The Official Star Trek Thread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Review episode 12:

That last episode has been a slight improvement over the long, tedious stretch of the six weeks that came before. That's not saying much although it seems Discovery is a bit better when it not tries to be "meaningful" (it tends to become boring and painfully self-indulgent then) and instead focuses on a mindless action plot like it now did with this "Die Hard in Space"-like episode. In a way this makes Discovery the polar opposite of Picard, also see my mini-review of that show in the post above. Maybe that's because Picard has an actor of the caliber of Patrick Stewart who can turn even the sh**ttiest script into Charles Dickens.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Unless they manage to straighten out some of the problems of Season 1, I don't hold much hope for this show anymore.

Much of the "Kurtzman-era" Trek sucks in fact and it can't hold water to contemporary space opera competition like The Mandalorian, The Expanse, or (despite its flaws) The Orville. The new season of The Orville will in fact premiere in international markets next week and I'm certainly looking forward to it more than I do with regards to either Discovery or Picard at this point.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Unless they manage to straighten out some of the problems of Season 1, I don't hold much hope for this show anymore.

Much of the "Kurtzman-era" Trek sucks in fact and it can't hold water to contemporary space opera competition like The Mandalorian, The Expanse, or (despite its flaws) The Orville. The new season of The Orville will in fact premiere in international markets next week and I'm certainly looking forward to it more than I do with regards to either Discovery or Picard at this point.

You are too sceptical about Picard.

It was well done and makes sense from start to end.

Anyway, Orville should be interesting. I didn't even knew it would premiere soon.

Orville 3.0 will not premiere next week.

Definitely not until the end of the year.

The thing with next week is just something Disney-related, where they offer Seasons 1+2.

Ah, my mistake, I must have misremembered it.

You are too sceptical about Picard.

I either like a show or I think it is way too flawed. In the case of Picard it's the latter.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Don't think I have seen it, but it is probably better than Dissuckery (the only decent official Trek show currently in production is Lower Decks IMO).

New Voyages/Phase II - which I have seen - had a couple of good episodes, one of them even being nominated for a Hugo Award back then.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I haven't heard of it. I really enjoyed Picard, but I haven't watched more than the first few episodes of Discovery. I'm debating whether or not I should push through it and see if it gets better. All of Trek does have its rough edges throughout its first seasons.

Trust me... Discovery gets worse... much worse. The highpoint of that show was Season 2, hands down, when it actually came closest to resembling Star Trek. It more or less manages to hold together for the first couple of episodes of Season 3, but about one third into the season it completely collapses and never recovers from that point on. The scripts just become unbearable, seemingly on the level of badly written, overly melodramatic fan fiction and the randomly plotted, incoherent story arcs often tend to go nowhere. At times it doesn't even appear to be science fiction anymore... more like fantasy with huge chunks of soap opera infused into it.

The drop in quality is also evidenced by the IMDb ratings Discovery's individual episodes have received since the end of Season 2:

2x12: 7.5
2x13: 7.2
2x14: 8.1

3x1: 7.2
3x2: 7.1
3x3: 7.2
3x4: 6.2
3x5: 7.2
3x6: 6.4
3x7: 6.3
3x8: 5.6
3x9: 6.3
3x10: 6.3
3x11: 6.0
3x12: 6.7
3x13: 6.3

4x1: 5.8
4x2: 5.2
4x3: 5.3
4x4: 4.8

Yes, Discovery's latest episode is also its lowest-rated yet.


Lower Decks on the hand, went in the opposite direction... it improves over time, becoming sort of a spiritual successor to TNG with lots of irony and self-deprecating humor. Kind of like an animated version of The Orville, but set in the official Trek universe. The guest appearances by well-known Trek alumni like Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Robert Duncan McNeill, John de Lancie, Jeffrey Combs, or Alice Krige also help.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I really enjoyed The Orville. It seemed to me like Lower Decks was something more like a kiddie show, but I admit I've only seen ads so far. All of the names you mentioned are quite interesting, but  I especially enjoyed Weyoun in DS9 and Shran in Enterprise. Jeffrey Combs is an underrated talent in Star Trek.

Oh, Lower Decks is definitely an adult show... they have sex and people can die. Prodigy, which I haven't so far, is the one intended for kids.

