#which is exactly how i do it of course. so in analyzing spock i was like ooh shoot that me. dang | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

calliecat93 · 3 years

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More Empath meta cause GDI I love this episode and it is SOOO much fun to analyze~!

McCoy sacrificing himself is of course the most famous moment, and for good reason. It is, imo, the scene that embodies everything that Leonard McCoy is and always will be. But I don’t see a lot of people talk about after, when it’s just Kirk, Spock, and Gem left. Can you imagine what it had to be like for Kirk and Spock? The cold, awful realization when they see Bones’ medical equipment laying there, but no sign of the man himself?

From how it sounded to me, Spock woke up before Jim did. Which means that when Kirk came to and saw Bones gone, Spock had to confirm that yes, McCoy went with the Vians. It had to be God awful for Kirk when that hit him. Hell you can hear it in his voice when he asks Spock “Why did you let him do it?”. While he’s looking downward He sounds like he just came back down from the realization setting in. Kirk had already had his turn being tortured. He knows EXACTLY what’s in store for Bones and that it’s going to be worst. His best friend, confidant, and emotional stability is going to die and unless Spock gets the Vian device working, he can’t do anything about it. He always finds a way out of everything. He doesn’t believe in the no-win scenario. But he got forced into one by the Vians. He was going to have to send one of his best friends, one of his crewmen, to their death. It’s like in The Immunity Syndrome, except far more cruel.

Worst, Bones took that option away from him. He got spared from the choice, but it didn’t change the fact that Bones is gone and Jim wasn’t allowed to do so much as argue back. So not only did he fail to protect his best friend, he failed to protect one of his crewmen that he’s responsible for. For a Starfleet Captain, this kind of situation would be utterly soul crushing. Fortunately Kirk doesn’t give up as he tries to figure out what the Vians exact intentions are, Gem’s place in it, and he bounces back instantly once Spock DOES get the device operating and confirms that they can teleport to McCoy. It presents the solution that Kirk desperately needed and has him giving the most Kirk-like response that he could ever give. Still in that moment, he must have felt far worst than any of the physical paint hat the Vians out him through. He couldn’t protect Bones (or Spock for that matter). He couldn’t think of a third option. He was utterly powerless.

Then there’s Spock... oh God Spock.

Spock obviously already knew what was going to happen the second he felt that sting in his back. He looks almost betrayed, calling it unethical. Not even illogical, unethical. When he’s up, he’s already back to work on the device though he DOES confirm that he got taken out the same way Kirk did: the good doctor’s hypo. I sensed what almost felt like exasperation. I can only imagine what was going through his mind. He may keep his emotions controlled, but whether he likes it or not he still feels them. The main thing that comes to mind is at a loss on how he allowed McCoy to sneak up on him to begin with. How he hadn’t even considered that a possibility when he’s fully aware of the doctor’s highly illogical nature. Especially when he himself had accused McCoy of having a Martyr Complex again in The Immunity Syndrome. The fact that he witnessed McCoy already do it to Jim should have added to the likelihood. He should have known better, but instead here they are.

I doubt it’s because Spock just forgot any of that. He was both trying to get the device as functional as he could before handing himself over and he was resigning himself to death. Okay, insanity but that’s still him losing himself. You could tell with the way he looked at Jim, this was going to be the final time he ever saw him. You could tell what he was feeling when Gem touched him and just smiled brightly. How much he cares about his captain, and McCoy as well. Simply put, he was more focused on making sure that those two got out alive that the thought that McCoy would take his place simply didn’t occur to him. Did he expect protest? Of course, it briefly happened in the initial talk. But Spock probably assumed that as usual McCoy would gripe and argue with him over it, but that would be the extent of it. Even if McCoy stayed stubborn over it and tried to interfere, Spock would be able to handle it just like, again, in The Immunity Syndrome. He was wrong. His logic was clouded, and thus he was unprepared to stop him.

Then there’s everything when they do reach McCoy. I don’t need to go into depth with this one. Everything that everyone’s feelign is clear as crystal.

