The TV Series discussion thread

Anyone watched the new star trek yet? I quite liked it but I just want a scifi show and dont really care about the universe or any inconsistencies.

Story was interesting enough so far, the humor was indeed a bit much but that will get better. I just hope it will have a nice overarching story and not afraid of making huge changes, killing of characters, etc. Especially not too episodic.

ilm said:

Anyone watched the new star trek yet? I quite liked it but I just want a scifi show and dont really care about the universe or any inconsistencies.

Story was interesting enough so far, the humor was indeed a bit much but that will get better. I just hope it will have a nice overarching story and not afraid of making huge changes, killing of characters, etc. Especially not too episodic.

Spoiler: hal

Killing of the captain is a good initial move towards that but afraid she will be back in the next episode as she is featured prominently the trailers I believe

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I liked a number of things, including the cast, the premise, and the production values. I wasn't all that impressed by the writing, or the coherency of the situation. That said, all the latter Star Trek series were rough at the beginning, and in that context it was better than its predecessors. The opening episodes of TNG and DS9 were pretty poor - I'd say even mostly their first seasons.


EDIT: At the risk of being booted into P&R, though not my intention, have you ever noticed how much of Star Trek involves the floundering Federation attempting to navigate the politics of rather extreme nationalist (or speciesist ) alien races they encounter?

Ripper said:

Spoiler

EDIT: At the risk of being booted into P&R, though not my intention, have you ever noticed how much of Star Trek involves the floundering Federation attempting to navigate the politics of rather extreme nationalist (or speciesist ) alien races they encounter?

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I'm still waiting for them to admit this isn't the Star Trek prime universe that Discovery is in, after that happens I can work on taking the show seriously. I mean, thanks to the original series we know exactly what vessels and uniforms looked like in that time frame, not to mention the funkiest looking Klingons that I've yet to see on any Trek show. I did, however, like the bottle of Picard that the captain had in her ready room, but the date on it was about year three of Kirk's five year mission on Enterprise, so there are quite a few things not making sense.

wolfing said:

Space shows and Star Trek in particular are usually very racist. All Vulcans are smart and logic. All Klingons are violent. All Ferengi are greedy. All Romulans are untrustworthy.

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Not so much the generalisations, but more the number of plots that revolve around "Make the Klingons/Cardassians/Bajorans/Dominion/Breen/Borg/Romulans/Kazon/Tholians/JemHadar/Vidians/Species 8472/Gorn/ etc great again!"

I was just on a Swedish forum and people were so happy that most of the leading roles in the new Star Trek were women and the bad people were portrayed as men. Their reasoning was that this "promotes equality" and Netflix are very good people who are "aware". I think these people have gone full circle/full retard, it started as something genuine and good (equality is good), to become something that builds on hating a certain gender (and often a certain skin color as well).

Waiting for the New Season to begin.

For me the new TV season starts in October with the blockbusters arriving. The Summer has been very dry with only Dark Matter, Killjoys and Midnight Texas providing relief. Thank god for my DVD collection.

Like Vurt I do worry that we are going overboard with men playing the part of the bad guy or the like-able idiot (if a good guy). Equality is promoted by showing the sexes working together as equals not one of them being treated as a lapdog or demon.

The summer of Twin Peaks ended a great season of tv. We shall not see the likes of that again unless new Twin Peaks are announced.

Did anyone catch the new series called The Good Doctor? I found it quite interesting as it's about a surgeon with autism.

Corwin said:

Did anyone catch the new series called The Good Doctor? I found it quite interesting as it's about a surgeon with autism.

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A possibly good show with some interesting writing. I just loved the unexpected verbal confrontations (haha unless you saw the show this is a nonsensical comment). OTOH, not sure if the idea of the show, as set up, is sustainable for a typical network season. For other than the brother(?), and the doctors sponsor, there just were not enough compelling characters on the show for a full 22-26 episode season. Frankly, I despised just about all the apparently regular characters in the show other that the previously stated exceptions.

I guess I should add, the lead (the good doctor) is very good.

Corwin said:

Did anyone catch the new series called The Good Doctor? I found it quite interesting as it's about a surgeon with autism.

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The only good doctor is Doctor Who.

Watching Capaldi die on Christmas day is going to suck. He was one of the very best doctors, I rack him right up there with Tom Baker, Hartnell, and Davison.

Really enjoying South Park again… soon there's a few more good ones;

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Stranger Things
The Walking Dead
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Ripper said:

The opening episodes of TNG and DS9 were pretty poor - I'd say even mostly their first seasons.

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TNG up till season 4 and Voyager season 1 was bad but I like DS9 up until Worf got onboard and they fired Mrs Obrien. DS9 picks up again when the war with the shapeshifters begins. They really did well on that arc. I suspect the new series is trying to do the same kind of arc.

But it really suffers from the same problem as Enterprise but being derivative and "we've seen this". DS9 did well to take a direction no one considered and Voyager was yet another Lost in Space but without the interference of the canon.

