Posted 30 September 2017 - 06:56 PM
i already did this on the ksp board but here we go again (crosspost).
im going to be intentionally vague so as not to spoil anything for anyone who didnt watch both episodes.
from the previews for episode 3 we should finally get to see the ship in the show's title. it also makes the acronym for the show rather embarrassing.
also only a few of the characters shown so far are regulars. so consider the first two episodes as kind of a prequel to set it up later on down the road.
liked the shenzhou, seems to have the vibe of a refit nx-01 type ship. liked the other federation ships as well. it kind of has that crude asthetic rather than the 'clean' ships from tos and the more elegant designs from tng onward.
liked the klingon redux. even though it seems similar to other alien races from the main timeline. though im less interested in their ship redesigns, i have a feeling were not going to get to see any d7s or birds of prey (probibly my favorite ship design in all of trek). im hoping that these are house ships and not production vessels.
didnt like the softness of the scifi. ftl telepathy and the 'new star in the sky' bit because of violation of speed of light limits. i suppose thats trek for you but at least put a little effort into the handwavium to at least make it appear plausible.
didnt like many of the characters thus far. the new alien spock/data analog doesnt really impress me at all. i dont ever remember a cowardly character in a show ever be memorable. they turn out to be annoying at best and typically get cut early. depends if/how they develop his character. didnt like how the klingons were being portrayed as religious fanatics, especially considering according to their belief system they were supposed to have killed off all their gods long ago. or to put them in the role of modern day terrorists when they should have more of a space viking/mongolian vibe. the protagonist was probibly the best character so far. lots of room for development there. too many characters in star trek come from pristine backgrounds and its nice to see a damage case with deep seated issues who tries to act cool and logically but ends up falling short.
didnt like the new intro, it was too minimalistic and conceptual. at least they didnt use a crappy theme song (im looking at you enterprise).
special effects are pretty good, though i found the warp effects too reminiscent of battlestar galactica. really liked the cloaking effects.
speaking of galactica this show kind of has a battlestar discovery feel to it. remember when galactica ended and every show to follow it tried to have a bsg redux vibe. many of them fell flat on their faces (sgu being the biggest offender). this show feels kind of late to that party. however this is not entirely a bad thing. ive always wanted a more gritty star trek, like the way ds9 was going in the last few seasons. this seems to top that greatly. i kind of wish they would redo m*a*s*h and bsg the hell out of it, other than that i think bsging things needs to stop.
story had some issues. like during the battle in episode 2 many of the actors didnt portray the tension appropriately. or how saro kind of seemed like he had just met burnham even though she had been a memeber of the crew for years. in that second scene where the protagonist and the captain were introduced, i kind of kept thinking that they were walking on the sand wrong, i kept thinking a sandworm was going to come kill them, then i realized i was watching star trek. ironically this was probibly my favorite scene from the first episode. this felt like trek. then the rest of the show contrasts that and its as if its saying, this is star trek, but were doing things differently. it did a good job at setting the tone of the show.
mudd is coming.
thats it for now. look forward to episode 3.