What are You Watching?

[Ubik]

I liked parts of seasons 1 and 2 of Picard, but both had bad endings in my opinion and didn't really hold up overall. Season 3 was uniformly excellent (I know cynics will moan about it being nostalgic, but tough).

I did like Discovery, though it veered between excellent and atrocious. I think if season 1 had belonged to some other science fiction show, and wasn't labelled as Star Trek, we'd all be lauding it. Season 2 had a really strong start and a messy ending, ditto season 3 (though I was okay with the explanation for the Burn, though I never felt the writers made the most of the concept). I liked the story in season 4 the most, as a good example of a first-contact story, and season 5 was disappointing to me.

I've seen the first season of SNW, it's good in places but I didn't like the characterisation of Spock or the actor playing him, and it seems later seasons became gimmicky (I am *not* watching a Star Trek musical). Maybe the character of Spock is just too ingrained with Leonard Nimoy for me.

As for Academy, it doesn't really look like it's for me though I may get around to watching at some point given the good word of mouth it has got. I always try and remember IDIC, and then think that people criticising these shows are missing the point. I've got the original series and TNG and the movies 1-10 (well, maybe not Nemesis) to enjoy, it's okay if I don't like all the new Star Trek as other people do - infinite diversity of Star Trek in infinite combinations. There's something for everyone. As for those people who think Star Trek has 'gone woke', give me a break - it always has been. IDIC is as woke a concept as you can get!

I was born in 1980 and don't normally wish I'd been around in the 60s, but to have been there when Star Trek was originally airing, and being part of that zeitgeist, yeah I can imagine that would have been quite special - like being around for when B5 first aired.

(I'll save my ire for DS9 though – boring characters, boring actors, boring stories, boring set design, boring music... I did a rewatch a few years ago and fell asleep watching Sacrifice of Angels - twice! At that point I decided to stop rewatching if I couldn't get through what many people think is one of its best episodes!)

Sorry for the spiel. Just been thinking about the Star Trek universe recently so it was a bit of a stream of consciouness!

Weird synchronicity, but I'm currently doing a re-watch of DS9 and it's (for me) probably the Trek that has best stood the test of time. Personally love Garak, Quark and Odo. The show deals with the impact of war with a fair bit of weight and asks some interesting moral questions. I love the cast, and whilst it does have some filler here and there (as does every Trek show), I really enjoy it.

TNG is probably the all time classic for me, and it was the show, along with TOS reruns that really hooked me into Sci-fi. B5 began airing around the same time as TNG, which was also a staple in my viewing.

Academy is definitely for a 'modern audience', i.e. tweens / teens / young adults of this era, so I give it a pass on a lot of things. That said, I think it's the most strongly 'it's own thing' that I've seen from Trek in some time. It also has characters that have stuck with me so far.

With Disco, I couldn't name most of the bridge crew! With Academy, it's an ensemble cast but they're all given enough screen time to develop meaningfully, even withing the modern 10 episode season format. This is a decent feat. It's not perfect, but it's also not the car crash the internet would have you believe it is.I've quite enjoyed watching a new weekly show find it's legs, and it's done that rather well.

 

[Springer]

TNG is probably the all time classic for me, and it was the show, along with TOS reruns that really hooked me into Sci-fi. B5 began airing around the same time as TNG, which was also a staple in my viewing.

Yep, the same for me, TOS re-runs on BBC on Wednesday nights I think, before Points of View. My mum would work late so my dad would allow me to stay up late to watch it. I remember watching the episode Arena when I was about five or six. I also went to the cinema to see The Voyage Home. So TOS was actually my first Trek. Took a while to really take to TNG – I think that was the case for everyone – but it became 'my' Trek as I watched it growing up. TNG is not perfect by any means, some episodes are just bad, but I'll watch that crew doing anything.

Academy is definitely for a 'modern audience', i.e. tweens / teens / young adults of this era, so I give it a pass on a lot of things. That said, I think it's the most strongly 'it's own thing' that I've seen from Trek in some time. It also has characters that have stuck with me so far.

With Disco, I couldn't name most of the bridge crew! With Academy, it's an ensemble cast but they're all given enough screen time to develop meaningfully, even withing the modern 10 episode season format. This is a decent feat. It's not perfect, but it's also not the car crash the internet would have you believe it is.I've quite enjoyed watching a new weekly show find it's legs, and it's done that rather well.

My dislike of Academy dates all the way back to the early 1990s when Harve Bennett was pushing for Star Trek VI to be an academy movie. I hated the idea then, disliked it in the JJ Abrams movie (well, I disliked the entirety of that movie) and I'm not really keen on it now. I think it stems from wanting to watch the real deal, actual Starfleet officers, rather than trainees. I find the professionalism of Starfleet officers quite inspiring, and it's one of the things lacking in Discovery and nu-Trek overall. The most professional officer in Discovery was Tilly! I liked how her character developed, she'd be at home on the Enterprise-D.

 

[LateArrival]

People in the audience were laughing when the Enterprise popped out the water at the beginning of one of the more recent-ish Trek films.

 

[Ubik]

Yep, the same for me, TOS re-runs on BBC on Wednesday nights I think, before Points of View. My mum would work late so my dad would allow me to stay up late to watch it. I remember watching the episode Arena when I was about five or six. I also went to the cinema to see The Voyage Home. So TOS was actually my first Trek. Took a while to really take to TNG – I think that was the case for everyone – but it became 'my' Trek as I watched it growing up. TNG is not perfect by any means, some episodes are just bad, but I'll watch that crew doing anything.

My dislike of Academy dates all the way back to the early 1990s when Harve Bennett was pushing for Star Trek VI to be an academy movie. I hated the idea then, disliked it in the JJ Abrams movie (well, I disliked the entirety of that movie) and I'm not really keen on it now. I think it stems from wanting to watch the real deal, actual Starfleet officers, rather than trainees. I find the professionalism of Starfleet officers quite inspiring, and it's one of the things lacking in Discovery and nu-Trek overall. The most professional officer in Discovery was Tilly! I liked how her character developed, she'd be at home on the Enterprise-D.

S1 of Academy wrapped up yesterday.

My overall verdict is they landed a solid first season. It has a season long arc, but unlike Disco, the arc is primarily about the characters developing and not so much about 'the big bad' or 'must save the universe' macguffin. I was very on the fence for the first four or so episodes. It really started to hit it's stride by episode 6.

Looking back on it as a whole, it's a very well balanced season. Ranks alongside Strange New Worlds S1 for me, but it gets some bonus points for trying something new. Been fairly surprised by Academy as I expected to utterly hate it with every fibre of my being.