#Investigation Underway After Human Remains Found in Debris; | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

grizzlee30 · 3 years ago

Text

Hey y’all. The following is from a writing prompt I did a little while ago. Posting it here for posterity. If you’d like, let me know what you think!

TRANSMISSION: OPERATION ALEXANDIRA IS UNDERWAY.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Being a Cataloger is no easy task, though it is an honor. Many beings from across the galaxy wish they could have the honor of knowing everything there is to know about their homeworld. Being a Cataloger means that no secret is too great, no business that isn’t theirs. They have absolute freedom and authority to investigate and record all that happens on their planet, and no government or organization is allowed to keep anything from them. Their motto was: “Posterity is the most important tool of hindsight.”

Antherumberbane, a Froxin of a more variant lineage, found the task to be perpetually exciting. The Froxins had forgone government and borders some millennia ago. The fallout of a war that nearly glassed their planet brought about the kind of perspective about self-control that one might get when you feel your balance tip just a little too far off a steep cliff. The consequential guilt that had formed in their collective consciousness brought them to a silent and official result: Anything they did, they would do for the greater good of the planet and their species. The discovery of their planet by the Collective Alliance of Planetwide Sentiance (Or CAPS for those who needed to save a minute) also helped to shift that global perspective, as that day, the world grew to an unimaginable size. Keeping home tidy seemed like a logical priority. This led to a renaissance of sorts, as every Froxin dedicated their life to the pursuit of science and the arts. Weapons and the arms race became a fleeting memory and the planet of Flotilla became a beautiful eutopia.

Antherumberbane was no different from the other Froxins. They too believed in the pursuit of a better world, which is why he agreed to the lonely job of Cataloger for CAPS. Antherumberbane did not take the decision lightly, as being a Cataloger was a lifelong commitment, not one easily broken. They had a nice life on Flotilla, for a while. They had a lovely partner that they love more than anything. But even in a world as advanced and as generous as Flotilla, sickness still existed, and tragedy was not unheard of. After their death, Antherumberbane decided to leave his post as a scribe for the scientific community and took the offer to become isolated, for that‘s what Catalogers were.

The purpose of Catalogers was not to gain intelligence to spread to other worlds. In fact, Catalogers were to take a vow of silence with anyone except other Catalogers. This was to prevent any secrets from other planets from being divulged to their home planets. Instead, Catalogers were tasked with creating a sort of galactical time capsule. Should CAPS ever fall or its members go to war, an indestructible data hold on a remote comet flying unpredictably through the stars, known to the Catalogers as “The Remnant” would be the only remains of the alliance. The records inside of it would be sealed whilst the citadel of CAPS remained to function, unsealing only in the event that the alliance had truly fallen.

Antherumberbane had questioned the method of storage privately many times in-between their duties. They understood the sentiment behind it: Create a record of every success and failure of the most advanced systems in our time so future alliances could learn from them. They were comfortable enough with the functioning of the citadel being the key to the files being sealed. It was the most defended structure in the galaxy, and no one planet could take it without serious consequences. It was even unlikely that a group of planets would have the resources to take the vessel, as it acted as its own sovereign territory governed by multiple representatives of each planet. It had its own artillery, military, software, and hardware defenses. It even had its own armada, made up of 20% of each of its member’s fighting force. It was certainly possible for the citadel to fall, Antherumberbane did not kid themselves, but it was a slim chance that anyone would ever want to. Even the warrior race of the Chibathons, who valued strength above all else to rule, saw the importance of a strong alliance within the galaxy and were able to rationalize that true strength came from such agreements.

No, what Antherumberbane took most unnerving was the location of the data. A comet kept the vault moving, surely. But it was unpredictable in its movements. There was no way to be certain it would not crash into some random asteroid and break apart, or for it come into contact with other debris or even another comet! And the Remnant itself was supposedly indestructible, sure, but Antherumberbane was pretty certain no one ever tried throwing it into a sun. Tens of Thousands of years of data could be lost in an instant, all because someone trusted the path of a frozen chunk of rock hurtling through space. The idea made Antherumberbane feel queasy like he stood up too fast from meditation. Still, he had been assured by the powers that be that, while the schematics for the vessel were vague to prevent tampering, it was unlikely that anything short of complete atomization could all out destroy the Remnant.

