Star Trek: Discovery

For starters it's dark...and that's really NOT Star Trek. Star Trek is optimistic and light even when it goes a little gritty. It's supposed to be an optimistic future where Earth strives for a Utopia...and Discovery isn't that at all. Discovery is bleak and pessimistic and really, that's not what I want when I want to sit down and watch Star Trek. And then it's weighted in the present, and again, that's not what I want in science fiction. A reflection of the present is fine...a satire on it is fine...but to try and anchor the plots so much in the present that it becomes BLATANT...that's not science fiction anymore. And then what did they do to the orcs...I'm sorry, Klingons? In a prequel series? I know they have always micro-evolved in appearance but this is insanely different. They are so different that it's almost insulting to even the casual fan let alone their loyal base. And then, yeah, like so many other shows it does that thing where it's almost racist towards the ONE demographic that it is currently politically correct to be racist against...and that's not Star Trek either, if anything, it's the opposite because that was intended to be solved a long, long time ago in the franchise's history. The Klingons are the bad guys for NOT wanting the Federation to cleanse them of their culture and heritage...they are written as the bad guys for NOT wanting to be ethnically cleansed!!!!!! I know it's a play on White Supremacy, but seriously, this does NOT make the Federation look like the good guys here. Now, if the Klingons wanted to Ethnically cleanse OTHER groups, that would make them look like the bad guys. NOT the other way around. Ultimately, like the new Star Wars, it seems intent on alienating it's base entirely.

The problems this show deals with are pretty basic and surface level. The characters aren't complex but as usual driven by basic, human emotions despite supposedly being from other races and species. It feels like the show tries to make every episode themed: time-travel, parallel dimension, alternate universe, hostile take-over, bla bla bla. One thing's for sure though, they didn't skimp on the visuals, because they are phenomenal! The show does however drop you into a world that has little to no frame of reference. As somebody who knew very little about Star Trek, despite not having too many new terms thrown at you, it's not easy to keep track of which species/race they're talking about, why they're important, what technical device is being referenced, what it's supposed to do,.... On the subject of physics, they keep making the same mistake: sound in space. All in all, it's a good series to turn your brain off to and just ignore the random terms thrown at you, don't ask too many questions about the plot, lean back, and let your brain be drizzled with Sci-Fi lite.

This is Star Trek as people who thought Star Trek was stupid and didn't watch it imagined it to be. Cheap soap opera melodrama, unnecessary references to physicists, poor storytelling masquerading as lousy fake zeep zoop ork bork science. Awful. But put a shine on a turd and people will think it's low calorie old family recipe cicolatta gellato.