Jim’s distressed for obvious reasons, even at first refusing to accept that McCoy’s dying until McCoy himself confirms it. Spock is barely holding back his clear distress snd concern, which... well, we all know the scene:

“You’ve got a.... good bedside manner, Spock.”

And Spock’s reaction.

That expression says it all.

I already posted about how much McCoy cares about these two. So much so that he sacrificed himself with no regard to himself. Not even for a second. He’d made up his mind and there was no room for anything else after. But I also pointed out how due to his disregard for himself, he didn’t take into account how said two people would react. He’d have still done it even fi he had, but still. He’s The Heart to Kirk’s Soul and Spock’s Mind. If so much as one part is lost, the other two may still be able to exist, but they won’t ever be whole again. He’s the one constantly helping Jim through any mental/emotional hangups that are troubling him. He’s the one constantly challenging Spock on his reliance on logic and ignoring his emotions/human half. He’s not always in the right when he does so, but it’s still a way to point out to Spock that that side of him exists and can’t be ignored. McCoy cares so much, sometimes maybe too much... and maybe at times it causes him to forgot how much that they care for him. And had it been them laying there dying even if beyond hope, he’d have fought to save them to the bitter end.

And nothing was going to stop neither Jim nor Spock from doing the same for him.

Or long story short: I just love the Triumvirate a lot and how much they love each other XD

(Image Credit: TrekCore)

#star trek tos #tos #mcspirk #can be viewed as mcspirk if you wish #the triumvirate

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dreamthinkimagine · 4 years

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A Ticklish What?

For @the-spooky-lee - I saw her headcanons and had to do something!

https://the-spooky-lee.tumblr.com/post/185361979927/spock-calmly-bursting-into-kirks-room#notes https://the-spooky-lee.tumblr.com/post/185374062442/sulu-and-chekov-are-talking-sulu-anyway

Spock’s footsteps could be heard through the corridors, with two more pairs of feet gaining up. As he ran, his breathing rate increased and sweat covered his face. The feeling of his green blood pumping through his veins got faster and and his stomach was in knots. He figured he could outrun them, or just plain escape somehow.

Through these thoughts, which he would be - ashamed? - to say that they were illogical, he noticed the corridor was silent - they’d stopped running. He skidded to a stop and waited - not giving away a single sound as time slowly ticked away.

That’s when he felt it. A tingling in his nose growing stronger and stronger until...

“Achoo!” The footsteps started again faster than before. Spock dashed through the halls, swiftly avoiding any crewmen in his way. He had to hide, those crewmen would certainly tell his chasers which way he’d gone. He’d been running so long and so hard that it was becoming more difficult to breathe. Considering his strength, that was saying something

He ran down a few more halls when he caught sight of Chekov and Sulu having a conversation. He saw the Helmsman smirk and whisper something to Chekov, but even with his superior hearing, he couldn’t make out what he said for the life of him.

Chekov though? Chekov he could make out.

“Nyet! But I’d like to,” the Ensign practically exclaimed. Suddenly, poor Spock was on the floor and the sound of running feet got louder and louder.

He knew he shouldn’t have listened to Kirk’s illogic - something in that Vulcan mind told him it would be a bad idea. Now here he was, on the floor, about to face the consequences for his mistake. He knew it wasn’t going to end well the moment he stepped on the Bridge and Kirk pulled him over.

“Mr. Spock.” He said, gesturing to his chair. As soon as the First Officer arrived, Kirk continued. “Dr. McCoy is telling me that you have not been to his office once for a physical.”

“Quite correct, Captain.”

“Why?”

“It is illogical. I am part Vulcanian; Dr. McCoy is a human doctor. He knows very little of how to treat or examine a Vulcan.”

“But the doctors on Vulcan know much about humans?”

“More than he about my people. We function on logic alone. Vulcan doctors successfully make connections between both parts of me and are able to do so quite efficiently; whereas Dr. McCoy’s logic is not as strong and is clouded with emotion. It is only logical to contact Vulcan if I were to have a medical emergency.”

“We can’t always do that. I want you to report to Dr. McCoy now for a physical.”

