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I couldn’t even tell you what other shows Paramount offer.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I couldn’t even tell you what other shows Paramount offer.

Me neither. Nor will I be going to be able to.

Well... actually I can. None whatsoever, because P+ doesn't exist here.

It will from next year (they are rolling out P+ to most of Europe in 2022.)

That's great for next year, but right now they have a new show that they were about to start that they've suddenly ripped away from a good chunk of its audience.

That's pretty boneheaded. It's going to dramatically increase piracy as a result.

Not to mention getting people to just shrug and walk away from your show, or even your entire studio.

Anymore, I find the small independant content creators on YouTube to be far more entertaining than any mass media studio. I might never have discovered this, had Disney not taken a good chunk of the stuff I used to watch off Netflix and into their own black hole of a download service. So... (shrug). I don't miss it.

Disney at least has enough content to make their service worth paying for. I have no idea what's even on Paramount+... a quick look at their website shows only a handful of examples of what they have on offer, and from what's shown the only thing I would actually watch is Indiana Jones, which I already have on DVD. So I would be signing up solely for future Star Trek which, even as a lifetime Trekkie, isn't going to happen.

And only a madman would start a streaming service that lacked any content.

 insaniak wrote:
Disney at least has enough content to make their service worth paying for. I have no idea what's even on Paramount+... a quick look at their website shows only a handful of examples of what they have on offer, and from what's shown the only thing I would actually watch is Indiana Jones, which I already have on DVD. So I would be signing up solely for future Star Trek which, even as a lifetime Trekkie, isn't going to happen.

It's quite literally mostly gaudy reality TV shows. And not any of the so bad they're amusing ones. When I had a free trial on Amazon Prime to watch Lower Decks, most of the menu was seasons of survivor.

Only streaming service I pay for is Disney, because I like their shows and it was nearly a constant stream of new ones there for a bit and I wanted to support that. Everything else… Yar.

And so a new golden age of piracy beckons.

Disney+ has really solid content in the U.K., because we also get Star added in.

I ditched Netflix because so much of it is utter dross, and I’m particularly put off by dishonest documentaries.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Disney+ has really solid content in the U.K., because we also get Star added in.

I ditched Netflix because so much of it is utter dross, and I’m particularly put off by dishonest documentaries.

Same here, and I'm about to ditch Netflix, now they've raised the price to 18 euros a month.

The only one I have is Amazon Prime and that's more for the free postage which in a good year mostly pays for itself in small costs on free posted things.

I just saw some ads for season 4 of STD and the tag line for this season is "Her time is now".

 Ahtman wrote:
I just saw some ads for season 4 of STD and the tag line for this season is "Her time is now".

It's funny because that tagline is 4 seasons late and everything I don't like about the show XD

 LordofHats wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
I just saw some ads for season 4 of STD and the tag line for this season is "Her time is now".

It's funny because that tagline is 4 seasons late and everything I don't like about the show XD

They really need to rename it "The Michael Burnham Hour with special cameo by the rest of the Star Trek universe".

their making her a captain honestly is a tact admission that the entire inital premise of the show doesn't work, since when it first was created they outright said "it's the first series where the main character isn't the captain" (which shows how little the series heads understood trek but...)

It could totally work for the main character to not be the captain. Lower Decks makes it work. The issue with Discovery is that Burnham is the Not-Captain. She's totally captain. Except she's not. Except when she is. But we totally swear she's not the captain.

Captain would be a demotion.

Silvia Tilly got promoted to Lt j.g.

Harry Kim is still awaiting his promotion ...

The only Star Trek show where the main character is absolutely the captain/CO would be DS9 and maybe TOS if only by virtue of TOS having a greatly reduced cast in comparison to the rest. I really feel like TNG focused more on "secondary" characters than it did on Picard. Sisko is the MC of DS9 not necessarily because he dominates episode appearances, but because he is the most crucial to the plot.

TOS focused heavily on the Big 3 above all, but TNG, DS9, and VOY all had large casts where many characters got significant attention. Maybe DIS corrected that issue after S2, but I remember it being all Michael, all the time.

The Star Trek that TNG, DS9, and VOY developed was really one of anti-elitism. Everyone had value. Everyone could contribute. They actually attacked in-universe prejucides. DIS isn't that.

Honestly, I'm finding Lower Decks to be the best Trek content in years if not decades.

If you can deal with it being animated, and don't mind some of the over-the-topness, it really does hit the spot.

Picard I feel ended up just being an even lamer Mass Effect. Discovery's plot was just incomprehensible and I really just stopped caring. But Lower Decks really does hit the spot. I'm also a total sucker for animation however.

Good news! If you were worried that the Starfleet admiral deciding Michael really IS right all the time and she should be in charge meant she wouldn’t be able to rail against authority this season, then you can be comforted by the knowledge they’ve introduced a new Starfleet President who doesn’t think she’s up to snuff because she risked the entire ship to save three people. Granted, she only managed to save two of the three, and doing so cost an additional three lives plus half a dozen injured… (I might be low balling the casualties, I don’t recall the exact numbers) But by golly she’s going to prove that you should always shoot for the best outcome despite anything like odds.

