I'm working on a different Enterprise variant in my spare time - more Kelvin-ish - so I'll pass on this for the moment.
Now there's an idea! Countless people have been talking about how "necessary" it is to modify the Enterprise to fit DSC's aesthetic. What about turning the tables? What would the Discovery (or the Shenzou) look like modified to fit the established aesthetic of 23rd-century Trek? Something that looks like it fits between the Kelvin from ST09, and the TOS-era Enterprise (or even TMP-era, seeing as how the Constitution class is apparently older than the Crossfield class)?... (I think it would be a major improvement, personally. But I don't have the design chops to do it myself...)
Honestly, I was just thinking of smoothing out some pieces and using TOS-style markings, like in some of the production art and trailers before the series came out. Probably making the nacelle caps orange instead of blue. I feel like a lot of the inexplicability of DSC's ships are a combination of the highly stylized look, finishing details like fonts and pennants, and an overly-unified design language for the ships we've seen (which is also an issue in the first two KT movies, though I don't think it created as much of a problem in that case) which makes it hard for any ship that isn't a Shenzhou/Discovery kitbash to feel like it's of a kind with what we've already seen.
At first I thought the FX in the show were decent - and by and large they are, but after reading this thread I feel like I've changed my mind somewhat. The space scenes are too cluttered, too much neon crap going on and not enough flyby action of the ship itself - which has a nice sleek design, so it's a shame. I think they're over stylised - even more so than the JJ films. The thing the effects remind me of the most though is the music video for Rihanna's 'Sledgehammer' for Star Trek Beyond. That being said I think the sets are stunning, (both real ones and digital) and are more or less movie quality, I get the feeling the money has been spent here over the space stuff to be honest. Hopefully season 2 will be tweaked and improved.
The VFX and the camera work made the first two episodes look almost like a big-budget movie, but everything that came after made it seem like they ran out of money.
i agree with you that the sets are gorgeous... maybe the best aspect of the production overall. but i think there's an over reliance on extreme lighting. it's hard to get a handle on the interiors of discovery because they're constantly lit from different sources or in different conditions. just like the exteriors. love or hate the psychedelic VFX, they are an extension of the on-set photography, pushed even further. so props to them for choosing and maintaining a visual aesthetic, albeit a deliberately inconsistent and garish one. but still, it seems to be a choice.
The Gagarin battle showed they CAN do some really good work. It's just we didn't get much of it. Hopefully they do more of that.
I'm disappointed with the effects. I felt the first half of the season the ship battles were rather blurry and low quality. Another problem I have is how generic and Pew Pew! they are. There's no real battle strategy in Trek anymore which was what made some classics episodes in the past.
Didn't they limit the quality of the show on CBSAA? I'm buying the blu-ray no matter what, so I hope it's in full 1080 (or better) glory there at least.
It isn't, because it isn't up to them. A forummember who knows people who work/worked on the SFX for Disco, already confirmed that Pixelmondo is capable of way more than this. They reason we have weird lighting and such in the SFX is because that's what the producers/CBS wanted it to look like. So, Pixelmondo being aware means jack shit untill the people in charge actually want it to look different. So, here's hoping THEY are aware of our views.
Well, no... here's hoping they have any particular reason to CARE. Consider this: the number of people participating in this thread (not including lurkers) is maybe a dozen at most. Of those, "our views" is really the unsolicited opinion of five or six people who have done no market research, no focus group tests, and demonstrate no broader understanding of the show's target audience than some guy walking in off the street. They literally have no REASON to listen to our views, because by every possible measure, we're nobody.
Oh yeah, I agree. I doubt they'll listen. The only reasons I'm kinda hopefull some changes will be made is because production of season 1 was messy and cluttered with changes of showrunners and adding more episodes and such. So, I wouldn't be surprised if the current team will take a critical look at both what they think and reception of the first season was like to streamline stuff.
Now THAT is a good point. There are always changes from one season to the next, especially with a change of production staff. In this case, the production staff changed while Season 1 was still in production, so they probably dind't have time to make major changes to style or tone. They probably already have some ideas about VFX updates and such.