Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/21/tribbles-breakfast-cereal-is-a.html
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Viewers on Garbage Island (and presumably other non-Americas) can see these Short Treks on Netflix, where they are filed under “Star Trek: Discovery” / “Trailers & More”. But this tribbles episode isn’t there yet, I guess they come out weekly.
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The short itself, was close to perfection.
The cereal commercial spoof at the end was slight-smile funny. I think it kinds of takes away from the actual brilliance of the short.
It actually made me think, “Oh the 23rd Century still has SNL? I wouldn’t have imagined that but, sure, I guess, fine? I wonder what season that would be?”
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I’ve seen a pretty equal division in fan reaction to the commercial, those who love it (and don’t take it too seriously, ) your reaction, and utter hatred ‘they are runining the franchise’ types.
I fall into the love it camp, strangely enough I have never enjoyed the concept/episodes of Tribbles but now that I know they are Starfleet’s fault I find them fascinating.
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I just feel the short was legitimately entertaining and awesome. (By short I mean the actual short episode, not the commercial at the end.)
It was funny while being organically Trek-friendly in that it dealt with a workplace issue based on a real human dynamic in a space utopia (a pretty common thing in Trek).
But I don’t think the commercial at the end felt like Trek, it felt exactly like a SNL gag, not set in-universe. I wish more people were talking about the narrative short than the spoof of breakfast cereal commercials. That bit was done fifty years ago.
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Sure, it didn’t feel ‘trek like’ but then it wasn’t supposed to be. Just a cute little funny gag to an already ridiculous concept even for Trek (what did the Tribbles eat? How can they gain such mass?) It being at the end of the credits was enough of a separation that it shouldn’t have had any effect on the greatness of the minisode.
So Star Trek isnt allowed to take a moment and be a little silly?
Look at DS9’s Tribble episode. It was done as a love letter and anniversary present to the franchise. The whole 60s klingons to modern ones was supposed to be a fricken joke. Not taken seriously at all. But then enough whiny fans bitched and moaned about it so then come Enterprise time, they dedicated a whole storyline to explain the ridgless klingons. That then led to even more angst over Discovery’s updated look (which they have then backtracked again)
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You’re responding to my praise of the rest of the episode, which had a metric ton of silliness. I loved it.
The spoof commercial was slight-smile inducing SNL skit. It was a bit that’s been done a thousand times before, and often better. It wasn’t bad. You’re right that it was at the level of a gag.
But the mini-episode with Rosa Salazar and H. Jon Benjamin was silly funny and original and didn’t feel like a skit, it felt like Trek.
It’s the difference between “A silly joke dressed up with Star Trek references” (commercial) and “A Star Trek story about a person who has silly qualities in that setting”
It shared the better qualities of a better Mudd or Q episode, but with a different character silly for different reasons.
No one said Star Trek isn’t allowed to take a moment and be a little silly, I just know what I liked and laughed at. YMMV.
I guess for me I want both kinds of silly. The in-universe story that we got in the episode (with it’s specific flavour of humor) and the shorts darker, twisted satire that pokes fun of itself.
So if the commercial skit after the credits was more original and not a joke we’ve seen before…you would have potentially found it to not decrease the value of the full short?
It kind of broke the fourth wall, since it was a spoof of Star Trek, not in Star Trek. So that means it has to be a lot funnier to make up for it.
If it’s funny in character in episode, they can be cutting, if they’re making fun of themselves as a standalone gag it’ll probably always feel more like Wedding Toast humor.
I don’t know, I think there have been so many spoofs, homages, and silly takes of Star Trek, from Mad Magazine to The Orville that if they want to do zany explicitly and directly self-referential humor, it may always feel super-redundant and a late copy of other copies that had more satiric bite in them to make them funnier.
Just my thoughts, not proscriptive.
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yes please
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“CBS All Access”? More like “No Access” since you have to pay for it. Thanks but no thanks, I already pay for cable and Netflix. Not gonna pay for yet another walled garden.
Think of it as an hbo or other pay cable channel. Not that big of a difference. The way media is changing, streaming is the future. Cable will die.
At current rates, im still coming out ahead with netflix, amazon, hulu, cbs and upcoming disney+ with more content that I want then the same of just getting a basic cable package.
So, it has come to this.
Yikes, what do you pay for all of those, including your Internet connection?
Yikes? Still cheaper than the last time I paid for basic cable (about 6 years ago and it was 60 bucks a month for just the tv part of basic cable [so no pay channels])
here is what I pay monthly:
hulu 5.99 (thinking of dropping tho, less there these days we watch regularly)
amazon 10.00 (I consider this one free. I ship enough stuff from them that the prime is just a bonus)
netflix 12.99
disney+ 6.99 (when it starts)
cbs 9.99 (only when a Star Trek is on, so not year round)
I also grab OTA and record directly of the main broadcast networks but that’s getting less and less that I want to see there.
internet: 65
How much do you pay for your netflix, cable and internet? I found years ago there was nothing on normal cable that was worth keeping.
I pay a grand total of $77.99 (including taxes) for Internet, basic cable (although my package includes STARZ, whatever), and Netflix. That’s $33/month less than what you pay, FWIW.
I don’t really care enough about the shows offered by any one package to bother subscribing. Netflix was (is) an experiment, although I’m usually hard pressed to find much of interest so it’s hardly worth the price to me. But I don’t think any would be worth the price to me, let alone all of them.
If only some company would aggregate all of these offerings and let you you subscribe on a channel-by-channel basis…oh, wait, isn’t that what we wanted from cable to begin with?
Must be nice to get such cheap ass internet. Aint a thing in these parts.
That is what I feel I am getting with my current streaming channels. Cable ala carte was never going to work.
“Short Treks” - Studio-sanctioned “fan films”, resulting from their abhorrent fan film “guidelines”.
Also, “Discovery” IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE considered canon by the real fans.
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