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labingiI'm going to do a "the good/bad/okay" take on this episode, of course, reflecting my own taste. For context, my hopes for this series have been (are) really high, which may explain why this first episode disappointed me a little—but not a lot. My hopes are still high, and I think this will be an enjoyable series.
Spoilers for the pilot episode and background Discovery stuff referenced.
The Good
* Pretty much all the acting. Very good cast, turning in very good performances.
* Pike. He was a big win for Discovery S2, and it's nice to have the same version of Pike back. He's a great mix of friendly/casual and serious/capable.
* La'an. In a show where most of the characters are getting nostalgia brownie points, she burst on the scene as an original character, fantastically acted, with a strong, immediately comprehensible personality. Great job of "show don't tell" in establishing character.
* Uhura. I really like this take on Uhura, which develops her background in communications are an impressive set of skills in a plausible, unified way that steers clear of making her awesome at everything just for awesome's sake.
* Number One. I love Number One in TOS, and I love Rebecca Romijn as an actor, yet somehow I never quite loved her performance as Number One on Discovery, and I couldn't tell you why. It was fine; it just didn't quite feel real to me. But in this episode—still can't say why—it suddenly felt real, and I got the excited sense that I'd get to see the character introduced in "The Cage" really allowed to shine in this show.
* Mbenga. We haven't seen much of him yet, but a big thumbs up just for the choice of making him the chief medical officer. I loved him in TOS and am looking forward to seeing him fleshed out in SNW.
* Old school Star Trekkian vibe: from the homage of the title credits to the traditional Star Trek plot, using peaceful intervention to challenge a people to rise to their better natures, this is very much the hopeful discourse we need and which Star Trek is justly famous for.
* Sam! That was nice fake-out and I'm curious to see where they go with it and if it will eventually tie in to Sam's (tragic) positioning TOS.
The Bad
(Note: a fair amount of this is really complaining about Discovery and SNW running with what Discovery started.)
* Spock. I'm sorry. I'll try to warm to it where possible, but I think this New Trek take on Spock was a bad idea. In fairness, filling Nimoy's shoes is a very tall order. Nimoy's Spock is one of the best creations ever to emerge out of sci-fi TV, and it's partly accidental: a combination of neat ideas, great acting, slashiness, fan interference, and the surprising fact that the character kept coming back for forty years! And in that forty years, Spock goes on an amazing journey from a deeply divided identity and a degree of self-loathing to an integrated identity at peace with his Vulcan-human nature. It's slow and subtle, with bursts of pathos as (probably) only a partly accidental confluence of events over years of episodic writing could be. And it would be dumb to try to replicate that. You can't top that, and you can't match it. That's a hard nut to crack.
For the record, what I would have done is to try to extrapolate backward from TOS Spock, ignoring the first couple TOS eps before the character had gelled, and have him be even stiffer and more Vulcan. Maybe we could see him develop the signature Spock snark and obvious emotionality, like "I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."
But what they decided to do instead was to have 20-something-year-old Spock start his journey where 60-plus-year-old Nimoy-Spock is ending up (in, say, Star Trek II-VI): very open about embracing his Vulcan-human identity. There are some problems with that:
1. Where's the arc? If Spock starts with all his core personality problems solved, what is he there for as a character?
2. They keep telling us this is the Prime Universe, which it can't be—unless Spock falls on his head between now and serving with Kirk and loses 30 years of personality development. (This could be fixed by admitting it's another universe, which could be FUN—imagine splicing series like "Trials and Tribblations"—and make all this much more palatable.)
3. It undercuts good science fiction storytelling by eschewing complex questions about cultural identity, which brings us to…
* Vulcans. From what I see, New Trek has decided that Vulcans are low-affect humans with a genius level IQ. Gone are most of the defining traits of Vulcan society, like the philosophy "logic" (almost never mentioned) and the self-contradictory stance of denying they have emotions. Yes, Vulcans have always had emotions. No, they have not always just admitted it openly but with a straight face. As of this episode, gone, too, is the implication that they typically only have sex during pon farr, which is a microcosm of eliminating their denial of emotion. Basically, Vulcan culture is gone.
