Today’s Star Trek: Discovery news roundup is packed with stuff to check out, starting with some hints about the rest of the season. We also have Shazad Latif talking more about going from Voq to Tyler, an analysis of the title sequence, James Frain’s Sarek research, and more.
Showrunners drop hints for final two episodes
Entertainment Weekly’s ‘Spoiler Room’ has some info from Discovery’s co-showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts on episodes 14 and 15.
Now back in the Prime universe, the final two episodes of the season will be a race against the clock to prevent Starfleet from being annihilated. “As the crew of Discovery deals with the fallout of Mirror Universe Lorca, they must end the war with the Klingons once and for all,” showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Halberts tease. “Burnham is going to have to strike unexpected alliances in a mission that requires the Discovery team to take the fight directly to the Klingons. Will there be redemption for Burnham’s mutiny against Georgiou or Tyler’s attacks on Culber and Burnham? As the first season wraps up, the stakes have never been higher for the U.S.S. Discovery and we’re excited to answer many of the questions that have been asked since the first episode, as well as tease what’s to come.”
Latif talks sexual assault story line and mechanics of Voq transformation
In a new interview with Vulture, actor Shazad Latif discussed the sexual assault story line with Tyler and how it changes following the reveal
To go back a little bit to the sexual-assault story line. The audience now knows that Tyler is really Voq in a heavily surgically transformed body, although it seems like with the surgery scene that happened with L’Rell in episode 13, maybe we can assume that Voq may not really exist anymore and the Tyler personality will dominate? But knowing that this was a personality grafted in Voq and not necessarily fully real, how do you feel that affects the sexual-assault story line?
It’s interesting because in reality Voq was just having sex. And they’re in love, and that’s what’s technically happening, but obviously in Tyler’s mind, because he is in my head, he was a real guy and his memories are real and he’s still a real person, he’s just coming through in someone else’s core being. In his mind, it’s sexual assault. So, to play it both is very weird and interesting because you don’t normally get to do that. But to explore adds another layer for an actor and for the story line. Especially in times like now, with what’s going on, it’s a very, very interesting thing to explore.
Latif also sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and gave an in depth interview talking about playing both Voq and Tyler on Star Trek: Discovery. Watch that below:
How the ‘Discovery’ titles came to life
If you want to learn everything there is to know about the creation of the title sequence for Discovery, check out the “Star Trek: Discovery” profile at Art of the Title, which includes discussions with the team that put the titles together, including designer Ana Criado and writer Kurt Mattila, who had this to say about the origins for the sequence:
While the show’s staff were initially uncertain about the direction Discovery’s opening should take, according to Criado that first meeting established the parameters for what they didn’t want the sequence to be. “They wanted it to look kind of vintage and distinct from previous title sequences,” she said. Mattila recalled the specific mandate set forth by the showrunners: “We don’t want where we were, we want to go past it… Boldly go where no Star Trek has gone before!”
“Our concept was to show how the starship Discovery and its crew came to be a part of this new adventure,” said Criado. “To do so, we decided to take things back to the drawing board, literally.”
James Frain watched Spock doc to prep
In an interview with St. Louis Post Dispatch promoting this weekend’s Wizard World St. Louis, James Frain revealed how he got ready to play the role of Sarek:
To understand more about the original “Star Trek,” he watched a documentary called “For the Love of Spock,” which was made by Nimoy’s son, Adam Nimoy. “It gave me much more insight into the series.”
BTS Tweet of the day: chair dancing
Check out the Discovery’s bridge crew doing some disco dancing in this tweet from director Olatunde Osunsanmi.
Disco on Discovery #StarTrekDiscovery #startrek #WhatsPastIsPrologue @actordougjones @OyinOladejo @SaraMitich @KWOK_ROCK @couttsemily #woody pic.twitter.com/82ZDBWkMg5
— Olatunde Osunsanmi (@CenterWillHold) February 1, 2018
More Disco bits:
Here are the latest links from across the Interweb on what people are saying about Discovery:
Vox: Star Trek: Discovery found love in a hopeless place. Really!
New York Times: The Remote Control, Out of Control: Why à la Carte TV Is Too Much for a Trekkie.
CBR: How Discovery’s Mirror Universe Went From Fan Service to Social Relevance.
Inverse: 3 Ways ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Explains Original Series Politics Perfectly.
Guardian UK: Star Trek: Discovery is reminding me of everything I loved about Enterprise.
