Star Trek: Discovery - Season 4 - (*** Spoilers***)

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118244519#Comment_118244519

For me to take this service on it would take:

• a permanently lowered monthly cost (That "offer" price would be a good start...keep it there)
• access to all the Trek movies (apparently this is happening/happened)
• & a reliable slate of good new Trek shows (Lower Decks quality or better)

I couldn't give a flying fig that they've got a new season of Dexter on there, or a new season of Frasier (Jesus), I'd only want the app for Trek, and I feel the price should reflect that demand. They ain't exactly Netflix / Disney+ at the moment. Also, featuring Discovery as the primary carrot for new subscribers does not fill me with any confidence for the service. I have no real desire to pay cash to be frustrated / disappointed yet again by that show.

TheValeyard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118249836#Comment_118249836

Wait...... There's a new Frasier?

Such a great show. Something to look forward to...... Unless they Picard it.

Animaniacs reboot is good.

flazio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252121#Comment_118252121

Wait, you don't mean....

https://youtu.be/1izM5rqNefs

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252121#Comment_118252121

Seems like such an absolutely unnecessary revisit. But maybe one of the very few excellent spinoff shows can also be one of the very few excellent revisit series.

DoctorEdgeWild

Pluto TV over here is great, hadn't heard of it before until an ad on a bus stop two weeks ago. Shows two episodes back to back on Fri, Sat and Sun at 9pm. Reminds me of the old days knowing something would be on at certain times and having to plan around that, instead of the modern freedom of streaming.

It also has a channel which is just Andromeda, all the time, for some reason.

I see it discussed above, but I would certainly pay for a streaming service which was JUST Trek, all shows, all episodes, all the time. Which is pretty much all I watch on Netflix anyway. Ru Paul's Drag Race has done a similar thing with the WOW+ app, with the exception of one franchise which is BBC Three/iPlayer exclusive. (Obviously not quite the same size as Trek!)

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252774#Comment_118252774

Andromeda all day every day sounds like the kind of thing they used in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo

DoctorEdgeWild

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252815#Comment_118252815

Might make a few threats against the president of the US, see if they'll let me catch up on my ropey early 2000s sci-fi.

Dr Bob

There's still no way to legally watch it here , right ?. ( VPNs dont count)

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118257522#Comment_118257522

Drive to Armagh for a few hours

Dr Bob

I'll take that as a no then ;)

Stark

3 episodes in and this season isn't too bad so far. Writing seems generally consistent and coherent, not like the total mess that was seasons 2 and 3. Character dialogue is still a bit naff and quaint. You can just picture someone in the writer's room thinking "wow, this sounds so profound and deep" and it just doesn't translate well to the screen.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260571#Comment_118260571

Ya they really believe their own sht on the profound stuff.

The latest episode was good definitely the best out of season 3/4 so far. Interesting mystery box that gets solved in 1 episode was nice to see

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260571#Comment_118260571

"Isn't too bad"? Like, exceeding low expectations, or an improvement over season 3?

As to the profundity element, that's a curse of modern US scriptwriting. Hacks love making those superficial "profound" statements no human being would ever actually utter; you see it a lot on those self-esteem Instagram posts too.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260999#Comment_118260999

Definitely an improvement on season 3 (so far) but I say the same about the first half of every season of DIS

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260999#Comment_118260999

Alas, "Isn't too bad" doesn't feel like enough of a sign to give S4 a spin. (God I'm being such a sad-sack about this lately, aren't I? :P ) Upping the quality at this stage still feels like some kind of trap, because they'll find some way to f*ck it all up shortly, they are very talented at that. In an attempt to be fair I should wait to see the overall verdict of the season and then maybe watch if it went well. I still feel like I'm going to continue to give this season a miss, but we'll see.

Total agreement on the curse of modern US Scriptwriting. I tend to blame Greys Anatomy; a show which gained its audience initially on the concept of a hospital drama with loads more sex than "ER", which somehow turned into a show where every episode required some kind of profound speech/message to bookend the proceedings of the story. The show somehow remains extremely popular and I feel that the current batch of TV writers see this approach as the standard to ape in their own work. The result being that everything needs to be profound and quote-worthy. Forgetting of course that if everything is profound....then nothing is.

Earlier Trek appears to have rationed this out, so that those really memorable and thought-provoking lines and moments were only occasional. I don't think we'd remember some of the more classic Picard speeches if he was giving 2-3 of them per episode, every episode. Most of what was said usually had more to do with the character relationships and what was actually happening to them.

TheIrishGrover

Three episodes in and I still haven't finished episode 1. Prob only have a minute or so left in that. Was heading out to pub to meet friends. But the very fact that I didn't bother waiting just those last two mins says it all. I'll wait for another episode maybe and then get stuck in.

As for the price of Paramount +. As has been said, not exactly Netflix or even Disney +. I paid pre-order price of 60 quid for Disney. That's amazing value (IMHO). It is unrealistic but, given the lack of USP (Unique Selling Point) apart from Trek, if I was to pay for P+ the max I would pay would be 36 quid. 3 quid a month.