Also there’s a brand new mysterious threat that’s going to destroy everything. Or at least a lot. It’s only destroyed a space station and one planet so far that we know of, but I’m sure it will threaten all of space time somehow.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Honestly, I'm finding Lower Decks to be the best Trek content in years if not decades.

If you can deal with it being animated, and don't mind some of the over-the-topness, it really does hit the spot.

Picard I feel ended up just being an even lamer Mass Effect. Discovery's plot was just incomprehensible and I really just stopped caring. But Lower Decks really does hit the spot. I'm also a total sucker for animation however.

Agreed.

Lower Decks really hits its stride in season 2 IMO, where it's finally figured out who its characters are and what the show is about. It's a comedy yeah, but in a way it doesn't feel that different from Old Trek. It just takes the situations Old Trek would have once a week and recasts them as 'welp here we go again people let's do it Starfleet horah!' And it maintains that optimism and enthusiasm that I think really makes Star Trek Star Trek. I very much enjoyed Adrenaline Junkie Riker and it's nice how Lower Decks weaves into itself these subtle but seemingly consistent character arcs where the characters actually do learn their lessons as the show goes on and shift their behaviors based on their experiences. Mariner becoming a little bit more responsible and Boimler becoming his own brand of badass are the two big examples.

I hope Tendi and Rutherford get more attention in the next season and I also really hope they meant to telegraph T'lyn joining the cast.

Wej duj is the best episode of Star Trek made in 20 years IMO. It was a great episode with great characters and a great plot that actually took the premise of the show and expanded it into something more than just a Star Trek comedy.

Yeah series 1 was a bit hit and miss for Lower Decks and they kind of relied a bit too heavily on machine-gunning puns at you. Series 2 feels a lot more settled and like they know what they are doing now. It's a great mix of casual episodes and some longer story arcs and revelations.

It is indeed very Trek.

And because its a bit of a satire on Trek and a cartoon it gets away with doing some silly things and such without really feeling like its insulting ST or harming the lore or such.

It helps that the cast and crew of Lower Decks are clearly loving what they're doing. You can always tell when people are enjoying their work. It shows in the work itself and heightens it.

I'd also say that while I watched Discovery and constantly felt like the people making it would rather be making Battlestar or The Expanse than Star Trek, I think the people making Lower Decks clearly have a love and appreciation for Star Trek. Their jabs, jokes, and gags feel like they're taking shots at something they love and are having fun with it, not an attempt to bash the franchise for its weak points or turn it into something entirely different.

Agreed and they also just "get" the material they are working with.

Apparently it was a huge issue with Voyager in that the writer team were discouraged from being "geeky" with it and having fun and such and you can sort of tell that it wasn't as comfortable a setup as DS9 had. Heck some of DS9's best scenes are where the actors just ran with what they thought the characters should be doing and such.


But yeah it feels like since Voyager the writers for Star Trek live action and even films have been less and less "Trekkies" and more something else; or as you say they wanted to work on a different type of series but someone higher up said "no use Star Trek its got a fanbase"

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


With DS9 neatly setting up the Maquis, to see that complement of the crew just sort of…..fall in line, was disappointing and a missed opportunity. And poor old Ensign Kim. No promotions for you, because…erm……well just because.

In fact, by the time he gets back, he's outranked by the bartender that served his beer the day before he went to the Delta Quadrant.

trexmeyer wrote:
The only Star Trek show where the main character is absolutely the captain/CO would be DS9 and maybe TOS if only by virtue of TOS having a greatly reduced cast in comparison to the rest. I really feel like TNG focused more on "secondary" characters than it did on Picard. Sisko is the MC of DS9 not necessarily because he dominates episode appearances, but because he is the most crucial to the plot.

TOS focused heavily on the Big 3 above all, but TNG, DS9, and VOY all had large casts where many characters got significant attention.

Yeah, even with Sisko being so central to the overarching plot, the majority of episodes still tended to focus on other characters, and even when Sisko was the focus he still relied on the rest of the team to actually do stuff. He wasn't over in the Engineering section telling O'Brien how to rewire the inverse quantum flux capacitors...

Even TOS, with it's main focus on the Big 3 still gave each of them important things to do. Not every problem was solved by Kirk either kissing something or punching something...

Maybe DIS corrected that issue after S2, but I remember it being all Michael, all the time.

In Series 3, the writers did at least remember that other crew members existed and they tried to give them some meaningful things to do, but for the most part this still just set things up for Michael to come along and sort things out properly. The only other person who really got to have a functional impact on the story was Georgiou.

I think I've commented on this elsewhere but I was somewhat aghast when, in the midst of the Discovery bridge crew planning a daring escape and getting all team-worky on the bad-guys, I realised that it was the third season of the show and I still didn't know most of their names.

I still have no idea who most of them are, but I’m also really bad with names. Let’s see, Michael, Saru, Tilly, uuuhhhhh… Book… Namets? I think that’s all I got.