IGN: Star Trek Is Star Wars Now.
Syfy: On Star Trek: Discovery, L’Rell paves the way for female Klingons in the franchise.
Metro UK: Lorca, you still got my love: Why Star Trek Disovery’s Mirrorverse Terran captain is still my hero.
Player.One: Star Trek: Discovery Has Us Wondering, How Tasty Are Aliens Anyway?
Bustle: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Was Actually Feminist All Along & It’s A Big Relief.
Tor: What is Star Trek: Discovery Currently Implying About Elon Musk?
Star Trek: Discovery is available exclusively in the USA on CBS All Access. It airs in Canada on the Space Channel is available on Netflix everywhere else.
Keep up with all the Star Trek: Discovery news at TrekMovie.
Yes, but why do we have a TOS phaser and communicator from ten years in the future? We get a Disco phaser, but not the Disco communicator. ??
We have a bridge from the 24th century, I’m not too worried about the phasers.
The Inverse article that is linked to at the bottom of this article, 3 Ways Star Trek Discovery Explains Original Series Politics Perfectly, is a good read and makes some sense.
I couldn’t remember where I had read it. Thanks for finding it for me TrekMovie. :)
I agree! This article shows how it could all make sense.
It only makes sense if you ignore the fact that such a war on that scale was never ever mentioned in any other show ever.
They still mention the Roumlan war yet for some reason never mention the Kligon war were a fifth of the federation was conquered and a third of starfleet was wiped out.
That’s without mentioning that the dispute between the Kligon and the federation in tos was about access to trading routes/resources and access to acquire new territory nothing to do with Kligon xenophobia.
Add to that the fact aside from Kol not a single Kligon character has remotely acted/behaved like the Kligons from tos or the original films do.
Yeah this all makes sense in regards to canon 😏
Isabella we didn’t hear every conversation that was ever made in the fictional TOS universe. The lack of us hearing something doesn’t mean it never happened.
Doesn’t mean it did either. So the best thing to do is stick to the facts and go from there. Obviously Discovery does not tie in to TOS and that’s because it wasn’t initially meant to. Everything I’ve read about it to this point is how everyone has wanted to do things differently. Now that the show has some legs, however, to some extent the priorities are changing and so we have this friction. When the writing is bad these differences can become big problems in enjoying the show; when the writing is good we tend to look past them. So, some episodes have worked better than others, but is it really Star Trek? It is and it isn’t. It depends what we mean by ‘Star Trek’ – each series has done different things with it. For me, Star Trek is exemplified by TOS and TNG and the pre-reboot films; Discovery sits near this, overlapping into it but simultaneously outside of what I think of as being Trek as well. But then Voyager, DS9 and Enterprise were not really what I think of as being really quite proper Star Trek either, so feel free to ignore my views if you are huge fan of any of those series.
King, it’s all Trek and it all fits
But Disco, it made sense the Romulan War was brought up in Balance of Terror. And conversely it would make sense that it be brought up in Errand of Mercy. Just to give the viewer more backstory regarding this antagonistic species. We got Kirk mentioning what they do to conquered worlds. We get Kor listing grievances against what they see the UFP doing. But not one inference to there ever have been an all out war where the starfleet was so decimated.
“They still mention the Roumlan war yet for some reason never mention the Kligon war were a fifth of the federation was conquered and a third of starfleet was wiped out.”
Well, in Balance of Terror Spock has to explain the Romulan war, it’s outcome, and the treaty to the entire crew. And even Kirk doesn’t know that Romulan ships are painted with birds.
Klingons aren’t even mentioned for almost a third of Star Trek (TOS). And even then only in a single episode.
Kirk: “We have legitimate grievances against the Klingons. They’ve invaded our territory, killed our citizens. They’re openly aggressive. They’ve boasted that they’ll take over half the galaxy.”
Of course that Inverse article claims that Gamma Hydra is from The Wrath of Khan. But it was originally from The Deadly Years where it was near the ROMULAN Neutral Zone.
good points Tallguy
Romulan war was over a century pre Kirk. So maybe he is not up on history whereas Kirk would have been involved in the Kligon federation war yet it was never mentioned.
The war in discovery is not some kind of small thing it’s a vast conflict with a fifth of the federation conquered and a third of the fleet lost. Yet it’s never mentioned.
Besides if the Kligons had devastated the federation to that extent what were the Romulans doing by waiting over a decade before launching a surprise attack on the federation?
