Star Wars / Star Trek Discussion (SciFi In General)

[DeadPoolX]

On the subject of Star Trek Discovery (or its far more entertaining abbreviation, STD), apparently CBS and Netflix are being sued for copyright infringement over the similarities between the characters, story, situations, and even the "blue tardigrade" between STD and a game developer's project.

I know this sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, but if you watch SidAlpha's video about it and the evidence presented, you'll see that someone basically took a huge amount of information from this game, mixed it up a tiny bit, and slapped a Star Trek label on the cover to make STD. Given how little STD resembled Star Trek (even the JJ Abrams ST movies weren't as off the mark and that's saying something considering the mess those films were) I'm not really surprised to see this.

[Collector]

Star Trek is not so much about "lore". There is canon, but that is more for consistency's sake of Trek's "future history". SW and Trek are about very different things. SW is creating a mythology as per Lucas' discussions with Joseph Campbell before creating SW. Trek is more of a philosophy. It is about a hopeful future history for mankind, realizing his potential. It is about exploration and big ideas. It is about what we can be. As I said before, while Trek has used action to advance a story, it has never been *about* action. Jar Jar didn't like that so he turned his movie take on it into a brainless action flick.

[Tawmis]

On the subject of Star Trek Discovery (or its far more entertaining abbreviation, STD), apparently CBS and Netflix are being sued for copyright infringement over the similarities between the characters, story, situations, and even the "blue tardigrade" between STD and a game developer's project. I know this sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, but if you watch SidAlpha's video about it and the evidence presented, you'll see that someone basically took a huge amount of information from this game, mixed it up a tiny bit, and slapped a Star Trek label on the cover to make STD. Given how little STD resembled Star Trek (even the JJ Abrams ST movies weren't as off the mark and that's saying something considering the mess those films were) I'm not really surprised to see this.

Dude. Watching that Youtube video... there's no way it's a coincidence that the characters from the show look pretty damn close to the characters in the video game... and the other things that are entirely too similar... it's like whoever wrote STD didn't even try to hide it... thinking no one is ever going to know of some small indie game...

[MusicallyInspired]

I recently became aware of this controversy from a video on YouTube. Pretty scummy and a horrible tarnish on Trek's name. I hope that person gets millions over this.

[notbobsmith]

On the subject of Star Trek Discovery (or its far more entertaining abbreviation, STD)

I think the generally accepted abbreviation is DIS to fit the theme of the others (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT). On an unrelated note, I'm seeing STI (infection rather than disease) more and more often. But I digress.

That does seem a lot more that a coincidence. I mean just using tardigrade alone. I just find it odd that this would even be on anyone's radar. All they had to do was use some other microscopic species and that would probably have deflected most of the attention. Why is Netflix named in the suit? They weren't involved in production.

The problem I had with DIS's first season was that the whole season was about one thing: the war. That limits the stories that you can tell. With TNG you could have an action epsode, a character study, a moral episode and the occasional funny one. It didn't just have to be one thing all the time.

[Tawmis]

The problem I had with DIS's first season was that the whole season was about one thing: the war. That limits the stories that you can tell. With TNG you could have an action epsode, a character study, a moral episode and the occasional funny one. It didn't just have to be one thing all the time.

I am curious if they're targeting the "next generation" (no pun intended, I swear).

But this new age of adults are folks that have now grown up with smart phones (phone, calculator, camera, netflix, youtube, apps, etc. at the palm of your hands), DVRs that can record shows (and thus bypass commercials), Twitter (social media) allows you to voice your anger directly at the people you want to shout at (and form angry mobs) - it seems instant gratification is a must and many have zero attention span.

And this is, of course, not to say all folks hitting adulthood these days are like this; but there is a certain amount of vanity and immediate gratification these days that people expect.

That generation of short attention span, makes those funny episodes, less appealing. They want those episodes that are action packed and keep their brains firing on all cylinders.

[MusicallyInspired]

Interesting point. Because the original TOS, TNG, and to a certain extent DS9, and VOY episodes were all "weekly reset" because there wasn't really a concept back then of following an ongoing continuing story episode by episode. These days people have a lesser attention span, yes, but yet pretty much all of our shows are these ongoing odysseys that are always continuing into the next episode and don't have that "weekly reset" approach. With your Walking Deads, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, etc. It's a fascinating contradiction. People don't have the attention for one-off episodes lol.