I know there is more to Paramount than Trek 😀 but much of their catalogue is currently on TV. I can't see them stripping their back catalogue from TV stations as that is a large income. They are not in the position to create big-budget movies like Netflix or eye-wateringly expensive TV shows like Amazon. Disney own EVERYTHING. If they want, they could have a fully-licensed show with Buzz Lightyear and Elsa from Frozen joining the Guardians of The Galaxy and the Avengers in fighting Darth freakin' Vader....... in Nakatomi Plaza!!!

I think Paramount will be a tough sell outside of the US. It will survive. Will tick over but, I bet in 5 years time you will STILL not know anyone who pays for it.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261261#Comment_118261261

Ah yeah I'm not intending on even going near the show until the season's done and we can see where the overall run led. Just surprised by even the faintest hint of positive reception.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261274#Comment_118261274

It's a convenient shorthand that if a character starts a voiceover with "The say..." it's probably going to be some god-awful, superficial piece of profound sounding crap.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261679#Comment_118261679

If your biggest problems with Discovery are the angst, emotions, Bayham or Burnham I wouldn't bother holding out hope for a good season if you are not able to look past those issues.

This stuff is set now and it won't change unless Kurtzmann, Paradise and everyone else leaves which doesn't look likely

pixelburp

No, for sure. 4 seasons is too much for a course correction at this stage, but you'd wonder how long Paramount see the show running for in general. Rare enough these days series last longer than 4, 5 seasons anyway, especially in this era of streaming and the need for constant new "Content".

Then of course there's Strange New World's. The dark mysterious horse of nu Trek. Apparently already shot, but with almost no footage seen, no release date.

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261750#Comment_118261750

I sort of suspect that they'll try to pull off the traditional 7 seasons and then close the show. It'll give Paramount+ some guaranteed content for the next few years (I expect them to green-light all kinds of crap in the next year or so), but it would also allow them finish making the show without having to own up to any of the errors they made in its creation. That's really just 30 more episodes to make, which may be feasible if they keep their budget down and avoid paying "Michelle Yeoh"-level salaries (I'm assuming her addition was expensive). The future of the show might be choc full of bottle episodes.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261834#Comment_118261834

A reduced budget would be a great thing for Discovery it needs to do more slow moments. Best part of last season was Vance and Osyraa debating round a table.

So far the budget has remained steadily high

Stark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118260999#Comment_118260999

A good bit better than season 3 so far but still way too much of a young adult/teen drama kind of show for me to really say it's good.

David Ajala/Book is very good. Michael is gaining some maturity since settling into the Captain role. I think they might have actually tweaked things since the trailer was put out. In the trailer it gives the impression that she's doing her usual shite of "Screw you Admiral Vance, screw you Federation council, I'm risking all my crew's lives flying Discovery all the way into this anomaly without a thought given" but in the episode she actually makes the kind of mature decisions that any other Starfleet Captain would. Tilly also seems a bit toned down and is settling into a more comfortable Lt. JG role rather than super-XO-Ensign. And there are more stories involving other members of the crew without Michael.

The Adira/Gray storyline is progressing though Gray still seems like a totally pointless character. And the dialogue they have written for him is totally cringe. Seems like something that belongs more on "Chilling adventures of Sabrina" or similar teen drama show than a sci-fi show.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118261940#Comment_118261940

Ya that sums it up pretty well better but still too teen lit. Burnham is still doing a bit of the screw you stuff but Tilly is way better this season.

I really hope Grey getting his body means it will eventually lead to him Fing off to Trill or something. Adira is one of the few characters that isn't just a one trick one gear pony but that cheesy Grey character really weights Adira down

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118262014#Comment_118262014

The Grey / Adria stuff in Season 3 were segments I had a knack of automatically fast-forwarding over. After the first couple of interactions I felt that they weren't there to drive the story and barely worked as character development. It seemed to mostly take the form of Grey grinning at Adria and being encouraging...which started to get very old.

Adria alone could have been developed into something interesting. However like a lot of the good ideas of the show they couldn't stick the landing and kind of reduced the character to "Trill Hybrid with Ghost Boyfriend...(who's friendship with Staments & Cupler turns into an adoption for some reason)". I much preferred "Trill Hybrid with Admiral knowledge who's key to finding Starfleet Command". But alas that lasted all of....what? 2 episodes?

Stark

Yeah I think Adira still has potential if they ditch Gray. And they haven't mentioned the creepy adoption thing so far in Season 4 (Did Adira even know about/consent to it!?). Hopefully they realised it was a bad idea and decided to ignore it.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118262264#Comment_118262264

Was she adopted by them?

I know they are looking out for her but did they adopt her

Stark

Stamets refers to Adira as "his child" in one of the later episodes of season 3 when they're trapped on the dilithium planet.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118262296#Comment_118262296

Right now I get you. I thought I had missed some adoption story and not just Stamets making a weird comment

flazio

So, is the process of building the body referred to as "Grey's Anatomy" 😁

One to beam up.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118262296#Comment_118262296

Season 3 you mean? And I remember that too, I literally did a double take at the time, when suddenly Adira became their adoptive child out of fúcking nowhere. Was a big moment in my fúck this show Road to Damascus.