An alarm beeped on a device strapped around their third appendage, and Antherumberbane gave it a tap with his fourth to answer it. A message played, at first quietly in a language they could not possibly understand, followed by an automated translation in the same tired inflection and tone as the one speaking it. The recorded message played directly into their auditory bone.

“This is Stephanie Martins of Earth. I am calling an emergency assembly of the Catalogers. Please be in attendance at Primary stardate 17-85-1800.”

Hi Reddit! Rest is here:

Antherumberbane listened to the message again. Human emotion had always eluded them. Humans had the benefit of experiencing emotion brought about by chemicals in the brain, thus allowing for the evolutionary advantage of their emotions affecting the state of their body, turning anger and desperation into uncharacteristically amazing feats of strength, speed, and creativity. Many theorized this was how they became the apex predator of their planet without showing any outward traits of a common one. They had not so much fought their way to the top, but survived and out-maneuvered it. Still, there was what Froxins would describe as… sadness? No, more like exhaustion. Stephaniemartins- No, Stephanie Martins, humans had separate names instead of combing them. They could never remember naming customs of all the different planets, a weakness on their part. They had always instead defaulted to stating each members’ full name and title to be safe. Stephanie Martins had always had an air of defeat each time she discussed her home planet. Antherumberbane could understand why. They were still a primitive species when CAPS found them. They reminded them of the Froxins before the Atom Wars, petty and prideful, yet capable of change and great things. There was much to be desired of Earth, though he doubted Stephanie Martins would see it in her time. Give it a century or two, Antherumberbane thought, surely they will come around once they are comfortable with their new galactic neighbors.

Antherumberbane boarded Their private starship and activated the slip drive. They set their destination for the citadel and watched as the stars and planets warped into unfamiliar shapes and sizes. As the slip drive bend the space around it to appear next to the citadel, Anterumberbane gave pause to the message they had received. An emergency assembly was not uncommon, at least they had experienced a few. While it is true that Catalogers mainly work for posterity and they were not allowed to share information with their home plants, it did not mean that the information collected was never used. Catalogers were sometimes tasked with solving galactic issues that no combination of planets could solve. By pooling knowledge, classified and not from each planet, they could privately come up with a solution without involving politics or risking cross-contamination of government secrets. They would present the solution but not how they got there, and it was a very efficient system. Plagues were stamped out in a matter of months, treaties were drafted, and even advances in technology were spawned from these meetings. What trouble Antherumberbane is what problem Earth could have that would warrant an emergency meeting. Earth was a part of CAPS, but they still very much kept to themselves, determined to solve their own problems with no outside help, much like the impulsive adolescents they had on Flotilla. Yes, young and unabashed pride seemed to be a universal trait in sentient beings.

On the other hand, the fact that Earth’s Cataloger had called for an emergency meeting could show a sign of good faith. The humans were finally making use of the shared resources that CAPS had to offer, the first step into trusting the other planets of the alliance. This excited Antherumberbane and they became suddenly determined to put forth their best efforts to prove to Earth that they were there to help.

Slipping out of the Stream, Antherumberbane docked at their private port for Catalogers. They gathered their materials from their office on the ship and made their way to the meeting area. Along the way he met with another Cataloger, Grzx, and they walked in tandem to the meeting room. More accurately, Anterhumberbane strode on his tentacles whilst Grzx propelled himself forward with his fins using a backpack-like device that his people created to simulate swimming on air. The Yoliths were strictly an aquatic species, sporting no legs and many fins on their torso area. Though they had developed a pair of small limbs for manipulation, Antehrumber could not help but think that Yoliths had done the most effort in acclimating to an alliance filled with mostly land-based beings. Though he did appreciate their naming customs. One name, pure and simple.

“Morning keep you,” Grzx said, a traditional Froxin greeting. Antherumberbane always appreciated the small efforts Grzx would make to appeal to other species. They returned the favor.

“Good currents to you as well my friend.” Antherumberbane tilted their long neck down in appreciation and respect. “Do you have any inkling as to what Earth may be calling on us for?”

“Only that it is about time that they ask for it.” Grzx’s translator made his speech sound garbled as if he was actually speaking from underwater. “My home planet was becoming anxious in the face of Earth’s reluctance for collaboration”

“Many Froxins agree with that sentiment, though personally, I feel their reluctance is not unwarranted. Not two human lifetimes has passed since they made first contact. They are allowed some caution.”

“Regardless, their isolation bodes dark tidings. I understand their reluctance to put forward their own cooperation, but refusing it from the rest of the galaxy? That doesn’t seem natural.”

