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Star Trek Lukewarm Takes. I can't really call these hot takes, because from what I can see a lot of people agree with me on some of them.
Disco is a mess continuity wise. Michael Burnham was widely known as a traitor and thought to be the cause of the start of a war. In the TOS era, somehow, James T. Kirk clearly doesn't know about Spock's sister.
So far, this is not unpossible.
Disco had time shenanigans, and this could always account for everything. And they didn't do that. I was looking for them to do that at the end of season 2 and they didn't. Michael was just declared a state secret. But, that doesn't erase the memories of... at the very least the entirety of the Star Fleet. Possibly all of the Federation.
Michael and the Disco crew are now in the far future and presumably no more pre-TOS time shenanigans will occur. SNW is going forward in the current timeline. We are just going forward as-if declaring it a state secret erased memories.
Disco wanted to re-contextualize TOS but they did it in ways that didn't make sense and didn't track for the characters. This may not be their fault. The show was going to be a Bryan Fuller show but then Bryan Fuller Bryan Fuller'd. I love the guy, the Hannibal TV series is a genius work of art... but he doesn't have a good track record as a showrunner. If he had remained showrunner, maybe he had a plan to pull this off, maybe not. The show was developed to be one thing and was another. I think they may be why they are pretending the entire set up of the show never happened.
Strange New Worlds is actually more aggressively re-contextualizing TOS, but in ways that make emotional sense for the characters.
T'Pring is the OG female hated by slash fandom. There is no reason not to hate her, until now. Fandom's assumption had always been that Sarek choose poorly for his son out of wanting to shape him a certain way. In the new context, Sarek... chose well and Spock was very happy with the situation. Spock wanted this union. But something clearly went wrong over their 7 years apart. T'Pring being a good choice makes more sense for kind, famously-wise Sarek and also for Spock's reactions. They took aim at the most well known episode, changed the context and made it all make more sense. They didn't undermine anything.
They are also likely setting up Spock's actions during The Menagerie tracking better.
Disco doesn't give a crap about TOS era characters or relationships. It undermines them. Someone, I think Bryan himself, said the show wasn't going to treat TOS as 'sacred' the way most shows do.
SNW, so far, has taken aim at specific episodes, changed them, but in ways that don't undermine them or character relationships. Also, it sounds like they are canonizing some of the early Trek novel canon? That is a bold move. Especially since some of those novels were slashy as hell. Like, intentionally. Some of the novels were slash writers just barely holding back enough to get published.
SNW might be fluffy and more comedic, but it's also digging right into the canon and metaphorically dealing with serious issues.
Una needs to pass as human within the Federation. She was born a crime.
Spock is the opposite. His behavior is highly policed at home, people looking for reasons to consider him sus. Star Fleet is a relief, because he can be himself.
Spock's refuge is Una's cage. Conflicting needs concerning who they really are and what gives them safety. There is already a lot of depth to the themes here.
Now they've they've flung Disco out of pre-quel timeline and into far future it can be it's own show and do what it wants. I like that TPTB kinda went 'nope, no more prequelling for you'.
Disco is a mess continuity wise. Michael Burnham was widely known as a traitor and thought to be the cause of the start of a war. In the TOS era, somehow, James T. Kirk clearly doesn't know about Spock's sister.
So far, this is not unpossible.
Disco had time shenanigans, and this could always account for everything. And they didn't do that. I was looking for them to do that at the end of season 2 and they didn't. Michael was just declared a state secret. But, that doesn't erase the memories of... at the very least the entirety of the Star Fleet. Possibly all of the Federation.
Michael and the Disco crew are now in the far future and presumably no more pre-TOS time shenanigans will occur. SNW is going forward in the current timeline. We are just going forward as-if declaring it a state secret erased memories.
Disco wanted to re-contextualize TOS but they did it in ways that didn't make sense and didn't track for the characters. This may not be their fault. The show was going to be a Bryan Fuller show but then Bryan Fuller Bryan Fuller'd. I love the guy, the Hannibal TV series is a genius work of art... but he doesn't have a good track record as a showrunner. If he had remained showrunner, maybe he had a plan to pull this off, maybe not. The show was developed to be one thing and was another. I think they may be why they are pretending the entire set up of the show never happened.
Strange New Worlds is actually more aggressively re-contextualizing TOS, but in ways that make emotional sense for the characters.
T'Pring is the OG female hated by slash fandom. There is no reason not to hate her, until now. Fandom's assumption had always been that Sarek choose poorly for his son out of wanting to shape him a certain way. In the new context, Sarek... chose well and Spock was very happy with the situation. Spock wanted this union. But something clearly went wrong over their 7 years apart. T'Pring being a good choice makes more sense for kind, famously-wise Sarek and also for Spock's reactions. They took aim at the most well known episode, changed the context and made it all make more sense. They didn't undermine anything.
They are also likely setting up Spock's actions during The Menagerie tracking better.
Disco doesn't give a crap about TOS era characters or relationships. It undermines them. Someone, I think Bryan himself, said the show wasn't going to treat TOS as 'sacred' the way most shows do.
SNW, so far, has taken aim at specific episodes, changed them, but in ways that don't undermine them or character relationships. Also, it sounds like they are canonizing some of the early Trek novel canon? That is a bold move. Especially since some of those novels were slashy as hell. Like, intentionally. Some of the novels were slash writers just barely holding back enough to get published.
SNW might be fluffy and more comedic, but it's also digging right into the canon and metaphorically dealing with serious issues.
Una needs to pass as human within the Federation. She was born a crime.
Spock is the opposite. His behavior is highly policed at home, people looking for reasons to consider him sus. Star Fleet is a relief, because he can be himself.
Spock's refuge is Una's cage. Conflicting needs concerning who they really are and what gives them safety. There is already a lot of depth to the themes here.
Now they've they've flung Disco out of pre-quel timeline and into far future it can be it's own show and do what it wants. I like that TPTB kinda went 'nope, no more prequelling for you'.
