berkovich-76592

The awful Trek Discovery never seemed to actually discover anything - even when presented with what should have been the great opportunity of being thrown 3,000 or whatever years it was into the future...same so far with Strange New Worlds. I like the series, it beats hell out of any 'new' Trek besides the 3rd season of Picard but again, where is the exploration, the actual 'strange new worlds" ? Last episode was yet another time travel trip to our current century 21. All well and good but god, for a supposed space trekking series, or franchise, or whatever one may call it now, I don't see much that lives up to series titles like "strange new worlds" or "discovery". Missed opportunities, sadly, in my view. Also, all the 'new Trek' series episodes I find are far too long. On TV, with commercials (4-5 minutes' worth between scenes, which is why I record it and FF through) episodes are at least an hour, sometimes up to an hour and 20 minutes. Classic Trek shows, without commercials, were 44-45 minutes long, nice, tight stuff. Granted, seasons are now usually just 10 episodes as opposed to 20 or more in the past, arguably accounting for the almost movie length each week but it seems to lead in many cases to bloated storytelling full of filler.

I continue to watch these 'new' Trek shows for reasons I can only ascribe to some sort of perverse franchise/brand loyalty, which I imagine might be true for many forever Trek fans.

I stay with it, bizarrely, in the forlorn hope that it might improve. And I thought the first two episodes of season 2 of Picard were good but it's since gone downhill, largely as a result of modern TV's incessant need to 'serialize' every show. The season-long story 'arcs' of both Picard and Discovery would have been quickly done in two, at most three-part episodes of classic Trek but no, now they're extended to (thankfully) seasons of just 10 or so episodes that nevertheless feel like a 35-episode slog. I find I'm constantly thinking, well, just x-number of episodes left in this season to get through. And unlike previous Trek, which has always prompted repeat views, I've never once and never will repeat watch any 'new' Trek episode; there's just nothing compelling me to do so.

I still watch them as they air, but almost as background noise while my attention drifts to reading or whatever. But I've developed my own sort of speed viewing method. Just watch the "previously on ... " opening segment, then find a good plot summary somewhere, and you're good.

And, whatever happened to using outer space as a vehicle in a sci-fi show? You know, boldly going and all that?

Sigh.