Surely that attack in Balance of terror should have either occured during the kligon war when the federation fleet was tied up with Kligons. Or after the war when starfleet still would have been on its knees after the federation kligon war?
Why wait until a decade allowing the federation to rebuilt its fleet?
Wars tend to lead to other wars.
As seen in tng/DS9-
Federation cardassian war lead to the kligon cardassian war which lead to the kligon federation war which lead to the dominion federation/kligon/Romulan war.
Yet in discovery a super massive war between the federation and the Kligons led to the Romulans doing nothing for a decade in regards to attacking the federation.
It’s like the dumb idea of Vulcan being destroyed in the 09 film yet there is no interstellar political fall out. Instead it leads to robocop defrosting a man from the 1990’s to make super weapons.
The conversation that Kirk had about having legitimate grievances against Kligons in errand of mercy was mirrored by the conversation of Mara to Kang in day of the dove.
Mara: Kang, what has happened?
Kang: More Federation treachery.
Mara: What will they do to us? I’ve heard of their atrocities, their death camps. They will torture us for our scientific and military information.
There is no reason to believe Kirk’s statement was any more correct about the kligon’s then there is to believe that the Kligon’s statement about the federation was correct based on TOS.
“ignorance of the past” does not create a canon violation.
“Mara: What will they do to us? I’ve heard of their atrocities, their death camps. They will torture us for our scientific and military information.
There is no reason to believe Kirk’s statement was any more correct about the kligon’s then there is to believe that the Kligon’s statement about the federation was correct based on TOS.”
Except Mara said “I’ve heard” and I’m sure she did. But Kirk said “I’ve seen”. Unless we think he’s lying. Also, everything Kirk described in Errand of Mercy then HAPPENED. Kor might not have actually killed 200 Organians but he certainly thought he did. And he was more than prepared to execute the next 200 and the next.
There is a LOT that did not get talked about in 78 episodes.
Why didn’t the Romulans attack the Federation? Maybe the Klingons didn’t let them? Maybe they didn’t know about it? (The Federation had so little idea what was going on in Rom space they didn’t even know what they looked like. Maybe that blindness went both ways.) Maybe there were other reasons? The Centurion in Ballance of Terror talks of the “hundred campaigns” he and the Commander have fought in. Maybe they were busy with those.
The Federation will at some point still be strong enough to end the war. Or the Empire will not have stopped wherever it does.
@Trellium
I suppose… If you squint real hard and things get all murky things in the article might kinda sorta make some sort of sense. But there are alternatives that seem more likely.
The first point is that Sarek negotiated with the Klingons so they are saying events in Discovery are what he was negotiating. But when that line was said in TNG’s “Sarek” I had immediately went to settlement that was forced upon them by the Organians. They were forced to hammer out an agreement then, and it was reasonable that Sarek was the one who made things happen.
The next point they make is that the fleet in STD “feels” way smaller than the fleet in TOS. Which I don’t get that feeling at all. We have SEEN a lot of ships in DSC. But that means nothing. First, Kirk said there were 12 Constitution Class starships “in the fleet”. That implies that while it might be the most badass thing in starfleet there are still lots of other classes of starships out there. It stands to reason there are a LOT. And watching TOS it did indeed “feel” like there were a lot, even though we rarely saw others. The concept of “packing people in” the old ships makes perfect sense for ships of the past. For example, when the USS Missouri was first put to sea near the end of WWII, it had a crew of 2,700. After a refit the complement was some 1,800. As ships get modernized, even today it requires fewer crew to man. Kirk could be very well aware of Klingon atrocities even without being involved in the DSC war. Even if such a war never existed. In fact, the way “Errand of Mercy” plays out, it implies that tensions have been strained between the two factions for quite some time and that as yet, there had not been an all out war between the two. Now, of course, nothing was definite and one could shoehorn the war into canon, as this show is trying to do.
The neutral zone with the Klingons I have always found to be a bit weird. There was certainly one with the Romulans. But TOS never mentioned one with the Klingons even in the few Klingon episodes after “EoM”. Then, out of left field, the Trek movies start lifting Romulan elements and making them Klingon. Like the neutral zone, cloaking devices and bird of prey ship classes. Now, again, there is nothing to prove they DIDN’T have these things. It just seems a pretty big stretch that the two main baddies shared such things. Even WITH the “Romulans now using Klingon designs” line in “The Enterprise Incident”. But we KNOW the reason for that was the TV show budget and just make no sense beyond that. Regardless, the authors idea that the Klingon neutral zone was established after the DSC war makes no sense as one OBVOIUSLY did not exist when “EoM” came to pass.
