Star Trek Discovery Season 3 Episide 1: That Hope Is You,part1

AMKC

So the first episode is out and I have to say is it's very meh. I certainly would not call it Star Trek at all. It would have made a great Sci-Fi movie do. There is some good funny moments in it do and some cool tech.

Goodshape

It was fine, I guess. Not very traditional Star Trek but I subscribe to the idea that Star Trek is a place rather than a specific story format, so that's fine in principle. I'm just not sure I'd be so quick to watch this if it wasn't labeled Star Trek.

Certainly seems like a (welcomed) fresh start from the previous seasons. They have more room to do the not-traditional-Trek thing in this setting and that'll probably be good.


But the episode itself was fairly meh, as AMKC said. Nothing too exciting, nothing too awful. Although was Star Trek always so jingoistic? Do we need to tear up over the significance of a badge and the unfurling of a flag? Maybe it's more a reflection of our current political world but I'm not really in the mood for the thinly veiled Team America schtick.

sioda

I expected worse tbh and I'm looking forward to what they build on.

Its reminding me of Stargate Universe tbh.

AMKC

Goodshape wrote: »

It was fine, I guess. Not very traditional Star Trek but I subscribe to the idea that Star Trek is a place rather than a specific story format, so that's fine in principle. I'm just not sure I'd be so quick to watch this if it wasn't labeled Star Trek.

Certainly seems like a (welcomed) fresh start from the previous seasons. They have more room to do the not-traditional-Trek thing in this setting and that'll probably be good.


But the episode itself was fairly meh, as AMKC said. Nothing too exciting, nothing too awful. Although was Star Trek always so jingoistic? Do we need to tear up over the significance of a badge and the unfurling of a flag? Maybe it's more a reflection of our current political world but I'm not really in the mood for the thinly veiled Team America schtick.

I'm just not sure I'd be so quick to watch this if it wasn't labeled Star Trek.
The same here but if it was put into the cinema as a movie do and renamed then maybe it would have been interesting to watch as well.

TheValeyard

Something I dont get....

If Dilithium exploded everywhere, then wouldnt the Romulans just take over the quadrant since they use Singularities as an energy source?

Spear

TheValeyard wrote: »

Something I dont get....

If Dilithium exploded everywhere, then wouldnt the Romulans just take over the quadrant since they use Singularities as an energy source?

Dilithium only converts energy, it's not the source of it. The Romulans are known to make use of it too.

AMKC

Spear wrote: »

Dilithium only converts energy, it's not the source of it. The Romulans are known to make use of it too.

Exactly. The energy is got through matter v antimatter reactions and then converted by the dilithuim to the pure energy source used to power the warp field generated in the warp nacelles.

As for the Romulans well since there Empire was destroyed they are not as powerful as they once were and who knows what the next 700 hundred years did to them after the big fall from been one of the most powerful races in the Alpha Quadrent.

Slydice

Oh I liked that line!

Our numbers are few, our spirit is undiminished!

Decent episode. So many nods to Enterprise in this one.

fritzelly

Very plodding episode - could have done it all in 20 mins and got on with the story
Do you really need 50 mins to introduce a new character?

fritzelly

I'm gonna say don't watch the season 3 special - why did they have to reveal

the ship crashes cue lots of non space adventures

- I hope this is very short lived,

dont wanna see a show that isn't based in space

Goodshape

fritzelly wrote: »

I'm gonna say don't watch the season 3 special

Are you talking about the short "On this season..." trailer or was their something else?

I skimmed the trailer and even at that, I just thought it was unfortunate they had to show

the Discovery at all. And then a reunion with a long haired Burnham. Kinda makes this entire first episode redundant. "Oh no, where's my ship and my crew?!?!" --- ah shut up already. You're going to wait a while, fall in love or whatever, then find the ship and it's all going to be SO EMOTIONAL. Get off this stupid beach set you're so fond of and get on with it.

I stronger willed man than myself might be compelled to ignore this show for a bunch of weeks and then watch them all back to back, as it feels like it should be.

FutureGuy

Enjoyed it, plenty of hope and optimism.

Evade

A resounding meh with far too much Burnham.

I'd like to pick the brain of whoever at CBS keeps insisting that season long plots of Star Trek have to hinge on the dumbest things, most of the dilithium exploded one day just because. And for the love of god (who needs a starship) throw up a macmuffin field don't have the bad guys scanners blocked by water, one of the most common compounds in the universe.