Anterhumberbane gave a slight pause before saying, “Collaboration is not something that can be easily undone. Once you invite another’s culture into yours, it is very hard to separate the two.”

“They have already chosen to enter the alliance. We did not force their hand in this matter.”

“Perhaps not, but we forget what it was like being the only sentient beings known to our homes. The prospect of such a discovery could shake the foundation of any culture.”

“True, it still perplexes me though.”

“It has also been a long time since CAPS has discovered a new sentient species. Many thought we had dried out our galaxy of such phenomena. The remote Sol System had been out of the way for many travelers, and it was a miracle they were discovered before they made it out of their own solar system. But these things take time, my friend. How long till the Yoliths came out from their watery abode.”

Grzx gave thought to that, then added pensively, “We had three generations of rulers before we officially gave our efforts to the cause. It took two more to agree to one of our own being a Cataloger.”

Antherumberbane gave a please expression. “And the humans have offered their own Cataloger in just one generation. Give them time, Grzx.”

Grzx gave a small grunt, conceding the argument. “ I supposed it does not matter now. Earth has asked for our help. Perhaps the solution we can provide today will finally allow them to come out of hiding.”

Antherumberbane gave a small girdle of approval. They headed to a large room with a large black reflective floor. In the center was a gold round table, hollow in the center making it look like a large crescent moon. In the center of the table was a small circular podium, where holograms could be displayed showing diagrams, maps, and other visual aids to assist during such meetings. It also acted as a place for Catologars to make speeches or present arguments, allowing them to turn 360 degrees to address all of those present equally. A large dome topped the room fitted with one-way glass that allowed them to see the stars dotting the expansive space that lay beyond. Many were told this room was designed so that Catalogers could always look out and remind themselves why they do this. Antherumberbane loved that idea the most out of his fellow Catalogers. It made them feel a mixture of inspired and nostalgic.

The other members had already arrived, making a total of 28 representatives of different species, humans making the 29th. Stephanie Martins had not arrived yet, her chair noticeably empty. Not surprising, however, as humans still preferred to travel at light speeds rather than using the more expedient slip drives. After giving proper greetings and asking around, it was speculated that the human should arrive any minute, as light speed was still an impressive speed and would not cause much of a delay from Earth.

Antherumberbane was speaking with Asarith, part of the small psionic Britewave species, when the doors slid open and Asarith gestured with one of its many waving policies, saying, “She is here.”

Humans were not an unusual species if unusual still existed amongst the diverse species of CAPS. While their skins could be many different tones, Stephanie Myer’s was pale, dotted with some specks of darker tones known as “freckles.” Her hair was a bright red, and her optical nerves gave a soft hue of… what was that color again?.... Ah, “hazel.” Antehrumberbane wondered why humans had a color that was only used in reference to their optical nerves, but every culture has its quirks. Everyone politely sat down, unsure as to whether to give a cheerful greeting or a more concerned one, given their unfamiliarity with human culture and the reason for this meeting. Stephanie Martins gave restrained nods of greeting as she took her place at the podium.

Antehrumberbane took his seat next to the reptilian Hamargin name KethelIkori. Harargins and Froxins shared the similar feature of having their names combined instead of separate ones or titles. He leaned over to Antherumberbane and whispered “The human seems to be in unusually low spirits.”

Antehrumberbane worried about Kethelkori’s use of the term “human” instead of her given name. That attitude did not bode well for the positive and helpful attitude that both they and Grzx had discussed earlier, but he did not take offense to his analysis of Stephanie Martins. She looked drained of all emotion. She had a great deal of moisture on her brow and was seemingly shaking. Atherumberbane tried to remember what shaking meant in human body language. They knew that could easily mean she was cold, though the EVO suit that the human was wearing should provide their preferred environmental temperature. It also could mean anger, as they remembered some of the human literature they had tried to consume in order to understand them better. The phrase “shaking with anger” had been a common one throughout. Perhaps the emergency was cause for such outrage? Though her brow was not pointing down, as is a common trait of angry humans. No, this wasn’t anger. Perhaps…

“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I have a message from my homeworld that I have been instructed to read to you now.” Stephanie Martins said.

The translator mimicked her tone and emotion. Antehrumberbane put it together now. It was not sadness they had heard on the recorded message and it was not anger or cold that caused Stephanie Martins to shake so. Her voice quavered in a way that was not unfamiliar to them. It was the same inflection they had when their partner was diagnosed and the severity of the disease was revealed to them.