Edit… it’s the other way around. They said the fleet in TOS “feels” smaller than the one in DSC.
Disco on Disco!
That’s my theory too! Somehow the Emperor will link to the ISS Disco but I’m predicting a battle between both ships at some point.
where is disco duck
That’s not disco. those were seizures.
I’m a little confused. Didn’t Empress Gheorgiou come back to the Prime Universe with Michael and the Discovery?
Yes, for some totally illogical reason, our Vulcan heroine did do exactly this.
illogical? So you already know how that’s going to turn out. A psychic in our midst.
It doesn’t matter how things ultimately turn out. King was saying that the decision, given the known facts and the situation at hand was an illogical one. It would still be illogical no matter how things turn out. Just as good assumptions are still reasonable and logical even if they later turn out to be wrong.
Discovery is pretty much nothing like Star Wars. That article seems like click-bait to me. Seriously, anyone who has watched all of Discovery, and says it’s trying to be like Star Wars, has seriously missed the point. The Mirror universe is a bit closer, but, again, that’s the point; it takes the show shifting to the “evil”, “hopeless” Mirror universe to be a bit more like Star Wars. Plus, no laser-swords, just actual, kick-ass swords. :-)
People have been saying that about Trek ever since the 2009 movie. They consider Trek that’s action-packed and uses bolt-type phasers instead of beam phasers to be little more than Star Wars with the Trek name plastered on. Granted, the JJ films are a bit action oriented, but so are a lot of the Trek movies if you look at them.
When people were saying the Kelvin movie trailers are all action – I watched the original Wrath of Khan trailer…Guess what ?
The original films are much slower than the reboots (and much better for it), you should check them out sometime.
“I watched the original Wrath of Khan trailer…Guess what ?”
Lots of talking? Philosophy? IDIC?
To bring up some rare praise, the conference room in the image above is really nice and the basic layout as well as the blue-gray color scheme kinda fits with The Cage: http://trek.popapostle.com/images/episodes/ST-Rebooted/Into-Darkness/briefing-room_Cage.jpg
The conference room set features a Zuo Pillow Chair (which has also made an appearance on the Orville), albeit slightly modified. I’m proud to say I owned one BEFORE Disco or Orville!
I also like the bridge crew work chairs, and I’ve been trying to find a Worf Ospvik garden chair for years, without luck.
I’ve often thought that THE CAGE is what TOS would have looked like without the novelty of color TV. TOS featured so many colors because the network wanted to showcase the innovation of color TV over black and white. In reality, the overdid it, which is one reason the series looks dated. ENT did a very good job of paying homage to this, and I think Disco is as well.
I would have loved if Discovery had been Pike and his crew progressing from an enthusiastic fresh crew to the point where we see Pike in the pilot; somewhat washed out and wanting to just go home. I’ve wondered why no one thought of doing this, its’ the ship we all know and love (Enterprise), we’ve got a tough, female, highly logical number one and, of course, it’s the story immediately before Kirk gets command of the Enterprise. Plus we could have had some funky 70s retro scifi sets thrown in the mix as well and I suppose the whole thing could have been more tense in places as the Enterprise might be largely untested.
Why are you discussing what you wish it would’ve been? These were discussions before the show started. It’s now what it is. They made it the way they wanted to make it. The show you are describing would just be another show visually set in the past. No one outside of the Trekdom would’ve given it even a courteous look.
Recursion King, that actually sounds like a better plot line than what we got from DSC. But I think it would have required a different group of writers and show runners to make it work.
@RK — and don’t forget Spock! If there were new fans of the Abrams films that only know TOS, Spock would have been a good connecting thread, which one has to wonder if that’s what they intended with Sarek, albeit in a more subtle way.
The Cage Pilot looks a lot more like TMP in terms of color scheme. Budget had something to do wi the look of TOS as well, as the sublime overhead displays were replaced with lighting effects and still photos, because it cost to much to comply with Union regulations for rear projection. I’ve been saying that since Discovery started, going back to the muted colors of The Cage pilot, and it’s blue, gray and black color schemes.