“Captain-”

“That’s an order, Mr. Spock.”

***

“Well, Spock, I’ve finally got you in here,” Bones smirked. “Let’s get this over with, shall we,” he said and patted the examination bed. Spock followed the doctor’s orders, but only because his orders from Kirk were to listen to the illogical physician. “Now this won’t hurt a bit, Spock.”

“There is no reason for reassurance, Doctor. Especially when it is untrue.” McCoy sighed and got to work checking everything. His throat, heart, reflexes, everything. Then he asked Spock to lay down so he could examine his stomach. As soon as McCoy pushed down, Spock felt a strange feeling. A sensation he’d never felt before and he didn’t know why, but against his own will, his body jerked away.

“Are you alright, Spock?”

“I believe so, Doctor,” he said hoping that he hadn’t smiled. He had felt the sudden urge to laugh at the sensation and that was something the doctor did not need to know. McCoy went back to work, but the same thing happened again. And then a third time.

McCoy started to grin. “Spock,” he asked chuckling. “Ahahare you ticklish?” Before Spock could even answer, Bones went for his stomach again. “I’m sorry, Spock, but I really do have to check your stomach.” But the last time Spock was this close to laughing. So, instead of staying there, Spock jumped up and ran through the door and down the hall.

Zooming past crew members, he tried to think. Where could he go? What would protect him?

“Oh no, you’re not getting away that easily,” a voice said. Spock turned his head and McCoy was running after him. The only logical thing to do at that moment was to increase speed. Jim, he thought. The Captain’s Quarters! I’ll be safe there!.

Dodging Sulu, Spock didn’t wait to run in to Kirk’s room as soon as the doors opened. As the doors closed, Spock straightened out his uniform and spoke.

“Captain, I require assistance.”

“With what, Mr. Spock?”

“Doctor McCoy is chasing after me, with the intent to test if I am ticklish.”

“Say no more. Get in the closet,” Spock ran in and eagerly pulled the door shut behind him, letting the uniform shirts drape over him. But that didn’t matter because he heard the door open. He couldn’t see who it was, but all logic pointed to McCoy as being the unwelcomed visitor. What he also couldn’t see was Kirk’s grin.

“Jim, have you seen Spock?” Kirk’s grin grew into a smile.

“Well, he’s definitely not in my closet,” he said louder than he would have if he was actually trying to protect his Vulcan friend. Spock raised an eyebrow.

“Well then,” McCoy started. “I guess you wouldn’t mind me looking in your closet,” he said with a wink. Behind the door, Spock’s face dropped, his jaw hanging slightly open. As soon as he heard the knob jiggle as McCoy grabbed it, he swung that door open with all the Vulcan strength he could muster and dashed for the door - almost slamming Bones into the wall.

“He’s really gonna get it now, Jim!”

Or so he thought until the sound stopped, so he stopped. Then he sneezed and was on his way again. He noticed that he had been running so long and so hard that it was getting more difficult to breathe. He dodged the people filling the corridors until he came across Chekov and Sulu - who stuck his leg out causing the half-Vulcan to come to an abrupt stop on the floor.

“This I’ve got to see. You ever heard of or see a ticklish Vulcan, Pavel?”

“Nyet! But I’d like to!” As Sulu grabbed his arms and held them up, Spock saw the shadows of Kirk and McCoy rounding the corner and gave up trying to fight. Nowhere to run and certainly nowhere to hide; it was illogical to struggle.

He laid there as his heart pounded against his side and tried as hard as he could to not show any emotion; but he couldn’t even lie to himself that he felt something. He took back control of his mind, his inner scientist took command - he no longer felt fear, but curiosity.

What exactly was this feeling? McCoy called it “ticklish,” but what did it mean? Why did he feel the need to laugh? To run? Especially since it was light touches? He was stronger than they were, so light sensations should not be overwhelming. There was nothing like this on his planet, so it must be a human thing. It certainly seemed to be when Chekov sat on his shins, looking him in the eyes as he practically bounced with excitement.

That prompted another question - why were humans so fond of the activity? Why did they want to take advantage of it? What made it entertaining for them?

