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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Mogster

By Mogster,
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Thor

Thor

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Posted
2 hours ago, cassidy said:

Just watched the first episode. 
 

Yup that’s some good Star Trek right there. Not gonna lie had a tear in my eye at Pikes speech on the planet. 
 

Loved Nurse Chapel instantly. 

If you enjoyed the first episode you are in for a real treat with the rest. :D 

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Mogster

Mogster

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13 minutes ago, davidcotton said:

I’ve seen enough clips online to agree, so not worth signing up for on it’s own.    I’ll catch it when season 2 rolls around.  

Yarr got to do what yarr got to do.

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Alex W.

Alex W.

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This show is rendered almost unwatchable by the fact that

 

Spoiler

I spend half of each minute thinking “how hard was that? Did it really take almost doing a Section 31 spinoff to get here?!”


I am sad that we’ll never get what Bryan Fuller originally had in mind for Discovery and this feels like it encapsulates a lot of what was so exciting about the prospect of a new Trek series in the first place. It makes great use of the dramatic irony inherent in a lot of these characters while actually going to unexplored parts of that well-mined franchise. Good job.

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cassidy

cassidy

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Posted

So not one of you said "oh you may cry in a few episodes"

 

Ep8

Spoiler

I went from crying at how sad it was to crying at how happy and sad it was. 

 

Ep9 

Spoiler

Fuck no, not Hemmer. In bits at the last scenes with Uhura. He was a legend. 

 

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Popo

Popo

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Also, how freakin’ cool is the Enterprise in this? Like a lot of the show, they’ve hewed closely to the original designs, but given them more definition - like you could almost believe the detail was always there, you just couldn’t see it - and it looks spectacular. 
 

I liked the redesign for the Abrams movies, but it looks quite out of date now, with those overly sleek nacelles - by sticking with the original timeless design and remastering it they’ve struck gold. 

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Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

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Posted

I watched the first episode of Strange New Worlds last night - this isn't a post about that specifically but a more general one about the accessibility or otherwise of Star Trek these days.

 

I watched it with my 13-year-old son who loves all things Star Wars and would probably enjoy Trek but has never really seen any. I thought SNW would be a good starting point for him - a mostly new crew, weekly adventures etc - but even then it seemed to assume a load of knowledge from other shows (mostly Discovery) to the point where it couldn't really be called a fresh start.

 

- How did you know that guy was the same guy that had the hair and the beard?

- Well we know him from a different show.

 

- How does he have knowledge of his own death?

- Well that happened on a different show.

 

- Why did they all just disappear?

- That's a transporter...

 

- Why did those two guys just collapse to the floor?

- Well there's something called a Vulcan nerve pinch...

 

- How did the aliens get warp technology?

- That was because of things that happened on a different show.

 

And so on, and so on.

 

This is a problem for the franchise, isn't it? You'd think a 13-year-old sci-fi fan would be the target market these days but he found it more frustrating than anything else as he felt like he'd been dropped into the middle of something he didn't fully understand. I reckon unless the next episode is a solid adventure assuming no prior knowledge then he'll probably give it up as being slightly impenetrable and "just something his dad likes".

 

Where do people even start with Trek these days? The 60s show feels like a relic. The 90s shows have dated more than we'd probably like to admit (and I wouldn't want to make anyone sit through the first two seasons of TNG). Discovery and Picard are terrible. Strange New Worlds feels like a spin-off of Discovery. The Kelvin movies assume at least basic familiarity with the original Enterprise crew. Lower Decks is great but very much a pastiche of all the other shows.

 

Is there an obvious starting point any more? What with all this, and the fact that Trek is now spread across three different streaming services, I'm wondering if it's now more concerned with appealing to existing fans rather than attracting new ones.

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Waggo

Waggo

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Posted

I reckon for a Trek newbie slated though it is a selective watch of ‘Enterprise’ starting with the pilot episode, would be as good a place as any to start.

