Scott Hardie: “It sucked.”

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− January 25, 2025 • more by Scottlog in or create an account to reply

Evie Totty: I saw that yesterday in "the list" and penciled it in for later.

I have to admit - I haven't seen Discovery, but mostly bc of my own SciFi acquaintances despising it. So once you said the character was originally from Discovery - I ugh-ed.

And then you went on to give her backstory and premise for the film. Gotta say, my head spun. Plus - it sounds like you have to have seen her stint on Discovery to get a full appreciation for her character.

Curious though - I can't remember if we discussed it - do you like SNW? I know it was rebirthed through Discovery, but I love it. Looking forward to the S3 premiere. − January 25, 2025 • more by Evie

Scott Hardie: Yeah, Section 31 assumes some viewer familiarity with Discovery's early seasons. That's not critical, though. Honestly, the movie's so bad that it's probably going to be a disappointment whether you've seen Discovery or you're going in stone-cold. :-(

Discovery is not terrible, it's just a square peg that CBS/Paramount tried furiously to mash into a round hole. If they had left it alone after the originally planned 15-episode run, it might have been the best Trek series IMHO. (Other fans would probably still hate it. The only guarantees in life are death, taxes, and Star Trek fans complaining about new Star Trek.) Picard and Prodigy had similar problems, shows whose first seasons had a clear beginning-middle-end structure that required quite a bit of work to extend. I don't get why this is so hard: Doesn't the template for a successful, popular, and long-running Star Trek series already exist in the form of TOS, TNG, and VOY? Can't they just make something along those lines again? Strange New Worlds comes closest, but even they're trying too hard to make an ongoing arc out of the tedious Gorn storyline. Memo to Hollywood: Not every show on television has to be serialized! Episodic TV entertained generations of viewers just fine, and it really is the better way to go for something like Star Trek. (And I say that as a devoted Niner! DS9 was carefully planned for a long multi-year run from the start. It wasn't planned for 10-15 episodes only to have a longer run forced upon it.)

I like all of the new Trek shows to varying degrees, even Short Treks and its weird-as-hell third season. Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks are the best overall... but Picard's third season, though! Wow! − January 26, 2025 • more by Scott

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