Star Trek isn't a comic book franchise. For example, Batman's main villain is the Joker. So you expect him to fight the joker in each new iteration. They will mix it up and have different takes on the Joker (Jack Nicholson vs. Heath Ledger vs Jared Leto) but because he's Batman's arch villain and a staple of the series, you have to have Batman fight the Joker.

It feels like they've done that to Star Trek. Khan was a one off villain who appeared in 1 show and 1 movie. But instead they decided that he is a stock villain that needs to be in Star Trek, so they put him in the 2nd movie. The Klingons have been done to death already, and now they have no personality and they are stock sci-fi villains. The Mirror Universe was also fun as a one off. I don't care enough about it to have a whole story arc based on it.

The twist also ruined one of the characters. Before I thought they were a nuanced take on a person who does what they feel is right in extraordinary circumstances, even though the methods may not be 100% ethical. But instead we find out they're just evil and the character becomes a 1 dimensional trope.

Star Trek should have nuance and depth in its characters, story and themes. This show does not.

Is there even a theme or message to this season? I still have 3 episodes to go but can't discern one yet.

They could've changed a few names, made it a separate show and it would've been a lot better. "Star Trek" should be a tool for the producers to use to open up possibilities, but instead it feels like a straitjacket that stifles their creative choices.

"We are the Federation." They say that a lot, but actions speak louder than words. As a generic, pulpy sci-fi series it was fun, but as I said before, it's not Star Trek. If you release your mind from any preconceptions of what Star Trek is and don't worry about canon or TOS then it improves the show a lot.

I did like the cast, especially Saru. He seems to be the breakout alien character and the most Star Trek-y element of the show. I want to see what happens to these characters next, which is why I'm going to continue on to season 2. The rest of the show rehashed Star Trek topics that have been done to death already, combined with a bunch of silly character twists.

2 out of 5

Star Trek Discovery redeems itself with the first group of Short Treks. These are short episodes set in the Discovery universe that I assume they created to fill content gaps in the CBS All Access lineup and primarily reuse sets and actors from the first season of Star Trek Discovery.

"Runaway" is about Tilly who meets a stowaway on Discovery. "Calypso" is about a man whose rescue pod is taken aboard a ship whose only other lifeform is the sentient AI. "The Brightest Star" is the origin story of Saru. "The Escape Artist" has Rainn Wilson reprising the role of Harry Mudd as he attempts to escape from a Tellerite bounty hunter.

Despite the fact that most of these are bottle episodes, they are all much better than the actual show. Episodic stories with strong characters and themes are what Star Trek is all about. The standout episode is "The Escape Artist." Rainn Wilson is great as Mudd with a very clever script by Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan.

4 out of 5

ST TNG S6E07: Rascals

Oh boy, Picard, Guinan, Ro and O'Brien's wife get turned to kids. Yep.

A very goofy episode with no real dramatic thrust other than some uncomfortable stuff between O'Brien and his wife, that gets just about saved when some Ferengi capture the Enterrpise and under cover of being children, the tiny adults save the day.

Pretty bad.


3/10

I think this is the last time we see Ro until late season 7. Some of those who didn't know she was originally going to move to DS9 probably wondered if she decided to remain a kid since there was no further reference to her lol.

Rascals was fun, though you can tell they're getting late in a show's lifecycle when they start playing around with the characters like that. We get baby versions of the crew in that one and then de-evolved versions of the crew in Genesis. And then there was all the alternate universe shenanigans in Parallels (Crazy Riker, Worf + Troi, etc.)

The Naked Now would've been fine if it was done in one of the later seasons but it's pretty ridiculous that it was the SECOND episode of the show back in season 1. LOL

Yes, that was a terrible choice for a second episode

After 2 episodes, Discovery season 2 is promising. Even though I did say the same thing for season 1. Instead of being hard serialized, it feels more like a story arc with episodic things happening in between. The annoying characters from season 1 are gone. Anson Mount is great as Pike. The overall tone of the show feels more like Star Trek and less grimdark and pulpy. The rest of the crew also gets more focus.