As for cheesy 70s, SPACE 1999 holds up incredibly well by today’s standards, and far better than TOS, or even TNG for that matter. Except for the hairstyles and platform shoes and bell bottoms, it’s an incredibly timeless looking futuristic design. I’d welcome that kind of art direction in any Trek series. Even much of 1970s BSG looks pretty good by today’s standards. TMP likewise holds up pretty well aside from the 70s impact on costume designs and hairstyles.
“TOS featured so many colors because the network wanted to showcase the innovation of color TV over black and white. In reality, the overdid it, which is one reason the series looks dated.”
Agreed! Ironically, DSC is repeating this foible by apparently wanting to emphasize the novelty of 4K streaming by giving everything an unrealistically overdetailed surface (most obvious in the uniforms and Klingon sets) I think later on this series will be known as “the Star Trek with the busy look” ;-)
As we can see from the smartphone evolution, technology does not progress in that way, but on the contrary towards more simple, transparent and hidden. Low budget or not, the smooth starships of TOS, which were nicely updated in TNG, always striked me as more realistically futuristic, and not the John Eaves industrial, way too “Star Wars-y” look which he’s been peddling ever since First Contact and the E-E.
^Vulcan Soul, yes, absolutely. While I generally like Discovery’s interior design, I much prefer the clean line design of TNG for exterior visuals. Disco’s exterior visuals are much too busy, as were the JJ movies’.
@IDO — I can’t agree. I hated the Ent D from the first time I saw it. There’s no need to make a starship aerodynamic. On an SD network broadcast at the time, it looked like a cheap toy. Add to that, once we got to see the remstered sfx, it turns out there’s an incredible amount of surface detail on it, kind of negating the smooth aerodynamic look the ship otherwise had. So maybe there was no such effort by the original designers, and Roddenberry didn’t realize it because the low resolution SD footage hid a lot of that detailing we can see in the models today.
Yes. Says a lot though that it’s took ’til the 13th episode for the crew to get in a room together and actually discuss anything. Hopefully a sign of things to come.
Assuming you watched? They had a very dominating Captain who didn’t seek out the advice from his crew for reasons we now know.
I hope the final two episodes are extra long like an hour each to make up for everything they have to wrap up.
Up until now I don’t think they have done any overly long episodes. Instead, there have already been 2 very short episodes. Considering where the story is right now it seems questionable whether they can wrap it all up in a satisfying way within just 2 episodes but who knows? I have enjoyed the show so far so I’m hopeful the final 2 episodes will be at least as good if not better.
Some have said (and this sounds logical to me) that the short episodes are a result of extending the season to 15 episodes quite late in the game. So we could have had 12 long episodes or, like now, 15 shorter ones.
Cliffhanger incoming in the end of season 1?
We were told they wouldn’t leave us hanging, but…
Given the ultraviolence of DSC so far I’m sure *somebody* will be left hanging (on Klingon meat hooks?), and fortunately that ain’t the audience ;-)
@AtzeH — even if they wrap up the main events of season 1, there has to be a cliff hanger to keep us longing for more, if only to resolve it … There’s too many unanswered question that must be addressed, so they appear to be running a typical serialized formula with a long series arc, with smaller seasonal arcs.
Yes, Star Trek has gone to the Star Wars well now and then. And recently Star Wars went a bit Trek again with social commentary and slow space chases. After flirting for 40 years, when will these two crazy kids finally get together? ;-)
Aaaggh, don’t give them ideas. If I see Michael Burnham with Leia buns or Chewy in a redshirt….or worse, Jar Jar Binks in command of a starship… god help me.
You are right that the last Star Wars movie, while definitely not without issues, dabbled a bit in capitalism critique while Star Trek has shied away from such thing for 50 years despite the Federation allegedly being a “post-scarcity society” without money. What’s the deal?
Granted, the Ferengi were supposed to be a metaphor for the greedy capitalist, but was this ever handled in a serious manner and not eye winking comic relief?
You’d think Discovery could provide some answers to this biggest issue of our time – how did we really move beyond greed, class society and pursuit of ever bigger material possessions in favor of self-improvement? – instead of finding ever smaller groups to “represent”. This would also be the great unifying issue that brings together both sides of the aisle, the social justice minded left and the working class minded populist right!
Everytime I see the word Disco in relation to this show, I keep flashing back to the Bond movie Thunderball, where the villain’s rather conservative looking yacht called the Disco Volante (aka the FLYING SAUCER, as it is called in the remake, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN) turns out to be a powerful and fast hydrofoil hidden beneath an easily discarded carapace. Would actually like to see a starship hidden within a freighter in this fashion (and actually pitched a story with a plot turn along those line nearly three decades back.) Then again, the LOST IN SPACE movie kind of did that with the Jupiter-1 having enshrouded the Jupiter-2 during liftoff.
