Star Trek Discovery TV Series
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So, I thought I'd re-start this discussion, though not so much as in how it fits into Star Trek as a whole, but instead on the LGBTQ+ themes throughout.
DO NOT READ if you haven't watched through Season 4, as I make no qualms about revealing plot lines here! SPOILER ALERT!
To start, I am a huge Star Trek fan, I have been (when much younger) to more than a few conventions (tho not in DECADES now), and find something to enjoy in all of the spin-offs. I'm REALLY enjoying the "Strange New Worlds" that has newly arrived - especially with the return of episodic television! But this is about Discovery...
That said, here are some things I hated about the first 4 seasons of Discovery:
- The first few episodes make it clear we'll be focusing on Michael Burnham - a black, female Star Fleet Officer who right at the get-go ("The Vulcan Hello") decides that she's smarter than the rest of Star Fleet and disobeys direct orders from her captain - even to the point of mutiny! Like such a personality disorder wouldn't have shown up BEFORE she'd advanced to her rank of Commander! They should have made it less a choice of hers, and more a requirement of some kind - of a choice of bad options and worse ones... not just that she knows better!
- The first season circles around the whole "infinite alternate universes" plot line that is de-rigueur in current Sci-Fi (from Star Trek to Spiderman!) - while, of course, ignoring the obvious: how could you possibly "jump" into such an alternate universe and see the same people!?!?!? (I hate "multiverses" in SciFi, even in 1967's "Mirror Mirror" episode of TOS!) I was happy to see the end of Season 1, though less so with the carryover of the Philippa Georgiou character into later seasons.
- The Discovery writers weren't loath to copy another "cheap crutch" from TOS - specifically in "Operation -- Annihilate!" when Spock is blinded - except that he has an "inner eye lid" that magically protected him (and hid itself from all of the Dr.s scans until the final scene). Puke! There are several (OK, a few) occasions in Discovery where everything seems lost, save for some miraculous last-second capability or technology "discovered" that saves the day in the last 30-seconds of the episode. Puhleeeese!
- I did like the plot-line about Control - the self-aware AI that, like all good SciFi, decides to "protect us from ourselves" and eventually decides we should just be annihilated. (Sound a bit like "I, Mudd" from TOS? Yeah, I thought so too... but on a wider scale... I didn't mind the borrow here, as they took it in a whole new direction!)
But what I really wanted to talk about here were the efforts this version of Star Trek has taken to be "inclusive" in casting.
- The primary character is a black female
- Her captain (Philippa Georgiou) is an an Asian female
- The Dr and chief engineer are a gay-male couple - 1 white, 1 black
- During the course of the series, "partners" are mostly described with that word, though occasionally a "wife" or "husband" will slip through. I liked that - it seems "futuristic" to me
- The President of the Federation is a white woman (albeit a Cardassian/Human mix)
- The President of Vulcan (now named Ni'Var) is a white woman
- The head of the military on Earth (United Earth) is a black woman
- The President of United Earth is a black woman - laughably, Stacey Abrams, she of failed GA candidate for Governor, but successful GA Democratic activist, fame.
- There is also a young Trans couple: Adira (human) & Gray (trill) - for whom the other crew members dutifully use the pronouns "they" (for Adira) and "it" for Gray... but I did kind-of objected to the idea that the only "foster parents" these two would have are the gay couple. I also didn't like the idea that in the Star Trek future, LGBTQ+ people would still be considered "different"... I have higher hopes for our distant future, our current present course notwithstanding.
- I really REALLY enjoyed the casting of Tig Notaro, a lesbian comedian, as a bluntly brilliant, sarcastic, lesbian engineer (I know, save for the engineering degree, not much of a stretch from her comedy character). Still, I loved the dry wit of her character and felt she was a great asset to the cast! IMHO.
Honestly, though, especially when they popped Stacey Abrams on us as the President of Earth, I originally found the casting to be laughable and obvious - an about-face to standard casting! All the best, smartest (non-crazy, anyway), most important human characters were black women or gay men! (Save for 1 Admiral in the future...)
