Star Trek Discovery: radical new direction, sike
Canceled my CBS account. I started this show annoyed that I had to pay an extra amount to watch it, but I paid it dutifully. I wasn’t going to miss the return of Star Trek to TV, no way. But just as glad to cancel my subscription.
Plot-wise the show was predictable, which would have been fine for Star Trek, because the Trek universe is a familiar and often predictable place. The problem with this first season of DSC is that it was trying to be unpredictable; trying really hard. First off, it was running as a serialized season, which is fine, but very un-Trekkie-like. But, I—like most fans—can live with that and, even, welcomed the difference.
The problems started with Lorca, really. Forget the costume and technology inconsistency, who cares? The issue at the heart of why DSC struggled with the critics and some fans alike lies in Lorca. I know people will say Lorca represented a potential new direction for Star Trek that could make it more human. Guess what? You can be an ethical human. You can face ethical dilemmas and come out on the other side as a more ethical person.
Lorca, on the other hand, represented the worst possible outcome. So, I was happy when the season ended in a reboot that reaffirmed Star Fleet principles. I was also left vaguely empty; not a good empty either.
Katharine Trendacosta over at Gizmodo really hit on what I was feeling: “Burnham twigs that this isn’t Georgiou going rogue, but a sanctioned Starfleet action. Now I will flat out say I was wrong. I expected this show to do something radical — to have another mutiny, this time with the whole crew behind it, to save Starfleet from itself. To uphold its values. If the Discovery mutinied, saved the Federation from Klingons and itself, and then headed out to explore as an independent ship, fleeing the Federation, that would explain a lot. It would explain why Spock never mentions his sister, now a persona non grata than before. It would explain why no one ever mentions the spore drive again. It would explain a lot” (emphasis my own ).
But, no, the show hit a hard reset. So when it was trying to surprise, it didn’t. That said, I enjoyed the character development and hope that the next season works on dense narrative arcs exploring the table setting in this season. At the end of the day, Discovery’s first season felt like a really long episode. Howver, it was thoroughly entertaining and now we know the characters better, but, in reality, we are right back to the begining. This is kinda where we should have started: a crew that espouses Federation principles.
Ultimately, Discovery season 1 feels like a very long introduction that establishes characters and withdraws the infinite possibilities of the spore drive.
Maybe season 1 should have been called “From Warp and Back.”
