I got so mad at Riker and Troi's child's illness. Like, that is so obviously a writer-contrived BS.

Oh our son had this disease that is so super specific to the current situation the show is in. (Only a positronic brain could cure him) like what bs contrived shit is that omg... I mean I'm so frothing I can barely form words to convey my annoyance at that shit... but you guys know what I'm talking about right?!

Riker in Lower Decks was way cooler than Riker in Picard. Because again it's contrived. Oh he's retired oh nvm he's not he just got a ship handed to him on a silver platter. It would have made more sense if he was standing to the side of a captain in that moment, you know, echoing his old Number One days...

I can't remember now it's been awhile since I saw both shows. But I will say I like specific moments and callbacks in all the latest shows. Little cool things that advance the plot (because it took sooo long for a post-Voyager episode to finally happen that I was starved for any bit of info I could get on the post-VOy world). But overall the storylines are lame and crap so my end feeling on them is dislike.

Like I actually enjoyed the terminator/skynet thing Discovery had going on and timetravel and stuff. And Pike was awesome. I thought Discovery had finally gained its footing and was gonna get good (like how all Treks start off on the back foot in early seasons let's be real) but THEN this latest season it was just crap again. It's just BS. Okay, all of the warp cores exploded because... of a crying kid on a planet? And the solution to the problem was... calming a crying kid down? Seriously, that's your epic overarching plot? That sort of thing is more akin to a whacky TOS episode than an entire season arc...

Furthermore, I saw this echoed a lot on reddit too, the latest season of Discovery had just too much crying... Like, I'm sorry, maybe this is just preference. But I miss the days of Trek where they are basically a military organisation with ranks, and everyone is stoic and has sticks up their butts... that's the type of characters I prefer. Because when the emotional moments happen they have that much more weight (like Picard and his flute, or breaking down with his brother after being assimilated by the Borg) because they're so rare and out of the ordinary. But no on Discovery people are weeping and hugging at every tiny thing... come on people get some concrete and harden the f*** up.

For me Lower Decks and the Orville are giving me that feeling I really want out of Trek: which is the feeling of TNG/DS9/VOY era.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 27 2021, 3:55 pm by Oh_Man.

This. Maybe even dedicate some time to Riker trying to convince Starfleet. Maybe for that he has to do some digging where he uses his connections or w/e. Could become a nice side plot. Would give Riker meaning instead of him just showing up for a quick "tada" moment.

Definitely the best. I also liked Lorca, and Georgiou when she wasn't overacting. I've even come to like Saru. Probably because he's one of the stiffer characters, like you put it. He can be empathetic but he's not hugging or crying all the time. That shit is so annoying.

So the show has potential, and does show it at times, but most of the time the writers just ruin it for me. 2 Words: Spore drive. And yeah, that thing with the kid is among the worst offenders. Although I'll admit I enjoyed the episodes on that planet. Refreshingly different. But the whole thing is bs and was just invented because the plot needs it.

Btw. I get the feeling not just in Trek but also in general the writers are trying to raise the stakes of their stories higher and higher. I don't know why they feel they need to threaten AT LEAST a planet--actually no, that's not enough; must be a whole species, or even better the quadrant. And to save the day you then don't need a ship or 2, no it needs to be an armada, sometimes (Star Wars) from every god damn race in the galaxy. What is with this gigantism? Certainly the stories don't get more believable. And also not more exciting if that's what they're thinking. You can make a perfectly fine plot for saving a village, where the viewer is at least as engaged. In that case personal stories matter a lot more, you don't have to make everything ridiculous.

Back to DIS: I too think the 2nd season was alright and the 3rd was worse. Somehow while I really like the premise, the way they depicted that Starfleet remnant never clicked with me. Seemed out of place. Dunno why.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on May 27 2021, 9:48 pm by NudeRaider.

I totally disagree about Riker. We've spent 30 years waiting for Riker to have a command of his own, his entire TNG character arc is about stepping out of Picard's shadow which he finally does at the end of Nemesis by accepting command of the Titan, and when we get the chance you want to see him backslide into being an XO again to some no-name we've never seen before? That wouldn't be satisifying at all.

My major complaints about Picard are 1) the stakes are not only too high but also basically the same threat as Discovery S2 - they shouldn't have had back to back "AI threatens all sentient life in the galaxy" plots. If you really had to do it, they should have been connected somehow. 2) Seven's theft of the Artifact ultimately amounted to nothing, the cube didn't participate in the final showdown and they didn't resolve anything with the xBs.



I preferred S3 of Discovery, even though it stumbled in the back half. The time-travel plot from S2 really annoyed me, the stakes were too high, the Red Angel suit is even worse than the spore drive for being insanely out of place in that era. (Pike of course was great though, can't wait to see more from him).

I thought S3 was an improvement on a number of things that annoyed me - the stakes were lower and the new setting was interesting (and actually made Georgiou sticking around instead of being in a cell somewhere make sense). The other officers got (a little bit) of plot and character development (although those two guys on weapons and comms really need some attention).

All the emotion in Discovery doesn't bother me, but it does annoy me that it feels unearned a lot of the time. The crew always talks about being a family, but because of the shortened seasons and serialized nature, I'm struggling to be sold on that. We don't really see them interacting when they're not solving a galaxy-spanning crisis. (Prime example - that birthday party story that Tilly told, we should have seen that at some point, not just been told it). But Adira was a great addition and I loved the Adira/Stamets/Culber plots because they actually did get time to bond and sell a connection there.

The Starfleet remnant is my favourite part of Discovery - cool ships, cool base, unflinching dedication to the principles of the Federation. I love Admiral Vance, and I want to see more of David Cronenberg's character. Wish they'd keep the grey uniforms though, the ones in the S4 trailer are kinda ugly.

Voy, you misunderstand. I'm not against Riker commanding a ship. I'm against it happening out of the blue for a cheap attention grab. It's the most implausible thing, so I expect to be shown a journey how he made it to that point.

Besides that "command" as shown on screen is a joke. He gives a whopping 2 commands on the bridge. His role (again, on the bridge) was completely replaceable. Not worthy of Riker.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 28 2021, 5:09 pm by NudeRaider.

I don't think it comes out of the blue at all, it was very obviously set up.

I don't think it's that implausible either, Riker is a highly decorated and experienced captain, the officer with the most knowledge of the situation and has trust established with Soji. Given the androids have very good reason to distrust Starfleet, it's not a super far-fetched argument to pick Riker and he probably just cashed in some favours and pulled some strings. We don't see the process because it's not that big a leap to make and it's not a show about Riker.

On a meta level, it's just another case of "the main characters do everything." Why is the Enterprise always the only ship in range of an emergency? Why is Sisko leading Federation fleets into battle barely two years after making Captain? Because it's more interesting for the viewers if the characters we know are involved. You need to have a little suspension of disbelief.