Varik

The TNG Romulans

had those giant ships that were the ones specifically noted for the quantum singularities,

but in Picard

they're back to using much smaller ships that look like the TOS birds of prey.

Evade

The singularity only replaced the matter antimatter reaction part of the warp drive not the need for dilithium as far as I understand it. Or at least that should be how it works otherwise after the dilithium went boom everyone would have switched to Romulan warp engine designs.

You might think I'm leaning too heavily on two episodes of continuity but STD brought up slipstream drives and benamite crystals in this episode.

Varik

Evade wrote: »

The singularity only replaced the matter antimatter reaction part of the warp drive not the need for dilithium as far as I understand it. Or at least that should be how it works otherwise after the dilithium went boom everyone would have switched to Romulan warp engine designs.

You might think I'm leaning too heavily on two episodes of continuity but STD brought up slipstream drives and benamite crystals in this episode.

When book listed off the load of tech on his ship that got me thinking since slipstream is far far faster that we could get a look back into the delta quadrant.

Wonder if that copy of the doctor has managed to make his way back to earth yet, or amelia earharts crowd have managed to make it that far.

Evade

Varik wrote: »

Wonder if that copy of the doctor has managed to make his way back to earth yet

Depending on how long he stayed on that planet after the riots he might not have left yet. Living Witness, the part before the epilogue, takes place just over 100 years before this episode around the time of the Burn.

Stark

Evade wrote: »

You might think I'm leaning too heavily on two episodes of continuity but STD brought up slipstream drives and benamite crystals in this episode.

I was very glad to hear that being brought up. It was a glaring omission in Picard. Voyager crew came very close to getting it working by hacking it on to a ship/warp engine that wasn't designed for it in deep space tens of thousands of light years from nearest starbase. A fully resourced team of dedicated Federation researchers should have had no issues building a few prototype ships in a 20 year timeframe.

Overall I liked the episode.

The ups:
I like the new guy.
The world feels as strange and alien as you'd expect for 800 years past the previous point we've seen in Trek.
They didn't drag the arse out of explaining what "The Burn" was.
A world where long distance travel was once taken for granted and is now no longer available feels eerily familiar right now

The downs
Sonequa Martin-Green's delivery can be a bit overwrought and cringeworthy at times. Otherwise what she had written for her wasn't too bad.
I foresee lots of painful logical jumps as they try to explain why Discovery isn't immediately outgunned and stripped for dilithium the second it appears out of the wormhole.

Varik wrote:

Wonder if that copy of the doctor has managed to make his way back to earth yet

I would love to see him turn up. And I think the timelines should work.

Evade wrote: »

Depending on how long he stayed on that planet after the riots he might not have left yet. Living Witness, the part before the epilogue, takes place just over 100 years before this episode around the time of the Burn.

I got the impression from the end of Living Witness that he left not too long afterwards. I think the planet in Living Witness was about 60,000 light years from Federation space? So he had 40 years to hang around and 60 years to get back.

Evade

Stark wrote: »

I was very glad to hear that being brought up. It was a glaring omission in Picard. Voyager crew came very close to getting it working by hacking it on to a ship/warp engine that wasn't designed for it in deep space tens of thousands of light years from nearest starbase. A fully resourced team of dedicated Federation researchers should have had no issues building a few prototype ships in a 20 year timeframe.

The only possible excuse is the rarity of benamite crystals could have slowed development and testing. Seven not handing over the ins and outs of transwarp drives is a little harder to explain.

Evade

Stark wrote: »

I got the impression from the end of Living Witness that he left not too long afterwards. I think the planet in Living Witness was about 60,000 light years from Federation space? So he had 40 years to hang around and 60 years to get back.

The epilogue said he served as Meidcal Minister for several years. If he left after than five or ten years the Burn might have stranded him somewhere else.

TheValeyard

Agree with lot of been already said.


It makes sense that hundreds of year in the future feels strange.

Morns, many Morns, fully approve.

Michael is still annoying. But at least now showing emotion,. Maybe this season will be her Mariner.

Loved Space worm.

How many versions of interstellar drive is there now?

I'd say it's not Dilithium that's the problem, but something more complex. Want to know how it effects the Romulan Singularity Core. And if Dil exploded everywhere, why did ships not eject the warp core?