[Tawmis]

Interesting point. Because the original TOS, TNG, and to a certain extent DS9, and VOY episodes were all "weekly reset" because there wasn't really a concept back then of following an ongoing continuing story episode by episode. These days people have a lesser attention span, yes, but yet pretty much all of our shows are these ongoing odysseys that are always continuing into the next episode and don't have that "weekly reset" approach. With your Walking Deads, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, etc. It's a fascinating contradiction. People don't have the attention for one-off episodes lol.

Because I've never seen Breaking Bad (a sin, I've heard), but for Game of Thrones and Walking Dead (stopped watching it many seasons ago; when they were still using the prison as base) - both of those shows are non stop action, fulfilling that need for keeping the brain fired up. So they can be episodic in nature, because they cram so much action into it. (I am sure, for Game of Thrones at least, the ultra-violence and sex probably holds people's attention too).

[MusicallyInspired]

Nah, I can't agree there. Walking Dead had its fair share (but not majority) of episodes where you didn't even see a single zombie walker. Game of Thrones also had a near entire season of filler nonsense where nothing exciting happened whatsoever. So they definitely exist. But people still watch it.

[Collector]

They want those episodes that are action packed and keep their brains firing on all cylinders.

A lust for action would be more for putting the cognitive parts of the brain on autopilot or even turning it off.


One thing that I have noticed is that shows based on a continuing plot are usually far less rewatchable than those with episodes that stand alone. No matter how good I might have originally found a continuing series I remember the overarching narrative more than I do an individual show. Since each episode is only part of that it does not stand up well on its own. In reruns one is far less likely to see every episode in its proper order, so that narrative falls apart. This is why the second half of DS9 does not work so well for me as the first. While I liked B5 when it first aired it does not hold up in reruns.

[MusicallyInspired]

I've never liked DS9. Not the characters nor many of the stories. Also, it seemed to fly in the face of everything Star Trek stood for. The Federation was supposed to be all about peace. The enlightenment of mankind. And the alliance with the Klingons was kind of the ultimate expression of that in TNG showing that even the bitter rivals of the Federation in TOS can come join together. Then the alliance fell apart and the Federation went to war. That really rubbed me the wrong way. Everyone calls it more "Adult" and "Dark" but I don't consider that a good thing. Most people despised Voyaged but I liked it. Voyager was where I went to get my sci-fi fix. DS9 was a drama show and not much else.

Those battle scenes were awesome, though.

[Collector]

Agreed on both points.

[DeadPoolX]

I never watched DS9, so I can't comment on it. Honestly, a show based around a space station didn't seem that appealing to me.

Out of all the "Next Generation" shows, my favorite is Voyager, which oddly enough, a lot of people really dislike. I tried to get into TNG, but I just couldn't. That said, I liked the movies with the TNG cast, but the show was of no interest to me at all.

I really like TOS, despite how melodramatic and cheesy it can be at times. Also, a TOS episode ("The City on the Edge of Forever") was my first introduction to the concept of time travel and how the slightest action can have far-reaching consequences. As a kid, the entire idea was mind-blowing to me.

I think I saw one episode of Enterprise, but didn't bother continuing. It didn't look terrible, but I had other stuff to watch that held my interest more.

[MusicallyInspired]

Enterprise was....alright. The first couple seasons are pretty bland. The third season is more out of character for enlightened post-WW3 Star Trek humanity than DS9 was by going on a war mission in the heart of an unexplored area of space to take revenge on an alien species called the Xindi who Starfleet thinks killed some humans or something. Totally bizarre and strange and I hated almost every episode. Season 4 is when it finally started getting good and enjoyable....and then it was cancelled. Really liked Scott Bakula as captain, though.

[Collector]

I like Voyager, too. I like Tim Russ' take on Vulcans. He seemed to capture the dichotomy of the Vulcans' pride and arrogance of their logic and suppression all emotions. I also liked many of the concepts in 7's rediscovery of her humanity and individualism.

with Enterprise I really disliked the Xindi and temporal cold war stories. They should have never used any species not known to or first introduced in TOS. That is the problem with using a time period before shows already done. It makes it too likely that it will break established canon. The 4th season is what the show should have been. To fill in what we know or what has been suggested of that time period. It would have been nice if the series had managed to cover the Romulan War. Too bad that they did not do that instead of the whole Xindi nonsense.