No spoilers. What is wrong with you people? Where are the spoilers? /s
On a side note, I scanned the aerial shot of “Greater Boston” for anything familiar…
It seems the Custom House Tower (1915) really was built to last!
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Do you think the original Trek would have made the cultural impact if it reflected the turbulent current times it was in? (ETA - By this I mean the Federation and the main characters. They were idealized visions we were to aspire to. Would they be as memorable or praiseworthy if they were as flawed as humans living now? The fact they were able to overcome the turbulent times and become something better is the optimistic vision Roddenberry had. Though I agree with later comments that the stories were a reflection.)
I do not.
IMO, and in a lot of other people’s opinions, the impact of Star Trek was its unflinching optimism that the world would move past its self destructive, petty issues and join together to be something better. Honestly - this is why The Orville is the best Trek on TV right now.
Furthermore, at least from what I saw in the review, the reasons for the Federation’s actions were pretty damn flimsy. Taking the established ideals of The Federation and turning them on their ear is back stabbing the entire premise of the show and concept of The Federation.
Ahh yes the magic of VPN seems nice at first, but when you reframe it as having to buy yet another monthly subscription service on top of a streaming service that I don’t want just to have the privilege of watching a single tv show, it loses its appeal real fast 
Never going to happen my friend!
And really, there was a time where I would have moved earth and ocean to watch a Star Trek show. A time were I would have gladly payed for a VPN service to “stick it to the Man” … or pirated a TV show without a second thought. But now? If they want to put hurdles in front of me just to milk a little more money out of me, then they can disappear into oblivion for all I care. I’ll go watch another show and talk about that one instead with my friends and family. I’ll go buy merchandise for that other show instead as well </ rant>
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Hate the way it’s being put out, but I do like the series so far. Of course I love Patrick Stewart, and ever sense reading Diane Duane’s Rihannsu books, I’m a rabid fan of Romulans, so this series was practically made for me.
That being said, I feel this show is, so far, overtly political in a way that I don’t feel Trek has been for a long time. Even in just the first episode you can see allegories to racism following terrorist attacks, refugee crises, the obligations of providing aid to foreign powers, etc. I’m really interested to see where they do with it.
I feel like the Federation has always been kinda iffy though. In any given episode of Trek, whenever an admiral shows up, it’s bad news. Even back in the peak of Trek optimism, Federation officials were trying to deny Data’s personhood and steal his children.
I like to see it as a tempered optimism. In the future of Trek, things will be better. The racism and sexism we have in our culture today won’t be present. There’s hope for a future… but there’s always going to be new problems to struggle towards, be it the recognition of the rights of synthetic life, or the genetically engineered. It’s an understanding that the biggest danger is when we rest on our laurels, content ourselves that we have fixed our social problems, and let our guard down. To quote Picard himself, from back in the day
We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it’s all ancient history. And then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again … She or someone like her will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish – spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay.
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I found some things to like in the first two seasons of Discovery (Saru is a really great character, for one thing), but the production design of the Klingons is a worse atrocity than the Kitimer Massacre. I cringe so hard every time a Klingon is on-screen.
And then there’s the way the first two seasons are chock-full of science, tech and massive events – like tech to teleport an entire starship anywhere in the universe, or an AI that almost takes over the entire universe – mentioned nowhere else in any Trek, all of it explained away with “all this stuff is top secret! Nobody every mention any of it, ever! Conveniently, that ship sped off 1000 years into the future, to be forgotten and never mentioned by anyone, ever!”
And why is Section 31 so thoroughly ridiculous?
Not actual sample dialogue but might as well be:
"Hello, we are from the super TOP SECRET Section 31, the Federation’s spy agency that has eyes and ears everywhere. It’s top top top secret, so forget you ever even heard about it. By the way, I work for section 31, which is top secret.
“Say, are you a human who was abducted and tortured by the Klingons, and had your very being fused with one of them? Welcome to Section 31, most trustworthy new employee! By the way, your new boss is a former Empress from the Evil Mirror Universe. Also totally trustworthy.”
I will watch S3, as long as I don’t spend too long wondering “why would I do such a thing?”
