What would you like to see change for season 2?

[eschaton]

I see your point about different cultures creating conflict because everyone has different backgrounds but I also think human personality causes conflict. One thing I like about Stamets is the guy is just a moody kind of guy who isn't always good with people. I would like to find out why he is like that but I do think in the end personality clashes is were most good conflict comes from. You do have conflict of high minded idea's which comes to play a lot in Trek but sometimes I just like the idea that someone is cocky and someone is shy and those personality traits create conflict. The writers do have to be honest with who their characters are. One good example might be someone not finding Tilly's jokey stuff amusing now that she is on a command track. Stamets might actually might not be a good chief engineer if that is the job he gets because he will have personal under him and he is basically being a bad boss even if he is smart enough to do the job. I'm sure their are many more examples you can work with.

I dunno. While I think that the TNG-era dictate that every plot of the week contains sci-fi elements was ridiculous, at the same time, you have to do something with the underlying setting - even if it's just using the setting as allegory, or introducing a sci-fi MacGuffin to examine some universal of the human condition.

For example, take The City on the Edge of Forever. The emotional core of the story is universal - it's the conflict Kirk feels between his love for a single individual and a sense of duty and the needs of the many outweighing his own. The story itself however is based upon a sci-fi MacGuffin however - time travel - which could not take place in a normal drama.

Or take DS9's Duet. It's a simple allegorical tale, which just as easily could take place in a historical drama shortly after World War 2. However, in reality it's intimately woven into the worldbuilding that both TNG and the first season of DS9 up until that point had done regarding the Cardassians and Bajorans. You couldn't just drop it into any old show and have it work. Outside of Trek, much of NuBSG falls in this realm as well.

In contrast, petty bickering could be on any show. By all means, include fights if they're about something topical to the series, or reflect fundamental differences of opinion. And I certainly don't want to go back to the TNG era where everyone always agrees by the end of an episode. But unless you get two actors with great "frenemy" chemistry it's something I'd really prefer not be played up.

 

[Jayson1]

Of course you can do sci-fi stuff but there is no reason why you can't react to much like a modern human wood. I mean this was kind of a main strength of all the "Stargate" shows. Granted these people are space explorers so on some level they must be used to the unusual but that is issue that plagues every sci-fi show. Scully on "X-Files" should have not been so skeptical for so long when you think about it. To me though it's more about trying to capture moments that ring true to how a human would really feel about something if they saw it are lived through it. I like it when characters say something that I think I would say in a situation or react kind of like I would. Maybe they do it in a more clever or hip way then I would but it still feels "real." As for petty bickering that is kind of 80's and even pre-80's tv type of thing so I'm not a big fan of that unless your doing a kind of less serious type of show. It works on the "Arrowverse" because your doing comic book shows but and it might work still in pure comedies but that isn't what I want Trek to be like. I do like Banter but I think that is not the same thing.

Jason

 

[Vger23]

I just think they need to tighten up the storytelling and production a little:

• Get a CLEAR arc with a clear theme and direction established. Know how you want to end it...and know how to appropriately PACE the story out so we're not rushing the conclusion.
• Introduce some new characters and then build on the established characters. Build the relationships.
• Tone down "plot" a little bit more and do a little more "character."
• Utilize the streaming format to its fullest extent, which means spend the extra 5-10 min to develop things a little more each episode.
• Do NOT (I repeat...DO NOT) fall back into being like Trek that has come before. For better or worse, continue to take risks, be different, and challenge the fans.

 

[eschaton]

• Do NOT (I repeat...DO NOT) fall back into being like Trek that has come before. For better or worse, continue to take risks, be different, and challenge the fans.

I understand this, and I agree with this sentiment overall. I am just unclear, given the strictures the show put upon itself, if this can be done successfully. That is to say, there are many, many stories which can be told within the Trekverse. However, the basic setting of the story is very similar to past series.

1. They chose to set the series on a starship, as all Trek series besides DS9 did.
2. Further, the show is set on a Starfleet vessel, rather than say a Klingon vessel or an independent trading ship.
3. The main character, and most of the named crew, are humans and Starfleet personnel (or initiallypresumed to be, in the case of Lorca and Ash), with "alien" perspectives limited.
4. After futzing around with the possibility of a "lower decks" style show for awhile, the show decided to retreat into showing us mostly officers and/or people who act like officers - those making command-level decisions and saving the day, rather than lowly grunts living out their lives onboard the ship.
5. Rather than go further into the future of Trek, the showrunners decided to have the third prequel project in a row.

One could claim the serialization of Discovery makes it unique, but honestly serialization was toyed around with by DS9 and ENT. The decision to have protagonist-focused show (which hasn't been done since Kirk) and to have that protagonist be not the captain is a bit more unique.

