Star Trek Discovery Premieres but what's with the additional Bad Press?

Hello and welcome to Future Imperfect. I'm Admiral

Phillips. And just to kind of bring this up to

light, we've had the first two episodes of Star

Trek Discovery. So what does everyone think of

this show? I had to say that I was a little apprehensive

going into it. The intro is still a little weird.

I'm having a hard time getting used to this cartoony

look instead of seeing space, like actual space,

like every other Star Trek show. But it's still

an improvement over Enterprise's intro, so I

give it that. It's got a little bit of nostalgia

mixed in the music. I'm seeing that in there.

And I didn't mind the intro part. Getting into

the actual episode, current continuity or not,

this looks like it's ripped rid of the Abrams

verse. The Klingons look like... Undead Klingons

or like white walkers from Game of Thrones Between

that that spiky armor and the the blue faced

Klingons with the no hair and no Differences

in their facial features or colors for the most

part. I mean, yeah, you have an albino Klingon,

which Okay, whatever, you know, that's that's

possible but They show all 24 houses in this,

not to give any spoilers, but they all look the

same. There's no difference, there's no way that

these could be like the TNG or TOS Klingons even

mixed in with this group. If you're gonna have

24 houses, have them all look different. But

yeah, it was a little insane there. I'm gonna

make a theory. We'll see if it pans out and just

remember this episode if you hear it and If you

you do make sure you cut that segment or you

take the timestamp and send it to me If this

does happen at the end of the season There's

supposed to be this big war between the Federation

and the Klingons I'm guessing that the reason

why all the Klingons are brown now and They look

more humanoid with the exception of the head

ridge and the the nose ridges I'm going to say

that somehow they're going to take some of Michael

Burnham's DNA and Do this weird amalgamation

between their own DNA and then that's how we

get modern Klingons That or she's gonna have

a kid that's that new generation one of the two

I'm betting it's gonna be a DNA theft type thing

though So we'll see if that pans out it's not

hair brained or anything, but we'll There's gonna

be some genetic pullings in there plus the sarcophagus

stuff the cloak the The way that they handle

the dead The Klingons talk like they have marbles

in their mouth their nose prosthetic is it throws

me it looks some like some kind of a Like a rhino

horn type thing that's like really close to the

nose instead of like the ridges. I really hate

the fact that these are very Abrams looking.

There was a couple lens flares which kind of

irritated me. I don't know, I still think it's

way too shiny to be in this time period. I think

that they would have been better off doing post

TNG era, like the 25th century. But Star Trek

Online, I guess, does that for you. So really...

I almost wish they would have just kept with

the Abrams verse for the TV thing and kept that

and then that would have just explained everything

and everybody would have accepted it more. That's

kind of my take on it. And then you get a little

teaser at the end of the second episode of what's

to come for the rest of the season. So it's a

little bit of surprising stuff. It's way too

dark though. It's... I find myself... I enjoyed

it? But I was constantly kind of looking to see

what was going on. I did try out the CBS access

app On my phone. I signed up for CBS all access

just for the free trial Just to kind of see how

it was going to give the first two episodes a

taste And I'll be able to see the third episode

on that free trial before it makes me pay Which

I have already canceled it just to preface this

Because of a multitude of reasons one. I'm not

paying that amount of money for the show I just

signed up so you watch the first two episodes

Two, the app played the same ads over and over,

and it kept crashing on my phone, would not run,

told me there was bandwidth issues. You can't

adjust the bandwidth of the video. You can't

change it from whatever format it is. I'm assuming

it was HD. You can't throttle it. You can't change

it at all on your app, which is horrible design.