It was fear. Fear that was about to give way to despair.

Patreons above, this must be worse than they thought. Antherumberbane showed their full attention, as did many other who came to the same conclusion. Each was prepared to listen intently, offering any information they could provide.

Stephanie Martins took a long pause, acknowledging the shift in the room. She breathed deeply before saying, “First I want to thank you all for your help and companionship. You have become some of my closest friends and I just wanted to say that-” she trailed off, and Antherumberbane heard something unusual. For a split second, he thought he heard a high pitch tone that faded just as Stephanie Martins finished talking. He looked around. Others who had similar auditory processing showed their concerns. Antherumberbane was about to speak, but Stephanie Martins began talking again, this time with more determination to prop up the fear.

“This meeting has been called for those present to witness this declaration. For too long, Earth has felt the cold oppressive heal of CAPS and the pressure to become one with its members. For too long, Earth has been expected to give up its valuable resources to an organization whose values are heavily skewed. You talk of peace and posterity, yet you neglect the now. You talk of those who come after us and pay no mind to those who are here now. Your alliance is built on the flimsy foundation that all species should agree with you and do whatever you say. No more.”

The room was stunned silent. Many species showed anger and confusion on their faces and scoffs. Others showed concern. Antherumberbane did not know what to think. What could be gained by such insults? The CAPS has not asked for nearly as much as this speech would suggest. And oppressive? This does not make.

“As for the Catalogers, you find yourselves in a position above us. You observe all the galaxy’s secrets yet do not share them. You only use that knowledge when one of your own deems it necessary. You stay in your Ivory towers, deeming where and when you can use this power. No more.”

This broke most of the Cataloger’s calm and composed demeanor. There was a terrible uproar from those who firmly believed in the Cataloger’s purpose. Grzx was one of the most vocal, stating his discontent loudly. Antherumberbane still didn’t understand. Was this some ill attempt at humor by the humans. Stephanie Martins had moisture in her eyes now, a biological response to stress known as “crying,” Antherumberbane recognized.

Stephanie Martins continued, trembling even more. “But now we know your secrets.”

The room fell silent.

“We now know where you hide that knowledge. We will find it and we will spread it. All will be revealed for the galaxy to see. No more secrets. No more false promises. No more.”

Before anyone had a chance to react. Stephanie Martins looked up and yelled as loud and as fast as she could “THEY ARE ATTACKING THE CITADEL THEY ARE TRYING TO FIND THE RE-”

Just as soon as she had yelled, Antherumberbane heard the high pitch tone again. And as it grew to its highest note, Stephanie Myer’s head exploded, showering the gallery in viscera and broken glass from her EVO suit. Many cried out in shock. Antherumberbane shot upwards, now full-on all of his tentacles. What could this mean? Did the humans really mean to…

There was a loud scream as one of the Catalogers, a Canine-like Urgunnian, yelled and pointed at the dome. Antherumberbane looked only for a moment and realizing what he had seen, he turned on his communicator, broadcasting to all channels. Before the dome was breached by incoming fire from the unmistakable human armada, and before everyone in the meeting room was sucked out into the terrible vacuum of space, Antherumberbane broke his vow of silence and spoke a final message.

“Earth has declared war. The Remnant is not safe.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSMISSION: OPERATION ALEXANDRIA. PHASE 1 IS A SUCCESS. PHASE 2 IS UNDERWAY.

#long post #long #ok to rn #ok to reply #writing #writing prompt

4 notes · View notes

somefunnyshits · 7 years ago

Text

Star Trek: Discovery shows us a side of the Federation we've never seen

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.

CBS

The debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.

There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that has been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.

And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.

Spoilers ahead.

No more cozy spaceships

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.

We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.

When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.

When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in a vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.

Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.

A troubled protagonist

Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham.

CBS

Get a load of that Discovery!

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.

Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.

When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.

Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she has forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.

Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.

These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we would see Kirk feel old and bored or see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.

The new Klingons

Enlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Discovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham, and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.

The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).

T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist—a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.

Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.

Yes, there are problems

Though Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white-hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.

One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.

That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly a "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?

Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.

The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard if she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.

Overall, an unexpectedly good start

Despite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.

For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.

What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.

It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2xGLl59

0 notes

somefunnyshits · 7 years ago

Text

Star Trek: Discovery shows us a side of the Federation we've never seen

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.

