My partner and I have just binged TOS-Enterprise last year and we are starting Discovery today. I was just wondering if we can also start LD or will there still be jokes from Discovery (and the later shows) that we might miss out on? I have really bad FOMO anxiety and am worried there will be references in LD that we will miss because we havent watched any of the new shows yet.
Skip Discovery. You would be far better off to watch Next Generation, and Voyager.
TNG, DS9, Voyager.
If you’re saying that the 90s shows have more direct references in Lower Decks than Discovery, I can agree.
I’d add The Animated Series too though. There are many Easter eggs from TAS included.
However, the OP should be aware that Lower Decks is written to be enjoyed by those completely new to the franchise. The deep cuts are added value not a necessity. There are numerous new fans that watched Lower Decks and only later got to the other shows they reference and enjoy discovering in reverse.
Discovery in-universe becomes a secret at a level that it’s not the kind of thing the Cerritos crew would know about from reading historic resources.
Probably get down voted for this but I’m new to Star Trek online discussion so be kind :) - people didn’t like Discovery?
Sure it took a bit to find its feet but I thought the last series was excellent!
But then I loved Picard by the end of series 3 too so many I’m alone here.
Either way, loving all the Star Trek shows coming out these days, was nothing for so long and now…
I think having multiple galaxy spanning events all spun around one particular character is the trouble for me. Didn’t mind Burnham but…spoilers ahead.
Turns out she is related to spock. Oh and started the Klingon war. Oh and finished it. Oh and also she was the only one who stopped the apocalypse cos it was actually her mum who was a time traveller. Oh and she disobeyed all the orders but got to be captain. Oh and then something about another galaxy spanning event. I stopped watching not long after. Also part of the beauty of Trek for me has been the ensemble cast full of interesting characters. I honestly can’t remember any of the bridge crew apart from Burnham, Saru and Tilly.
LD and SNW and Picard S3 are outstanding in my opinion.
Keeping in mind that I’m just giving personal opinions, I found Discovery to be too… over acted? Maybe that was just how it was written but the end result, for me, was that I was constantly rolling my eyes while watching.
Picard seemed okay but in the end I didn’t like the obvious appeals to nostalgia, for me it felt like it leaned too heavily on it instead of trying to stand on its own as a good show.
I have no idea if my experiences align with the broader community or not, but I found myself forcing myself to watch each respective show so I didn’t bother watching when a new season came out.
Please don’t take my comment as anything but me sharing my experiences with someone else who is a fan of the franchise.
SNW I’m totally on board for, though. And I was hesitant about Lower Decks at first but it’s really a good show, imo. It’s so good that it has me questioning my decision to ignore The Orville for being too silly.
I really think PIC would’ve been better if season 3 came first, get all the fan service done early, and then do stuff on its own to distinguish it.
I mean there was no way that these guys wouldn’t want to reprise their characters together, and of course everyone liked that part.
I feel like everyone was hearing rumors of them getting mostly all back together and no one knew when it was gonna happen, so the first 2 seasons got overshadowed by the anticipation and then finally got paid off at the end of the show, but the show never had its own chance to shine.
I am glad they finally did show the group back together, and if you enjoyed TNG and didn’t shed a few tears when the D came out of Geordi’s secret garage, then are you even human? But I still feel like the anticipation of that one part made waiting over 2 and a half seasons unbearable. If it did that first, and then told its own story, I think it would have had more of an impact.
All that said, seeing Voyager at the museum and Seven’s reaction to its presence was nice for me, as that was my first show. Seeing Seven finally become her own person was really nice as well.
I still demand a scene on some show somewhere where Captain Seven (or is it Captain Of Nine?) meets back up to have Janeway see her in her new role. I will lose my mind. Janeway would be so proud of her. 🥲
@wheeldawg @joe DIS had really bad scripts which appear to have been forced after a certain pattern. For DIS its clear that certain topics had to be extremely present. It never felt smooth or pleasant to watch the episodes (at least for me). I always felt being forced to notice these certain topics at any cost. For PIC its more subtle. The first two seasons could have been condensed to max 4 episodes. It appeared like the authors had no ideas & tried to stretch the story as much as possible.
Yeah, that pretty much tracks. Still think if they got the anticipation out early we could enjoy the rest of it easier instead of constantly looking for the comeback.
It did seem a little uneven pushing at times. Some episodes had slow parts, then they’d throw a lot in the next. Definitely messy. Still, I enjoyed seeing him in action again.
PIC season 3 def should have been the first season.
@KirbyProton @PlasmaDistortion I love them both.
There are a few episodes of TOS and Enterprise that I don’t much care for, but overall I believe that Gene Rodenberry, Gene Coons, and Dorothy Fontana have done more to define our role in the universe and our responsibilities to each other than Karl Marx.
For me Discovery is enjoyable, but not as “Trek”. It is like a completely different show that lacks the charm of the other series. From a Lower Decks perspective, there are not too many references to it so it puts it at the bottom for someone wanting to understand LD better.
Star Trek discussion /usually/ tends toward anything new being bad, and always has. SNW and lower decks are exceptions because they do so much fan service and return to a more classic Trek format. Discovery was groundbreaking in a way that I’m sure Roddenberry would have enjoyed, but groundbreaking also implies jarring change and throwing away things that work for experiments that sometimes don’t.
If Discovery were as unpopular as some people really think it is, then none of the current shows would be in production.
Discovery doesn’t have a single good episode I’ve went back to revisit, while even the “weaker” series like ENT have episodes I revisit.
This. There are always specific episodes i like to rewatch but Discovery had none that stood out for me.