It's not exactly a secret that I have a hard time watching drama shows on television that tend to be too serious. As a writer, I don't like to watch television shows that are too dark and too depressing for no reason at all.
This is especially true when it comes to remakes and reboots of classic shows. I don't like it when these remakes and relaunches decide to be extra serious simply in order to look more 'credible' than their predecessors.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new, 'darker and grittier' Star Trek series, I wasn't looking forward to watching it. I wasn't excited about a new show that wasn't going to be like the original Star Trek shows were.
After all, the reason that I liked the original series and the 'Next Generation' is because they managed to be uplifting as shows. They gave you hope that things were going to be okay as long as we as people managed to work together.
Nevertheless, after having now seen the first two episodes of 'Star Trek: Discovery', it has to be said that the new series isn't any good. The new series manages to get almost everything wrong and has almost nothing to do with the original Star Trek franchise.
This is especially true when it comes to remakes and reboots of classic shows. I don't like it when these remakes and relaunches decide to be extra serious simply in order to look more 'credible' than their predecessors.
So when I heard that there was going to be a new, 'darker and grittier' Star Trek series, I wasn't looking forward to watching it. I wasn't excited about a new show that wasn't going to be like the original Star Trek shows were.
After all, the reason that I liked the original series and the 'Next Generation' is because they managed to be uplifting as shows. They gave you hope that things were going to be okay as long as we as people managed to work together.
Nevertheless, after having now seen the first two episodes of 'Star Trek: Discovery', it has to be said that the new series isn't any good. The new series manages to get almost everything wrong and has almost nothing to do with the original Star Trek franchise.
What I mean by that is that unlike in the original series or TNG, in 'Star Trek: Discovery' you'll get a universe that is incredibly dark and bleak in almost every imaginable way. There's nothing that would make you feel that the show is going to cheer you up.
Instead of giving us a universe and a premise where everything is possible - like in the original shows - on this show there's no hope for mankind. Pretty much all is lost and nobody has a positive outlook on life anymore.
Not only is the show dark and depressing, but the new series also manages to be incredibly illogical and contrived. Almost nothing that we see on our television screen makes sense or feels organic when you think about it.
When it comes to the characters on the show, the biggest problem here is that they're completely unrelatable. Especially when it comes to our main protagonist, first officer Michael Burnham (a female character), it's impossible to like her.
For example, in the very first episode, our protagonist, incredibly enough, wants to do a pre-emptive first strike on Klingons. She wants to kill as many of them as possible, even though it's not even clear that the Klingons are their enemies.
A bit later, when her bellicose suggestion is turned down, she actually decides to stage a mutiny (!). She knocks down the captain of the starship, takes charge of the ship and orders the pre-emptive strike to be launched by herself.
This, of course, is something that would never have happened on the original Star Trek or on The Next Generation. It goes completely against what the Star Trek franchise, its ideals, intellectualism and values were about.
Neither captain Kirk nor captain Picard would ever have gone full blown gungho against a potential enemy in their respective shows. They would never have acted like warmongering sociopaths like our main protagonist does here.
When it comes to storytelling aspects on the show, it has to be said that they don't make much sense either. The focus on the series is completely missing and there are numerous basic storytelling mistakes in the pilot.
For example, instead of the series starting with our main protagonists,it actually starts with showing us the Klingons first (!). We get a bizarre two minute introduction to our rivals instead of getting to see our protagonists first.
This is something that is completely idiotic and goes against even the most basic rules of screenwriting. It's simply incredible that the writers of the pilot decided to ditch the basics and decided to be 'cool' and 'hip' instead.
As I reluctantly kept watching the episode, it became obvious that were more major problems with the story and the storytelling. These other major mistakes didn't make it any easier to keep watching the show either.
One big mistake in the first two episodes was that there were very few characters that we actually got to know at all. Unlike the original shows that were about the whole crew, this new show seemed to be mostly about Klingons and a couple of human beings.
In practice, what this meant was that during the pilot there were entirely too many characters that we knew absolutely nothing about. There were so many 'red-shirts' on board that the episode almost became a parody of itself.
When it comes to these problems, it also has to be mentioned that the first episodes suffered greatly from too many ill-timed flashbacks. These weird flashbacks made it increasingly difficult to follow what was going on and what was real on the show.
At least in my case, at the beginning of the second episode I even thought that the first episode had only been 'a bad dream'. Based on the flashbacks it felt like it had simply been a simulation to test our captain's reaction to our idiotic first officer.
So as a whole, when you put all these things together, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I had huge problems watching 'Star Trek: Discovery'. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I had a hard time even finishing the pilot.
After all, when you have have a show that doesn't know what it should be about, the series is bound to be in trouble. When your premise, your characters and your storylines are all badly thought out, you can't really expect much from it.