The first half of the first season of Lower Decks is still a bit lame. The humor comes across as  more forced and the plots aren't that engaging. Things start to get better towards the end of Season 1 when it essentially becomes "animated TNG with jokes".

[Middle-aged Europe]

Just like in season 1, after a strong start, season 2 of Picard has been a disappointment. Still better than Discovery though.

Tomorrow is the Strange New Worlds premiere, and I'm really nervous about it.

I agree with your assessment of Picard, and given the track record of both this show and Discovery I don't really have high hopes for Strange New Worlds either. I'm gonna watch the first episode or two to see whether my estimate was accurate, but it seems likely that Lower Decks will continue to be the only decent Trek show currently in production IMO.

In general I think that the era of "good" Trek ended sometime around the time of Voyager and Enterprise. Back then I used to be rather critical of Voyager, but by now it looks like friggin William Shakespeare.

In principle it's great that they managed to bring back Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan, John de Lancie, and Whoopi Goldberg for Picard, but given the horrendous writing they have to work with it just seems like such a waste of talent.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, I have correct myself a bit... surprisingly enough, the series premiere of Strange New Worlds turned out to be watchable. It helped that, unlike Disocvery, they actually tried to make it look and feel like TOS. It also helped that it actually had something of a plot instead of being just a dumb shoot 'em up action scenario. And just like on Discovery Anson Mount brings with himself the gravitas of a Starfleet captain.

I'm still wary though, since both Discovery and Picard originally started out at a somewhat decent level too before they eventually fell apart. Strange New Worlds still needs to prove that it can keep up the quality for an entire season.


Notable factoid: Like it or not, but when visiting an alien planet plagued by civil unrest we finally found out that political polarization and unrest in 21st century America eventually escalated into the Second Civil War which then escalated in the World War III whose aftermath we had witnessed in Star Trek: First Contact. Something the Supreme Court should probably consider before overturning Roe v. Wade.  The message in the episode came across as a bit ham-fisted and on the nose, although it's notable that it didn't amount to "muh, Trumpism bad", but "let's be brothers again".

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, Episode 2 of SNW was the second solid episode in a row and I'm starting to have hopes that after two duds (Discovery, Picard) they finally managed to get it right here. It certainly helps that they stripped it down to the basics. If you want to do a Star Trek show then do a Star Trek show. It's about exploration, adventure, optimism - as such, SNW is the spritual antithesis to Discovery's bleak and depressing vision (sure, Deep Space Nine was also often darker, but not that dark imo). Optimism is just what we need in the era of COVID and Ukraine.

It's essentially a modernized version of The Original Series for the 21st century. Or to cite another comparison I read recently somewhere, The Orville with (slightly) less jokes. Just don't jinx it now.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Okay, four episodes in and I think I'm sold. It has become clearer now that the quality of Strange New Worlds is consistent and that after the previous failures of Discovery and Picard they have finally managed to get their sh**t together.

In a plot that was reminiscent of The Original Series' Balance of Terror as well as The Wrath of Khan, the Enterprise is facing off against the Gorn - who have received a significant badass uprade and are now like the 23rd century equivalent of the Borg. Instead of just being a dumb action plot Episode 4 is backed up by writing like this (spoilers):





Spock: Decks are collapsing. If we do not seal them off now, loss of pressure could spread to the entire ship.
Pike: Seal the bulkheads.
...
La'an: Structural collapse on Deck 22. We've lost one crew person.
Spock: You made the logical choice.
Pike: Why doesn't it feel like that?
Spock: For the same reason you made it. Because you value life.



Uhura: So, an Aenar in Starfleet. How's that even work? Thought you guys were all pacifists.
Horak: I actually wanted to be a botanist. Love flora.... I will not fight for Starfleet. But I will defend its ideals. Pacifism is not passivity. It is the active protection of all living things in the natural universe.



Btw, I just love the show's 1970s-inspired retrofuturistic design.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I was more or less under the impression that Star Trek had gotten progressively worse ever since The Next Generation had ended. But Strange New Worlds is possibly the best Trek show since maybe Deep Space Nine now? The very puristic, yet modernized approach is very successful. This is the kind of Star Trek that would have been produced by Gene Roddenberry had he been born fifty years later.

