Star Trek: Alpha to Delta Quadrants & Everything In Between

[sevoneone]

Very poor start to the season IMO. Felt like a mid-level fan fiction story. Things others have not mentioned yet:

Spoiler: Spoilers

Everything past the opening scene with the horses and after the transporter room felt off somehow.
Pike feels moody, less charismatic, less confident and... stupid? I know he is supposed to be in mourning, but the way they are portraying it does not fit anything we know about his character. Everything he did this episode felt like it had been written by someone that knew nothing about the character.

The rivalry between Ortegas and Scotty comes off passive aggressive and dumb.

Going back to prehistoric Earth/Sol and not making one of the species in the story the Voth from Voyager is my biggest gripe of the episode. We know the Voth left Earth long before the dinosaurs were killed off, but it doesn't mean they were not still a presence in the area.

Honestly, the better plot would have been: The Mars species being located on the 5th planet instead, attacking the Enterprise for weapons and supplies to help them in their war against an unknown foe. Pike successfully negotiating with them for medical/benign supplies, making friends and offering to help negotiate peace... meanwhile on Earth, the away team triggers something that alerts the Voth, revealing them as the unknown enemy and really pissing them off. They come warping in, refuse to negotiate with invading mammals, show no mercy and destroy the 5th planet and the Enterprise barely escapes... Same story beats, doesn't require the viewer to have seen Voyager or know who the Voth are, but adds value for long time fans with almost no extra effort...

 

[Mainsail]

I just watched the latest episode of SNW. Why has it become so difficult to make a decently interesting episode of Star Trek? Classic Trek (TOS -> ENT) banged out 26 episodes per season for 5 series that ran between 3-7 seasons each. I cared about the plot. I cared about the characters. And in many occasions, they posited an interesting moral or ethical dilemma that was applicable to current times. I just don't get it. Why can't modern Trek do the same thing?

 

[CWallace]

You could ask the same of modern Star Wars, Marvel / DC, Doctor Who, etc..
Blame the studios and the show runners they hire.

Spoiler: So far, this season has been using movies as inspiration.

• E1: Jurassic Park
• E2: Event Horizon
• E3: The Hangover and Dude, Where's My Car?

 

[Mainsail]

You could ask the same of modern Star Wars, Marvel / DC, Doctor Who, etc..
Blame the studios and the show runners they hire.

Spoiler: So far, this season has been using movies as inspiration.

• E1: Jurassic Park
• E2: Event Horizon
• E3: The Hangover and Dude, Where's My Car?

Yeah, I kind of noticed the inspiration, but it misses the mark for me. For example, Jurassic park was about the scientific ethics of bringing an extinct species back from the distant past. Other than the fact that episode 1 had a dinosaur, I really didn't see much in common.

 

[CWallace]

Why has it become so difficult to make a decently interesting episode of Star Trek? Classic Trek (TOS -> ENT) banged out 26 episodes per season for 5 series that ran between 3-7 seasons each. I cared about the plot. I cared about the characters. And in many occasions, they posited an interesting moral or ethical dilemma that was applicable to current times. I just don't get it. Why can't modern Trek do the same thing?

So Rich Evans asked the same question on the latest Red Letter Media episode and Mike answered it.

1) They did not have nine-figure budgets per episode, most of which is spent on effects and makeup.
2) The older shows had a handful of sets to work with and they had to redress them to show something new.
3) All the aliens generally looked like humans because Michael Westmore did not have three-dozen makeup artists on staff nor did he have a million dollars an episode to spend on cosmetics and prosthetics.

So how did they deal with these constraints? They wrote really strong plots so that you didn't focus on all the short-cuts they were taking in the effects shots, the set dressing and the makeup/costuming.