Discovering Discovery

I’ve been reading and hearing the complaints about the newest Star Trek iteration, Discovery, primarily from diehard Trekkers. I hear you bros. If I was expecting classic Trek I would be very disappointed too.

But I wasn’t. I was looking for more. Because as much of a fan I am of all the previous series (even Enterprise), I am realistic enough to recognize their limitations: technology and budget.

When Star Trek premiered in the 1960’s, the creators could obviously only base future technology by extrapolating from the tech of the day. Computers were massive, shiny, flashing, primitive creatures. Phones were rotary, fixed in location and pretty massive also. So it was a huge leap to imagine voice interactive computers (though still massive and flashing) and compact mobile communicators. But depiction of this imagination onscreen was still constrained by the tech of the day and a relatively small budget, so we ended up with pretty lights and rubber ears.

Technology and budgetary constraints continued throughout each television and movie version of the series (until the J J Abrams movie reboots). But those constraints were never really a problem because the captivating qualities of true Trek were always the writing, characters and Roddenberry’s vision of the future. These qualities transcended the limitations.

With Abrams’ Star Trek reboot (Star Trek Millennial?) we saw what eliminating those constraints could produce. They looked amazing, the tech was believable and the action was fantastic. Plus, we still saw all our favorite original characters, albeit in a different timeline. Good movies, but if I am honest, they felt more like high tech recreations of something with deeper, personal value. I guess the closest analogy I can find is if you loved your dad and he passed away, and your mom remarried a really cool guy. You may get along with him and even grow to love him, but he just ain’t your dad.

Similarly, Discovery is not your dad. But he’s clearly respectful of your biological father and always turns up with some cool gifts like thoughtful plotting, a fantastic cast, and amazing looking aliens. You can totally see why mom fell for him, and eventually you may come around to calling him dad.

With a budget that would have made Roddenberry's head spin and technology that actually seems futuristic in every way, the traditional Star Trek constraints have been eliminated. In their wake is a series that is gorgeous to look at and truly emphasizes the Sci portion of the Fi. And not a rubber ear in sight.

And the anachronisms? Just forget about them. If Roddenberry had Discovery's budget and today's technology, I guarantee that Klingons would have looked like T'Kuvma, Enterprise would look like Discovery and all the tech would have been the techiest it could be.

So I’m not sure if Discovery is good Star Trek, but it’s truly amazing Sci-Fi and definitely worth watching.

And hey, Netflix is always there for when you miss dad