* Robert April. Yes, I'm fine with his being black. I am less fine with his having no identity as April. Let me admit, I haven't seen his single canonical showing in the animated series. Maybe this guy was a lot like that and, thus, properly canonical. I know April from the novel The Final Frontier, and I know that's not canon. But April in that book has a personality. He's a slightly sheepish, idealistic, courageous believer in peace, sometimes to the detriment of tactical acumen, an "affable" Englishman with a blood condition that makes him prone to feeling cold, as a result of which, he wanders around in a cardigan a lot. If you're not going to give him a personality—if he's just going to be generic Starfleet superior guy—don't make him Robert April. It's not a nice homage; it's boring writing too lazy to just show what someone else has already written for you.
The Okay
* The handling of Pike's impending doom. It was fine. It fit in well with the larger A plot of the episode, and it was decently in character. My disappointment with it was another New Trek writing grip—lack of pacing and dramatic build. Having Pike just splat out his problems in episode 1 eliminates lots of possibilities for subtle, powerful storytelling. Mind you, Pike is a mature guy, and I'm not suggesting he bottle it all up like an idiot, but there's a nice middle ground between bottling it all up and "here's my whole deep life concern in the plainest language possible, ep. 1."
* Chapel. As a blank-slate character, she was fine. As Christine Chapel, I find myself puzzled as to why it's better to create a completely different personality rather than extrapolate on an existing one (as with Uhura), especially if this is the "same universe."
* FX. Okay, these are very good, like all New Trek and high-budget TV today. But why is everything so dark?
* Pike being Kirk in Generations. I suspect this was meant to be an homage, but it felt repetitious and uncreative. I do, however, have to give Pike credit for pre-dating Kirk in fantasies about riding off on his horse. (Extra points if it had been in Mojave. No reason Pike can't move to Montana; it just would have been a fun Easter egg for me.)
Overall, I was a little disappointed, but again, I think that's because my hopes were so high. I continue to have high hopes, and I suspect I'll enjoy this show most when it focuses on the adventure of the episode, maybe with some really fun, original sci-fi and utopian hopefulness.
Spoilers for the pilot episode and background Discovery stuff referenced.
The Good
* Pretty much all the acting. Very good cast, turning in very good performances.
* Pike. He was a big win for Discovery S2, and it's nice to have the same version of Pike back. He's a great mix of friendly/casual and serious/capable.
* La'an. In a show where most of the characters are getting nostalgia brownie points, she burst on the scene as an original character, fantastically acted, with a strong, immediately comprehensible personality. Great job of "show don't tell" in establishing character.
* Uhura. I really like this take on Uhura, which develops her background in communications are an impressive set of skills in a plausible, unified way that steers clear of making her awesome at everything just for awesome's sake.
* Number One. I love Number One in TOS, and I love Rebecca Romijn as an actor, yet somehow I never quite loved her performance as Number One on Discovery, and I couldn't tell you why. It was fine; it just didn't quite feel real to me. But in this episode—still can't say why—it suddenly felt real, and I got the excited sense that I'd get to see the character introduced in "The Cage" really allowed to shine in this show.
* Mbenga. We haven't seen much of him yet, but a big thumbs up just for the choice of making him the chief medical officer. I loved him in TOS and am looking forward to seeing him fleshed out in SNW.
* Old school Star Trekkian vibe: from the homage of the title credits to the traditional Star Trek plot, using peaceful intervention to challenge a people to rise to their better natures, this is very much the hopeful discourse we need and which Star Trek is justly famous for.
* Sam! That was nice fake-out and I'm curious to see where they go with it and if it will eventually tie in to Sam's (tragic) positioning TOS.
The Bad
(Note: a fair amount of this is really complaining about Discovery and SNW running with what Discovery started.)
* Spock. I'm sorry. I'll try to warm to it where possible, but I think this New Trek take on Spock was a bad idea. In fairness, filling Nimoy's shoes is a very tall order. Nimoy's Spock is one of the best creations ever to emerge out of sci-fi TV, and it's partly accidental: a combination of neat ideas, great acting, slashiness, fan interference, and the surprising fact that the character kept coming back for forty years! And in that forty years, Spock goes on an amazing journey from a deeply divided identity and a degree of self-loathing to an integrated identity at peace with his Vulcan-human nature. It's slow and subtle, with bursts of pathos as (probably) only a partly accidental confluence of events over years of episodic writing could be. And it would be dumb to try to replicate that. You can't top that, and you can't match it. That's a hard nut to crack.