McCoy and Kirk rounded the corner and slowed down at the sight, approaching their victim. Spock himself was almost glad that they were there - almost glad - now he could get some answers.

“How - “ Kirk started.

“I might have been passing by your Quaters and overheard everything.”

“I was going to ask how you two pinned him.”

“Sulu tripped him and grabbed his arms.”

“But he’s got three times human strength,” Bones said.

Spock paid no mind to their words as he laid on the ground, still thinking things over.

‘He was winded when we got him,” Sulu answered.”Must’ve been running for a while. I think he’s alright now.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Bones said and knelt down next to his side. He started feeling different parts of the half Vulcan’s body and, while Spock was sure he was actually checking - especially since he never did finish his physical - it was still ticklish.

He found himself twitching once McCoy began. The others were grinning, but Spock couldn’t focus on that. He had to analyze this thing - but it was much harder than he had thought it would be. It was difficult to focus when an inescapable physical sensation verberated against his skin - which he never knew was so delicate until now.

Despite all of this, he noticed his body making small twitching movements instead of pushing Sulu, Checkov, and McCoy off and running again. He could do it, he knew he could. He had three times the strength of humans, and McCoy wasn’t even pinning him. But that just raised a new question - why? Perhaps his body was in a defensive mode? That must be it, because no matter how hard he tried to do anything, he couldn’t - other than twitch of course.

Well, even if he could do something, he couldn’t now - as the doctor finished, Kirk had just leaned down at his other side. He did not have the strength of four humans. And the only way to prove or disprove his hypothesis, was to be free to move.

“If I am to study this phenomenon, it would be most beneficial if I were not held down.”

“What?”

“I have many questions concerning this anomaly. The most efficient way to study it is without restriction.”

“You’d just run,” McCoy said. “Now I just finished your physical. You’re fine, but I want in on this, so stop stalling.”

“I am not, stalling, Doctor; but it is my ability or inability to escape that I should study first as per this current situation.” He looked to Kirk, “Captain.” Kirk paused, and then let go; the others following their leader.

“What are your questions, Spock?”

“Whether I can control my body to escape or not, Captain. As well as what it is, why it does what it does, and why it is so captivating to humans.” There was a beat of silence.

“Only Spock,” McCoy sighed, rolling his eyes.

“As a scientist, Doctor, you should understand curiosity.”

“If he wants us to tickle ‘im, we’ll tickle ‘im,” Kirk said. “Even if it is for science. Besides, we could learn; we don’t have all the answers.”

“Such as?”

“Well, Spock, we don’t really know how it works. We don’t know what causes it. Why it’s fun. Everyone is different with tickling, so it’s kind of hard to answer.”

“So even if you do discover something, it will only most likely be for you specifically,” McCoy finished. Spock took a moment to think. When presented the opportunity to learn, and to not take it would be illogical. Even if it was just about himself, it was still learning. He had no other choice.

“You may commence.” Immediately Bones, Sulu, and Chekov squeezed, prodded, and poked everywhere they could reach. Kirk took a moment to look at Spock trying to keep laughter in by holding his breath as he squirmed with each new touch. Kirk smiled his little smirk, the one he showed at Spock whenever he thought he was funny.

Kirk thought the whole thing was really funny honestly. He laughed himself when Spock almost got up, but was stopped by Sulu digging into his stomach. Spock’s eyes closed even tighter and his legs came up to protect himself, so Sulu moved to his hips. All the while, Chekov kept up at his underarms. He kicked his feet, trying to ease the feeling.

Spock jumped and scrunched his shoulders up when McCoy scratched the backs of his ears. A sound definitely came out and it was at that moment that Kirk knew he couldn’t hold off any longer. He reached out and, ran his fingers up Spock’s ribs. He was not disappointed. He squealed.

Spock squealed.

Kirk kept at it, forcing laughter out of his half-Vulcan friend. They all paused for a moment, and listened to the sound. A sound that until a few minutes ago, they didn’t even know existed. Spock included. His laugh was nice, relaxing. It sounded human.