The problem I have is I think it fits pretty poorly into the Trek format as was limited above. In the Trek format, there are crises a ship runs into. Due to how the chain of command works, it is up to the captain (or the acting captain) to make the tough decisions and be the driver of the resolution of the crisis. Individual crewmembers may have the idea which saves the day each week, but authority to make the touch decisions rests higher.

In Discovery, however, with Burnham as the protagonist, they felt the need to basically shoehorn her into solving at least one of the major problems in each episode. Maybe we should presume when the show isn't being filmed, there are different adventures centering around Saru, Tilly, or even the bridge officers who don't talk. But it reminded me a bit of Season 1 of TNG where Wesley saves the day yet again. The culmination of this was in the last episode, where Burnham, rather than Saru (you know, the ranking officer) gets to make the uplifting speech to the room full of Starfleet officers. Why bother making her not the captain if you put her into the same situations you'd put a captain into?

My ideal solution to this would be if we pulled back the story significantly away from the bridge. That's just Burnham's job after all. Keep the shipwide crises to the B plot, and use the A plot to explore her. If the ship has an away mission looking for tech to tech the tech, let's follow a fast friendship that Burnham makes with a local instead. If there is a spacial anomaly, let's focus on Burnham's insecurities with her own abilities to figure it out. She's wasted as a character if she's just "femkirk" - so let's take full advantage of what her different position within the crew has to offer.

 

[Jayson1]

I was under the impression going in that this show would be less Bridge oriented than the other Trek shows. More like "Stargate" were you have a team of heros but the guy in charge isn't always involved though not quite the same because Lorca would be more important than Hammond. Not sure why over half of your reaccurring characters are all bridge officers. Do you really need that many people to do bridge stuff?

Jason

 

[Vger23]

Aside from Saru and Lorca, really nobody was a stereotypical "bridge officer" in S1 and associated with the main cast.

They were almost all assigned to Engineering. Even Tyler, as security Chief, was little more than a visitor on the bridge most times. Most of the bridge crew were little more than extras (albeit, interesting and consistent extras)

In fact, there were loud and obnoxious complaints to that very effect ("Why don't we hear more from Airiam and Detmer?!?").

 

[Mirror Mirror]

Off hand
1: A tighter story
2: Longer run times, its streaming 50+ min is a min of what we should get
3: More Saru

 

[eschaton]

Aside from Saru and Lorca, really nobody was a stereotypical "bridge officer" in S1 and associated with the main cast.

They were almost all assigned to Engineering. Even Tyler, as security Chief, was little more than a visitor on the bridge most times. Most of the bridge crew were little more than extras (albeit, interesting and consistent extras)

In fact, there were loud and obnoxious complaints to that very effect ("Why don't we hear more from Airiam and Detmer?!?").

I agree to a degree, but this became less true as the series wound on. Burnham started out working more in Stamets's lab, but once Lorca named her a science officer, she was usually on the bridge if she was working on the ship. The last three episodes, even Stamets was hanging around the bridge when he wasn't actively piloting the ship via the spore drive.

One also needs to remember how the series left things. Burnham is reinstated as a commander, and she will be bridge crew next season. Tilly is only an ensign, but she was made command track, meaning she will likely have a permanent berth on the bridge as well. And of course, whoever the new captain is, they will be on the bridge as well. Stamets is the only one who isn't bridge crew, but this again fits with normal Trek trope of not having the engineer character as part of the bridge crew. I believe there have been direct comments from the showrunners as well that they plan to have the "extras" have more of a role next season as well. So Discovery is going to get a whole lot more conventional here.

 

[Ovation]

So Discovery is going to get a whole lot more conventional here.

That's too bad, if true. I've already watched 700+ hours of "conventional".

 

[Succubint]

I just think they need to tighten up the storytelling and production a little:

• Get a CLEAR arc with a clear theme and direction established. Know how you want to end it...and know how to appropriately PACE the story out so we're not rushing the conclusion.
• Introduce some new characters and then build on the established characters. Build the relationships.
• Tone down "plot" a little bit more and do a little more "character."
• Utilize the streaming format to its fullest extent, which means spend the extra 5-10 min to develop things a little more each episode.
• Do NOT (I repeat...DO NOT) fall back into being like Trek that has come before. For better or worse, continue to take risks, be different, and challenge the fans.

Pretty much this ^^^. Darn you for saying what I was gonna say.
I really enjoyed this season, but with the episodes being limited, there needs to be a better balance between the high stakes plot stuff and the character moments.

I also love the idea of introducing more regular/recurring characters from the other founding races. More Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites in the mix would be awesome, in my opinion.