And it kept crashing on me, like I said, I couldn't

watch it, so I had to boot up my computer. I

was just planning on laying in bed watching this

on my phone with my headphones in. And I had

to get out my laptop just to watch it. And I

watched the first two episodes, saw the same

ads between every commercial break. There was

only five commercial breaks during the show,

which is not really that bad, but I, yeah. And

if you're gonna do the ad free, you have to double

your amount that you're paying for CBS All Access

just to go ad free. So bad enough you're already

spending the money on the app in the in the service

Then you're paying more to get no ads and it's

double. So and like I said before you can watch

All the Star Trek series on Hulu and Netflix

if you've already subscribed to those So there's

really no incentive for me if I'm a Star Trek

watcher to get this especially when I can march

over to Fox And go watch the Orville for free

which that show has been really good too, and

they've touched on ethical issues and a lot of

TNG Captain Picard -esque realms because Bortus

has a child, which all the children in that species

are born male. This one was born female and so

they looked at it as like a genetic defect and

so they were kind of playing with the moral implications

of deciding this for a child as a baby and It

was very thought -provoking despite the humor

in the episodes but discovery I didn't really

find anything worth really grinning or laughing

at it was I Felt like I was watching the J. J

Abrams movies on TV, which I know they're going

for the cinematic thing, but I really hate that

the stuff with the Klingons, how shiny everything's

gotta be. I like the new aliens. I liked Lieutenant

Commander Suru. He's probably my favorite character

so far. And it's the most unique alien on there,

so I really enjoy that. There's a twist at the

end of the second episode. I'm not gonna spoil

it. But, yeah. And then you'll find out how the

conflict between the Klingons and the Federation

starts too. It's a lot of the stuff is very I

don't know a little convenient for me and I hate

the warping how it comes in it's like On the

screen when something warps in and you don't

hear like the classic warp or any of the Stuff

from the original series the the cloaking Aspect

is not like the original series or any of the

other truck series for that matter. It looks

way too advanced I can give it a pass on a lot

of areas like the the story is pretty solid the

The leading into the next episode thing is pretty

solid. It's it's a light a lot like how ds9 would

end later in the series on certain story arcs

But I Just I don't know I'm I'm kind of torn

I like it Which I figured I would to some degree

like the show I just Something about it still

rubs me wrong And I'm not quite sure where to

peg it at yet and then they have Michael Burnham

going through this this Traumatic experience

and then she becomes more Vulcan and then she

becomes human again, and then she's like Like

wharf when like he kind of goes nuts type of

stuff like in some situations And especially

in the preview stuff they show for like later

episodes like I don't I Know that they're gonna

explain away this stuff, and I really hope that

they figure it out But I have a feeling the show

is not going to last us past the first season

if they cannot Get this on television I have

a feeling this is going to be one of the most

pirated shows this season, based on the fact

that people don't want to pay for the app. And

there's a lot of people that are just frankly

done and kind of pissed off with a lot of these

services creating their own thing. Instead of

going the Hulu Netflix route, they're kind of

shafting their viewers. And I can't say I blame

them. And then not to mention they've got robot

characters, they've got... And then they've got

these protective force fields, which you never

really got to see before, if they even had them

in the original series. At least for the on -ship

hull breach aspects. So I'm not exactly sure

what to think about that. So what are your guys

thoughts on on the new Star Trek discovery and

what are your thoughts on the orville? I'd really

be interested in finding out What you guys think

what you guys think about the the having to sign

up for the the app So what do you guys think

about the opening title to it's it's strange.