Spock was taking mental notes throughout though. He realized that sometimes he could control himself, and other times not. He noticed his laughter eventually had to come out, and when it did, it wouldn’t stop.

But soon they were all at it again and Spock laughed even harder. He noticed that this time he folded up into a ball to try to shield himself, but that that only left his right side vulnerable. That spot wasn’t too bad, not as bad as his ribs or stomach, but bad enough to make him straighten out. Spock sat up and tried to bolt, but Kirk just squeezed his ribs gently and Spock went down and landed on his stomach.

He tried to crawl away when they attacked again. The backs of his ribs and neck were attacked and had his squirming and ineffectively clawing at the metal floor. What really got him was when someone touched his shoulder blades. The screaming laughter’s sound waves bounced against their ears, but they kept it up for another minute as he lay there - completely not in control of his movements. Well, he definitely had one question answered. By the time they stopped, Spock was out of breath.

“Fascinating,” he, with as much air as he could, whispered to himself.

That night, after he was back at his quarters, he thought about what he had learned. He analyzed every single thing he’d discovered. Especially how to tickle.

He would have a lot of work to do tomorrow.

#ticklish!spock #I might have quoted the headcanons I can't remember off the top of my head #even Spock's spots and reactions are based off one of her headcanons #some dialogue is directly from Star Trek TAS

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somefunnyshits · 7 years

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Star Trek: Discovery shows us a side of the Federation we've never seen

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.

CBS

The debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.

There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that has been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.

And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.

Spoilers ahead.

No more cozy spaceships

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.

We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.

When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.

When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in a vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.

Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.

A troubled protagonist

Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham.

CBS

Get a load of that Discovery!

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.

Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.

When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.

Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she has forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.

Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.

These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we would see Kirk feel old and bored or see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.

The new Klingons

Enlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Discovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham, and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.

The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).

T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist—a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.

Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.

Yes, there are problems

Though Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white-hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.

One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.

That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly a "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?

Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.

The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard if she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.

Overall, an unexpectedly good start

Despite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.

For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.

What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.

It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.

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ahpookalele · 7 years

Text

No, it’s not a musical. Though it could be.

So, the book starts with an interesting idea, jumping off from something that always confused me about the “map” of three-dimensional space. I’ve never been clear just what the Romulan Neutral Zone looks like, a matter made even more confusing by the egg-shaped area shown in Star Trek II as the Klingon Neutral Zone, which doesn’t jibe with the big old line through space shown on the screen in the episode “Balance of Terror.” Where does this line extend to? If there’s no up or down in space, how is it demarcated?

Anyhow, Vulcan! starts with the Enterprise heading towards the plant Arachnae, because, as it turns out, the Romulan Neutral Zone has been drifting over the years, and soon the planet will be in Romulan territory. And there’s concern about the natives of Arachnae (come on, just guess what they look like, and don’t look at the cover) may be put in harms way by this. So the Enterprise is sent to figure out if the Arachnaeans are sentient enough to save. There’s some business about how they get around the Prime Directive that I’ve already forgotten because of this book’s precipitous decline into the sillies.

You see, Spock and McCoy are all in a tizzy of a competition, and Kirk is in full eyeroll mode. Why? because a certain Dr. Katalya Tremain is coming to help with the mission, because she’s an expert on all things Giant Bug, and both these fellows think she is just the totes best thing to come aboard since Harry Mudd unloaded his “cargo” that time.

So we meet Dr. Tremain. And she is brilliant. And beautiful. And the author likes to keep reminding us that she has big boobs.

But here’s the kicker: she hates Vulcans. Hates. I’m not saying that kind of low-level bigotry that McCoy will blindside us with when the writers of the original series need to come up with some conflict to keep the dialogue going. I mean she is an out-and-out Vulcanophobe, and demands to be taken off the mission when she catches sight of Mr. Spock, whose human side is secretly crushed by this, but whose Vulcan side wants to study this like some kind of unknown fungus.