 

The very nature of the show explains a lot of the fundamentals to the Star Trek Universe (Warp Technology, Transporters, The Federation, Mirror Universe etc).

 

 

 

 

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Mogster

Mogster

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You're not wrong, but I also don't think it's a major problem. I think my first introduction to Star Trek was a random TNG episode, and it soon became my favourite thing ever despite it not opening with an explanation of what a transporter is.

 

33 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

- How did you know that guy was the same guy that had the hair and the beard?

- Well we know him from a different show.

 

Really? The "open with big beard and hair, then tidy up after being called back into action" is basically a trope. It's also clearly still the same actor.

 

34 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

- How does he have knowledge of his own death?

- Well that happened on a different show.

 

Fair enough, but this is explained in the first episode of SNW as well. It's one of a couple of things from Discovery that have an impact on this show, the other being the fate of Discovery itself along with Michael, which is also explained in the first episode of SNW.

 

36 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

- Why did they all just disappear?

- That's a transporter...

 

And that's it!

 

37 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

- Why did those two guys just collapse to the floor?

- Well there's something called a Vulcan nerve pinch...

 

And that's about as much of an explanation as it ever had.

 

37 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

- How did the aliens get warp technology?

- That was because of things that happened on a different show.

 

And you know that because that's the explanation in the episode!

 

There's very little crossover between SNW and Discovery, with the first episode having by far the most links for obvious reasons. Pike's knowledge of the future remains a thing, but all you need to know has been explained already in the show. Each episode is mostly stand-alone with the exception of character developments, and I don't think it mentions anything more from Discovery that hasn't already been mentioned.

 

I think any sci-fi or fantasy show will have a bit of a barrier compared to other genre shows, as there's always going to be differences in technology, societies, aliens or whatever that you need to get used to. Star Wars is no different, as it's not like Obi-Wan Kenobi opened with an explanation of the force.

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Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

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4 minutes ago, Mogster said:

 Star Wars is no different, as it's not like Obi-Wan Kenobi opened with an explanation of the force.

 

It is a bit different, because there's a clear route in to Star Wars. You watch the original trilogy and that's the starting point. Everything else then spins off of that. You can go backwards or forwards or dive into the spin-offs but you've got that initial grounding that gives you the setup and tells you what's important.

 

Trek lacks that, it used to be TOS of course or maybe TNG but I do feel they've dated past the point where you can use them as introductions to the series now for a younger audience. It needs something newer that looks like a modern show while still capturing the spirit of Trek.

 

The uncomfortable truth of course is that Discovery was intended to be exactly that clean start the series needed - an earlier timeframe, pretty much stand-alone, introduces most stuff from scratch - but it's sooooo bad (and in many ways doesn't actually feel like proper Star Trek) that I would hate that to be someone's first experience of the show.

 

Anyone here seen Prodigy?

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Mogster

Mogster

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5 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

Anyone here seen Prodigy?

Yes, and it's good! I think I'd have really loved it as a kid.

 

6 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

It is a bit different, because there's a clear route in to Star Wars. You watch the original trilogy and that's the starting point.

So start with episode IV? ;)

 

I think ANH is actually quite dated these days, to be honest. It's still much more kid friendly than TOS or TMP mind, but it's a film from the 70s and it's not getting any younger.

 

Honestly though, there's really not much you need to know to get into SNW. Everything it takes from Discovery is introduced in the first episode, and while it links to other TOS stuff and even the TOS movies, it doesn't require any existing knowledge. I think it's as good an entry point as any.

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Waggo

Waggo

Posted
Posted

It keeps getting better as well.

 

Watched episode 9 last night and that was definitely the best yet.

 

Awseome tribute to Aliens/Predator while still firmly grounded in the Trek Universe.  Total gut punch of an ending as well.

 

Only the finale for me to go now, and I can already definitely concur with the majority on here that this is the best Trek has been in many many years.

 

 

 

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