CBS

There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that’s been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.

And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.

Spoilers ahead.

No more cozy spaceships

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

CBS

Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.

Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.

A troubled protagonist

Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham.

CBS

Get a load of that Discovery!

CBS

Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham.

When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else, to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.

Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she’s forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive, and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.

These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we see Kirk feel old and bored, or we see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.

The new Klingons

Enlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.

CBS

Discovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.

The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther’s homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).

T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist, a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death, and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.

Yes, there are problems

Though Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.

One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pans Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.</em></em>

That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly an "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?

The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.

Overall, an unexpectedly good start

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2fu4twL

0 notes

somefunnyshits · 7 years ago

Quote

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.CBSThe debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that has been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.Spoilers ahead.No more cozy spaceships Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. CBS Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in a vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.A troubled protagonist Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham. CBS Get a load of that Discovery! CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she has forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we would see Kirk feel old and bored or see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.The new KlingonsEnlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.CBSDiscovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham, and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist—a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.Yes, there are problemsThough Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white-hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly a "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard if she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.Overall, an unexpectedly good startDespite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.Let's block ads! (Why?)Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

http://gooogleenews.blogspot.com/2017/09/star-trek-discovery-shows-us-side-of_25.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

0 notes

somefunnyshits · 7 years ago

Quote

Enlarge/ Welcome to Star Trek: Discovery.CBSThe debut of Star Trek: Discovery last night was unlike any other TV series premiere. It was a cultural event that people have been analyzing and anticipating for years. There are now three generations of people who grew up with Star Trek in its various incarnations, and the franchise has come to represent what many of us consider a better tomorrow. Discovery arrived on the scene with no shortage of baggage, both good and bad.There was absolutely no way that the first two episodes (available now on CBS’s All Access streaming service) could have met all our expectations. Plus, the odds were already stacked against Discovery. The production lost a showrunner midstream, and advance buzz has been tepid, to say the least. So it should come as no shock that the first two episodes were flawed, with moments that felt a little clunky. And yet I was genuinely surprised by the show at many points, in a positive way. It gave us a dramatic, original perspective on the Star Trek universe. Even though the series is set 10 years before the original Star Trek series, it had a weird, futuristic edge that’s been sorely lacking in the recent J.J. Abrams movies.And the best part? For the first time in decades, Star Trek feels dangerous again.Spoilers ahead.No more cozy spaceships Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. CBS Mary Chieffo as L'Rell; Chris Obi as T'Kuvma. The first two episodes of Discovery are definitely a slow burn. The acting feels oddly understated, and there are some awkward, info-dumpy conversations between First Officer Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) as we establish their characters and the mission of the USS Shenzhou. But by the time we’re deep into the final battle with the Klingons, I found myself yelling, “Holy $%&!!” a lot. Ships are on fire! Klingons are yelling about their new messiah! Major characters are dying! The series went from zero to warp speed in less than two hours, which is pretty damn hard to pull off.We leave the cozy confines of a typical Trek series behind after the opening scene, in which Burnham and Georgiou are on a peaceful mission to help a pre-contact civilization survive drought. After vaporizing the blockage in a well, they exchange a little banter and return to the Shenzhou to check out a strange object in the debris field