Star Trek: Discovery FREE on CBS network, each Thursday night

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georgegassaway

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I meant to post this nearly 2 weeks ago. CBS network is showing Star Trek Discovery each Thursday night at 10 OM Eastern, 9 PM Central. Good idea, since with TV production shut down for so long, a lot of regular TV shows are not ready yet. And it helps to promote Season 3

Already showed the first two episodes.

Here's a synopsis of each.

The Vulcan Hello: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Vulcan_Hello_(episode)

Battle of the Binary Stars: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_at_the_Binary_Stars_(episode)

So, those who didn't see it when it came out 3 years ago, due to not wanting to pay for CBS All Access, now you na see it if you want.

I know it sorta sucks missing the first two, though some creative people might solve that. And the llinks above will at least help.

But the thing is, the first two episodes did NOT involve the starship "Discovery" at all. The third episode, coming up Oct 8th, is where Michael Burnam (female) comes from where she is stuck at the end of episode 2, to become part of the Discovery crew.

Yeah, there's a few things that were unsettling when the show appeared. The show went too far with needlessly reinventing the Klingons. And on Discovery, it felt "this is not the Starfleet I know". But......try it. It gets a whole lot better (at least to me). And things make more sense later.

And without being too spoiler-ish, there are two episodes with Harvey Mudd, the character from the TOS episode "The Troubles with Tribbles" (Uh, corrections. I transposed TOS scoundrels. Cyrano Jones was the character in Tribbles. And Harry Mudd in "Mudd's women" and "I Mudd". I personally never cared much for the storyline in either, but the Mudd character was quite striking). In Discovery, Mudd is played by Rainn Wilson, from "The Office". He knocked it out of the park, and that second appearance was.... quite an entertaining episode.

There were a lot of surprises thru the last part of the season, and a lot of things were "fixed". And I really liked Season two, with Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), who could beat out Kirk and Picard for best ST Captain ever (well written and acted), TALOS-IV, and a younger Spock. We even find out why Spock never mentioned ......(spoiler)...... in TOS or the movies.

So, I post this for those who like ST but never saw Discovery because they refused to pay for it. I"m not posting this to see a bunch of haters who saw it in 2017 ranting against it again. THAT was done in the original thread 3 years ago.
 
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On the strength of Picard (which also starts off making you wonder but by the end of the season is very satisfying), we signed up for CBS All Access....and finally got around to watching Discovery relatively recently. George’s assessment is pretty much spot on, and these two longtime Star Trek fans (my then-girlfriend, now wife of over 42 years, was able to ID Star Trek episodes simply by hearing a few lines over the phone when she and I were in college) wound up at the end of season 2 very much looking forward to season 3 starting October 15th.

And this talk of a Captain Pike series with Anson Mount called “Strange New Worlds” is something we hope happens. According to the info out there it will be more episodic in nature like the original series or Next Generation or the first seasons of DS9 rather than being pretty much one big arc as both Picard and Discovery have been.

(Oh, George, it’s Harry Mudd, not Harvey.)
 
I was a reluctant convert to Discovery. VERY reluctant. I absolutely hated the 1st 2 episodes and refused to watch anymore.

Then a friend convinced me to start watching again. It gets better, and better as it goes. Season 1 deals with one major issue. Season 2 another. Basically season long story arcs, something I'm not a fan of. The show is worth putting up with the long story arcs!

Be warned there are 3 or 4 "shorts" out there that were released online by CBS. If you don't watch these some episodes you will feel like you missed something but you don't need to watch them to follow things.

The show takes many twists and turns, Has a few surprises, messes with your head a few times. But it's worth the watch.

It has very good actors and not bad writers, CBS spent some treasure on this show.

Picard is a slightly different issue. I have only seen the 1st 6 episodes. It's good, not great. Patrick Stewart's portrayal of Picard is off, much of the story seems somewhat forced. It could be that I'm not far enough in to see where they are going. I think many of the actors are just passable, the writing the same.

Just my thoughts.
 
And without being too spoiler-ish, there are two episodes with Harvey Mudd, the character from the TOS episode "The Troubles with Tribbles".

"The Trouble With Tribbles" featured actor Stanley Adams portraying the character Cyrano Jones.

'Harry Mudd' was in two episodes of TOS (Three if you count the animated series).
 
Oops. Yeah, Cyrano Jones in Trouble with Tribbles.

And Harry ("Harcourt Feton") Mudd in "Mudd's women" and "I, Mudd".

Mach-7 wrote:
Basically season long story arcs, something I'm not a fan of. The show is worth putting up with the long story arcs!
To me, the most impressive Space-themed TV show ever was Babylon-5. And as a ST fan, that is saying a lot. The outline for the show took years to develop. It was a FIVE YEAR story arc! Season 1 was sorta slow and uneven, but then it was also laying a foundation for years to come. Then season 2 hit and things began to pick up quickly. As seeds planted in season 1 started to pay off, and/or plant more seeds. Season 3 was magic, with a massive OMG surprise. And since they were not sure if the show would be renewed for another season after four, the outline for season 4 and 5 were merged together. Then when it was renewed..... season 5 was not as good since nearly everything planted in all the other seasons were done AND there were only a few months to create a new season and not years. But a not as good season 5 of Babylon-5 was still good. And the final episode, filmed as the ending for season 4 but held back once they knew there would be a season 5, ended the series very well. Also, there was massive character growth from the beginning tru the middle, to the end, for quite a number of characters. Various characters ended up in ways unthinkable in season 1.... all planned that way. You don't get that level just from a season-long arc. You can build on a development from one season to another, but not nearly as well as planning it all out in advance for multiple seasons before shooting the pilot. Not that all episodes were planned out to explicit detail, but that key things would be happening along the way. There was room for individual stand-alone episodes not part of the big outline, but even then trends for a character would still happen, or some detail nugget dropped in that didn't seem like much at the time. Even a hand wave. :)
 
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It's funny, George, but what I was thinking when I was writing about "more episodic" vs. a bit arc above was "bless you, JMS and curse you, JMS!" because of course before B5 shows tended to basically figure out a way to hit the reset button at the end of the episode....

And also funny that I didn't catch you out on Cyrano Jones in "Tribbles" vs. Harry Mudd....
 
Another side benefit of buying the CBS All Access is the Short Treks series. They're pretty uneven, but some of them are brilliant. The tribble backstory one is especially good. I don't think that alone is worth buying the service for, but worth watching if you're already on the system.
 
My wife and I decided to just watch Short Treks last night. We have four to go. I'm still trying to decide what to think about that tribble episode..... :)
 
My wife and I decided to just watch Short Treks last night. We have four to go. I'm still trying to decide what to think about that tribble episode..... :)
Ha, yeah, that Tribble Short Trek, I liked. Just desserts! :)

The most impressive Short Trek, the most important one to watch, is "The Brightest Star", which is the story of Saru on his home planet before he....uh.... joined Star Fleet. And things happened in Season two that made that Short Trek so VERY important to have seen first.

Also, "Runaway" introduces a character who plays a significant role in Season two. Without seeing it, some viewers of season two must have wondered "who is that and how does she know (spoiler)".
 
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