It's I'll give it that it's strange It kind of

goes through like visuals of the discovery Klingon

gear Klingon weapons Klingons humans It's it's

interesting and then they got the USS Shenzhou

which is supposed to be like an older Federation

starship and the discovery is supposed to be

basically new And Yeah, I'm still kind of still

kind of waiting to see what happens in the future

episodes They're going to introduce Captain Gabriel

Lorca in the next episode. Oh, this is one of

the things that kind of irritated me too. In

no other Trek series do they use holograms. They

were pulling some Star Wars prequel crap in this

show. They had the Admiral of the Fleet showing

up on the Shenzhou in a holographic projection

of himself. uh they basically pulled the technology

from like what they used in star trek nemesis

with shenzhen but somehow the federation has

this technology way back then and you never see

it though before that so i i'm a little puzzled

on that so there's this article on io9 Which

I found it kind of funny because they wrote,

has everyone forgotten what Star Trek is supposed

to be? And they put, there's this weird problem

that keeps popping up with Discovery and they

can't tell whose fault it is, whether it's the

journalist writing about the show who don't know

its background or the people involved in the

show are just bad ambassadors for it, the way

that it's being promoted, the news cycle, whatever

the cause. Discovery is constantly marketed as

groundbreaking when it should be marketed as

following Star Trek's footsteps. And they kind

of said that it's kind of hard to tell who Discovery

is for. Are they just adding a brand new thing

that just has name recognition to get people

that don't love Star Trek into it? What is this

geared towards? They're gonna have tribbles appear

in this when nobody's supposed to have seen those

either Yeah, they've got Harry mud in there who's

basically fan service they've got Another hidden

sibling of Spock's in this It it basically like

the design of everything just like they said

in this article echoes everything showed up in

JJ Abrams arched an alternate universe of Star

Trek and It's so weird being 10 years before

Kirk that that They question in this this article

whether that there's a fairly reasonable rumor

going around That show that this takes place

in a third timeline Somewhere halfway between

the original prime timeline and the Kelvin timeline

of the reboot movies I Would almost agree with

that too. I don't see it being in the original

continuity There's too much stuff that's different.

It's not a very enticing show. And the funny

thing is, all these critics that they have for

the show are people that are directly tied with

it. They're in CBS's back pocket. And some of

them are huge fans too, but I don't know how

much of it's nostalgia or how much of it is...

Giving it a pass for the modern era or or what?

Myself I don't see this as being in prime universe.

I see this as like Abrams universe Which I would

give it a pass for that I just I think that this

this Harbert's guy that's with Discovery just

is oblivious to things because he's... They're

all saying that this is groundbreaking. There's

nothing groundbreaking about it. It's the same

thing that we've been getting for decades with

Star Trek between, you know, the Federation and

their ideals and the ethical rules of conflict

and conduct. None of it's changed. There have

been whole seasons on Deep Space Nine with this.

There have been things on TNG with this. There

have been things on Voyager with this. There's

always something where they're examining Starfleet's

role and the individuality of it all. I think

he's just ignorant of Star Trek's history or,

like they mention here, being basically told

to present Discovery as all -new Trek. They're

saying that the the latter is much more likely

in the in the event because His outreach to less

avid fans over The the avid fans because they

don't know what the Federation Starfleet are

He's insulting avid fans who know the ideas aren't

due to trek in the slightest, which I agree And

they've had a lot of kind of dodgy communications

with fans in a sense that unless you're All in

or you're somebody that's Basically, I mean everybody

that's been previously in track is kind of Just

pandering to this new show and it hasn't even

gotten off the feet off its feet yet I mean,

I'm trying to like it. It's just I I don't ever

see this is to me like What everybody thought

of Enterprise back in the day. I have actually

gone back and watch Enterprise It's not great,

but it's not bad either this it's not great.

It's not bad either. It's it's the same boat

so But there's been so much lacking in enthusiasm

For what should be this awesome thing for track.

