Star Trek: Discovery shouldn't be penalized for taking risks

When Star Trek: Discovery debuted in 2017, the producers and team behind it knew the show had big shoes to fill. They could have slid into the mold and tried to recreate Star Trek: The Next Generation. Maybe more fans would have liked it that way, but in all fairness, everything changes. No Star Trek series has been the same since The Original Series. And they all had things about them that some people didn't like.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took a big risk by setting the series on a space station instead of having the crew aboard a spaceship, and some people have said that Gene Roddenberry would never have approved of it. But it amassed fans who remained dedicated watchers to this day...all because it took a risk, which is exactly what Discovery did.

Were there highs and lows? Absolutely. Some things that worked and others that didn't? Absolutely. But we can say that about every Star Trek series. There are fans who never liked Captain Jonathan Archer [Scott Bakula] and still don't to this day. But he was a big "get" for Star Trek: Enterprise just like Sonequa Martin-Green was for Discovery.

Many fans disagree with Captain Michael Burham being Spock's half-sister, but they don't necessarily dislike the end result which was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. And they take exception with her committing mutiny in the pilot episode, but fans also took issue with Captain Janeway's [Kate Mulgrew] choice when it came to Tuvix. And plenty of the other Star Trek captains have made questionable choices.

Yes, Discovery did some things that fans didn't like, but that doesn't make it overall a bad show. There were plenty of good things about it just like there were plenty of bad things about the others. There is no perfect version of Star Trek. They've all had episodes we'd rather not watch again as well as those that have made us smile, laugh, cry, and cringe. They've all had characters we didn't like from the beginning. Yet, we continued to watch because of the other characters.

Discovery had a plethora of characters that were worth watching and some that were much like Neelix of Star Trek: Voyager. But there were some really great battle scenes, personal growth and development, a crew coming together as a family, and the classic "never give up" attitude that was found on all Star Trek series.

And above all, we got to visit new worlds, discover new technology, and see the way Starfleet is being run in the 32nd century. No, it wasn't all great entertainment, but it wasn't all bad, either, especially if you continued on past the first season, which was, admittedly, its weakest season. But hasn't that been true of several of the Trek series?