BUT - when I stepped back and considered this, I changed my opinion and NOW think "turn about is fair play" - not having white men in charge, or in any real "leadership" (or "hero") capacity is for me now (as a white male) what people of color and LGBTQ+ people (ok, like me) have been exposed to since the dawn of television!
So, please comment below - assuming you've watched the show - about the LGBTQ+ characters in Discovery - what you liked and didn't like about their storylines, or the casting, or whatever... I'm curious to hear how others feel...
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Another thing I REALLY liked about the writers on Discovery, was slipping in 20th Century Earth cultural references...
For example, in one of the final episodes, a Star Fleet official wryly remarks "It’s nice that they’re all so eager for a three-hour tour outside the galaxy."No one there gets the reference, and he smooths it over by simply calling it a "figure of speech"... which actually confuses more of them...
Being raised with Gilligan's Island re-runs on our local UHF stations as I grew up, I found this hysterically funny. My 38 y/o son also laughed out loud over it... but my 21 y/o daughter (also a trekker) didn't get it! And when I explained it, she was like "so?"
There are also MULTIPLE references to Alice in Wonderland (actually, several of Lewis Carrol's works) throughout!
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@bi4smooth Thank you for putting a spoiler alert at the beginning of your first posting: I always enjoy reading your material, but I haven't seen any of this series yet, so I squinted past your comments. At some point I will take the plunge...or at least dip my toe in the water. I don't consider myself a Trekkie, but I have enjoyed the original series, next generation, and Voyager. (I found DS9 and Enterprise quite uninteresting, based on a very small sample.)
My house in the US has cable, Netflix, and Amazon Prime; I think I need something else to get Discovery. Next time I'm there, I'll check around.
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@eobox91103 said in Star Trek Discovery TV Series:
My house in the US has cable, Netflix, and Amazon Prime; I think I need something else to get Discovery. Next time I'm there, I'll check around.
Discovery is has moved to Paramount+. I think it was originally on CBS All Access (maybe still is?). All of the Star Trek series, including the newest one "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" are now on Paramount+.
I personally like the newest "Strange New Worlds" better than "Discovery".
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Maybe I must be one of the very very very few who likes spoiler alert and I am not even joking
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@Dracula975 Thanks very much. I did some checking and it seems that I can get this material on Discovery + with an Amazon Fire Stick, which should plug into my smart-but-dumb TV.
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@eobox91103 said in Star Trek Discovery TV Series:
@Dracula975 Thanks very much. I did some checking and it seems that I can get this material on Discovery + with an Amazon Fire Stick, which should plug into my smart-but-dumb TV.
I will be honest - I have been a live-long Trekker (re-watching TOS episodes for YEARS before TNG finally came out!).
I gave up on Discovery near the end of Season 1 (like I said, I detest these "multiverse" themes to "at a whim" just remake the environment where your story takes place). My path BACK to Discovery came through SNW (Strange New Worlds - the newest - and IMHO, best of the reboots so far, save for TNG).
I also enjoy Picard - I'm just starting Season 2...
Oh, and CBS All Access became Paramount+ (they wanted to be able to stream Paramount movies and other non-CBS TV network content too, so they re-named it and raised the rates! Boo!)
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@kalayaan said in Star Trek Discovery TV Series:
Maybe I must be one of the very very very few who likes spoiler alert and I am not even joking
Did you mean that you like spoilers? I too like spoilers... sometimes, if I'm having a hard time staying engaged in something, I'll read the imbd entries, or other reviews - specifically to see if it's worth continuing to watch! (Sometimes, it isn't!!! That's how I dropped Discovery part-way thru Season 1!!)
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Paramount says Discovery is non-canon:
Lower Decks series, ended with swipe at Discovery series, big enough that only 1 can still be canon-ish - and Paramount has said, it's Lower Decks.
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@blablarg18 There are a couple of gender-stereotype bending episodes in TNG that I rather enjoy, and I've been tempted to post them on the torrent side here. They are do not meet the "gay themed" definition in the rules, and I do try to follow (most of) them.
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