of a binary star system. Obscured by some kind of radiation field, the object could be related to damage suffered by a nearby Federation communications relay.When Burnham goes to investigate the object wearing nothing but a spacesuit and jetpack, we get a moment that really nails the tone of this new series. Alone in a vast debris field, illuminated by the light of two stars, Burnham seems more vulnerable and audacious than Starfleet officers we’ve known before. There’s no beaming down with an away team here. There’s no shuttle enclosing her in a protective shell.When she finally encounters the object, an ancient sacred beacon, she lands on it with her own two feet. She's alone in vacuum, encountering something literally awesome. There’s something visceral about this scene, especially when she winds up in a deadly fight with a Klingon guarding the place. It’s as if they’re two knights battling in armor, except they’re in the middle of outer space.Arresting scenes like this lift Discovery out of its slightly clunky plotting and suggest that it could become a truly breathtaking work of science fiction.A troubled protagonist Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Burnham. CBS Get a load of that Discovery! CBS Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. The space gladiator moment is also our first hint that Discovery won’t be returning us to the “everything is fine” baseline of previous Trek shows. Showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts had already hinted in interviews that this series would be an arc rather than episodic, and, as a result, there are no tidy endings.Instead, there are dramatic consequences to the space fight, in which Burnham eventually manages to skewer the Klingon on his own bat’leth. She returns to the ship radiation-scarred and wrathful, begging Georgiou to reject Starfleet’s peaceful mandate so they can immediately destroy the Klingon ship lurking nearby. Unlike the tough-but-fair Sisko or the always-ethical Picard, Burnham is a disturbingly flawed hero who sometimes opts for realpolitik rather than idealism.When Georgiou tries to use diplomacy with the Klingons, Burnham consults privately with her adoptive father Sarek (yes, this makes her Spock’s sister), who appears via some kind of holographic telepresence system that we’ve never seen on Trek before. He advises her to give the Klingons a “Vulcan hello,” referencing an event in Vulcan history that’s going to be news to fans of the franchise. Apparently when the Vulcans first met the Klingons, they fired on the warlike species before doing anything else, to earn their respect. This doesn’t sound much like the rational Vulcans we know, but then again this series is all about revealing hidden and often dark complexities beneath the Federation’s peaceful facade.Armed with this knowledge, Burnham mutinies and tries to get the crew to fire on the Klingons. Here, again, Discovery surprises us. When Kirk bent the rules, he was usually rewarded for it in the end with a good outcome. Fighting to save his crew is the right choice, even if it seems wrong at first. But when Burnham tries her desperate move to save her ship, it turns out to be the first bad move in a terrible plan that backfires. Her choices cost her the friendship she’s forged with Georgiou and get her thrown in the brig. As more Klingon and Federation ships arrive, and the Shenzhou is shot to ribbons, Burnham is trapped behind the failing force field of her prison cell. She's forced to witness the first melee in a war she helped start from a position of helpless shame.Though Burnham does eventually escape (in a pretty cool scene), it’s not exactly a triumphant moment. She has to endure the death of everything she holds dear, including Georgiou and most of the crew. As the second episode ends, she’s facing life in prison for her crimes—and a hellish lifetime of guilt after striving to overcome the horror of her family’s death at the hands of Klingons.These emotional beats feel like a real departure for the franchise, which typically celebrates hope, bravery, and fecklessness in its protagonists and rarely dwells on how they might also be motivated by frustration and agony. At worst, we see Kirk feel old and bored, or we see Sisko’s loyalty being tested by his evolving relationship with the Bajorans. In Discovery, we see an unsettling parallel between Burnham and T’Kuvma, the messianic leader of the newly unified Klingon Empire: both are ruled by rage and seemingly fueled by a history of trauma.The new KlingonsEnlarge/ Chris Obi as T'Kuvma.CBSDiscovery pulls a fast one on us by introducing Captain Georgiou only to kill her off. The same goes for the Klingon leader T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), who perishes in the exact way that Burnham feared. He becomes a martyr while fighting the evil humans. As the series gets underway, our main protagonist will be Burnham and our main antagonist will be T’Kuvma’s protege Kol (Kenneth Mitchell), a pale-skinned Klingon who is the “son of none,” an outcast among the Klingon elites.The pilot episode actually begins with the Klingon point of view, which is an interesting choice. T’Kuvma gives a patriotic speech to his followers, laced with religious fundamentalism and myriad references to the mythic Klingon leader Kahless. One of the most talked-about parts of this series is the Klingons’ new look, which is sort of a cross between H.R. Geiger’s alien art and a goth take on the Afro-futurist styles of Black Panther’s homeland Wakanda. Their armor is all techno-spines and curves; their faces are masklike, with oddly doubled nostrils and exaggerated mouths turned deeply down at the corners. The Klingon language no longer sounds Slavic; as T’Kuvma speaks, it has the tenor of an east African tribal language (though Obi reads his lines so haltingly that it’s unintentionally comic, which is unfortunate).T’Kuvma has whipped up the great Klingon houses into a frenzy