Sorry, Discovery is skewed off and is not star trek. No resemblance to Star Trek spirit. Just like our culture which throws away any sense of rightness.
Sorry, it’s Star Trek in every sense of the word according to the masses. Just because a handful of people state in their own bold way that it isn’t, it doesn’t make it so. I would recommend not reading articles and posts about something you don’t like. It’s not good for your mental well being.
If you don’t state a dissenting (and informed) opinion, chances are folks won’t consider your viewpoint and perhaps reconsider their own wrongheadedness. It took years, but I got a few people whose opinions often matter to me (not all of then, but a few) to rewatch CASINO ROYALE and see it for the utter disaster it is plotwise and characterwise and that Craig really was godawful in it.
Thank heavens the Klingon war is going to be getting wrapped up this season. Am sure there are more imaginative things they could come up with for season 2 than that. The producers need to add some mini arcs and stand alone stories about actual problems Starfleet face in their day to day missions and tone down the dumb mindless violence. That and have the crew actually get on with each other. It’s very hard to develop a viewing habit for a concept based around a group of people supposedly working together and then have them be be revealed to be bad people, at each other’s throats, or indifferent to one another. In that situation what is the incentive for the audience not to feel similarly and stop watching?
Not very hard for me. Love it the way it is.
Amen, Soren!
So the producers need to do more of this or that for why? To satisfy your own personal tastes?
For my tastes, I’d say the acting leaves some to be desired; I think it takes itself a bit too seriously at times, I think the action is about 10% too much, I think the show is a bit too visually dark. I’d like to see a few more standalone stories even if they’re tangentially related to the larger arc. I’d like to see a some slower paced cerebral stories.
But ultimately the producers don’t *need* to change anything honestly, it’s already a really enjoyable show, and far better than most of the junk on TV, including the knockoff nostalgia wankery fan series The Orville.
SF Disco, well said. I think the acting, though, is as good as any other Trek. Some really good, some not. Isn’t the lighting about the same as Enterprise? I haven’t really tried to compare.
They’re a bit like politicians… they don’t *need* to listen to the voters but it’s generally a good idea to do so ;-) I would say that Discovery has been above average as a Star Trek show with the odd really good episode (nods to Frakes and whoever was responsible for the Mudd episode, in particular). I think it’s finding its feet and there’s room for improvement, but it can shine.
It’s certainly got a lot potential and some great characters and actors. I also agree with most of your suggestions. Why just settle good though when we know Star Trek can be excellent?
First of all, it already is excellent Second, Trek has rarely been well and truly excellent.
TOS has maybe a half dozen truly excellent episodes (and tons of garbage episodes). TNG maybe 20-30 great episodes (and the first two seasons are nearly unwatchable). DS9 started stronger than TNG and had the best run of any Trek, but it had perhaps 20 or so truly great episodes. Voyager had maybe a dozen. Enterprise maybe 3 or 4 excellent episodes.
Out of the 13 movies I’d say there’s maybe 2 that I’d call truly great.
The majority of Trek is just really really good, with spots of excellence, and some characters that elevate otherwise mediocre stories.
Disco more than meets that bar. I’d say it’s easily the strongest first season of any series, by many light years.
As for the acting or lighting, I did not say it’s any worse or better than other shows, just that it could stand some improvements. The dim lighting on ENT may have been similar but the look was very different. Far less cinematic, it was very flat and dull, without the rich blacks.
Regarding the acting it can sometimes come off as a bit stilted and forced, which lots of older Trek did too, but this is such a superior show in terms of production quality in almost every way that it really demands better.
Still, like I’ve said, I enjoy it as much as any Trek before it, and consider it already an excellent first season overall. That said, my tune might change when I binge watch it after chewing over it for a few months.
As for improvement suggestions, maybe they can also find some more relevant global topics to discuss (skyrocketing inequality?) than sour grapes for a lost election (that is so 2016!) It’s getting tiresome really quickly…
I’ve been watching Star Trek since the original series. Baby Boomer???!!! I was going to watch this one as I’ve done the other, every episode of every series. I’m so very impressed with the cast, the visual, even the theme. So very awesome. I bow to you, Eugene Roddenberry and all the cast. Fantastic!!!!!