Star Trek: Discovery

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Name: Star Trek: Discovery
Abbreviation(s): DSC, DIS, DISCO
Creator: Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman
Date(s): September 24, 2017 – present
Medium: Television series
Country of Origin: United States
External Links:
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Star Trek: Discovery is the sixth live-action television series set in the Star Trek universe. It began streaming in September of 2017 on CBS All Access (now Paramount+) and Crave (Canada), and Netflix internationally. From Season Four, the series moved to Paramount+ internationally and Pluto TV in countries that did not yet have access to Paramount+.

Show Synopsis

The show is set roughly ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, and stars a brand new cast of characters.

The first season starts on the starship USS Shenzhou, but moves to the USS Discovery, that gives the title to the series, in the third episode. The season shows the united Klingon houses in a war with the United Federation of Planets that involves the crew of the Discovery.

In the second season the crew of the Discovery investigates seven signals and a mysterious figure known as "The Red Angel". This season includes the USS Enterprise and brings back characters from the original series, like Spock, Christopher Pike and Number One. At the end of the season the main crew ends up traveling nine hundred years into the future. The show's third season begins in this future and adds a new regular character, Cleveland "Book" Booker, to the show.

Characters

Mirror Universe

During Season One, Mirror Universe duplicates of several characters were featured, including:

Fandom

Controversies

In Season 1, some fans of other Star Trek properties disliked DSC because of its seeming disregard for canon. There were fans who were unhappy with the design and portrayal of Klingons. Some fans disliked the futuristic look of the show, as they felt it wasn't in keeping with a prequel to Star Trek: TOS. While many fans recalled similar dislike for new Star Trek movies and TV series in the past, other believed that "Discovery" had gone too far.

First show to rewrite and reimagine an existing Trek era, first show that isn’t episodic, first show centered around a single character instead of an ensemble, first show to make war its central narrative thread, first show behind a paywall. [1]

CBS's decision to release the series on their streaming platform, but only show the first episode live on TV was also disparaged by fans. Many saw it as a blatant attempt to increase subscription numbers, but the series was available outside the US on Netflix.

Some fans unhappy with changes made in "Discovery" edited the series to improve its watchability. Many of these edits were available on torrent sites. One editor explained how and why they edited the series:

Just so some fans know, the new series has been fanedited.
  • Less Micheal [sic] Burnham telling people off
  • Less over the top 80's action hero stuff from the main character
  • No swear words. Star Trek never really needed em
  • No outright gay characters. Now the characters have clues they are gay, and clues they are not. Like what Ridley Scott did with Dekard [sic]. Is he a replicant? He could be, and he might not be.
  • Sarak [sic] now has a more stable and strong character story. He is no longer dressed down by the unkillable, unlikable 80's action hero female.
  • Plus some edits to keep the fight or flight plot tamed down a tad.
These edits where done so my kids will watch the new show. [2]

While some fans didn't believe an openly gay relationship should be shown on a Star Trek show, some LGBT+ fans were also unhappy with the treatment of that relationship, since Hugh Culber dies at the end of the first season. However, after the episode where he dies was released TPTB confirmed that Culber was going to come back in the next season, which eventually happened. By the end of the second season Culmets were together again and the show had introduced another queer character, Jett Reno.

Campaigns

Growing approval of Season Two characters Captain Christopher Pike, Spock and Number One, saw the creation of online fan petitions requesting that CBS consider a Pike-led TV series. As of April 2019, the "change.org" petition had over 11,000 signatures. Pike actor Anson Mount, who had been signed only for the Season Two story arc, responded positively to these campaigns, as did Ethan Peck (Spock).[3] After Star Trek: Short Treks had teased fans, with three new mini-episodes and much secrecy, a full-blown Pike series was eventually announced, entitled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.[4]

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Archives & Fannish Links

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Reddit

References

  1. ^ Comment by Reddit user headvoice73, October 7, 2017.
  2. ^ Star Trek Discovery fanedits posted by Reddit user madmacs, November 20, 2017.
  3. ^ Anson Mount Responds To Fan Petition Calling For Star Trek: Pike Series, April 15, 2019.
  4. ^ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Series With Pike, Spock And Number One Headed To CBS All Access, May 15, 2020.
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