of nationalism. He promises them that a war with the Federation will allow them to “stay Klingon” and resist the lure of the Federation’s soft, semi-democratic way of life. But he also has an odd democratic streak of his own, elevating the lowly Kol to his second-in-command. He’s a kind of Klingon populist, a terrifying mixture of authoritarian and religious zealot. When Burnham shoots T’Kuvma, he gets exactly what he wants: an honorable death, and a chance to unify his people in what’s basically a holy war against the Federation.Despite their new look, the Klingons are very much in line with the humanoids we knew in the Next Generation series. They’ve got a complicated history and are obsessed with honor, racial purity, and spiritual tradition. Of course, they hate the polyglot Federation, with its multi-species fleet that promises peace but still fires first with their “Vulcan hellos.” Though a lot of this series feels like it’s taking Star Trek in a new direction—both in terms of characters and storytelling—it’s nice to see the Klingons' motivations have remained unchanged. They’re still the Federation’s ultimate enemy, and yet their violent impulses are hardly alien. They represent the worst instincts of humanity. When humans fight Klingons, we also fight ourselves.Yes, there are problemsThough Discovery has its great moments, the first episode is also bogged down by some bad dialogue and bland acting at moments when the action should have felt white hot. As tensions heat up with the Klingons, it feels like we’re in one of those “let’s discuss this case” moments on NCSI rather than a looming space massacre.One particularly awkward moment stood out, when we are getting to know series regular Lt. Saru (Doug Jones of Pans Labyrinth), the science officer. He explains to Burnham that he’s from a planet where his species is the “cow,” hunted by predators and bred to live in constant fear of death. Basically, Saru admits that he was a compliant food slave on another world. Which is pretty damn creepy and makes him fascinating as a character. How did a cow become chief science officer in Starfleet? But instead of highlighting his alien, tragic history, he’s given a long, garbled speech about “food chains” that makes no sense—and ends with him suggesting that he somehow has a special, evolved ability to sense when death is imminent.That's why Saru announces that he “senses death” when the Klingons show up. Which—duh. You don’t need to be a prey species to notice when Klingons are itching for a fight. His character’s whole disturbing backstory is wasted in this scene, plus it gave me an uneasy feeling that there will be a lot of junk science in this show about how biology and ecosystems work. That feeling did not go away when Burnham, supposedly an "xenoanthropologist," announces that war is part of the Klingon’s “nature,” which she later seems to suggest means it’s part of their “culture.” Huh?Nature vs. culture nitpicks aside, the main problem with the pilot is the directing. Which isn’t surprising, given that the series’ original showrunner Bryan Fuller (of Hannibal and American Gods) has said that one of the reasons he parted ways with the show was CBS’ insistence that he use David Semel as a director on the pilot. Semel has mostly worked on NCIS and is perfectly competent. But he doesn’t seem able to draw out the tension in scenes or inspire taut performances in his excellent cast. By the second episode, however, the actors are owning their characters in a way that’s infinitely more compelling, so my hope is that we’ll see more intense performances as the series progresses.The glimpse we got of upcoming episodes was intriguing, and it suggested that Discovery is going to continue taking Burnham in a disturbing direction. Jailed and outcast, she’s going to have to struggle hard she wants back into Starfleet. As she fights to redeem herself, a war is brewing between the Klingons and the Federation, so her personal struggles will be complicated by the larger astropolitical conflicts raging around her.Overall, an unexpectedly good startDespite its problems, Discovery is packed with intriguing ideas and characters who are already changing my idea of what the Federation represents. I love that we got a peek at the Vulcans’ less-than-peaceful treatment of the Klingons, offering us a better understanding of why the Klingons think the Federation is run by hypocrites. And Burnham’s character has a terrifically complex backstory, as the survivor of a Klingon attack who was raised by Vulcans. Like her brother Spock, she has to find a middle way between Vulcan realpolitik and her passionate, human sense of justice.For the first time, we’re starting a Trek series by focusing on a person, Burnham, instead of a ship and its crew. Eventually, Burnham will have a crew of her own, including Saru, but it was interesting to walk into this series by focusing on her character and personal history.What sets Discovery apart from previous Trek series is that it takes for granted that the Federation is not some monolithic entity where everybody is making relatively good decisions. Its history is riddled with shady conflicts. Its officers are in conflict. This isn’t a new idea, of course—we’ve seen it a lot in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but both those series always tried to reassure us that rationality and good will would ultimately rule the day. You won’t have that feeling as you watch Discovery. Things aren’t going to be alright, at least not for the characters we know.It’s not so much that the future feels darker in Discovery. The future just feels more realistically complicated. We’re not trying to make the galaxy a better place anymore, kids. We’re in the real world. And I think I like it.Let's block ads! (Why?)Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow.

http://gooogleenews.blogspot.com/2017/09/star-trek-discovery-shows-us-side-of.html

#SEO #Local SEO training

0 notes