Tuesday 26 September 2017

Star Trek: Discovery

Star Trek: Discovery is go, after various delays meaning it missed the 50th anniversary of the original series, and then missed the 51st by a couple weeks (let’s say it hit just before the 30th anniversary of The Next Generation to make it feel better) - and...

Since it’s creeping around the world on Netflix (except in the US and Canada) I’ll try not to spoil things.

It’s very much modern TV, much more than a traditional Star Trek revival would have been. It’s much more serialised than episodic, and decidedly character-centric. It might have planet-of-the-week episodes later on, but from the start it’s defined by Burnham’s actions and responses, and those of the captains and other crew. I can see why traditionalist fans wouldn’t go for it.

This would make it stick out in the generally mission-based Star Trek RPGs - Star Trek Adventures has clashing Values but doesn’t generally encourage this degree of character conflict.

The Black Fleet!

It looks great, naturally. Continuity is trumped by modernity, but it wasn’t going to go retro, not even as retro as the Kelvin timeline films. (It most closely matches the Kelvin itself, actually, especially with command in blue uniforms, which fits the wibbly-wobbly timeline. And yes, there’s lens flare.) It’s a prequel for plot reasons.

The Da Vinci illustration style titles are an interesting choice, and keep the recurring JJ Abrams image of the ship as tiny in the vastness of space. It also includes Burnham, emphasising the character focus.

It took me a while to figure out what the middle bit of the theme reminds me of - Hoist The Colors from Pirates Of The Caribbean. Which is oddly appropriate for a story about questionable character choices resulting in big special-effects ship battles, I suppose.

More Doug Jones ASAP, please!

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