonzo
Guest
Absolutely, if I just wanted angst and the same issues repeated over and over again I would watch daytime soapy television, I don't know how anyone can watch that stuff without their brains dying.
Its meant to be escapist entertainment with a side order of pew pew.
Quick review: Discovery is basically the TV Prime Universe done in the style and tone of the Kelvin movies.
It is very cinematic and "big budget". The humor was very quick and sharp, similar to the Kelvin movies. The mystery of the signal is interesting and very promising. I really like Pike. He comes across as the archetype of the ideal starfleet captain. He is smart, decisive, by the book, but also cool, sympathetic and relaxed. The lighter tone is a huge improvement from season 1.
My nitpick: The episode made the mistake that a lot of action movies make where they come up with a convoluted reason to justify some crazy action stunt because it will look cool. I am of course talking about the race through the asteroids in tiny pods scene. Basically, the writers came up with an excuse for why the transporters or shuttles won't work so that our characters can strap into single seat pods and race at ludicrous speeds through an asteroid field. Really?! And why would you send the captain on such a dangerous stunt on his first mission no less? And of course the expendable character gets killed but Burnham miraculously saves the captain in another impossible stunt. It was a completely reckless scene filled with convenient contrivances. that seemed to be done just to have a cool movie like big action scene. It was cool but I am still going to nitpick it.
It is very cinematic and "big budget". The humor was very quick and sharp, similar to the Kelvin movies. The mystery of the signal is interesting and very promising. I really like Pike. He comes across as the archetype of the ideal starfleet captain. He is smart, decisive, by the book, but also cool, sympathetic and relaxed. The lighter tone is a huge improvement from season 1.
My nitpick: The episode made the mistake that a lot of action movies make where they come up with a convoluted reason to justify some crazy action stunt because it will look cool. I am of course talking about the race through the asteroids in tiny pods scene. Basically, the writers came up with an excuse for why the transporters or shuttles won't work so that our characters can strap into single seat pods and race at ludicrous speeds through an asteroid field. Really?! And why would you send the captain on such a dangerous stunt on his first mission no less? And of course the expendable character gets killed but Burnham miraculously saves the captain in another impossible stunt. It was a completely reckless scene filled with convenient contrivances. that seemed to be done just to have a cool movie like big action scene. It was cool but I am still going to nitpick it.
The turbolifts are designed that way to compensate for gravitic flux during a spore jump. You see how madly the ship spins when those occur?
i agree with pretty much everything you said in your original post but to be fair, we haven’t seen the Klingons talking yet. That, I think, will be the true test of dialogue clunkiness.
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Well, then we we want fundamentally different things from the Star Trek.
G
Gonzo
Guest
I still get nightmares from all the dialogue in the pilot episodes, I appreciate the attempt at authenticity but it was boring to watch and painful to listen to.
Happy to see the soft reboot Klingons as well.
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