What is Star Trek Discovery's rewatchability?
- Thread starter Tuvix5675
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The problem with SO MANY heavily serialized shows is that the nature of the storytelling basically obliterates any need/desire to watch them again.
Who says, "Gee, I want to watch the SECOND of three episodes of Discovery in the Mirror Universe?" Um, no one.
It's the problem with "the series is like a book and episodes are chapters!" Few people talk about wanting to re-read just "chapter 17" of their favorite book.
Personally, I'll never rewatch an episode of Discovery from Season 1. Seriously, ever.
Why make a personal preference into a concrete claim about audiences generally? You ask who says, "Gee, I want to watch the SECOND of three episodes of Discovery in the Mirror Universe?" Me, certainly. Many people.
There's nothing about the nature of stories that obliterates the need to experience them again. How many kids have said, "Read me the part about the dragon again--it's my favorite part!" Why are there endless reams of movie scenes posted to YouTube if people don't want to rewatch bits and pieces of stories? Why do people rewatch mid-season episodes of Westworld or Game of Thrones? Why does Audible have a bookmark feature? Why am I listening to Wintersmith, book three of five of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series?
The simple answer is that if I really enjoy a piece of media, particularly if a certain scene stands out to me as particularly powerful or compelling, I'm going to experience it again. Doesn't matter where it falls in the scope of a show. It might not be how you experience media, but it's a way other people do.
Um, me Like 3 days ago. Except it was the first of the Mirror Universe episodes and I ended up watching the rest of the season. You really shouldn't make generalisations and treat them as hard facts.
For me, I've rewatched only a few episodes from the first season, but the first two episodes of this season have been watched a few times by me already! So for me, rewatchability has gone up!
First time addressing this question, and i'll say it's a bit early for me to decide whether it truly has rewatchability. But my gut instinct is "not as much as previous series," and if anything disappoints me about Discovery it's that.
That's a pretty sarcastic and condescending way of looking at it. While there was certainly a darker aspect to it, I see what he's saying. And while I disagree that it was the only one that felt like Trek, the core concept of a character manipulating time to achieve his objective, and the crew having to problem solve and work together to stop Mudd is where it felt like Trek.
That's a pretty sarcastic and condescending way of looking at it. While there was certainly a darker aspect to it, I see what he's saying. And while I disagree that it was the only one that felt like Trek, the core concept of a character manipulating time to achieve his objective, and the crew having to problem solve and work together to stop Mudd is where it felt like Trek.
Unless you'd like to be a politician. That's all they do.
Second episode into season two, rewatchability is still going down. There is nothing here that warrants a rewatch, it’s disappointing, really
Funny, I was thinking the opposite as S02E02 was the most like the familiar Trek formula.
- go to a planet
- beam down and solve a mystery
- escape in the nick of time
- B plot with the ship in orbit
It's not surprising to me that people on Trek BBS are interested in re-watching Star Trek. But it's not a "personal preference", the fact that heavily serialized shows do not get a lot of repeat viewing is a demonstrable fact that has been noted and discussed and analyzed by Hollywood. Standalone shows, whether they're syndicated re-runs or streaming shows, or what have you, as a general rule, get many, many, many more eyeballs.
That's not an opinion.
Er, except that this isn't related to the post I made, I don't think? You said, and I quote:
This sentence is not referring to rewatching generally but selective rewatching, which you say no one at all does. You may not be inclined to selectively rewatch, and that's fine, but to generalize that sentiment to every person who watches the show just can't be true. That is what I was disagreeing with. I've selectively rewatched, and I'm not the only one.
People seek out pieces of their favorite stories to experience again all the time, whether that's a favorite book chapter, a movie scene on YouTube, or a movie in a trilogy. Whether that translates into numbers, I don't know, but "Do people rewatch Game of the Thrones?" is fundamentally a different question than, "Among people who re-watch Game of Thrones, do any of them rewatch from a point other than the beginning?"
really? So no annual Game of Thrones marathons just in time for a new season for you?
The prevailing idea that serialized series are much less likely to be rewatched is based on old-guard thinking and heavily skewed by half-hour sitcoms and reality shows. However, when it comes to the standard one-hour scripted drama, the data overwhelmingly shows a preference for serialization, which is why it's become the default standard in the industry.
And, yes, Thrones is atop the list.
And, yes, Thrones is atop the list.
Really late to the party, only just got thru S1. Uhhh...no, not a lot of rewatchability. too much of the season hinged on Big! Plot! Twists! that just don't matter the second time around. And it didn't help that I didn't like Michelle Yeoh (too wooden, lacking in charisma) or the Mirror Universe (they seem to have forgotten the point of the MU: to compare the characters we know and love to their evil counterparts; we barely knew the regular Georgiou, which left Stamets as the only comparison character).