And here’s where the book starts to unravel for me. There’s a decent novel in here somewhere, or at least a short story. But it turns out that the why-does-this-woman-hate-vulcans plot, which should be the B plot completely takes over the first half of the book, grinding the story to a halt, and it takes a long time for what should be the A plot, the adventures on Planet of the Ant People, to get revving up again.

Gee, I wonder why they call the place Arachnae

So the patient reader will plod on through the story. We learn that there’s a little cadre of bigots on the Enterprise who all have petty beefs with Spock, who hope to enlist Tremain in their plan to get Spock booted. She rebuffs them, apparently concluding that her hated of Vulcans, the cause of which is still a mystery at this point but a surprise to no one later in the book, is a more worth hate, or something.

I kept hoping there was a good back story to explain her hatred of Vulcans, some horrible Hitchcock-like reveal involving her mother being killed by a pon-farr-crazed Vulcan, but no, it’s nothing that interesting.

And then, of course, we get the whole enemies-have-to-join-forces-to-survive story between her and Spock, which goes exactly where you know it will go, this being 70s Trek.

Oh, and I haven’t mentioned yet that McCoy has gone about wooing Tremain, and there’s several skin-crawly scenes where he is trying to analyze her and bed her at the same time.

As he unpacked a drawer full of soft, sheer night-robes, McCoy felt that he had to know more about her phobia. The transparent garments, scented with lavender, were telling him a great deal about her romantic nature, and he wanted to know what sort of mental mine field he might have to walk through on the way to seeing her model those delicious bits of silk and lace. Spock and Vulcans were no competition for a pretty woman, nightgowns, and a bedroom.

‘Tell me, Katalya,” he said, tucking the last of the negligees away, “just why do you hate Vulcans so much? It’s a sad flaw in a lady as nice as you are. It’s a downright pity, too.”

Ewwwwwwwww.

Ultimately, this isn’t a good one, but it has a certain bad-but-good element to it, like parts of Spock Messiah, to keep the reader going, unlike Price of the Phoenix, say.

The ending gets very trippy and yet anticlimactic, and it gets incredibly talky. Kirk doesn’t get a ton to do except yell at the Romulans. Oh, did I not mention that the Romulans show up for the first time in an original novel? They don’t come off very well.

And there’s not enough ant people.

in an alternate timeline, Edith Keeler has been to Arachnae, and she still gets killed.

Bantam Book Club: Vulcan! No, it's not a musical. Though it could be. So, the book starts with an interesting idea, jumping off from something that always confused me about the "map" of three-dimensional space.

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somefunnyshits · 7 years

Text

Star Trek: Discovery shows us a side of the Federation we've never seen

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.

CBS

There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that’s been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.

And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.

Spoilers ahead.

No more cozy spaceships

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.

Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.

A troubled protagonist

Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham.

CBS

Get a load of that Discovery!

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else, to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.

Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she’s forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive, and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.

These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we see Kirk feel old and bored, or we see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.

The new Klingons

Enlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Discovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.

The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther’s homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).

T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist, a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death, and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.

Yes, there are problems

Though Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.

One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pans Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.</em></em>

That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly an "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?

The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.

Overall, an unexpectedly good start

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somefunnyshits · 7 years

Quote

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.CBSThe debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that has been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.Spoilers ahead.No more cozy spaceships Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. CBS Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in a vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.A troubled protagonist Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham. CBS Get a load of that Discovery! CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she has forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we would see Kirk feel old and bored or see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.The new KlingonsEnlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.CBSDiscovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham, and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist—a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.Yes, there are problemsThough Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white-hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly a "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard if she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.Overall, an unexpectedly good startDespite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.Let's block ads! (Why?)Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

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somefunnyshits · 7 years

Quote

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.CBSThe debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that’s been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.Spoilers ahead.No more cozy spaceships Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. CBS Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.A troubled protagonist Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham. CBS Get a load of that Discovery! CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else, to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she’s forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive, and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we see Kirk feel old and bored, or we see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.The new KlingonsEnlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.CBSDiscovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther’s homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist, a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death, and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.Yes, there are problemsThough Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pans Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly an "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.Overall, an unexpectedly good startDespite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.Let's block ads! (Why?)Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

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