Loving the optimism, even if this is Treks version of Andromeda.

Music still good.

Typical that cats survive the galactic apocalypse.

Book seems like an interesting character.

Like the futuristic city.

Evade

I presume it all exploded at around the same time without warning somehow. Or at least that might be better than the alternative of being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no power slowly running out of supplies and being very aware of that fact.

I can't understand why they didn't go with the environmental disaster thing from TNG or an omega particle accident from Voyager. Both established as potential hazards and way less silly. Even if they had to Locarno/Paris the situation and call them Upsilon particles.

I bet there's Ferengi somewhere swimming in a pool full of latinum because he found an intact Iconian gateway.

TheValeyard

Evade wrote: »

I presume it all exploded at around the same time without warning somehow. Or at least that might be better than the alternative of being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no power slowly running out of supplies and being very aware of that fact.

I can't understand why they didn't go with the environmental disaster thing from TNG or an omega particle accident from Voyager. Both established as potential hazards and way less silly. Even if they had to Locarno/Paris the situation and call them Upsilon particles.

I bet there's Ferengi somewhere swimming in a pool full of latinum because he found an intact Iconian gateway.

It could be an environmental incident or omega related, I'm sure we will find out

EltonJohn69

4/5

PhiloCypher

Stark wrote: »

I was very glad to hear that being brought up. It was a glaring omission in Picard. Voyager crew came very close to getting it working by hacking it on to a ship/warp engine that wasn't designed for it in deep space tens of thousands of light years from nearest starbase. A fully resourced team of dedicated Federation researchers should have had no issues building a few prototype ships in a 20 year timeframe.

Overall I liked the episode.

The ups:
I like the new guy.
The world feels as strange and alien as you'd expect for 800 years past the previous point we've seen in Trek.
They didn't drag the arse out of explaining what "The Burn" was.
A world where long distance travel was once taken for granted and is now no longer available feels eerily familiar right now

The downs
Sonequa Martin-Green's delivery can be a bit overwrought and cringeworthy at times. Otherwise what she had written for her wasn't too bad.
I foresee lots of painful logical jumps as they try to explain why Discovery isn't immediately outgunned and stripped for dilithium the second it appears out of the wormhole.



I would love to see him turn up. And I think the timelines should work.



I got the impression from the end of Living Witness that he left not too long afterwards. I think the planet in Living Witness was about 60,000 light years from Federation space? So he had 40 years to hang around and 60 years to get back.

Agreed, for someone raised by Vulcans she shows a remarkable lack of chill. The writers/actress need to learn that less is more. Emotional outbursts/breakthroughs are Great in small doses, but Michael seems to cycle through every emotion on the spectrum in every episode.

somuj

Worst epiisode of tek I jqve l ever seen.

fritzelly

somuj wrote: »

Worst epiisode of tek I jqve l ever seen.

Don't speak Klingon - can you post the English translation?

somuj

fritzelly wrote: »

Don't speak Klingon - can you post the English translation?

It's actually 'Jameson' from the planet Whiska 🀣🀣

Nonsense episode tho. When that stupid woman was asking for help, was the first time I actually liked her. Short lived as it was. Such an unlikeable character. 900 years in the future and they still make it look a unregulated horse fair.

EltonJohn69

The guardian went all in with their review. They are of the opinion that this is the best Star Trek we have had in years.

TheValeyard

EltonJohn69 wrote: »

The guardian went all in with their review. They are of the opinion that this is the best Star Trek we have had in years.

That honour should be Lower Decks season finale

mikhail

I'm going to reserve judgement on this for the most part, but the show is best as an ensemble. If the whole thing focuses on Burnham again, it's going to drag.

PhiloCypher wrote: »

Agreed, for someone raised by Vulcans she shows a remarkable lack of chill. The writers/actress need to learn that less is more. Emotional outbursts/breakthroughs are Great in small doses, but Michael seems to cycle through every emotion on the spectrum in every episode.

I don't know what they teach aspiring writers in college these days, but everyone is written to be a harsh word away from a breakdown. I remember someone (Burnham?) telling Tilly what a great captain she'd make some day, and I burst out laughing at the idea of someone with the emotional maturity of a ten year old left in charge of anything.