So far I’m liking Picard a whole lot better, and to me the portrayal of the Romulans is the polar opposite of Discovery’s Klingons – I love it. But I won’t declare the show great just yet. Some of the same issues as Discovery has can easily crop up. Like the Section 31 business. The agency’s head in Picard really ought to have a moustache she can twirl.
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But it did, in many ways. His choice to have the cast be multiracial and harmonious was a direct comment on the times. And there are plenty of episodes where racial intolerance was explored via the aliens the Enterprise encountered. Star Trek is great specifically because it engages direct with the times in which it was/is made.
Yes, but Roddenberry was specific about what aspects of humanity he believed we need to improve (racism and ethnic divisions). Given the proximity of ST to the major events of the Civil Rights, this would have been at the forefront of people’s minds when watching it. Later Trek shows went on to explore that in more depth, most notably DS9, which engaged most directly with American racism, and dealt with issues of colonialism/colonial violence, war, and the impact of those on people’s lives.
There’s stuff like this, too.
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Funny, I thought that’s exactly what it did in almost every episode.
Granted, it didn’t do it through a gritty serialized tale closely paralleling its times, as is the current fashion. It was done mostly with allegory, and usually through an optimistic lens.
But it’s all there. The Cold War, race relations, the counterculture, and so on. I don’t think it would have made nearly the same cultural impact if it didn’t reflect its times in ways that would have been thought-provoking to adult viewers at the time.
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Bat’leths at 20 paces!
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The research seems to land pretty solidly on spoilers actually promoting enjoyment of ‘spoiled’ science fiction, movies, novels, etc.
“No spoilers!” is more of an anxiety about something (I won’t enjoy the work of fiction!) that is not going to happen.
By the way, Luke is Vader’s son, and the Empire will be defeated by Ewoks.
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“Granted, it didn’t do it through a gritty serialized tale closely paralleling its times, as is the current fashion”
This is still nothing new for Trek. S3 of Enterprise was largely in response to 9/11. And so many other examples you all. Have brought up.I think Mister44 has some rose colored memories of what Trek has done.
Perhaps making the federation ‘racist and nonidealists’ is hammering home the point that humanity hasn’t learned that lesson enough. Stewart himself has said the story of this show and our own turbulent times are the exact reason he came back.
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I agree with you – my comment was solely about TOS.
In addition to ENT S3, we could also cite large chunks of DS9 and Voyager, and even TNG but to a much lesser extent.
But TOS is about as close as you can get to a purely episodic show. It had one two-parter and very few callbacks. Even now as a life-long Trek fan, with a few exceptions I can’t tell you where any given TOS episode sits in relation to the rest.
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What kind of p’taq wields a bat’leth at 20 paces? Get right up close with that thing, or go home!
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Flagged for spoilers! 
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Actually, if I am dueling with a bat’leth, I want it to be at least 20 paces. 
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Fair point that many of the story lines reflected it. And yes, the idealized vision of the future was a stark contrast to reality, and of course that was all intentional.
But my point was - Earth’s Starfleet and the Federation were the shining example we were to ASPIRE to.
It appears the Picard version is not much better than where we are now. Who are we supposed to aspire to in this version? If the Federation is just as full as bigots as today, then what’s the point?
I am not saying darker stories don’t have a place in Trek. In TOS and TNG they had darker story lines and moral dilemmas. And certainly DS9 did it more right than some of the newer stuff. DS9 was darker due to the location and events surrounding it, just coming out of a war. It made sense.
But still, in that example, the Federation is what we hope to aspire to. Its ideals are the guiding force in how Sisko and the rest of Starfleet handled the situation.
The later movies have degraded into action schlock, and I wanted to like Discovery, but don’t - at least not as Star Trek. Maybe as a different franchise.
OK, I misspoke. The story lines clearly were a reflection of the times. But the Federation and the characters were idealistic visions of the future, way past where we were/are. Yes they dealt with things like racism and fascism and war - but they were trying to help OTHERS over come those things. You could argue the Mirror Universe would be the Federation if it reflected the current attitudes and times.
Season-spanning story arcs make a lot more sense in the days of streaming television than they did back when people had to depend on broadcast TV. I enjoyed the later Star Trek spinoffs less than TNG, not because the quality was lacking but because they weren’t really structured for casual viewing so I’d spend half the time trying to figure out what had happened since the last time I’d tuned in.
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