It's been 13 years since it's been on the air

So but it's all CBS all of this is CBS they They've

done this to themselves, so I... Being that Netflix

has ponied up for the first season for the 130

million to pay for the episodes and CBS hasn't

paid a dime, I don't see this lasting very long,

if at all, like lasting a couple seasons if CBS

has to pony up the money. And yeah, Monday morning

they had... a multitude of bad press delivering

when it was revealed that CBS has blocked reviews

of Discovery from running before it airs which

is much like in the gaming industry that's just

somebody trying to hide something that yeah there

there it's there's so much going against it right

now I'm kind of I'm trying to be positive I promise

I'm trying I'm gonna try the third episode. I'm

gonna keep watching the seasons and stuff I'm

just not I'm gonna wait or I'm gonna you know,

I don't know. I've got enough credit cards. I'll

do another free trial It's Maybe I'll wait, you

know two weeks and then do another free trial

and then wait another two weeks do another free

trial Then I get to watch the whole series for

free. I don't know that this whole system is

stupid I They need to put it on cable or at least

put it on Netflix if Netflix is ponying up this

could be massive and I just yeah, there's so

much I'm gonna leave this part alone, but It's

kind of funny they sell the the shirts they sell

these cheap t -shirts on Star Trek comm of the

uniforms quote -unquote of of discovery when

There's nothing special to them. It's just a

printed on T -shirt There's no actual costumes

yet. You can get the original series TNG and

the Kelvin universe Uniforms like no other on

there I wish you could get all of the different

suits like the the Star Trek the next generation

films or DS 9 The wrath of Khan uniforms. I mean,

I wish you'd get all those on Star Trek comm

bitch can't So I'm wondering how they're gonna

explain When the Enterprise does come come up

because theoretically the Enterprise and the

Constitution class ships were around at this

time And warning spoiler alert for the next 30

seconds All of these starships that go to fight

against the Klingons in the second episode are

blown away destroyed everything So yeah, that

might account for why there's so many Constitution

class starships and constellations to class starships

and everything else at this time because you

did get to see ships that looked like they belonged

in the Deep Space Nine the next generation movie

universe timeline for some of the ships so There

I didn't see one Constitution class starship

I was kind of sad about that And the Enterprise

theoretically has been operating under Captain

Robert April to begin with and then Captain Christopher

Pike up until this point. So if they neglect

to have the Enterprise at some point show up

with Spock being first officer or not first officer,

second officer on the Enterprise with it going

through at some point with Major Barrett's number

one on that ship and Pike as captain. It's this

It'll be blasphemy almost because Kirk doesn't

get it for for ten more years. So Spock should

be involved to some to some level anyway, so

I Just I I Want to like this I I really do I

like Star Trek it's kind of part of what made

me a geek And then they have like a tribunal

thing with the court systems in the show where

they're all shrouded in black and you can't see

any of them. It almost reminds me of like the

Rura Pente thing on Star Trek 6 where they're

kind of shrouded. Some of it just, it doesn't

jive with me all that well, so. But yeah, so.

In another article by Screen Rant, there's no

indication so far that Discovery is another reboot.

It seems that some of the visuals benefit from

modern -day special effects. But their divergences

that start visual difference with the Klingons

from Estimated Prime or Established Prime Canon

isn't explained in the first two episodes. Not

to mention they showed up Klingons in Enterprise.

And they look totally different. using and the

technology on this shenzhou doesn't line up with

cannons such as holograms with Admiral Anderson

then there's the type of holographic technology

that shouldn't exist for another century with

Deep Space Nine introduced on USS Defiant They're

kind of guessing that this may be a clue that

the destruction of the Kelvin that occurred in

2233 affected the timeline of discovery, which

takes place in 2256. I'm... I'm guesstimating

that this is gonna fit more with the Abrams universe

than what we got. I don't know. So what do you

guys think about it? Like I said, I want to cover

more about the episodes themselves in the future,

and less about the rants and raves. But some

of it was interesting, and they did talk about,

like, Kalis and Stovakor and the... when somebody

dies and stuff like that, so... If they do the

Klingon if they do the Romulans this did just

game over because in balance of terror they're

supposed to be kind of the First face to face

thing with the Romulans Like I said, I'm gonna

give it a pass for right now So we'll kind of

see what happens Another thing I wanted to bring

up about discovery on Sunday night was They had

an issue getting the show to air And it was because

football went too long and It took An extra,

I don't know 30 45 minutes. I don't know. I didn't

watch it live. I watched it on the CBS all access

online Because I don't really watch cable so

So the reviews came out too. CNN writes, Star

Trek Discovery barely achieves a liftoff. It

says it's an unspectacular addition to the existing

fleet of Trek branded series. The result creatively

makes for an awkward liftoff, one perhaps most

notable for its commercial mission, which is

to entice new subscribers to all access. They're

saying it launched with a cliffhanging hour on

CBS. The program's second episode and those thereafter

will air on the network's fledgling streaming

service, a shrewd way to attempt to hook fans

and extract their hard -earned cash. Still, if

that represents a fresh approach, distribution

-wise, where Discovery feels weakest is in the

fundamental qualities that have defined the best

Trek series, namely the strength of the interplay

among its characters. By that measure, this sixth

live -action iteration feels a trifle clunky,

especially in patches of dialogue during the

initial episodes, three of which were previewed.

I kind of agree with that about the dialogue.

There really wasn't much meat there for me. Lieutenant

Commander Saru was about the only one I really

cared about in this whole series, and that's

pretty sad to say. And he's not even the main

character. Set in 2256, a decade before TOS,

the program breaks ground by building its plot,

both around an African American woman, Michael

Burnham, And a first officer as opposed to a

starship captain and then they they kind of have

Sarek in there a lot Yeah There's So they claim

that Star Trek discovery is second tier while

on the bridge You know you have your your mix

of aliens of Saru and There's a deficiency of

both humor and the fuel that has kept Trek going,

the kind of camaraderie that characterized TNG,

much less the trike of Kirk Spock McCoy. The

series does receive a welcome infusion with the

arrival of Captain Lorca in the next episode.

