All the Star Trek, Always, Forever- Interested?

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lowkey13 said:

First, is this enough to get people to purchase CBS- All Access?

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I actually had CBS All Access for a year before ST came out. I will not go back. Discussions about paying for a single channel aside, it was a legitimately terrible service.

For example, it didn't just have commercials. It had commercial breaks that were sometimes 5 commercials long. But there were a limited number advertisers, so it was common to literally see the same commercial two or three times in a single break.

Also, the app would automatically rewind a few seconds when left paused. This meant that if you paused right after a commercial break (common if someone went away for the break and was late getting back to the room), it would automatically rewind to right before the commercial break. It would then force you to watch the same commercials again when you resumed.

There was no way to fast forward past commercials. Understandable. However, the app would only remember your place on a limited number of shows. So, imagine you stopped watching an episode halfway through one night, then someone else watched a couple shows the next day. When you came back the next night, you might have to watch 15 commercials in a row trying to watch the conclusion of your show.

Remember when commercials were louder than the TV shows? This was a problem for awhile in the US. The FCC actually passed legislation to make it illegal for broadcasters. That law doesn't apply to CBS All Access. It was common to have to turn the volume down when commercials came on, then back up when the show came back.

The interface was also generally terrible. It was slow on both my Roku and Shield. By default it split shows into "Daytime" and "Primetime" categories, as if that matters to the viewers. And it didn't have parental controls.

Maybe it's better now. Maybe I'm just bitter. Maybe I didn't have enough coffee today. But IMNSHO, CBS:AA breaks a fundamental rule of digital content: pirating literally provides a better service than the paid one.

It's not that bad via Prime. No lag. I think the ads if any are at the beginning, and mainly for other CBS programs, just like Prime. Watching other CBS broadcast shows could be an issue. Like God Friended Me, the most recent episodes may not be available for several days. You can pay per episode and watch right away. Discovery and other online only content is not like that. There is another scifi show called Strange Angel. It's a period piece set in the 1940s or 50s. Also the Short Treks mentioned in the article are available.

Umbran said:

It is an extra subscription, for which you must pay.

Wait... it may be that you need to pay if you want to avoid ads......

dingdingdingding! WE HAVE A WINNER! Thank you, Aeson, for raising this.

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oh nice!

Mercurius said:

Star Trek, like Star Wars, peaked decades ago, and everything since has been a lesser, paler version. For Star Wars it was the original trilogy. In my opinion, while I have enjoyed much of what came later to varying degrees, everything (and I mean everything) lessened the "artistic legacy" of Star Wars.

Star Trek is less distinct, but for me the high point was Wrath of Khan. What else could it be? Everything after was a diminishing, with some ups and downs. I don't think later films and shows diminished the legacy as much as with Star Wars, but nothing really strengthened it. There were a couple later peaks (e.g. ​the Borg film), but mostly tapering off. Thinning.

I watched the first half season of Discovery and haven't felt pulled to finish it. I may or may not, but it was pretty forgettable. Star Trek has always been a combination of the strength and chemistry of the central characters and the conceptual stuff; the original series (and films) had the best characters. NextGen had some good characters, but not quite as good, but the conceptual stuff was mostly equal. Discovery seemed to be a step down in both.

The problem is trying to recreate the past. It is very, very hard to reboot or redo something in an equal or better way. Better to start something new. Why Star Trek? There's name recognition of course, and hopeful Trekkies. But how about a new franchise? Film/tv is so ridiculously derivative...there are so few fresh ideas. Occasonally we get a Snowpiercer or an Interstellar, but the reboots and rehashes...it is just creative recycling, with diminishing returns.

(All of which is my way of saying, I am very skeptical of any future Trek enterprises...ahem, pun intended).

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IDK, man, DS9 has some of the best Trek there's ever been. Same with TNG. I don't think any of it diminished Trek. Not even Enterprise, in spite of how bad season 3 was. Of course, I don't absolutely vociferously despise the time war plotline like a lot of other nerds do, so...YMMV.

doctorbadwolf said:

IDK, man, DS9 has some of the best Trek there's ever been. Same with TNG. I don't think any of it diminished Trek. Not even Enterprise, in spite of how bad season 3 was. Of course, I don't absolutely vociferously despise the time war plotline like a lot of other nerds do, so...YMMV.

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Call me one of those nerds then because I hated the Temporal Cold War storyline, when I'd been hoping to see the founding of the Federation.

DS9 definitely had some of the best modern storylines, once it picked up the writers from TNG. In particular I remember the episode in which Sisko lamented having to fool a Romulan diplomat with a fake recording of a Cardassian meeting and the diplomat being killed after he discovered the fake, and ending the episode by essentially saying that he'd do it all again.

Ryujin said:

Call me one of those nerds then because I hated the Temporal Cold War storyline, when I'd been hoping to see the founding of the Federation.

DS9 definitely had some of the best modern storylines, once it picked up the writers from TNG. In particular I remember the episode in which Sisko lamented having to fool a Romulan diplomat with a fake recording of a Cardassian meeting and the diplomat being killed after he discovered the fake, and ending the episode by essentially saying that he'd do it all again.

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Hey, even the OS had bad episodes, and bad movies.

But for me, the high point of Trek was either First Contact, or the entire Dominion War in DS9. The first season and end of the last season of enterprise were also excellent.

Voyager was really fun, but didn’t have any arcs or episodes that really gripped me like every other series had.

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doctorbadwolf said:

Hey, even the OS had bad episodes, and bad movies.

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"What does God need with a starship?!?"

And, let us face it, "Star Trek: The MOtion Picture" was not an example of a thing... that actually had a plot.

Wrath of Khan and the Voyage Home, however, were probably the best movies, for me.

the entire Dominion War in DS9. The first season and end of the last season of enterprise were also excellent.

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I kind of like them all, but the Dominion War had some great stuff in it. And the last season of Enterprise, when they handed things over to Manny Coto... that was what the entire series should have been, and it was good stuff.

Voyager was really fun, but didn’t have any arcs or episodes that really gripped me like every other series had.

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I have been considering doing a rewatch of Voyager....

Umbran said:

"What does God need with a starship?!?"

And, let us face it, "Star Trek: The MOtion Picture" was not an example of a thing... that actually had a plot.

Wrath of Khan and the Voyage Home, however, were probably the best movies, for me.

I kind of like them all, but the Dominion War had some great stuff in it. And the last season of Enterprise, when they handed things over to Manny Coto... that was what the entire series should have been, and it was good stuff.

I have been considering doing a rewatch of Voyager....

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ST:TMP suffered from going through multiple SFX companies and a plot that was at least partly stolen from two different ST:TOS episodes, mashed together.

Wrath of Khan was probably the peak from a fun and watchable point of view, for me, but The Voyage Home is a close second. The TNG movies fell flat for me.

The last couple of Enterprise episodes showed us what the whole thing could have been, if writers/producers hadn't been living in an echo chamber the whole time.

*EDIT* One first run I had written off many of the Voyager episiodes as essentially "Borgwatch." On second/third/fifth viewing I've come to understand that there's a fair bit of nuance in some of them.