Valkrist wrote: Thu Feb 01, 2024 3:36 pm
Exactly what I've heard. I'm actually surprised they're still going ahead with the Section 31 movie, which at this point seems like little more than a thinly-veiled attempt to cash-in on the popularity and bankability of Michelle Yeoh. What they don't seem to be aware of is how generally reviled Discovery is by most Trek fans, and how universally united they are in their disinterest in Emperor Georgiou, a one-note character that had already outstayed its welcome. I have a feeling this is going to crash and burn, though most will still probably watch out of morbid curiosity. Section 31 as a plot device, just like the Mirror Universe, are equal to this...
OK, unpacking this....
The Section 31 project was announced a long time ago, right after the second season of Discovery aired, I believe. While no doubt some fans wouldn't care if it never materialized, or would even be gleeful for its absence as evidence of the ineptitude of the current regime, I think the regime knows that when you promise something this high-profile, you carry through or lose all credibility. It has, apparently, been scaled back. I think it was originally to be a series, but now is a one-off movie. Or perhaps I'm misremembering. But in any case, I don't see it as a new scheme to cash in on Michelle Yeoh but rather paying off a promise, and if they can still afford Michelle Yeoh, I don't fault them for being able to have her. I'll watch it just to see her again. She is eminently watchable. Hell, I watched a rom-com, Crazy Rich Asians, just because she was in it.
And I don't think Mirror-Georgiou was a one-note character. True, she started off as a bit of a standard moustache-twirler, but after Burnham abducted her and brought her back to the prime universe, she started to change. For all her protests that Burham couldn't change her, I think she was changing, and evolving to be more caring and less diabolical. It'll be interesting to see if that arc continues, once she's in the past.
Has Section 31 been over-exposed? Has the Mirror Universe been over-exposed? The answers to both those questions of course lie in the eye of the beholder. I was disturbed when DS9 first introduced Section 31. Our evolved, socialist utopia Federation has its own CIA? Does there always have to be someone behind the curtain, bending or breaking the rules, for people in front of the curtain to be safe? A weighty question! Certainly the Federation has enemies, and when we know about black ops organizations that the Cardassians or Romulans have, it'd be difficult not to match them. Enterprise showed us that Section 31 started way back and had been around for a while by the 2150s. So my first hope about the new movie is that the writers do their homework and don't have Michelle Yeoh in some time period post-Enterprise and founding Section 31. As to the Mirror Universe, I think DS9 pretty well over-exposed it, just as Voyager overused the Borg. Enterprise to the rescue, redeeming both concepts! So it was no surprise that Discovery visited the Mirror Universe, and I think they showed it a bit more plausibly. The people are bad, but they are subtle enough to work their plots instead of just being all in someone's face about things.
And now, the 800-lb gorilla in the room, Discovery and fans' perception of it. It is definitely polarizing, there's no denying that. I did a quick, naive google to see if there is any gauge for how many fans like it vs not, but didn't turn up anything other than many people asking why some fans hate it. But the most telling thing I did read was from one commenter that said that Star Trek fans always hate the new thing, until there's something newer to hate. Fans hated the TOS movies until TNG came along to hate. Then fans hated DS9. Then Voyager. Etc. At the same time, younger fans, ones new to the franchise, have liked the new shows. It's the same as with the Star Wars prequels. The younger folks for whom the prequels were their first Star Wars movies liked them just fine.
But I have never hated Discovery, nor found it worthy of anyone else's hate. True, it's not the type of Star Trek that I was used to. But there is a perception (and whether that's a reality could be debated) that the way stories were told in the late 80s and 90s (let alone 60s) would not work in the 2020s. This kind of thinking, or kinds of thinking analogous to it, rule the roost today. People are not going to make a show or movie unless they think it has maxiimum appeal, maximum chance for success. For example, the Foundation series on Apple. Goyer said that every studio he shopped it to were insistent that it not have an anthology format and that it have continuing characters. Ergo, it was never going to be completely faithful to the books. As for Star Trek, I think there was a perception that the kind of staid storytelling and second-tier special effects that always characterized it previously were not going to be embraced by a modern mass audience. Who knows if that is right? I don't really have a problem with the way they tell stories. I just wish there'd be more focus on story and less on explosions and nail-biters and what-not.
Would I rather there had never been a Discovery? No, of course not. For starters, had there been no Discovery, we would not have gotten Strange New Worlds, and I would hope that even the most ardent Discovery-hater would acknowledge that Strange New Worlds is good, and as close to old-style Trek as we've gotten. We also likely would not have gotten the Picard series, and while I know some were cool at best to the first two seasons, again I think we'd agree that the third season was the charm. (Remember when new Trek shows always required a couple of seasons to get their feet under them?)
But what about on its own merits? I think season-long plot arcs are generally a good thing, as they let you tell a more involved story. And the show has occasionally introduced some really out-there science fiction ideas. The spore drive is almost too much to swallow (but it least it doesn't turn anyone into salamanders, which is what happened the last time anyone went anywhere in the universe instantaneously) but I thought Species 10-C was a breath of fresh air. There were not actors with bumps on their noses and they did not communicate in a way that the Universal Translator could manage. They were completely alien. That's the essence of science fiction, and despite being ostensibly science fiction, Star Trek all too often forgets that and just uses aliens as metaphors for the less appealing aspects of human nature. So major props for bringing the sci-fi. Lastly, it has given us some characters that I really like, such as Saru and Tilly. I even like Burnham, even though she does some bone-headed things, because Sonequa has so much charisma.
So for me, on the whole the positives have definitely outweighed the negatives with Discovery. And although the final season hasn't aired yet, I think that's a suitable summation for how I received the series. Others are free to differ, obviously! But I will still have that same sense of sadness and saying goodbye to friends when the credits roll for the last time.