However, the stuff about Spock bores me. He is a great character but is overused and doing a story about him feels like nostalgia pandering and fan service, and this series has way too much of that already.

The Spock stuff is a major deadweight in S2, imo

Episode 3 is the worst episode of the series by far. Remember when I said all the annoying characters from season 1 are gone? Well they're back! And they're continuing all the plots from season 1 that I hoped they would ignore or forget about.

They keep going out of their way to provide in-universe reasons for things like: why the Klingons are bald, why they speak English now, why the Federation uses Star Wars-style holograms, where the Klingon battlecruiser comes from, etc.

Does anyone actually care about any of this stuff? We all know it's a TV show. We don't need a kayfabe explanation for every production and design choice that they make.

The reason I hate rehashing all this old stuff from Star Trek is that they substitute nostalgia and fan service for actual world building and character building. There's an episode in season 2 that basically requires you to have seen the TOS episode The Menagerie as it deals with Pike's past. I saw it years ago but can't remember much about it and I'm kind of lost as to what's going on now.

Same with the Klingons. They didn't develop the new Klingons at all in this series, you just have to have memories of old ones to fill in the gaps. And the Mirror universe. And section 31.

The contrast to this is the Saru episode in this season which was not only a great episode but also the best episode of the series so far. Saru is a NEW character that they have done a great job of developing and Doug Jones is amazing playing the character. They did an episode that continues his story arc and it's great. It's also one of the most Trekky episodes of the show thus far.

Instead of Klingons, they should've created a NEW race that goes to war with the federation. Instead of the mirror universe, just have it be an alternate universe that is different and warlike. The creators have straightjacketed themselves by doing a prequel and rehashing all this old stuff.

Discovery season 2 ends up being a slight improvement to season 1. It does some things better and some things worse than the first season, but the basic tone, pacing, characterizations, writing, etc. are the same. The big difference is the season was able to end on a satisfying note. I still fundamentally disagree with most of the creative choices they made with the show (heavy serialization, schlocky story, prequel, big stakes, etc.) and nothing about those changed in season 2.

Doug Jones' Saru is the best character in the show. The "white male" captain of season 2, Captain Pike, is another highlight of the season. Michelle Yeoh's Georgiou gained some much needed nuance and depth this season.

There continues to be little thematic depth to the show. Good Star Trek will say something about the human condition and resonate beyond being a sci-fi show with ships and lasers but I find this show to be lacking in that aspect.

I am very much looking forward to the Captain Pike spinoff.

3 out of 5

Wouldn't that be "The Cage"(1st Original Pilot that was not picked up) and/or "The Menagerie" ( 2 part episode TOS s1)?

They are working on spinoff show, called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It's about the adventures of the Enterprise with Captain Pike, Number One and Spock and takes place 10 years before TOS. It's supposed to be episodic, optimistic and based on exploration and discovery, which the show called Discovery has not done much of. Filming starts next month.

They've done a good job with Lower Decks and the first set of Short Treks so I'm optimistic that they will be able to make a show in the vein of classic Star Trek.

That will be good if they do it well and not introduce things that conflict with the original series history too much.

ST TNG S6E08: A Fistful of Datas

Fun 'holodeck goes on the fritz' episode, where we have Worf and his kid in the Old West, along with Troi as a kickass Annie Oakley type. Gets way more fun when Data turns up as evil gunslinger patriarch Frank (a tribute to Henry Fonda's character from Once Upon a Time In The West), as well as his assorted family members (and one particularly memorable character at the end too).

Had a bit of a Red Dwarf vibe to be honest, in a good way.

7/10

That was a fun one. Troi is a great surrogate mother to Alexander. Too bad K'Ehleyr was gone. Suzie Plakson was one of the best guest stars they had on the show.

Dear Alex Kurzman, Akiva Goldsman and all other Star Trek showrunners,

Cancel Discovery. Cancel Picard. Just make more Short Treks. You have the same people producing all of your shows but the ones you spend all your budget on suck. And the ones you create as filler are great. The bigger the stakes, the smaller the themes and the less I care. In both seasons of Discovery and the first season of Picard, the fate of the entire galaxy is at stake. It's boring. I don't care about the galaxy. Many of the characters I see for 10 minutes in these shorts are more interesting than the ones you've been showing me for 20+ episodes.