In contrast, the reason that the original shows worked so well is because they were about optimism and about the idea that we all could get along. As long as we were open minded and were willing to go where no man had gone before, everything was possible.
In that sense, it's so unfortunate that this new Star Trek series doesn't represent any of these values. Instead of being an uplifting show about hope, it spends most of its time depicting the universe as a place where mankind doesn't have much of a future.
In the end, it has to be said that I can't recommend 'Star Trek: Discovery' for anyone who grew up watching either the original Star Trek series or Star Trek: The Next Generation. I can't recommend it for anyone who was a fan of either of those shows.
As far as I'm concerned, even though it's true that the show looks expensive, that's not enough to make the series work. It's not enough to use your budget on special effects and expect that it's the only thing that counts when it comes to quality sci-fi.
On the contrary, the reason that the show fails is because of those other reasons. The series fails because it's badly written, because it doesn't have substance in it, because it doesn't make us think and because it doesn't make us better as human beings.
Instead of giving us a universe and a premise where everything is possible - like in the original shows - on this show there's no hope for mankind. Pretty much all is lost and nobody has a positive outlook on life anymore.
Not only is the show dark and depressing, but the new series also manages to be incredibly illogical and contrived. Almost nothing that we see on our television screen makes sense or feels organic when you think about it.
When it comes to the characters on the show, the biggest problem here is that they're completely unrelatable. Especially when it comes to our main protagonist, first officer Michael Burnham (a female character), it's impossible to like her.
For example, in the very first episode, our protagonist, incredibly enough, wants to do a pre-emptive first strike on Klingons. She wants to kill as many of them as possible, even though it's not even clear that the Klingons are their enemies.
A bit later, when her bellicose suggestion is turned down, she actually decides to stage a mutiny (!). She knocks down the captain of the starship, takes charge of the ship and orders the pre-emptive strike to be launched by herself.
This, of course, is something that would never have happened on the original Star Trek or on The Next Generation. It goes completely against what the Star Trek franchise, its ideals, intellectualism and values were about.
Neither captain Kirk nor captain Picard would ever have gone full blown gungho against a potential enemy in their respective shows. They would never have acted like warmongering sociopaths like our main protagonist does here.
When it comes to storytelling aspects on the show, it has to be said that they don't make much sense either. The focus on the series is completely missing and there are numerous basic storytelling mistakes in the pilot.
For example, instead of the series starting with our main protagonists,it actually starts with showing us the Klingons first (!). We get a bizarre two minute introduction to our rivals instead of getting to see our protagonists first.
This is something that is completely idiotic and goes against even the most basic rules of screenwriting. It's simply incredible that the writers of the pilot decided to ditch the basics and decided to be 'cool' and 'hip' instead.
As I reluctantly kept watching the episode, it became obvious that were more major problems with the story and the storytelling. These other major mistakes didn't make it any easier to keep watching the show either.
One big mistake in the first two episodes was that there were very few characters that we actually got to know at all. Unlike the original shows that were about the whole crew, this new show seemed to be mostly about Klingons and a couple of human beings.
In practice, what this meant was that during the pilot there were entirely too many characters that we knew absolutely nothing about. There were so many 'red-shirts' on board that the episode almost became a parody of itself.
When it comes to these problems, it also has to be mentioned that the first episodes suffered greatly from too many ill-timed flashbacks. These weird flashbacks made it increasingly difficult to follow what was going on and what was real on the show.
At least in my case, at the beginning of the second episode I even thought that the first episode had only been 'a bad dream'. Based on the flashbacks it felt like it had simply been a simulation to test our captain's reaction to our idiotic first officer.
So as a whole, when you put all these things together, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I had huge problems watching 'Star Trek: Discovery'. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I had a hard time even finishing the pilot.
After all, when you have have a show that doesn't know what it should be about, the series is bound to be in trouble. When your premise, your characters and your storylines are all badly thought out, you can't really expect much from it.
In contrast, the reason that the original shows worked so well is because they were about optimism and about the idea that we all could get along. As long as we were open minded and were willing to go where no man had gone before, everything was possible.
In that sense, it's so unfortunate that this new Star Trek series doesn't represent any of these values. Instead of being an uplifting show about hope, it spends most of its time depicting the universe as a place where mankind doesn't have much of a future.
In the end, it has to be said that I can't recommend 'Star Trek: Discovery' for anyone who grew up watching either the original Star Trek series or Star Trek: The Next Generation. I can't recommend it for anyone who was a fan of either of those shows.
As far as I'm concerned, even though it's true that the show looks expensive, that's not enough to make the series work. It's not enough to use your budget on special effects and expect that it's the only thing that counts when it comes to quality sci-fi.
On the contrary, the reason that the show fails is because of those other reasons. The series fails because it's badly written, because it doesn't have substance in it, because it doesn't make us think and because it doesn't make us better as human beings.
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