The only way to successfully throw out all the canon of existing Star Trek is blow it up - they are trying and failing in the movies. One screw up as a movie is costly and they did that twice now. With a tv series you can chuck a bad episode out the window more easily.

EDIT: At the risk of being booted into P&R, though not my intention, have you ever noticed how much of Star Trek involves the floundering Federation attempting to navigate the politics of rather extreme nationalist (or speciesist ) alien races they encounter?

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This is a common crticism of even TOS - Rodenberry's federation is condescending to unenlightened aliens who have not joined their kumbaya. Even Spock gets taught to be human.

vurt said:

I was just on a Swedish forum and people were so happy that most of the leading roles in the new Star Trek were women and the bad people were portrayed as men. Their reasoning was that this "promotes equality" and Netflix are very good people who are "aware". I think these people have gone full circle/full retard, it started as something genuine and good (equality is good), to become something that builds on hating a certain gender (and often a certain skin color as well).

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The proper term in America is "woke"

Corwin said:

Did anyone catch the new series called The Good Doctor? I found it quite interesting as it's about a surgeon with autism.

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I have heard this is based on another series successful outside the US.

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I just saw that SWAT is getting a reboot. Everything old is truly new again on TV etc. - on a scale I haven't seen before.

I thought the Deep Space Nine pilot was pretty awesome. That show just flew out of the starting gate and never let up, that is the show by which all Treks will be measured.

Carnifex said:

I thought the Deep Space Nine pilot was pretty awesome. That show just flew out of the starting gate and never let up, that is the show by which all Treks will be measured.

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I actually didn't like DS9 until the last couple of seasons when the war started. I enjoyed the first seasons of Voyager much more, and the middle seasons of TNG, and the last season of Enterprise.

wolfing said:

I actually didn't like DS9 until the last couple of seasons when the war started. I enjoyed the first seasons of Voyager much more, and the middle seasons of TNG, and the last season of Enterprise.

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I totally understand that feeling. But I would frame it as such:

Voyager was good throughout its run but it can take awhile to get used to Janeway. The 7of9 addition may have detracted for some but I felt she helped flesh out the Borg way more than just battling them all the time. Additionally, I found the Doctor to be one of the most memorable and likeable characters in all the Trek universe.

The first season of TNG was them getting back into Sci Fi. The first year was clumsy writing and even included a Disney side kick (Wesley). But they moved beyond Wesley and rounded out the rest of the crew. Interestingly, a non regular but recurring character (Barclay) added a number of good stories to the series.

DS9 was hampered simply because it was about a space station not a space ship. I felt they never really figured out how to make the Bajorians interesting. To bad they couldn't have snagged Michelle Forbes for DS9. In any event the show seemed to center on far too many personal stories the simply slowed down the series. But in the series last couple of years they figured out a great arc story and by the time the show wrapped up, the last season of DS9 was as good as any other Trek show.

Enterprise . . . . They didn't know what they heck they were doing in the first year of that show. I bet their sole plan for the initial set up for the series was "lets do a show with a timeline before Kirk" PERIOD. The Zindi arc was interesting but because the show failed to take advantage of Trek canon, the stories just weren't satisfying as Trek stories. Just a series with a lot of Trek dressing . . . kinda like the whole Gothic 4 thing. However, the last year of Enterprise was pure genius. The new guys directing the show knew there were all kinds of stories to tell in regards to Trek cannon. If they would have been in charge from the beginning the series easily could have lasted the normal 5 to 7 years. . . . . Oh, and the initial theme song for Enterprise was by far one of the worst theme songs ever written (scored?) for episodic television.

Old Star Trek

I must admit that I found TNG too politically correct and they always seem to do the "right" thing and get away with it. I stopped watching after a few seasons. Voyager I just could not get into. However DS9 I thought was brilliant. The new cultures they brought in, the more realistic decision making (Sisko getting the Romulans into the war) and the different but complementary members of the crew.

Being able to explore, in depth, at least 3 new cultures suits me better than the lets talk to these aliens and we will never see them again after this episode. The space station works in that situation.

I was sad when it finished but it was done in the right way. They did a continuation of the series via novels which I found hard to read. Some series do finish and even the best crews break up after a while. Still watch the DVDs I have of DS9 (watched it all over the last 12 months).

P.S. I didn't like the Worf character either but perhaps that is what they were trying to do.

Personally I thought Voyager couldn't hold a candle to either of the two shows that came before. The premise of Voyager was excellent, the pilot was pretty good, but overall I thought it really didn't take enough chances. By far the best thing that the show produced were two outstanding directors in their own right.

OK, caught the latest Orville. Once again they are trying to beat you over the head with story and throw a few crude jokes in.

However, not only was it (A little Red Dwarf, alot of For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky where the big bad is religion instead of science), its incredibly derivative

Its effectively the pilot for The Starlost. I would post the pilot but its been pulled from Youtube. But to be clear there's a few stolen scenes even.

Look for Harlan Ellison to sue.

However, I did like seeing one Theodore Bagwell as guest star. Looks like he did well for himself after prison - especially with that new hand of his.