The 2nd set of Short Treks is a continuation of the first set. Short, mostly character based stories that connect to Discovery and Picard. Two of them are animated as well. They tend to focus on character, story and theme, while the big budget serial shows are mostly about a convoluted plot with lots of shooting and lasers. There weren't any standout ones like "The Escape Artist" from the first set but it shows that the people making Star Trek are a very talented bunch of people hindered by poor creative decisions by the show runners and executives.

4 out of 5

ST TNG S6E09: The Quality of Life

Slightly pompous episode that doesn't really ring true. It's all about Data suspecting worker bots have become sentient, and trying to test this, and then refusing the use of the bots to rescue Picard from a deadly situation.... only to have the bots 'agree' to rescue him.

It's trying to retread the same ground as the episode 'Measure of a Man', but it fails in every way to live up to that episode. Data's decision seems somewhat arbitrary, and the only decent scene of the main story is the final interaction between Data and Picard... but that's only because they are both damn good actors.

Intriguing B-plot where Crusher (who looks exceptionally good in this episode) who makes fun of the beards of Riker, LaForge and Worf, and offers to play poker with them, and the losers have a forfeit. The guys must shave off their beards if they lose, and she will become a brunette if she loses.... but that goes nowhere....

Guest actress Ellen Bry does a very good turn as a struggling scientist who created these bots, the 'Exocomps'

5/10

I'm 4 episodes through season 3 of Discovery and it has corrected two of the biggest mistakes of the show: It's not a prequel and it's not rehashing old Trek tropes. There are more character moments which improves the show as well. Unfortunately, after two seasons of mediocrity it's hard to get emotionally invested in the show at this point.

I've heard s3 is good, but I was kind of out after season 2's turgid slog. I might re-engage.

Same here. In fact I was so disgusted by Discovery, and disappointed so much in Picard, that I cancelled my CBS All-Access subscription even though it was basically free for me.

I just finished episode 7, "Unification III" and it's the best episode of the series so far. It's a sequel to a TNG episode but feels like a continuation, rather than a rehash.

I'm only about half done the season but just as I was getting burned out on the series, it has improved a lot. Slower pace, lower stakes, more character, less action.

ST TNG S6E10+11: Chain of Command

Decent first episode with Ronnie Cox being a bit of a tool as the temporary acting Captain, and Worf/Crusher/Picard on a secret mission (Crusher????). But stratospheric second episode, with David Warner and a cruel but clever Cardassian torturing Picard. There's shades of Nazism and clear referencing of 1984 in the torture scenes, and Stewart is quite magnificent.


9/10

If there is a dial that they can turn to change the content of a show from being on the spectrum of generic sci-fi schlock on one end and cerebral exploration of time and space on the other then it feels like with each season of Star Trek Discovery they turn the dial a little bit more away from generic sci-fi and towards more cerebral fare.

Season 3 of Discovery is the best season but still inconsistent. The overarching plot is kind of schlocky but in between, there are a lot more episodic stories with characters and world building now that the crew finds themselves in the future. Saru is my favorite captain so far and the new character Booker has good chemistry with Sonequa Martin Green and the rest of the cast. The characters are the most enjoyable part of the series.

In the last few months, having watching 3 seasons of Discovery, 2 sets of Short Treks and one season each of Picard and Lower Decks, I'm burned out on Star Trek at the moment. And after 2 seasons of mediocrity of Discovery it was difficult to get all that invested in the show. If you didn't like the first two seasons, you might want to give this season a chance. If you haven't seen the first two seasons, I would advise reading a wikipedia summary of them and skipping to season 3.

Will the show get better in season 4? Hopefully but who knows. I'm not holding my breath as there is plenty of other TV and scifi out there to enjoy. Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at the clouds but all this new Star Trek isn't really hooking me. Or maybe Strange New Worlds will be good? Or maybe I should try and enjoy what is here and now and stop wasting time and energy always hoping for a better tomorrow.

3 out of 5