I wondered how that came to be considering the previous duds. I actually don't know that much about that guy but a difference to Discovery and Picard is that SNW has a different co-showrunner/head writer in the person of Henry Alonso Myers, so maybe he's the one who exerts some positive influence here... similar to the role Mike McMahan played with Lower Decks which I now believe to be the second best contemporary incarnation of Star Trek. In any case, Alex Kurtzman beeing neutered always seems to be good thing here. I regard Kurtzman as Trek's version of Chris Chibnall if you catch my drift.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I was more or less under the impression that Star Trek had gotten progressively worse ever since The Next Generation had ended. But Strange New Worlds is possibly the best Trek show since maybe Deep Space Nine now? The very puristic, yet modernized approach is very successful. This is the kind of Star Trek that would have been produced by Gene Roddenberry had he been born fifty years later.

I wondered how that came to be considering the previous duds. I actually don't know that much about that guy but a difference to Discovery and Picard is that SNW has a different co-showrunner/head writer in the person of Henry Alonso Myers, so maybe he's the one who exerts some positive influence here... similar to the role Mike McMahan played with Lower Decks which I now believe to be the second best contemporary incarnation of Star Trek. In any case, Alex Kurtzman beeing neutered always seems to be good thing here. I regard Kurtzman as Trek's version of Chris Chibnall if you catch my drift.

I wouldn't say Star Trek has gotten worse since TNG, though I could be biased on account of really liking 90s Trek. When it comes to Picard, it's easier for me to see past the flaws on account of the cast, particularly the always-great Sir Patrick Stewart. I absolutely agree on your latter point though. SNW really does feel like something Gene Roddenberry would have produced today. However, I think it's better than that in one big way and that's the updated and modernized 60s retrofuture feel of the sets and costumes/hair/makeup. I think the overall look and feel would be something very different without TOS to look back on. All of that together really does create a certain charm that works so well.

I think the main difference between SNW and the other two shows is the extent of serialization, which I suppose would be the result of the direction of the showrunner. Season 2 of Picard really felt like just a long movie. (Season 1 didn't feel quite as serialized overall.) I still haven't taken the time to watch Discovery apart from the first few episodes, but my understanding is that that show is also hyper-serialized as well. The quasi-serialization of DS9 worked great because that was in the days of 26-episode seasons. There was plenty of time to run B-plots that really improved the episodes and helped develop more characters. Sometimes the B-plot is more enjoyable than the A-plot. On the other hand, the biggest problem with Voyager was too far in the other direction, its massive use of the reset button. So far, SNW is very episodic in its plots, but it has a very good flow with developing the main characters. If they have a major recurring villain, I think we have a good idea as to which race that will be.

In addition, SNW portrays a rather optimistic vision of the future again while Discovery and Picard tend to be very bleak and pessimistic (DIS in particular).

DS9 was dark too compared to other Trek shows of the time but I didn't get the feeling that it was that dark all the time... more like "realistic" as opposed to the optimistic TNG and Voyager. DS9's "Dominion war arc" in the beginning of Season 6 was pretty bleak but that was only for like six episodes and then came Jadzia's and Worf's wedding episode.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Bet they had a lot of fun with that last episode. In other words, let's do an Alien hommage.

The re-imagined, scarier version of the Gorn had been dealth with before this season. But what has previously only been hinted at is now fully confirmed: They're essentially like the Xenomorphs from the Aliens universe, maybe with a bit of Predator fused into them (the Gorn's "heat vision"), leading to what must have been one of the goriest Star Trek episodes to date. And this is how it goes...


La'an = Ripley
Pike = Captain Dallas
Spock = Ash/Bishop
Sam Kirk = Private Hudson

There's even a young, traumatized, female survior with dirt in her face who is most definitely not Newt.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Interesting season finale... it was a hommage to, a revisitation, a reimagination of the classic 60s episode Balance of Terror, set in an alternate timeline. At the core was the question: What if Pike manages to escape his destiny?

They also introduced the character of James T. Kirk now, although the actor and the portrayal of the character didn't seem that Kirk-ish to me when compared to Shatner or Pine (or Spock/Ethan Peck for that matter). He was depicted as a young, but competent captain with a penchant for unorthodox, aggressive tactics, which made look Pike quite Picard-ish in comparison. For an iteration of Kirk he seemed maybe a bit too stern and serious though.

