#i have huge suspension of disbelief but damn bruh

[shijiujun]

THE WAY HE SO NATURALLY LETS MIAOMIAO FALL INTO HIS ARMS!!!! AND THAT DOTING EXASPERATED TONE I AM IN LOVE

— Love Game in Eastern Fantasy 永夜星河 (2024) | EP. 12

[cleoselene]

There’s something about Star Trek Discovery, aside from the #TrustTheProcess basebally metaphor I wrote on before.

And I want to touch upon the rough road to get to the payoff, because as much as I will ardently defend Discovery now (after being a HUGE doubter the first couple episodes), I really love to A) address some of the major complaints and B) come to terms with the sometimes painful journey in the first half of the season.

First off, the complaints, and you know, I don’t know if these are your complaints, but they were MINE, and boy howdy if I don’t consider myself a nitpicky as they come when it comes to Trek:

Complaints:

Why are they putting this where they’re putting it in the timeline?  Can’t we just go back to post-VOY and continue the story?

okay look, I don’t like this either.  I will say they haven’t fucked up continuity too much, unless you count the fact that Spock had an adoptive sister we never heard of, but there are loads of ways to cope with that.  I want a post-VOY show more than anyone trust me.

Ugh, it’s pre-TOS and this show has a budget near Game of Thrones-level.  It’s weird for it to all look so good when TOS looked so weird.

you’re gonna have to get over this, bruh.  Suspension of disbelief of all that.  This isn’t a big deal.

WHAT THE FUCK DID THEY DO TO THE KLINGONS?

bad stuff.  That plotline is handled well, but yeah, if you enjoyed the nuance Klingons got in DS9, this is a mess.

THEY KILLED THE FIRST ASIAN WOMAN CAPTAIN??? MICHELLE YEOH IS WHY I WANTED TO WATCH.

FAIR.  And I hated this.  But.  Look.  #TrustTheProcess.  This is resolved and paid off in a better way than I could have imagined.

Captain Lorca is a fucking sociopath!  THAT’S NOT MY STARFLEET.

again, I agree.  But this shit gets RESOLVED.  you hear me?  I started out with the first three “fuck you” complaints in this post but they are not as big a deal as the Lorca/Georgiou stuff and the payoff ROCKS.  Trust the process.

The main character is a mutineer??  STARFLEET SENTENCES HER TO A LIFE SENTENCE?  That seems extreme.

I agree.  It works out tho.  Trust the process.

Why are we only focusing on Michael??? Star Trek is an ensemble show! 

Is it really?  William Shatner wouldn’t even let anyone but himself, Nimoy, and DeForest Kelly in the opening credits.  And look, Sonequa is fucking amazing.  She’s not the ONLY focus, but she is the lead, and yes, the action moves around her.  She’s excellent.  Like, really, really excellent.

Onto B).  Lorca was hard to take.  Georgiou’s death was hard to take.  Seeing Starfleet in such a state was hard to take.  But, without specifically spoiling, the major difference between this show and the last two incarnations of Trek: Everything is won via the pure, full-throated, blazingly obvious embrace of Federation morality.  It’s a rough journey at times, though never bad tv.  It’s rough because we, as Trekkies, have been toyed with and fucked with and let down since ENT and the Abramsverse and their emotional, philosophical, and moral bankruptcy nearly ruined the franchise.  This show makes you think it’s going more grimdark than hopeful, then turns it around on you.  This show takes you through the painful journey that hardcore Trekkies have trudged through while ENT and the Abramsverse bent over backwards to be “mainstream” and ended up with “empty.”

I almost feel like it was a cleansing experience, spending the first few episodes getting angry and nervous, only to keep going and find that all my grumpiness was justified, justified and acknowledged by writers who seemed to know that what they were writing was counter to the spirit of Trek, but it’s really a setup to SHOW how counter it is.  It’s a setup to say “look at this, this is what they’re trying, what all tv is trying, and it’s the WRONG way, and doing things the RIGHT way is how we win.  Because our principles are immortal.”

So there it is.  If you’re skeptical Trekkie watch it.  Watch the whole damn season.  Cry your eyes out at Burnham’s last speech.  I know I did.