GSPfan

I’m going to watch this entire season but I’m going to continue to be irritated by Burnham. Can’t stand the way the character is at the centre of absolutely everything and it doesn’t help that the actor isn’t that likeable to me. I actually found her hard to watch on The Walking Dead and now the same on Discovery.

Discovery is the worst Star Trek series by a mile. Picard wasn’t good but there was some good bits.

Mr E

Binged season 2 last week for the first time and loved it. The start of season 3 was a weird shift in tone, but I thought it was great too. Loved the last 5-10 minutes, and I love that it's a blank slate.

EltonJohn69

TheValeyard wrote: »

That honour should be Lower Decks season finale

I will check it out

corkie

denartha wrote: »

Just watched it. Agree on the strange.

At times I thought I was watching Men in Black.

Johnny Storm

Meh is right, unfortunately.

It was a bit hammy altogether wasnt it. I do agree Michael is getting a bit overwrought half the time. I know it's a bad day but it was always like that

PhiloCypher

Every scene with Michael feels like that mock Oscar worthy film trailer that was floating around a few years ago. Everything is overly earnest ,and painfully profound .

Tired Gardener

Best thing was getting to see Iceland's wonderful landscape... and also getting to count the places I recognised.

Sound was odd, action scenes (which there are too many of) were loud, dialogue was whispered.

Discovery still doesn't feel like a Star Trek.

440Hertz

It’s far, far, far too much about one person. The Trek element is only barely there.

I’ve a feeling I won’t like this series very much.

Mr Meanor

I think they got mixed up between
Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (with extra tears)

There was one other difference, did you pick it up? looks like somebody is chasing an Emmy

440Hertz

Maybe I’m just not in the humour got dystopian sci-fi. The one thing about Star Trek was optimism.

For Trek the plots are too depressing. It lays in moralising in a way that’s far too unsubtle. The characters are hard to relate to. The dialogue is all whispery and over dramatised and the wobbly camera and extreme use of weird special effects just makes it confusing to watch. It’s also far too violent and just gratuitously so. There’s no context to it most of the time. It’s just gore and shoot em ups for the sake of it.

It’s it’s own thing, but it’s just not Star Trek at all.

I think I’ll go back to comfort watching TNG spin offs.

Also that music bed that goes through the whole show is really annoying! It just creates this feeling of sweeping forward all the time.

It seems the show was designed for an audience who have zero attention span for anything and just want wall to wall dazzle with special effects. It’s like watching a demo reel for an 8K smart TV, trying to show off the resolution.

And to make it more infuriating it’s produced in an ultra wide format that doesn’t fit any known domestic television or monitor, without letterboxing.

CastorTroy

Seemed like they were trying to give her more personality, though took the drug to do that. I know being raised by Vulcans is the reason, but she can still act more human.

440Hertz

The Vulcans were more craic. I’d much rather have a pint with Tuvok!

CastorTroy

And Spock last season seemed better company

440Hertz

I think the biggest issue is she’s written to be utterly humourless.

If you think of all the other emotionally cold characters:

Spock, Tuvok, T’Pol, Data & Seven of Nine, all of them were written with a certain deadpan, dry sense of humour. Burnham just has this dogmatic sense of duty, a god complex and is so serious she’s boring. There’s absolutely no let up to the heavy. I mean even when she was on drugs she was still serious!

They also absolutely destroyed the Klingons, with similar dark, weird, dogma type stuff. The Klingons were always a bit mad but fun.

I dread to think what they’ll do with the Betazoids, although it looks like that’s what they’ve just done with Book or whatever his name is ...

JeffKenna

Nearly gave up watching season 2. Is this any better?

Goodshape

440Hertz wrote: »

It’s also far too violent and just gratuitously so. There’s no context to it most of the time. It’s just gore and shoot em ups for the sake of it.

That really bugged me in this episode.

All that dreary cinematic colour grading and ultra wide format. It's definitely a very real universe, taking things seriously this time... well, except for this chucklesom comedy duo and their band of anonymous henchmen. A wee nod on and a wink and SPIN KICK! KER-CHOP! Nothing can stop our heros!

So much emotion, sincerity and definitely really real consequences and big speeches reminding us that things matter, damit it! ...well, except these guys. *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*. VAPORIZED while we almost simultaneously shed tears over a flag.

EltonJohn69

So much hate....

EltonJohn69

Next generation the doctor had sex with a ghost.....

Evade

Extreme, but not unexpected, disappointment is probably more accurate.