With the exeption of the clunker episodes 7 (the one with the space pirates) and 8 (the one with the fairy tale) this was a pretty strong season overall, perhaps even the strongest initial season of any Trek show since TOS... since most Trek series had a tendency to start off rather weakly, including TNG.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Pretty fancy that Lower Decks essentially did a crossover with Deep Space Nine with that last episode... including guest voice appearances by Nana Visitor and Armin Shimerman!

Shaxs and Kira fought in the Bajoran resistance together? Well, of course they did.

And nice to see the old station again.

LD continues to be prove that it is probably the second-best of the contemporary Trek outings after Strange New Worlds. It's even better than Picard IMO, since LD tends to be more line with the "vision" and feeling of Star Trek, even if it does so in some self-deprecating manner.

[Middle-aged Europe]

SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST EPISODE AHEAD.





Saw the season premiere. It's good that we got Picard, Riker, Seven, and Beverly back. I especially liked Picard's and Riker's "odd couple" dynamic.

I still had some issues with the writing, although it had - at times - been worse in the past. I guess what annoyed me most was the depiction of the U.S.S. Titan's new captain. Sure, Starfleet had it's share of obstructive bureaucrats and insane admirals before, but this one probably takes the cake. Capt. Shaw is a tyrannical asshole who instills no loyalty whatsoever, constantly bullies his subordinates (including coercing his first officer to go by a different more "human"-sounding name), and deliberately subjects a retired Starfleet admiral and a senior captain to humiliating treatment because Shaw, well, seems to enjoy that (forcing Picard and Riker to share bunk beds of lower ranks). This sort of behaviour almost came across as cartoonish and one wonders why no one ever filed - IMO completely justified - complaints with Starfleet Command, leading to his dismissal as captain. Edward Jellico was despite all his hardass-ness at least acting professional, Shaw on the other hand seems to suffer from an antisocial personality disorder.

But like I said, keeping the spotlight on Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes and the chemistry between them elevated the episode for me.

[Middle-aged Europe]

[Middle-aged Europe]

I've seen the first three episodes now.

I would say that after the abysmal Season 2 this marks a return to form (of sorts) for this show. Depending how good it holds together in the end - and that's hardly a given for Picard - it could even turn out to be this show's best season so far.

Pretty low bar, of course. It's still not as good as Strange New Worlds, far better than Discovery (although it wouldn't exactly require rocket science to achieve that), and definitely light-years awy from TOS, TNG, DS9. It's maybe Voyager or Enterprise level of quality, meaning it's... watchable.

It certainly helps in overlooking the flaws that with the exception of Rafi they have dropped all those bland and/or annoying characters from the previous seasons and brought back (so far) Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, and Marina Sirtis instead.

Even Capt. Shaw, despite my earlier skepticism, has kind of grown on me ever since he started to show concern for the well-being of his crew and turned out, on occasion, to be a reasonable authority figure. It's just that he is a overly blunt, overly sarcastic, overly eccentric Starfleet captain.

[Middle-aged Europe]

SPOILERS:








Ah, btw, maybe it's supposed to be a sign for the advanced Federation medical technology, but am I the only one who found it a bit curious that Beverly conceived and gave birth to another son in her mid-50s ?

[Middle-aged Europe]

That fourth episode was pretty decent as far as "space survival" stories go.

Some mysteries were resolved (Shaw's backstory, why Jack never sought out his father), while others continued to build up (who is Vadic working for and what is her connection to Jack?).

Overaching theme of the episode, and apparently the overall season as well, is "family", both biologically and metaphorically (in form of Starfleet crewmembers).


Only hair in the soup: This show is still way too dark, and I mean that literally. They need some more lights on that ship of theirs... a point that has already started to get satirized in fan circles.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Too bad Vadic is pronounced "-ick" in both the English and German version.

I would have preferred the Balkan-style "Va-dit(s)ch" pronounciation. Maybe it makes sense in English, but for German the Balkan-version would be better.



Also, they shouldn't have translated "The Shryke" to "Würger" ... just left it as "The Shryke" instead.

Apparently, it's the name of a bird:



And: Amanda Plummer makes a really convincing villain.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

Other than that, I like the fact that Seven is a fan of Mozart apparently and that Prof. Moriarty will soon make a comeback:



Also, I agree with others who have already said that the show is still too dark. It reminds me of the chaotic action-ridden "Discovery", which was a total disaster of a show. Scene-wise, season 3 is pretty good so far though. A little annoying that the changelings mention of "Solids" in German (from DS9) has now been translated to "Monoforme" or something. They should have sticked with "Solids" as translation, because "Monoforme" just sounds weird in this connex and DS9 lovers.

