Amazing
Are these people even watching the show? (probably deliberately disingenuous)
Ake sits up and also wears shoes when things are serious. It a consistent visual cue. I’d be as mad as they were if cadets were dying and she were laying back in the chair just shrugging it off, but that’s not at all what is happening. Part of her character is that she is serious only to the extent the situation requires, and I think that casual attitude makes sense for someone who has been around for hundred’s of years.
Are these people even watching the show?
Honestly? I have to assume not. I think they watch YouTube ““reviews”” of the show instead. At best, I’m sure some of them have it on in the background while they scroll rage bait on their phones.
I think that casual attitude makes sense for someone who has been around for hundred’s of years.
I think it makes sense too, but even if she was only in her 60s… who the hell cares? She gets the job done, she has the respect of her crew, again, who the hell cares? The fact that male characters (who aren’t 800 years old mind you) are seldom criticized for doing the same thing should tell you all you need to know.
The fact that this is happening is a disgrace to those who behave this way: you don’t embody IDIC.
Discovery lacked much needed love for the franchise, with lot of nonsensical, lore breaking episodes. The same is true for Picard sadly. But I am finding STSA boasting some of the best episodes for a Star Trek season 1 series so far. Star Trek was always woke, and that is why it was so loved. STSA is no more woke than Voyager was. I see lot of respect from the writers to the previous series. STSA makes me think of TNG much more often than any other nutrek series (except lower deck, but that is nearly fanservice). Being into the future you have a lot of flexibility to do something new, and I like that a lot. Nahla Ake is a different character than Picard or Janeway, and that is fine. A great character nonetheless in my opinion.
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STSA
Noo don’t tell we chose this acronym (no corrections please) over SFA, which is 3 letters and much better
No no, we did not! I simply were not sure what to use! I saw STSA, SA, SFA, STA. I wanted to be unambiguous 🤣
SA sound good to me if we use LD to be honest.
What bugged me about Discovery was their need, especially in the later seasons, to have like an affirmation circle in the middle of a mission–frequently when there was a ticking clock of some kind. My wife and I would be yelling at the screen “this is what the debrief is for!”. SNW does this sort of thing really well. As has Starfleet Academy. I’m really digging it.
I haven’t seen STA yet, but it seems like, with a few exceptions, the most recent Star Trek has always been controversial, since The Next Generation. I feel like Enterprise deserved it the most, and SNW escaped most of it. Discovery probably got it the worst? Though TNG was by far the least deserving of it.
Discovery probably “got it the worst” because it came out during peak gamergate-era politics. Online fandoms were weaponized and radicalized into right-wing culture warriors. Discovery is easily the least preachy of any Star Trek series but because it had a black woman in a leading role it became an obvious target for ragebaiters to make stuff up about.
Ironically my biggest issue with Discovery is that it’s pretty right-wing with its CIA stand-in apologia and blatantly militaristic style in Seasons 1 and 2 at least.
That and the sheer degree of melodrama. Every episode needs to have scenes of at least one or two characters in total anguish. It just wears me down compared to other Treks. For a streaming-era show, it’s not all that bingeable
If you didn’t finish it, I highly recommend the last two seasons. I almost gave up on it for the reasons you cite, but the last two are a large tonal shift (positively in my opinion).
I didn’t like that they fridged Georgiou, who I felt was the strongest character they had thus far introduced. After that it became really really clear Burnham was the main character, which is a concept I don’t think belongs in Star Trek. The only other series that gets close to having a main character is TOS, which I dislike for the same reason. Kirk and Burnham both become boring when they’re the only point of view character for an entire episode.
it is also the series that had to define what Trek was in current times. It took it a few seasons and the later shows used a lot of that lessons. it might had a lot of problems, but I dont think it was for a lack of trying.
Trying too much (and all at once) in my opinion!
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Which I find kinda surprising, since I would call SNW fairly “woke” if you actually pay attention to the show. Maybe it’s just because it’s a male captain set in the TOS era, and it’s a more traditional trek show?
IMO “woke” is a red herring when it comes to criticism of newer star trek. Some people hate things for this reason, but it obscues a more interesting discussion.