For the record, what I would have done is to try to extrapolate backward from TOS Spock, ignoring the first couple TOS eps before the character had gelled, and have him be even stiffer and more Vulcan. Maybe we could see him develop the signature Spock snark and obvious emotionality, like "I see no reason to stand here and be insulted."
But what they decided to do instead was to have 20-something-year-old Spock start his journey where 60-plus-year-old Nimoy-Spock is ending up (in, say, Star Trek II-VI): very open about embracing his Vulcan-human identity. There are some problems with that:
1. Where's the arc? If Spock starts with all his core personality problems solved, what is he there for as a character?
2. They keep telling us this is the Prime Universe, which it can't be—unless Spock falls on his head between now and serving with Kirk and loses 30 years of personality development. (This could be fixed by admitting it's another universe, which could be FUN—imagine splicing series like "Trials and Tribblations"—and make all this much more palatable.)
3. It undercuts good science fiction storytelling by eschewing complex questions about cultural identity, which brings us to…
* Vulcans. From what I see, New Trek has decided that Vulcans are low-affect humans with a genius level IQ. Gone are most of the defining traits of Vulcan society, like the philosophy "logic" (almost never mentioned) and the self-contradictory stance of denying they have emotions. Yes, Vulcans have always had emotions. No, they have not always just admitted it openly but with a straight face. As of this episode, gone, too, is the implication that they typically only have sex during pon farr, which is a microcosm of eliminating their denial of emotion. Basically, Vulcan culture is gone.
* Robert April. Yes, I'm fine with his being black. I am less fine with his having no identity as April. Let me admit, I haven't seen his single canonical showing in the animated series. Maybe this guy was a lot like that and, thus, properly canonical. I know April from the novel The Final Frontier, and I know that's not canon. But April in that book has a personality. He's a slightly sheepish, idealistic, courageous believer in peace, sometimes to the detriment of tactical acumen, an "affable" Englishman with a blood condition that makes him prone to feeling cold, as a result of which, he wanders around in a cardigan a lot. If you're not going to give him a personality—if he's just going to be generic Starfleet superior guy—don't make him Robert April. It's not a nice homage; it's boring writing too lazy to just show what someone else has already written for you.
The Okay
* The handling of Pike's impending doom. It was fine. It fit in well with the larger A plot of the episode, and it was decently in character. My disappointment with it was another New Trek writing grip—lack of pacing and dramatic build. Having Pike just splat out his problems in episode 1 eliminates lots of possibilities for subtle, powerful storytelling. Mind you, Pike is a mature guy, and I'm not suggesting he bottle it all up like an idiot, but there's a nice middle ground between bottling it all up and "here's my whole deep life concern in the plainest language possible, ep. 1."
* Chapel. As a blank-slate character, she was fine. As Christine Chapel, I find myself puzzled as to why it's better to create a completely different personality rather than extrapolate on an existing one (as with Uhura), especially if this is the "same universe."
* FX. Okay, these are very good, like all New Trek and high-budget TV today. But why is everything so dark?
* Pike being Kirk in Generations. I suspect this was meant to be an homage, but it felt repetitious and uncreative. I do, however, have to give Pike credit for pre-dating Kirk in fantasies about riding off on his horse. (Extra points if it had been in Mojave. No reason Pike can't move to Montana; it just would have been a fun Easter egg for me.)
Overall, I was a little disappointed, but again, I think that's because my hopes were so high. I continue to have high hopes, and I suspect I'll enjoy this show most when it focuses on the adventure of the episode, maybe with some really fun, original sci-fi and utopian hopefulness.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-07 11:04 am (UTC)The Vulcans aside, I enjoyed it, though I kept wondering where the rest of the crew was - they only rescued a handful of officers.
I want more Ortegas! She reminds me of a young Jet Reno AKA Grumpy Engineer. I'm also fascinated by La'an and love what I've seen of M'Benga and Uhura so far. I think it will be more of an ensemble show than Discovery is.
no subject
Date: 2022-05-07 03:20 pm (UTC)Also, I think this is the first time in ST history we'll get two explicitly African regular characters on the same crew. :-)