Replies

  • We just watched the first two episodes. Reactions?

  • Star Trek: Enterprise killed the franchise for me.

    Love Voyager and DS9, not quite so much TNG (particularly the first two seasons). The original series is a distant last of these four, as far as I am concerned.

    I'll be giving this a miss.

  • I'm with you Lee

    I like the new film franchise but as a homage only.
    Everything else... Meh.




    Lee Semmens said:

    Star Trek: Enterprise killed the franchise for me.

    Love Voyager and DS9, not quite so much TNG (particularly the first two seasons). The original series is a distant last of these four, as far as I am concerned.

    I'll be giving this a miss.

  • I watched the first episode last night… most of it, anyway. For whatever reason, it started 20 minutes late and my recording didn’t pick up the end. It’s a moot point, though, since I won’t buy buying (the ironically named) “CBS All-Access” just to watch this one show. I read somewhere that this show is set 10 years before the original series, but I’m not buying it. That would put it approximately during Captain Pike’s command of the Enterprise, but I’ve seen “The Menagerie” and I’ve seen “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and nothing looks right… not the ship, not the uniforms, nothing. I realize the ship isn’t Constitution Class, but this doesn’t even look like a ship of the same fleet. (The ships in the Star Fleet Technical Manual are all of similar design.) I also realize that most fans are not that pedantic. I could see this ship design as having evolved from the ship on Enterprise, though.

    I’m also not a big fan of the look of the Klingons. Previous shows have taken pains to explain why the Klingons on the original series were “swarthy” looking, whereas the Klingons from previous and later eras had ridged foreheads. The Klingons on this show look reptilian. Then again, I didn’t catch a reference on the show as to exactly when it’s set, so my assumption that it takes place 10 years before Kirk’s command may be erroneous, and all of my criticisms above invalid. OTOH, since I won’t be watching the rest of the series until it comes out on DVD or something, it’s a moot point.

  • Like any show on CBS, the delay was because of Football. It's plagued many of my attempts to record The Amazing Race.

    I'm OK with redesigns for prequels in general -- I'm not sure being beholden to the limits of 1960s (or 1980s) special effects on main characters and equipment makes any sort of sense in making an enjoyable show for today. But I'm not a hard-core Trek fan, and haven't seen these particular redesigns.

    But I'll be waiting for DVD or some other economical way to watch these, regardless. I've no illusions these will come onto Netflix or Amazon Prime in the near future: these dedicated streaming services are the wave of the immediate future. Eventually they'll consolidate a bit, but not to the point of where we were 5 years ago, when almost everything we wanted to watch was either on Netflix of Hulu. but there'll be some growing pains with this splintering, too.

    Eventually, there'll be a show that I have so much interest in seeing it as its broadcast that I'll sign up for the service. But if I haven't signed up for HBO to watch Game of Thrones and The Deuce (among so many other excellent shows), CBS doesn't have a chance to lure me in with Star Trek. (WB's upcoming Titans show is another one I'll be waiting on.) 

  • My wife and I are O.G. (Original Geek) Star Trek fans -- I even watched it live (on Tuesday nights for the first two seasons, and Friday night for the last) and she caught them all on reruns in the early '70s. So it's hard to turn me off on Star Trek.

    Enterprise did it. My wife and I gave up on it in the first season. Every now and then we'd catch one, which would renew our disgust. 

    But that's not the case with Discovery. It's certainly beautiful -- movie quality, really -- and I like the lead character. And since we're essentially promised the Klingon war that's been referenced before, I'd love to watch it. 

    And I may. I won't go out of my way to give CBS money to watch one program, but my wife might. She really loved it. She was actually tearing up at seeing a female captain, a female XO ... it's what she dreamed of, s he said, when she saw Uhura as a bridge officer, of a time when women could do anything. (Recent political events may have had some impact as well.)

    So far she hasn't figured out a way to stream it to our TV, and she doesn't want to watch it on an iPad. Anyone know?

  • Regarding Enterprise, Tracy loved it, right from the very first episode. She wasn't a first generation fan, though; ST:TNG was "her" Star Trek. I began to like it in the fourth and final season ("too little, too late" as I am fond of saying). If you ever get the chance, you might want to give the final season a try, but don't go out of your way to do it.

    Regarding Discovery, I agree that the look of it is "movie quality." The Orville is a throw-back to ST:TNG. The special effects are much better, but they are as we probably remember them. Still, The Orville scratches that "Star Trek" itch for me.

  • Cap, for most of my streaming viewing, if I can't get it to the TV directly through one of the devices, I'll hook up my laptop to the TV with a HDMI cable. Your TV probably has that capability too, so all you might need is the cable!

  • The resolutions are quite different between a laptop and a TV. Connecting the two requires carefully and knowledgeably adjusting resolutions. I looked into it and decided against it. If one does it wrong then the laptop will be unviewable. You can pick up a ROKU* device (no subscription needed) and plug it into an HDMI port on your TV. It sets itself up like falling off a log! You can also watch YouTube and any other streaming channel that is available, most for free.

    * I can't speak for the Apple streaming hardware or any others.

    Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

    Cap, for most of my streaming viewing, if I can't get it to the TV directly through one of the devices, I'll hook up my laptop to the TV with a HDMI cable. Your TV probably has that capability too, so all you might need is the cable!

  • I watched the first two episodes and liked it for the most part. The actors are strong and convincing. The special effects were so good that they were often dazzling/confusing. The XO protagonist has disobeyed orders like Kirk often did but actually got in trouble for it.

    It annoys me that the uniforms don't conform at all* to the original series. It annoys me more that the Klingons have been redesigned again. Also, IMO there was too much Klingon speech (and slowly spoken at that) requiring endless reading of subtitles. As I said elsewhere, I always give a new series a chance beyond its premiere. They have to settle their premise. I already added CBS All Access to my quiver before the series started, so that isn't an issue for me, nor is the conflicting recordings or incorrect starting time.

    Star Trek Enterprise was supposedly 100 years before the Kirk/Spock "five year mission." I liked the actors but found that the differences in technology over a hundred-year period were relatively minor when, looking back in our history, we know how dramatically different technology has been over hundred-year periods. I had a big problem with Star Trek Enterprise.

    * No, I'm not expecting miniskirts.

This reply was deleted.