The real dimensions of value are the writing, the vision, what each series considers “action”, etc. I think it’s a distinction between what you’d expect from a Star Trek movie and a Star Trek TV show. They’re for different audiences, and I think Discovery, STA are going for a much wider market appeal (in varying degrees) and it changes the narrative structure, pacing, etc. I think they’re exploring the audience space with variations on Star Trek themes to grow the francise, and sometimes it’s to the detriment of what some people like about Star Trek - and sometimes it brings in new people.
I like Star Trek to be ethics porn about IDIC being more powerful than raw power. About the value of an education, team work, structure, and trust. I like it when the most tense action scene is a walk down a hallway - but I also like a bit of space pew pew sometimes. The new shows alienate me when they focus too much on physical action, individual exceptionalism, and a grimdark future.
snw is actually quite less “woke” than STD, std has all no-men crew by season 4, it was pretty obvious, and the lgbtq+ people have largely been marginalized by that time too, after they served a purpose in season 1.
i think by SNW they realized how bad some of the characthers and how they are overly pushed as the leads.
Personally, of the new Star Trek that’s come along since the Kelvin timeline was started the only thing I’m taking into my personal canon is Lower Decks. The rest has been completely meh at best, downright awful at worst. Most of it I’ve simply let pass out of mind and memory.
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It’s part of a general problem where old trek is basically competence porn (everyone is ridiculously competent at their jobs) while in new Trek everyone kinda acts like a teenager. Maybe it’s a desperate attempt to appeal to a younger audience (I don’t think that actually works tho), but it certainly doesn’t appeal to fans of older Trek.
It definitely breaks immersion to have characters that have serious jobs acting like teenagers.
This is literally about people who don’t know how to do the job, being taught how to do the job.
I thought the captain was the one that supposed to teach them how to do the job? Why is she acting like a teenager? How are they supposed to learn how to stop acting like teenagers and take their jobs seriously if the captain is acting this way too?
Yeah it’s just a show, but characters in a show should be acting as if the world they’re in is real. It breaks immersion when they don’t.
There’s a general fear of being genuine with characters in a lot of shows and movies, and it’s gotten really old. It’s really cringey at this point.
It would be nice to have a show about people on a spaceship acting like people that are really on a spaceship that have serious jobs. It’s boring to have yet another show where it’s just people acting like youtube influencers on some spaceship sets. People that actually like vapid youtube influencers will only just watch clips from these shows, so what’s the point of trying to appeal to that crowd?
Do you think she’s acting like a teenager in a substantive way, or just in her style?
I like her irreverent attitude and I don’t consider that childish. She doesn’t act impulsively, thoughtlessly, or disrespectfully. She takes her job seriously. She intentionally goes against the grain of traditional military stuffiness because she is decidedly not trying to train a military.
The underlying military culture of classic Trek made sense at the time, but we can do better. I’m actually optimistic about SFA and that’s almost entirely thanks to Hunter’s portrayal of Ake.
It’s not just military captains that are responsible for the lives of those onboard their ship. That’s true for the captain of any ship. Even on a cruise ship. Read about the Costa Concordia. Captain didn’t take the job seriously bent the rules and a bunch of people died. That captain sounded like he’d be a fun guy to go have a beer with at a bar or whatever, but he had no business being the captain of a ship.
And this is my point. You want a show with a bunch of people that seem like they’d be fun to hang out with. I want a show about people that are actually good at their jobs. Sure they aren’t really on a spaceship, so none of it really matters. But it’s more interesting to me to see someone commanding a ship that’s actually acting like someone commanding a ship. otherwise it’s just actors on a spaceship set being quirky. The responsibilities of command the ethical dilemmas that come with that, that’s interesting. A captain is someone the crew should respect, not someone they want to hang out with because she’s like your quirky aunt.
Besides that, isn’t she supposed to be training these people? What happens when these cadets finish their training and get assigned to a captain that’s not a quirky auntie type? In real life the drill sergeants that train people are the most hard ass people around so when people complete training they’re ready for anything.
And I’m pretty sure people in the federation aren’t required to be in starfleet. It’s something like a combo between NASA and the military both of which demand a high degree of discipline. Even in a utopian future there will be jobs that it’s dangerous to have people that fuck around doing those jobs. Physics can be harsh and I think the vacuum of space will kill people even in a utopian future. Just that in a utopian future people will volunteer for those jobs knowing the risks and knowing they will need to be disciplined when doing the dangerous work.
I agree with what you’re saying; I just don’t see it in Ake’s behavior (perhaps because I am a few episodes behind).
