I just watched the first two episodes and I'm sold. If you're looking for the more cerebral Trek with an alien-of-the-week allegory about life or politics or society, then this show will not be giving you that sort of Trek experience.
Some might say that IS the Trek experience, but I'm not one for being so beholden to tradition.
Instead the show focuses on the people, not necessarily the situation. Michael is a solid and interesting character, and while the show is more dark and gritty, in alignment with the newer Trek movies, it's not bleak.
The three things people complain about:
The Klingons - I just have to stop and say that I love the new redesign of the Klingons. That tired 90's Michael Bolton haircut was doing nobody any favors. In some respects through the course of the various series, the Klingons lost their edge and mystique, they became a caricature of themselves. They were overdue for some changes.
Continuity with the Original Series - Yes, none of this looks like it takes place before the low-budget 1960's version. But it does fit with the JJ Abrams version, and that's the one that's making money. For what it is, it looks great.
CBS All Access - It was announced when the show was first introduced that it would be exclusively on CBS All Access. No one should be surprised by this point about that. Streaming is where everything is heading, and with cord cutters ditching the traditional cable model and pushing for the past 10 years for a la carte pricing, you had to see this kind of thing coming. I'm a cord cutter and this kind of model appeals to me. I love being able to pick and choose my entertainment like this. I like being able to add and subtract services as needed. I added Starz so I could watch American Gods, and subtracted it when the season was over. And it was painless to subscribe and unsubscribe to because it's all in my Google Play account. CBS All Access works the same way. When the season is over, I just have to click "cancel" and done. No fights with salespeople!
The problem with Trek has always been in it's limited appeal. It has a small, but strong and vocal audience. The shows kept getting canceled because there just isn't enough audience to sustain it for very long. If CBS wanted to cater specifically to that audience of aging Trek fans, then they would have tried to keep it as true to the original series as possible. Obviously they've decided to make it appeal to a wider, modern audience. The thing you hear about people who were never Trek fans until the JJ Abrams movies is that the show felt boring and unwelcoming. It felt exclusive, not inclusive. Like you had to have a degree in thermodynamics to "get it". You don't, but that's the stigma the show had regardless. Besides, you go back and watch any of the previous series in 2017 and they seem campy and hokey by today's standards.
A cerebral show designed to look perfectly like it fits 10 years before Shatner's Kirk would get at least some of the die-hard fans, and probably last one season on network TV. And CBS would probably never touch a Star Trek TV series again. This has obviously been designed to appeal to a modern, non-Trek audience, and to be more accessible to new fans by focusing on character and story more than the allegorical and metaphorical aspects. And it works, in my opinion. We have a much more engaging story, more emotional, and more intimate in some ways than previous series.
It's great SciFi and a welcome reintroduction of Trek to a modern audience. I recommend giving it a chance.
Some might say that IS the Trek experience, but I'm not one for being so beholden to tradition.
Instead the show focuses on the people, not necessarily the situation. Michael is a solid and interesting character, and while the show is more dark and gritty, in alignment with the newer Trek movies, it's not bleak.
The three things people complain about:
The Klingons - I just have to stop and say that I love the new redesign of the Klingons. That tired 90's Michael Bolton haircut was doing nobody any favors. In some respects through the course of the various series, the Klingons lost their edge and mystique, they became a caricature of themselves. They were overdue for some changes.
Continuity with the Original Series - Yes, none of this looks like it takes place before the low-budget 1960's version. But it does fit with the JJ Abrams version, and that's the one that's making money. For what it is, it looks great.
CBS All Access - It was announced when the show was first introduced that it would be exclusively on CBS All Access. No one should be surprised by this point about that. Streaming is where everything is heading, and with cord cutters ditching the traditional cable model and pushing for the past 10 years for a la carte pricing, you had to see this kind of thing coming. I'm a cord cutter and this kind of model appeals to me. I love being able to pick and choose my entertainment like this. I like being able to add and subtract services as needed. I added Starz so I could watch American Gods, and subtracted it when the season was over. And it was painless to subscribe and unsubscribe to because it's all in my Google Play account. CBS All Access works the same way. When the season is over, I just have to click "cancel" and done. No fights with salespeople!
The problem with Trek has always been in it's limited appeal. It has a small, but strong and vocal audience. The shows kept getting canceled because there just isn't enough audience to sustain it for very long. If CBS wanted to cater specifically to that audience of aging Trek fans, then they would have tried to keep it as true to the original series as possible. Obviously they've decided to make it appeal to a wider, modern audience. The thing you hear about people who were never Trek fans until the JJ Abrams movies is that the show felt boring and unwelcoming. It felt exclusive, not inclusive. Like you had to have a degree in thermodynamics to "get it". You don't, but that's the stigma the show had regardless. Besides, you go back and watch any of the previous series in 2017 and they seem campy and hokey by today's standards.
A cerebral show designed to look perfectly like it fits 10 years before Shatner's Kirk would get at least some of the die-hard fans, and probably last one season on network TV. And CBS would probably never touch a Star Trek TV series again. This has obviously been designed to appeal to a modern, non-Trek audience, and to be more accessible to new fans by focusing on character and story more than the allegorical and metaphorical aspects. And it works, in my opinion. We have a much more engaging story, more emotional, and more intimate in some ways than previous series.
It's great SciFi and a welcome reintroduction of Trek to a modern audience. I recommend giving it a chance.