I like the Klingons, so they can come back and have an arc, but please tweak the make up to make it more actor friendly, please.

 

[eschaton]

That's too bad, if true. I've already watched 700+ hours of "conventional".

Unfortunately, I think if there is any message that the showrunners are getting from CBS, it's to make the show hew more to Trek convention. I say that because the dramatic turn in tone during the last act of the last episode smacked of network interference.

 

[Vger23]

That's too bad, if true. I've already watched 700+ hours of "conventional".

Not to mention that we have "The Orville" now which is virtually identical to TNG and VOY's tone and format, except with a few off-color jokes to differentiate it.

 

[Jayson1]

Not to mention that we have "The Orville" now which is virtually identical to TNG and VOY's tone and format, except with a few off-color jokes to differentiate it.

"Orville" is very much like TNG but not "Voyager." I think it does have some "Stargate:Atlantis" or "Stargate" in how the characters tend to interact.

Jason

 

[Vger23]

"Orville" is very much like TNG but not "Voyager." I think it does have some "Stargate:Atlantis" or "Stargate" in how the characters tend to interact.

Jason

I actually think it feels far more like VOY. It's more like TNG's weekly structure admittedly, and The Orville isn't trying to get home, but the tone and staleness reminds me more of VOY.

 

[Jayson1]

I actually think it feels far more like VOY. It's more like TNG's weekly structure admittedly, and The Orville isn't trying to get home, but the tone and staleness reminds me more of VOY.

Well one thing it does have in common with "Voyager" is that the characters are usually more interesting than the plots. PLus the Captain and first officer in both shows have romantic feelings for each other.

Jason

 

[cwellslovell]

I’d like the writers to feel free to play with the full expanse of the established universe. ENT only began to play with this in the later seasons but it succeeded. My favorite parts of DIS so far have been the tie ins to TOS and ENT. I liked Mudd. I liked the Defiant in Mirror U and Archer references.

There is so much to be able to draw from...

Who was the Dax host before Kurzon?

Maybe in the wake of disasterous spore drive experiement there are the beginings of the trans warp Excelsior ship developement?

Maybe ENT C Captain Rachel Garret’s grandparents were Starfleet too and they are just starting their careers?

There are so many roads that can be driven on while still maintaining a distinctive and fresh type of storytelling.

 

[Terok Nor]

I agree to a degree, but this became less true as the series wound on. Burnham started out working more in Stamets's lab, but once Lorca named her a science officer, she was usually on the bridge if she was working on the ship. The last three episodes, even Stamets was hanging around the bridge when he wasn't actively piloting the ship via the spore drive.

One also needs to remember how the series left things. Burnham is reinstated as a commander, and she will be bridge crew next season. Tilly is only an ensign, but she was made command track, meaning she will likely have a permanent berth on the bridge as well. And of course, whoever the new captain is, they will be on the bridge as well. Stamets is the only one who isn't bridge crew, but this again fits with normal Trek trope of not having the engineer character as part of the bridge crew. I believe there have been direct comments from the showrunners as well that they plan to have the "extras" have more of a role next season as well. So Discovery is going to get a whole lot more conventional here.

If that's true then I can't wait. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I've no issue with DS9 style serialization and non Starfleet recurring characters but I like the bridge crew to be the main focus. Discovery Season 1 was a decent stab at something new for the franchise but the formula of all the other shows works just fine. DS9 and Enterprise had already shown it wasn't a rigid formula with all the long running arcs they weaved in. Discovery can do the same. Star Trek is still a great premise and doesn't really need all that much tampering with for "modern audiences". I think the showrunners would be right to go back to basics in Season 2.

 

[Butters]

I don’t know. I’d like more traditional external shots of the ship. Orbital fly bys and such. Regular star field, no nebula, some of the time.

I’d like to see that space dock again. More cities, alien and earth. They’re not on a five year mission, they could stay local.

Some CGI aliens. Arex, L’rell maybe.

I would love it if they visited all the places Pike mentions in the Cage, especially that fortress on Rigel #.

I want Sybok to show up, and an ancestor of worf. Visit Nimbus 3 and drop off a few hopeful pioneers of galactic peace.

Burnham should go skinny dipping in lake Armstrong. And romulans, or Remans. Refugee Remans.

More name drops to previous continuity. Red matter, proto matter and the omega particle in the same sentence.

No time travel. No super beings.

 

[Jesse1066]

Burnham should go skinny dipping in lake Armstrong.

It would be good for continuity with First Contact, though I sense there may be another reason you want this.

 

[Butters]

It would be good for continuity with First Contact, though I sense there may be another reason you want this.

Well, obviously, it’s just a cheap excuse to see Lake Armstrong up close.