Why can’t Star Trek: Discovery commit to serialized storytelling?

The Verge ^ | February 13, 2017 | Chaim Gartenberg

[EveningStar]

Star Trek: Discovery has staked a lot on the idea that it was telling a different kind of Star Trek story — a tighter, more plotted-out version of Trek instead of the crisis-of-the-week style of earlier shows, which were designed to meet the needs of cable syndication. But Discovery — which just wrapped up its first season on Sunday — didn’t embrace long-arc storytelling. The creators and writers divided the season and its story into disparate pieces, and crammed them so full of flashy plot twists and reveals that the series rarely reached beyond hammering home its core conceit: that war is bad, and morals are good.

And boy, does Discovery want its fans to feel the weight of that motto. The show’s cycling plotlines looped from the pilot (almost unrelated to the larger story), to the nearly standalone middle episodes, to the larger Klingon war arc, the Mirror Universe detour, and then the slightly different second Klingon war plot. And throughout, the writers’ room seemed willing to try any tactic to get that central point across. But by shattering the season into fragments of stories, Discovery ended up with characters who barely changed over 15 episodes. They spent the whole season going through the same motions in whatever Mad Libs scenario a given episode required.

[alexander_busek]

Why can't Star Trek: Discovery commit to serialized storytelling?

Why couldn't Star Trek (The Original Series) commit to serialized storytelling?

[...] reveals that the series rarely reached beyond hammering home its core conceit: that war is bad, and morals are good.

What was the "core conceit" of the Original Series? Answer: That green-skinned alien babes are hawt!

Regards,

[prophetic]

I saw your writings just as i was about to post mine.

Gene Roddenberry is rolling in his grave as he sees his lifetime accomplishment of Star Trek devolved into mindless politically correct diatribe dressed up in glitzy CGI animation. Heck, the very 1st Trek for all its crap graphics is still many light years ahead of what is being churned out today.

Captain Kirk was a man's man chasing attractive ladies, even if they were aliens. But today with 64 flavors of genders it's a far weirder universe out there and under the clothes...

[Caipirabob]

"Deploy the tractor beam and drag both us and the Discovery into the black hole. No one must ever associated this series with real 'Star Trek'..."

[Caipirabob]

Just wait. The next series the left writes about "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" will look like the invite list to a Marco Rubio Foam-dance party.

[jjsheridan5]

The Expanse has to be included in your list.

[GingisK]

Schizophrenia of Hollywood. The same reason documentaries are made in such an unpleasantly disjointed and non-linear fashion. I think it is a method of presenting 10 minutes of facts in a 60 minute time slot without advertising.

[HamiltonJay]

Battle star galactica reboot was absolutely slop. It made absolutely no sense and basically was a soap opera disguised as sci fi, writers just kept putting in “twist” after “twist” no matter how stupid or what sense it made.

If you watched the first season and then saw an episode of the last season you wouldn’t even recognize them as the same show.

It was a daytime soap opera with better production values and a space setting. Nothing more

[Maverick68]

Because this particular abomination is written by Liberal children and they aren’t particularly talented enough to do so.
They stand on the shoulders of giants and decided to take a whizz.....

[PIF]

B5 - Yes
Farscape - Yes
BG2004 NO (Starbuck as a woman! Ugly feminism, TH as a robot ho - more of the same.) As bad as STD in its day.

The Expanse - Perhaps, too early to say.

Dr Who began its death throws with the sex change of the Master, thrashed around with Peter Capaldi, spewed with the openly gay, extremely ugly, lesbian sidekick Bill, and then finally died with sex change of the Doctor.

Liberals can ruin anything.

[fieldmarshaldj]

It’s Fascist SJW propaganda. When they manage to make the Klingons look like the good guys and the Federation the Democrats’ dream state of Fascist-Communist Orwellian hell, you know something is very very wrong.

[Flick Lives]

BG2004 NO (Starbuck as a woman! Ugly feminism, TH as a robot ho - more of the same.) As bad as STD in its day.

I, for one, welcome our robot overlords.

[chrisser]

"Star Trek Diversity"

I LOL'd when I read that.

Laughter is much appreciated on a Monday morning.

I've watched almost every episode of all the previous series' multiple times and seen all the movies at least once.

I haven't seen a single episode of Discovery and so far I see no reason for that to change. It sounds like Discovery makes the Abrams stuff almost make sense by comparison.

[PIF]

and go where everyone else has been before ...

[Flick Lives]

They don't call them Cylon "models" for nothing.

[Ouch]

Once I saw the cast of the new Star Trek give a knee in support of the football players, I decided to not even give it a chance.

[PIF]

Looks like a classy selection of robot skanks ...

[PIF]

You can get this one from RealDoll.com for only $5499

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Watched first episode and didn’t watch it again

Same here. Haven't missed watching it nor do I have any desire to see any of it at all. I just hope it dies.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

What’s wrong with Tom Baker? He is my favorite doctor.

I rather liked Peter Davison.

Interesting bit of trivia:

Georgia Moffett, who plays Jenny in The Doctor's Daughter (Season 4 Episode 6) , is the real-life daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Trillian) actress Sandra Dickinson.

Plus equals

[Maverick68]

I’ve never watched the new Star Trek but I actually love Blacula and the sequel.