[IanMSpencer]

I’m quickly ploughing through this new Star Trek series in the 7 day free trial of Paramount+.

The original series of Star Trek  (TOS to Trekkies) was national viewing in my childhood and aside from the later series of Next Generation the producers have struggled to match the viewability of the early series.

Then a lot of modern TV series insist on a commitment from the viewer with long and complex story arcs overlaying episodes – and when those story arcs are designed to cover multiple series and then the series gets cancelled, I’m reluctant to commit to viewing a series. Picard was overly complex and tried to be too clever, Discovery had to have a couple of goes to find its feet (which reminds me, have I got time to check out the new series of that with my freebie).

So it’s been a really pleasure watching the new series. They’ve successfully rewound to a lot of what was good about TOS – these are not super-humans, they are a bit argumentative and silly, but the main goodie is we have a series, with individual stand-alone episodes, there are a couple of longer term threadlets but they are minscule, unlike Discovery. Pike is quite in the role of Kirk, bonding with aliens in the bedroom (not just a snog now) and showing off his torso.

It’s the best of the recent efforts.

Topic

[AlsoSomniloquism]

And a cracking theme tune. 

And a cracking theme tune. 

[AlsoSomniloquism]

Quote:

 though strange that they’d never reappeared in a couple of hundred years of Trekking.

They did though.

Adults seem to slow down alot.

 

[hawkinspeter]

I’m going to go way off-piste

I’m going to go way off-piste here and give a shout out to Arcane. It’s a 2d/3d animated series based on characters from League of Legends though there’s no need to have prior knowledge of that (I didn’t). Each episode is incredibly packed full with layered visual story-telling and character development – there’s barely a wasted minute in the entire series.

[IanMSpencer]

Yep, had to skim through the
Yep, had to skim through the TOS episode used as the basis of the finale, a trick that is up there with the best of TNG writing.

And every Trek seems to get their nearly undefeatable enemy and they’ve got a nasty one – though strange that they’d never reappeared in a couple of hundred years of Trekking. Odd that so many cast members seemed to be dithering about re-signing their contracts.

I’d rate Strange New Worlds series 1 as up there with the best of TNG. Mrs S thoroughly enjoyed it too, even with me predicting the plots as we went (“How did you know about the Jeffrey’s Tube?” – “There’s always a Jeffrey’s Tube” – “Never seen him before and he’s got a speaking line – he’s dead.” – time passes – “Whoa! Told you so. Eeww!”)

The other thing that they’ve got about right is the tech – special effects upgraded, but with the reference of TOS they’ve generally made it look sophisticated without falling into the Discovery trap of the Spore Drive and other “forgotten” tech.

I’d say SNW is one of the best series of anything I’ve watched in quite a while, genuinely entertaining.

[AlsoSomniloquism]

Probably the “worst” episode

Probably the “worst” episode of the show, although let the cast have fun (Just don’t ask what happened to the Arrowed guards). Don’t worry, the next two more then makes up for that one though.

[IanMSpencer]

Spoke too soon. They’ve taken
Spoke too soon. They’ve taken authenticity to TOS(and TNG) too far.

They had to have the fancy dress, sword fighting, medieval comedy episode.

[AlsoSomniloquism]

I suspect it doesn’t help

I suspect it doesn’t help that a female John Constantine would be like Clara was portrayed. 

[AlsoSomniloquism]

Probably another reason they

Probably another reason they couldn’t / wouldn’t use him. Apart from Johanna Constantine, pretty much all references to DC characters who were in the original medium have been removed from the show. TBH alot were subtle and I didn’t realise they were DC characters at time of first reading (Dr Destiny, Lyta Hall, etc). 

[hawkinspeter]

Constantine (same actor as

Constantine (same actor as the series) also appears in DC Legends of Tomorrow

[brooksby]

Bit of both. I didn’t realise

Bit of both. I didn’t realise that there had been a Constantine tv show, will have to find that (and the less said about the film the better…).  But I find Clara Oswald sorry Jenna Coleman very difficult to see as anything other than Clara Oswald.

[hawkinspeter]

That reminds  me – I’ve only

That reminds  me – I’ve only seen a couple of the Constantine episodes. Once I’ve finished Umbrella Academy, I’ll catch up on it.

[AlsoSomniloquism]

The actor choice or the

The actor choice or the character being cast instead of John? The latter was down to the original character being copy righted and kept for potential Dark DC film so not being allowed in this, as Johanna was I believe a Sandman exclusive character (I stand to be corrected), he could bring her in to the present day arc instead. It was a shame that they couldn’t use the same actor as the criminally cancelled Constantine TV show though as he was great. 

[Hirsute]

Now you are just spoiling
Now you are just spoiling things!

I did read that on Twitter. The poster had read a piece from a “news” outlet that had said that. They clearly thought star trek was a recent production
The pile on was hilarious including stills of that kiss

[Awavey]

they havent made any new Star

they havent made any new Star Trek since 2005 I mean theres an exciting  Star Trek II film in the cinemas at the moment, Id go watch that instead.

[brooksby]

Agree on David Thewlis and

Agree on David Thewlis and Gwendoline Christie. I found the bonus episodes and liked them both (Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope) – it shows how wide the Sandman mythos is, you could write pretty much any story in there.

 

(GC as Lucifer was very weird for me as I’d just finished watching the police procedural version of Lucifer, but at least Mazekeen of the Lilim was basically the same…)

[Author]

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