They're saying that basically we're getting the

nagging sense that this is Star Trek light. To

be fair, there are enough analogaments at play

to conclude that the show adequately makes it

out of drydock. and the time frame creates plenty

of opportunities for doing winks and flourishes

aimed at the faithful growing forward, but that's

fun so far as it goes, yet one would likely have

to be a true Trek completist to feel sold. Based

strictly on the opening flurry on signing up

and ante -ing up for Discovery's full tour, all

these people get it. They get it. And then the

Hollywood Reporter... It gets another article

about Discovery says boss gets candid about those

big delays in season 2 Which it said if people

see and love the show ultimately they won't remember

the delays is what Kurtzman says Nah, I remember

the delays that was part of the problem it I

think if it would have hit sooner it would have

been less There's gonna be so much more to watch

that's gonna be worth it right now. Then if they

just launched when they did so It's pretty bad

when your creator basically leaves, who actually

worked on previous tracks. I don't like Kurtzman

or Orsi on anything that they work on. Separately,

we're together. I don't like anything they do.

Most of their stuff is usually just garbage.

They said that it's for visual effects alone.

It takes them four to five months an episode

to get done They're saying many people are waiting

with the arms crossed see if it's going to be

worth the money for the The stuff they said the

way I always think is no one ever complains about

paying for Game of Thrones Well, that's not really

a good way to think about it They're saying it's

three or four months an episode to be done from

start to finish and Yeah, they're they're they're

approaching it like they would do the movies

which okay, whatever They're saying the second

half of the season returns in January when they

so they're gonna take a break. That's just dumb.

Oh Man keep shooting in the foot This is they're

just finishing episode 14 and about to start

15 in production And they're mixing episode 5

That's crazy So they also address the elephant

in the room about the showrunner change It says

Couldn't respect him more and think that his

show Hannibal was a work of art Excited with

the idea of what he would do a track if you look

at the scope of the show and our show See there's

two differences there the scope of that of the

show and our show You know, how does one juggle

both of those things without compromising either?

I think Brian's love of track led to an understanding

that he did not want to be responsible for having

it go Down on his watch in some fundamental way

Which could be code for he didn't he saw this

the ship sinking and he was getting out Just

offering a different perspective on that. It's

not necessarily what's gonna happen but Yeah

It says they have a larger picture for season

2 and they're there so if we're lucky we'll get

to season 2 order It looks like they're gonna

keep going with this Setup They're saying with

the streaming they're not gonna do 22 episodes

so It sounds like season 2 is gonna be more of

the same Like they're gonna keep continuing.

It's not gonna jump time spans um yeah i i don't

know do you not know they're saying season two

could come in 2019 which i'm sorry but if it's

coming in 2019 that's way too dang long there

were shows that did that continuum dried up because

they they went a whole year without having any

new episodes like they they win an entire year

year and a half and then they they did another

season and then they they were dried up another

year and then they did the the finale season

of six episodes which sucked um they're saying

the early side of 2019 which could be code for

fall of 2019 the way it's been going uh if they're

finishing season one in the second or the beginning

of 2018 Wouldn't it make sense that it was starting

the fall of 2018 as well? I know they're not

going to any particular standard because it's

on streaming But nobody's gonna sit around and

streaming and wait for the show to come back

and then pay them more money So that's that's

another article There's there's another person

that slash film says they Longtime truck fan

of takes on and mostly approves of the new series

mostly approves They said it's a lot of old and

new colliding the women of the future They're

saying the Klingons is an area that everybody

has a problem with it looks like Yeah, I I Don't

know that seems to be the main problem They're

saying a lot of them are saying, you know, it's

a welcome sight to have it back but not There's

a lot of stuff to upset viewers in the first

two episodes. And then they said also, as a quick

side, the entire CBS All Access deal needs some

work. What's the point of paying around $6 a

month for a subscription service if the episodes

are still going to be released weekly instead

of all at once? Like other subscription services?

Why not just show them on TV if we're going to

wait a full week for the next episode? get it

together cbs that i that's yeah i totally get

that totally so with that being said i'm gonna

call it a close let me know what you guys think

in the comments let me know on twitter at scp21

and as always warp factor 10 second start of

the rights and straight on till morning we should

have michael dawd captain dawd coming back to

the show soon so for now admiral phillips signing

off