Ah, so you are enjoying the show in its original Klingon?

The German dubbing of Star Trek can be atrocious at times. I still remember when in the series finale of Enterprise they had Malcolm Reed drop a reference to the title of TNG's series finale (All Good Things...) which was then directly translated by ze Germans into All Good Things' German title (Gestern, Heute, Morgen = Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow) in the dubbed version.

Kudos to noticing that it was indeed a reference to TNG, although the usage of the line "yesterday, today, tomorrow" instead of "all good things" made no sense in the context of the respective dialogue they tried to dub, leaving the impression that Reed was just uttering random gibberish there.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Picard's last episode, "No Win Scenario", currently has a IMDb rating of 9.2.

This would make it the best Picard episode so far, and the fifth-, sixth-, or seventh-best Star Trek episode ever. Maybe a tad overrated me thinks.

But it made me look (again ?) what the ten best or so Star Trek episodes are, according to individual IMDb ratings.

It comes down to this (all of these episodes have a IMDb rating of 9.1 or higher):


The Original Series
"The City on the Edge of Forever" (9.2)

The Next Generation
"The Measure of a Man" (9.1)
"Yesterday's Enterprise" (9.2)
"The Best of Both Worlds" (9.3)
"The Best of Both Worlds Part II" (9.2)
"The Inner Light" (9.4)

Deep Space Nine
"The Visitor" (9.1)
"Trials and Tribble-ations" (9.3)
"In the Pale Moonlight" (9.4)

Picard
"No Win Scenario" (9.2)

Strange New Worlds
"A Quality of Mercy" (9.1)


The following Trek shows have no episode that is rated 9.1 or higher, with the highest-rated respective episodes being:

The Animated Series: "Yesteryear" (8.0)
Voyager: "Blink of an Eye" (9.0)
Enterprise: "Twilight" (8.6)
Discovery: "If Memory Serves" and "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2" (8.2  )
Short Treks: "Calypso" (7.8 )
Lower Decks: "No Small Parts", "wej Duj", and "First First Contact" (8.7)
Prodigy: "Supernova, Part 1" (8.9)

[Middle-aged Europe]

Episode 5: Imposters


Spoilers ahead...


















The major spoiler in this episode is the surprise return of Ro Laren. As such the episode serves as a follow-up, or a sequel of sorts, to TNG's season 7 episode Preemptive Strike, bringing closure to the Picard-Ro relationship almost 30 years later. This was certainly this episode's strongest point, seeing both of them struggling whether they can forgive each other.

By now it has also become clear that this season's main arc is basically a cross between TNG's season 1 episode Conspiracy (switching the parasites for Changelings), and the DS9 two-parter Homefront/Paradise Lost (treating the Changeling infiltration threat as genuine instead of being a false-flag operation by a rogue Starfleet admiral).

The mystery behind Jack Crusher continues to built up. Is he perhaps a Changeling who at one point replaced the real Jack but then forget about his nature and origins?

IMO the episode also features a notable guest appearance by Kirk Acevedo as a Vulcan crime boss, proving that you can find members of this species in pretty much every field since individual Vulcans always use their own subjective version of "logic". This particular Vulcan's logic has been corrupted by having grown up alongside a Ferengi in the streets of a backwater planet, eventually turning him into a bit of a gambler who is "fascinated" by the mathematical probabilities of who would win in a Human vs. Klingon knife fight.

They managed to switch on the lights on the Titan again btw, although the show still comes across as rather badly lit a lot of the time. This article adresses the issue and explains it as a technical error on part of the production, according to showrunner Terry Matalas Star Trek: Picard wasn't supposed to be that dark: https://screenrant.com/star-trek-picard-technical-error-season-3-dark/

[Middle-aged Europe]

.PS:

Europe: Did you also notice how Jack Crusher sometimes gets referred to "Jake" Crusher in the German version? Or is it just me?

Can't tell, I watch the show in English.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I wish Picard had been 3 seasons of this season 3 story, instead of the first 2 seasons we got

Amen.