Star Trek, Paramount+, and a Defense of the Greatest Star Trek Captain

[Urriak Uruk]

Unpopular opinion...

OF all the new Star Trek Shows, I actually like Picard the Best.

It's a different take on the Federation. Most of the people participating in the main cast are NOT part of Star Fleet (even if they once were, they no longer are). It's a different picture of life in the Federation. I think this rubs people the wrong way in many ways.

I really liked it though.

That's a pretty good sell to me, I am not fond of the "This show is good, but it doesn't feel like Star Trek" (people say this about Star Wars all the time and I don't like the take there either). I want to watch good TV first, it doesn't have to feel like the same show everytime...

 

[MarkB]

I'm disappointed not to see Dr Culber being included in more of the Doctor rankings. He starts out not getting much attention, like most of the Discovery supporting cast, but he's had a lot of development over the last couple of seasons, and is now a stand-out character in any episode that features him.

He also does "ship's counsellor" a lot better than either Deanna Troi or Ezri Dax.

 

[Staffan]

Here I am reading folks rank doctors when y'all should really be ranking the Villains...

That's because the only show that has proper villains is Deep Space 9, with both Gul Dukat, Kai Winn, Weyoun, and the Lady Changeling. The other shows are left so far behind in the dirt that it's not even funny.

TNG can get some points for Tomalak, but that's only because he's played by Andreas Katsulas who also played G'Kar on Babylon 5, and some of that awesomeness rubbed off on Tomalak retroactively.

 

[Vael]

I was about to say Culber is probably the #1 Doc now. He tends to the emotional needs of the crew, not just the physical. All of the Trek doctors have a certain dispassion or coldness about them, but Culber is all warmth.

While I haven't watched Prodigy yet (I wasn't hooked by the pilot, but I'm planning on giving it another shot given Discovery is on a mid-season break), I've been impressed with all the other modern Trek shows. Discovery has been rocky, but entertainingly rocky, and S4 has settled into a truly impressive show. Picard has been lovely, glad to see all the TNG faces I grew up with and the new cast has also been quite good. Lower Decks has astonished me. I hated the first half of S1, didn't care for Boimler or Mariner as characters. So the turnaround from hate to absolute love is impressive.

 

[payn]

Villain list,
Dukat
Khan
Captain Lorca
Borg
Dominion Founders

Hard to do. So many conflicts are phenomena or places in space instead of actual characters. The Borg really came off strong as a scary ass villain, but they got way too much exposure and are all over the place. Its diluted their impact for me, though I still love a good Borg story. I thought about mirror universe Phillipa, but I think they are going for an Elam Garrack kind of thing with the character instead of a villain.

 

[MarkB]

Villain list,
Dukat
Khan
Captain Lorca
Borg
Dominion Founders

Hard to do. So many conflicts are phenomena or places in space instead of actual characters. The Borg really came off strong as a scary ass villain, but they got way too much exposure and are all over the place. Its diluted their impact for me, though I still love a good Borg story. I thought about mirror universe Phillipa, but I think they are going for an Elam Garrack kind of thing with the character instead of a villain.

Pakled should be on list. They strong!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Villain list,
Dukat
Khan
Captain Lorca
Borg
Dominion Founders

Hard to do. So many conflicts are phenomena or places in space instead of actual characters. The Borg really came off strong as a scary ass villain, but they got way too much exposure and are all over the place. Its diluted their impact for me, though I still love a good Borg story. I thought about mirror universe Phillipa, but I think they are going for an Elam Garrack kind of thing with the character instead of a villain.

Just for kicks, I took a look at what non-Federation governments are still alive-and-kicking by Picard... and it looks like the Gorn (of the Gorn Hegemony) are still around. It'd be pretty awesome of Lower Decks or something brought these guys back.

 

[ART!]

I feel very similarly to you. Disco was interesting but seemed to misunderstand what makes Star Trek, Star Trek - for the first two seasons. Then they seemed to say, "Oh, you want HOPE and People Backing Each Other Up? YOU GOT IT!"

Now, while perhaps overly sentimental, it's Star Trek dialed at 11. I quite like it.

This is the problem I'm having with DISC now. I have no problem with sentimentality, and I get teary-eyed pretty easily, but DISC has gotten so "lets talk about our feelings" that there was an episode this season in which every single scene consisted almost entirely of talking about their feelings - even while the characters are in the middle of doing action-y things. I could barely stand it. If the show weren't so good-looking, sometimes I think I'd stop watching.

I don't care for Martin-Green's performance, because on top of the above approach, she delivers every single line of dialogue like it's the most important thing she's ever said. It's very Shatnerian, really.

As for Captains, Kirk will always be tops with me - but I am very excited about Anson Mount's Captain Pike in STW.

Are we talking "best" captains, or favorite captains?

Regardless, I'll stick with Kirk for both. I'd happily serve on that ship, because that guy can pull a rabbit out of his hat like nobody else, and would never ask a crewperson to do something he wouldn't do himself.

I haven't watched any of the animated P+ shows yet, but I will get to them eventually. I thought the first season of Picard was...good? I love that they're finally exploring the setting post-Nemesis, but the pacing was kind of off.

 

[Staffan]

Regardless, I'll stick with Kirk for both. I'd happily serve on that ship, because that guy can pull a rabbit out of his hat like nobody else, and would never ask a crewperson to do something he wouldn't do himself.

As long as I can be in the Command or Science branches. Operations, no way.

 

[payn]

As long as I can be in the Command or Science branches. Operations, no way.

Here is your new red shirt cadet!