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caitriNon-spoilery: This is seriously the tv show I've been waiting for since Reboot, even though it takes place in the Prime universe. It finely balances grim scenarios with hope and idealism--and my personal favorites, doing the wrong things for the right reasons. I love our heroine Michael, who is the most sympathetic and interesting protagonist since Ben Sisko: her challenges come not just from the day-to-day of Starfleet, but in recovering from the traumas of her past. I'm also intrigued by Suru, who has an interesting little speech about how his race was originally the livestock of his planet, and so their first instinct is to sense the coming of death. That's....dark, and hopefully will be explored some more. Plus, he's played by Doug Jones, so his very tall, very thin physique makes him look genuinely alien, as opposed to the humans-in-latex of other aliens. And on that, I actually love the new look of the Klingons too; I'm not even a sword girl, but I swear, if they make those new bat'leths for sale, I will see about getting one!
Spoilery:
Spoilery:
I really love the way the relationships were set up, particularly Phillipa/Michael and Sarek/Michael.
There has been a seven-year relationship between Captain Georgiou and her first-officer, one of immense mutual respect and love, so that when Michael "betrays" her and Philippa has the whole "I knew you so little"--like, that's some Shakespearian shit. A weird part of me wishes that that was the season finale rather than the prologue, but I guess that's what fic is for.
I know everyone and their father has seemingly been complaining about the Mary Sue-ism of Michael and Sarek, but here's my read on it:
First of all the timeline--it doesn't work with the years we are given straight up, so this is some basic retconning. According to Memory Alpha, Spock left home for Starfleet Academy in 2250, but he was also a commissioned officer that same year. That...doesn't work; he would have had to spend at least 3-5 years at the Academy before receiving a formal commission. At any rate, TOS's five year mission takes place 2265-2269. "The Vulcan Hello" takes place in 2256, which would be when Spock is still serving with Captain Pike, approximately 1-2 years after the encounter with the Talosians. SO either Michael went to Starfleet first, OR Spock and Michael went off at roughly the same time.
To be honest, with the math I was running in my head, I assumed Spock left for Starfleet just after Michael's adoption. Given his estranged relationship with Sarek, it would explain that he didn't interact with/know her that well, AND it would explain Sarek's approval of Starfleet. In "Journey to Babel" we found out that Sarek didn't like Spock going to Starfleet rather than the Vulcan Academy and that was always the defining roadblock to their relationship, but in "The Battle at the Binary Stars" he clearly influences Michael's decision to enter Starfleet--AND we know from TOS that he was also privately proud of Spock.
Sarek mind-melds with child!Michael during her rescue as her colony has been destroyed by Klingons. When we see her later as an adult, she is incredibly Vulcan down to her vocal inflections and controlled expressions, in contrast to her very human enthusiasms aboardship. Therefore her relationship with Georgiou mirrors that of Spock's with Kirk: an emotional growth through loyalty and respect. But that mind-meld has the unexpected side effect of Sarek giving her a little bit of his katra, and so they have a telepathic conversation when she is minutes from death after the Klingon attack on the Shinzou; there's also a lovely moment where Sarek apologizes for "having failed [you] as a parent" as Michael believes she's inadequately logical. So by all evidence, Sarek is much closer to Michael than to his sons--and that he's actually trying to learn from the mistakes he made with them. That's really beautiful--and fascinating.
A closing grump: The one change I would have made to the show would be for the first two episodes to be aired a single movie-length episode--because that's how it functioned. Only the first one was shown on television, and a lot of (admittedly old white, who would never have liked it anyway) people tuned out. The thing is, all of the work that goes into the first episode in building characters who have interesting relationships with one another...that pays off in a dark way. (The only thing I can think of that's similar is the HYDRA reveal in the first season of Agents of SHIELD.) And it makes a lot of people's complaints obsolete, but then, they were probably never going to watch it for any reason but to bitch about it anyway. "Fans," I swear!There has been a seven-year relationship between Captain Georgiou and her first-officer, one of immense mutual respect and love, so that when Michael "betrays" her and Philippa has the whole "I knew you so little"--like, that's some Shakespearian shit. A weird part of me wishes that that was the season finale rather than the prologue, but I guess that's what fic is for.
I know everyone and their father has seemingly been complaining about the Mary Sue-ism of Michael and Sarek, but here's my read on it:
First of all the timeline--it doesn't work with the years we are given straight up, so this is some basic retconning. According to Memory Alpha, Spock left home for Starfleet Academy in 2250, but he was also a commissioned officer that same year. That...doesn't work; he would have had to spend at least 3-5 years at the Academy before receiving a formal commission. At any rate, TOS's five year mission takes place 2265-2269. "The Vulcan Hello" takes place in 2256, which would be when Spock is still serving with Captain Pike, approximately 1-2 years after the encounter with the Talosians. SO either Michael went to Starfleet first, OR Spock and Michael went off at roughly the same time.
To be honest, with the math I was running in my head, I assumed Spock left for Starfleet just after Michael's adoption. Given his estranged relationship with Sarek, it would explain that he didn't interact with/know her that well, AND it would explain Sarek's approval of Starfleet. In "Journey to Babel" we found out that Sarek didn't like Spock going to Starfleet rather than the Vulcan Academy and that was always the defining roadblock to their relationship, but in "The Battle at the Binary Stars" he clearly influences Michael's decision to enter Starfleet--AND we know from TOS that he was also privately proud of Spock.
