I endured the first two episodes of Discovery season four before turning it off; then later decided to go back and see if it had improved any. I started episode 3 and a space ninja immediately disemboweled the least competent Star Fleet officer ever, and they didn’t even use a bat’leth to do it. Not an auspicious beginning (although the story ended up being better than the previous two.)
The thing I’ve found least palatable is the floating CGI shit everywhere. I get that the future is supposed to have all kinds of cool technology, but Booker’s ship is apparently made out of CGI chunks that rearrange themselves mid-flight, and the Nivar council has little gratuitously floating CGI chambers that resemble the Star Wars senate. The feeling I get isn’t futuristic, it’s more like like listening to a caffeinated 10 year old kid with a hyperactive imagination and a motormouth playing with Lego bricks. Between that and the magical destruction of all dilithium in the quadrant being destroyed by a kid having a temper tantrum, the willing suspension of disbelief is losing its will to live.
And ever since Emperor Georgiou left, there are zero strong characters remaining in the crew. I was really hoping that Captain Burnham would pick up the slack and save the show, but she hasn’t done anything notable since season 3. Or Tilly could channel her mirror-world self and become the strong one again, but she hasn’t picked that up either. Everybody else has taken navel-gazing to new depths. It’s OK for a show to have one selfish character who whinges about their personal problems, because their appearance gives the astute viewer a chance to run to the kitchen or bathroom without any loss of the storyline. But when the entire crew is mopey, there’s nothing left to watch. There isn’t even an interesting villain – only a genocidal gravitational anomaly.
I’m hoping that the “hiatus” is a reshoot to add some reason to keep the series alive.
Plus, is ‘impractical’ necessarily bad in a weapon that is not for everyday use? Consider the Mensur duel. The weapons, eye-guards, and fencing style were designed to leave impressive wounds on the left side of the face without risking life or eyesight. If you made that up, no-one would believe that; but it happened.
Arguably less of a problem in a world where minor (and even major) hull breaches can be pretty effortlessly contained by force fields and errant projectiles deflected by shields and tractor beams.
Hey, it’s just like all of those bigass wavy swords that 19th century aristocrats bought to decorate their manors with. All supposedly heirlooms, but more often made by some shady blacksmith and distressed to look antique. And although they are fantasy weapons and impractical for actual use, whole groups of historians kept trying to explain how there really were weapons like that in the Thirty Years War, or whenever.
I would not be surprised of the Bat’leth’s origins were not in actual warfare, but a centuries old Klingon comic series. That the equivalent would be Montgomery Scott carrying around the claymore Mel Gibson used in Brave Heart and wearing blue face paint. Only that most Klingons, when confronted, double down in QAnon fashion.