I did like the Klingon stuff (unexpectedly, I'm usually pretty indifferent to the turtleheads) but considering that Tyler being a Klingon spy was telegraphed with all the subtlety of a batleth to the skull, I'm not sure I can count it as a plot twist at all.
I'll probably rewatch some of the Tyler scenes because they did create a character who could go interesting places there. Glad he didn't do like I thought he would: die in the final episode, reedeming himself in a blaze of glory, saving the Federation etc. Much better for him to survive as a messy recurring character who could go in any number of interesting directions. And yeah I do expect him to pop up again in S2. Maybe I should actually jump in during the season this time.
I did like the Klingon stuff (unexpectedly, I'm usually pretty indifferent to the turtleheads) but considering that Tyler being a Klingon spy was telegraphed with all the subtlety of a batleth to the skull, I'm not sure I can count it as a plot twist at all.
I'll probably rewatch some of the Tyler scenes because they did create a character who could go interesting places there. Glad he didn't do like I thought he would: die in the final episode, reedeming himself in a blaze of glory, saving the Federation etc. Much better for him to survive as a messy recurring character who could go in any number of interesting directions. And yeah I do expect him to pop up again in S2. Maybe I should actually jump in during the season this time.
For me, I am more likely to rewatch a serialized show than a non-serialized show, but my wife and I watch the whole series. We have rewatched Veronica Mars numerous times, Game of Thrones, Lost, I have rewtached Disco season 1 a couple of times. It's a binging world we live in, watching one episode doesn't seem worth it.
Both episodes of the 2nd season so far have been less serialized than the 1st season, especially this latest episode ("New Eden"). "New Eden" had a single episodic story to tell, albeit it also fits into the overall arc and moved that overall arc forward.
It was still a stand-alone chapter that dealt with questions on the application of General Order One/Prime Directive, and was a complete story in that respect, but it also existed within the larger story arc.
Even though DSC is generally serialized, there are things that can be gained by a re-watch. I watched both "Brother" and "New Eden" a second time and on both occasions I gained more insight into the characters and how they are developing. The re-watch can add a lot to the understanding, motivations, and growth of the characters, especially when you already know how the story told within the episode is going to end.
Example:
Re-watching New Eden -- and having the advantage of already knowing the scene at the end between Pike and Jacob -- allowed me to pay more attention to Jacob throughout the episode, which gave me a greater appreciation of Jacob's feelings and dialogue throughout and in that scene at the end, and added to the understanding of why Pike did what he did.
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So far, I've watched every episode multiple times during the week it was released, and at least 2 full viewings of the first season after it finished. The second time was just in the run up to Brother.
It kind of matches how I used to watch DS9 and Voyager in my teens while they were being released on VHS, often before Sky TV showed them.
Actually, it was only on that last watch through that I noticed in "Will You Take My Hand" that, when we saw the Klingon pissing in the street, there were two streams of urine visible. Until then, I thought Lorca's comment to L'Rell to be an ignorant wind up.
It kind of matches how I used to watch DS9 and Voyager in my teens while they were being released on VHS, often before Sky TV showed them.
Actually, it was only on that last watch through that I noticed in "Will You Take My Hand" that, when we saw the Klingon pissing in the street, there were two streams of urine visible. Until then, I thought Lorca's comment to L'Rell to be an ignorant wind up.
I keep watching this episode as well, I will watch it again tomorrow night, (DISC comes on Fridays on Netflix in the UK). The actor who played Jacob was excellent!
I was trying to place where I had seen him before, and then I remembered that he played Teku, the Emperor's mentor/advisor in Dark Matter.
https://darkmatter.fandom.com/wiki/Teku_Fonsei
While we're on the subject, I also got hung up trying to identify the woman who played "Mother", and it was the actress who played the annoying reporter that eventually helped John McClane in Die Hard 2.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0565319/?ref_=tt_cl_t6
This is how half my viewing experience usually goes. Saying "Hey, it's that guy/lady. Where are they from?" Then waiting for IMDb to get the full cast list for the episode posted.
Thank goodness we now have a world reference library that is literally often in our hands.
Kids these days don't know what it was like to have these questions but no easy way to answer them. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, we were told to ask (i.e., call) the library for answers to questions like these (but hopefully more important than these
).
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Very re-watchable, I've seen the first season three times, and the second one twice. Knowing how it ends makes for a lot of fun re-examining the clues along the way. And I'm so fond of these characters, I'm hoping for more character centric episodes next season.
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