Sarek mind-melds with child!Michael during her rescue as her colony has been destroyed by Klingons. When we see her later as an adult, she is incredibly Vulcan down to her vocal inflections and controlled expressions, in contrast to her very human enthusiasms aboardship. Therefore her relationship with Georgiou mirrors that of Spock's with Kirk: an emotional growth through loyalty and respect. But that mind-meld has the unexpected side effect of Sarek giving her a little bit of his katra, and so they have a telepathic conversation when she is minutes from death after the Klingon attack on the Shinzou; there's also a lovely moment where Sarek apologizes for "having failed [you] as a parent" as Michael believes she's inadequately logical. So by all evidence, Sarek is much closer to Michael than to his sons--and that he's actually trying to learn from the mistakes he made with them. That's really beautiful--and fascinating.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-26 06:45 pm (UTC)What I haven't seen around fandom is if anyone has tried sharing a login, and whether it's possible to do that or if the accounts are keyed to specific IP addresses. I think if I knew it would work I would share an account with a few people, but right now I am just so *shakes fists at everything* that this subscription thing is just too much to put up with and engage in.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-26 06:56 pm (UTC)(The complaints about the subscription service thing has been omni-present, and yet...no one complains about this with Game of Thrones, which I don't get. Is it an elite consumption thing, with Star Trek being insufficiently high up the pop culture ladder? I haven't seen anyone address this and I don't know how to address it myself!)
For the first weekend at least, they seem to have underestimated the necessary amount of bandwidth; our signal stuttered, so we shrugged and waited an hour (watched Outlander) and then went to load without a problem. So either they corrected OR the service was staggered somehow. I did see an article about how 10 million people signed up to join on Sunday, so there IS interest from a specific audience.
I will admit my worry that they are borrowing the Fuck Over Firefly playbook: the premiere on live tv was pushed back twice for a late-running game and then 60 minutes, and then in their haste to get to the next show they cut out the credits sequence, so several friends were left going, "Wait....so it ended??" But if the rest of the series is streaming-only, I'm not sure whether similar issues will happen or not.
I do also take note that responses have been sharply different based on male/female reviewers, and on the age of the reviewers (reviewers being both people writing reviews for media and people posting on my social media). A lot of the complaints I've seen have primarily centered on 1) the technology (really the sfx) being "too good" (because I guess they want the styrofoam "rocks" of yore?) and 2) incredibly silly nitpicking (complaints about the Captain and the First Officer beaming down together....which they did ALL THE TIME IN TOS), timelines not matching up perfectly (I...get that, but Roddenberry also made it A RULE for TNG that if you came up with something better then you put it in and acted like it was always the case!), and the protagonist being insufficiently Vulcan (....for a Human). (Also, NGL, I cast serious side-eye at the people who have a lot to say about the "incorrect" uniforms and NOTHING to say about the WOC protagonists.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-30 07:05 pm (UTC)Give me some Tellars learning to be less belligerent. Give me a main character Andorian. Give me a repatriated human prisoner of war from the Romulans who has some serious Stockholm Syndrome. Be like TNG and tell me more about Betazeds and the Q. Be like DS9 and give me three completely new races to learn about and root for.
I get that there's a line between All! New! Aliens! and All! New! Villians! and the risk of comparison/failure with what's gone before, versus reeling in viewers who need something familiar but now re-explored, and I do like the themes of "Wow, you screwed up, now redeem yourself" plus WOC protagonists and non-captain protagonists, but I think I am feeling a bit annoyed that we're back to Vulcans and Klingons when there is such a huge universe to play around in.
Sorry for venting in your inbox. I fully own my uninformed impressions and biases (and anti-Vulcan heresy), I just appreciate your critical and yet fannish conversation!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-30 07:32 pm (UTC)[Okay I got 2/3 of writing a response and then accidentally closed the wrong tab, let me try to reconstruct everything!]
I see where you're coming from with the rehashing. Unfortunately, a lot of (possibly ALL) of the impetus behind making the show was to nerf the Axanar film (https://fanlore.org/wiki/Axanar_(Star_Trek_fan_film)) so they had to do something on the Klingon Wars. I really have no sense of how Michael's origins will play out in the long-term yet, though the accusations of "fan service" and "Mary Sue" have flown fast and furious. But right now, Michael's background is mostly background--not sure how that will play out going forward; there are no other Vulcans so far (and I kind of hope that Starfleet's xenophobia towards Vulcans from TOS comes up, because I always thought that was ~really interesting).
And as for the Klingon Wars themselves, they're making it about a minority religious sect that I think is interesting so far....though poor Chris Obi having to act and enunciate the proper Klingon (and it IS proper Klingon, not the phlegmatic junk noises of more recent portrayals) was a little bit of a waste. But I feel like everything they've done so far is much better than the "HONOR! RARRRR!" plots of TNG. Which, I did love them, but it was as you say the same plot over and over.
One of the main characters is a new race: Doug Jones's Kelpian Saru, who has a really great speech in the first ep about how his species was bred as livestock on his homeworld. They have the potential to do some incredibly interesting stuff there with oppression, so I hope they go there.
We haven't been introduced to the queer characters yet, so I'm a little worried about them, but also hopeful. I've seen an excess of "let's talk about the good ol' days with Rick Berman!" this week of TNG anniversaries, and it's like, motherfucking Rick Berman ACTIVELY PREVENTED QUEER CHARACTERS FOR THIRTY FUCKING YEARS WHAT THE FUCK. So needless to say I've been exceedingly underwhelmed. I ADORED TNG, but he actively prevented it from going to any place as groundbreaking as they could have done (there were like 4 times the writers wanted to work in a queer character, and he nixed it; the biggy was when Riker went to the androgynous planet for romance and Jonathan Frakes was loudly advocating CAST A DUDE FOR THIS I WANT TO KISS A MAN I WANT TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE OPENNESS OF THE FUTURE and nope). I hold grudges. >_
(no subject)
Date: 2017-10-01 08:19 pm (UTC)I'm so contrary.