Redshirts Roundtable: The Outlook of Star Trek Discovery

“An Obol For Charon” — Ep #204 – Pictured (l-r): Doug Jones as Saru; Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Photo Cr: Michael Gibson/CBS © 2018 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.

Elliot Thorpe:

Sometimes, we fans feel that we have some sort of ownership, that we have the right to demand changes if something doesn’t fit our view.

I guess it’s wanting to protect what we love and cherish.  When Discovery was first announced I was excited and apprehensive. Another prequel series, when Enterprise left a bad taste in some people’s mouths?

The fact that it didn’t look ‘retro’ was of no consequence (Enterprise didn’t either!). I guess I worried that they’d play around with canon, there’d be a sense of displacement in the overall arc. Yet I pushed that to one side, forming the opinion that Discovery would simply be a different version of Star Trek (just as the Abramsverse is).

But as the series was launched, I couldn’t get enough of it: I welcomed it, embraced it and – here’s the important bit – accepted it. Maybe it was a little dark (hello, DS9!), maybe a little off-beat (hello, Voyager!) but it was definitely absorbing (hello, TNG!). And now we have Season 2: more adventurous, more humorous, a proto-Kirk in Pike, edging slowly towards a Star Trek we know (hello, TOS!) and 100% fitting with canon. I’m in.

And in deep.