I haven’t seen her behave irresponsibly or take the safety of her students lightly. Lounging and going barefoot are not safety issues, unless you consider all forms of unconventionality to be unprofessional, and all forms of unprofessionalism to be irresponsible.
What I see in Ake is someone who takes her job seriously, and is conscientious about what deserves her care and attention – and what doesn’t.
Lounging and going barefoot are not safety issues, unless you consider all forms of unconventionality to be unprofessional, and all forms of unprofessionalism to be irresponsible.
It’s a morale issue, which a competent captain would be aware of. Crew members see that and think “if the captain doesn’t give a shit, why should I?” Crew starts blowing off their duties which would ultimately result in a safety issue.
There’s a reason why people in positions of responsibility behave the way they do when in front of others. I’m sure Picard lounged around in his quarters reading books or whatever, but when called to the bridge he’d put on his game face and behave in a way that commands respect in front of the crew. It’s part of the job of being captain.
That’s when I cashed in my mental chips.
Now is about authenticity though. When I was young being an adult was all about being buttoned down and having no emotions, and definitely never openly being queer. If we genuinely believe that we’ve made any progress as a society by unmasking, then obviously a far future utopia should at least meet the low watermark we have set in learning to accept ourselves and each other.
Making a show about that would be genuine. Making a show about spaceship needs to portray a functioning spaceship. If it doesn’t care about the functioning of the spaceship, it’s just some actors on a set. Why bother with the spaceship set at all if everyone has to accept everything about everyone, even if it negatively impacts their ability to do their job?
One of the most interesting episodes of TNG was when Jellico was temporarily assigned as Captain of the Enterprise. He had a real hard ass leadership style, Riker didn’t like it and was confined to quarters, nobody liked him. Given it’s Star Trek, you assume that it’s going to turn out he was evil. But nope, he accomplished the mission Picard came back and resumed being captain. Leaving the audience with the question, was Jellico the asshole, or was Riker the asshole.
There were a few episodes where Data was in command and he wasn’t respected because he’s an android.
The thing about having a show about a future where everyone is accepting of one another and there is no interpersonal conflict is that is boring as hell. Considering the responsibilities of command, having interpersonal conflicts makes things interesting. Having a captain that acts like a teenager and everyone is cool with it, and the audience need to be cool with it because that’s just how things are in the future is incredibly boring.
And the show may take place in the future, but the audience lives in the present day. The ship needs to function in a way that someone grounded in how ships function in the present day, otherwise how are we supposed to know when the captain has crossed the line and when the captain is doing things that are normal for a captain to do?
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She’s the captain and chairman, she does whatever the fuck she wants. Those losers probably won’t even make it to Starfleet pre-selection.
Also, when you love Trek, you love all of them and are happy to have something new in the IP.
Kate Mulgrew is awesome.
I like star trek starfleet academy for the most part. What I don’t like about the show is that I can’t watch it with my kids yet.
to be fair prodigy would be better than the current Nutrek series, shouldnt have let Kurtzman or whoever is a predecessor take over it.
Prodigy is great!
I like the captain. The show is alright; I think I’m too old to be the target audience but that’s ok. Seems to be directed at teens.
Every scene is so busy and glossy. The robots going around bear an uncanny resemblence to the Star Wars prequels (“it’s so dense; every single frame has so many things going on”). The teen angst and romance doesn’t exactly fit into what star trek means to me, but we did get a bit of that here and there in earlier series. Like in Discovery, IMO there’s too much focus on exceptional individuals and less on teamwork. To me it seems like it’s trying to be many things at once. Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter mixed up in a Star Trek setting. I’m a bit sad we aren’t pretending Discovery was a bad dream, but I can live with it.
… but, there is some star trek here, and I like those parts.
When I say that I don’t like how she lounges in her chair as a Starfleet captain, that’s not disrespectful, it’s just my opinion. Otherwise, the series is okay; it deserves a chance.
It was a long warp, she needed a book to keep her mind busy. I’d hate to have a boring dumb captain who just sits there all warp.
Isn’t that what the ready room is for? Captain chills out reads a book or whatever in a room next to the bridge, but they are ready to go out to the bridge and conduct themself formally when they get out there.
Good point. Picard needed a whole ass room to read his books. Chancellor Ake is ready for battle in two seconds flat.
