When
Star Trek: Discovery took its
midseason break, I thought about writing up a post on how I would have done
it. But I was busy and … well, didn’t
care enough. A watched the first couple
of episodes when it came back, but then I gave up on it. I thought about writing up a post on why, but
I was busy and … well, didn’t care enough.
I have a little time now, and I figured I should get it all out and be
done with it.
How
I would have done Discovery
If I
had been asked to design the show, I would have set it several decades, perhaps
even a century, after TNG. If there had
to be a war, it would have been against some new – or maybe even a little known
old – species. I would have fought tooth
and nail against doing a prequel. But if
I had to do a prequel set during the Klingon War, this is what I would have
started with.
Instead
of being First Office of the Shenzhou,
Burnham would have been a Science Officer.
With nothing at all to do with Sarek.
During the first battle, the Shenzhou
would have been heavily damaged and left tumbling. Burnham would turn some science equipment into
a … neutrino canon, or something. It
would be too big to move, so she would have to fire it through the remains of
the ship at the approaching Klingons.
She only gets one shot, and it stops the Klingon ship. Before the rest of the Klingons can finish
off the Shenzhou, the rest of the
Federation fleet shows up and the remaining crew are rescued.
Burnham
finds that the part of the ship she fired through hadn’t been completely
evacuated. She killed four
crewmembers. Of course, if she hadn’t
fired and killed them, then the Klingons would have killed everyone in twenty
seconds. None of them were her
boyfriend, or roommate, but they were people she knew and had meals with. It deeply scars her.
For
her actions, which did save a hundred or so of her other crewmembers, she is
offered any post in the fleet. She picks
the Discovery, because as a science
ship, it shouldn’t be part of the war.
But Lorca is recklessly gung-ho and tries everything he can to get the Discovery into the war. There is no spore-drive.
The
show would basically be them going to new planets looking for allies or
resources for the war effort. There
would be no Mudd, and no Mirror Universe.
While Burnham deals with her PTSD and tries to rebuild her life, Lorca
wants her to build weapons so he can lead the Federation to victory! (I have more on Lorca below.)
That’s
the general idea I came up with after watching the first nine episodes.
Why
I gave up on Discovery
When
Star Trek: Enterprise came out, I
compared it to beating a decrepit cash cow.
There was the prequel problem, and other problems, and I wondered if it
would just be best to let Star Trek die.
Then the reboot/reimagining/rewhatever movies came out and there was the
reboot problem, and other problems, and I wondered if it would just be best to
let Star Trek die. Then they announced,
a new prequel.
I
know Star Trek isn’t going to die – it’s a cash cow – but is it too much to ask
for something new and good. To me, the
easiest way to set up a new show with the potential to be new and good is to
just set it fifty some years after TNG.
(I
almost wrote that I’ve been waiting twenty years for a show set decades or a
century after TNG. Then I remembered my
idea for a fan fiction series following the USS
Gibraltar. I only came up with the
outlines for four stories, and I never put much time into working on it. I have too many other ideas I’m …
ignoring. Anyway, this series was set
between the end of TNG and the Dominion War.
So is it a case of me not following my own … wishes? Something for me to think about, but I
digress.)
Anyway,
with Discovery we were stuck with a
prequel. One that was to be set in the
main continuity. Okay. But then it was like, here, look at these
cool aliens. Those are …
interesting. They’re Klingons. WTF?
In the main continuity at this time, Klingons were just humans with some
makeup and a different uniform. (That’s
how we knew they were aliens.) After I
had watched the first two episodes, I described the Klingon Issue as the Powers
That Be painting themselves into a corner and then shooting themselves in the
foot.
Let’s
forget the Klingons for now. This new
series wanted to do their own thing. On
one hand, you have to respect that. But
then they brought in Sarek. And then
Harry Mudd. And then they went to the
Mirror Universe. I remember when I
walked out of the 2009 Star Trek –
which I had plenty of issues with – I thought that if they wanted to do their
own thing, fine. But they shouldn’t try
to redo anything from the Original like, The
Wrath of Khan, for example. And then
we got Into Darkness. It’s you want to do new things, but you keep
trying to redo things that, often, were done far better than you can do. Now you’re painting yourself into a corner,
shooting yourself in the foot, then putting your head in a noose, and still
expecting good things to happen.
So I
had a lot of issues with Discovery. But I kept watching it, in large part so I’d
know what everyone who was complaining about the series was talking about. I watched the first eleven episodes, but when
the twelfth came out, I just didn’t feel like watching it. I’ve read reviews on the remaining episodes,
and I have no desire to finish watching the series.
In
one of the reviews, the reviewer discussed how some people might be let down by
some of the reveals since in this internet age every scene can be dissected for
weeks or months and various fan theories discussed ad nauseam until the reveal
finally happens. This could lead some to
think the show is too predictable. And
predictability is an issue, but my concern is that it looked like they were
going to do something stupid and I thought it was a red herring to mask what
they were really going to do. But then
they just did the stupid thing.
Stupid
example number one, SPOILERS, Tyler is Voq.
Now I know that in “The Trouble with Tribbles” there’s a Klingon posing
as a human. But, that was when Klingons
were just humans in makeup and different uniforms, not the demon Klingons from Discovery. Also, I very much doubt a political aide
would have gotten as much medical care and examination as a rescued POW. (I mean, Riker looked like those aliens until
he was taken to a hospital and they had trouble finding his heart.) Also, I believe it was in some TNG episode
where someone remarks that Klingons aren’t known for their surgical
expertise. But not only can they do this
wonderful surgery – that would also have to change his DNA – they can also
implant personalities. Really? Did anyone think this through? Could something like that be done in the Trek
Universe? Sure. By the Klingons? If they had help, maybe.
Stupid
example number two, and the final straw for me, Lorca was from the Mirror
Universe. The reason this bothered me
so, is that one interesting thing about Discovery
was Lorca. Trek has a long history of
rouge captains or admirals. Two examples
I can think of are O’Brien’s former captain who started attacking the
Cardassians because they were secretly breaking a treaty, and Riker’s old
captain with the phasing cloak ship.
Basically, these two, “bad guys of the week” thought they could break
the rules because it was what was best for the Federation. It was the argument of sometimes you have to
set aside your principles in order to save them. It’s a complex issue and one many would say
is rather relevant. I was really hoping
that instead of just showing up in one cautionary tale, with Lorca we could
deal with this subject for an entire season.
But instead of Lorca being off because he is so driven to save the
Federation at any cost, it just because he’s the Mirror Lorca. Sigh.
So
that’s all of my Star Trek: Discovery
thoughts that I just never got around to posting. Now hopefully I never have to think of it
again.
