What's everyone up to right now?

[c172]

Germany is having a vote now, and Merkel is expected to stay. Plus, the AfD (anti-Muslim, anti-Immigration, IIRC) is expected to enter the Bundestag.

[KevinM1]

Discovering that the new Star Trek series sucks (see what I did there? )

[Little lunch]

One more hour and my daughter should be arriving back into Australia from Bali.
I've been a bit nervous about the volcano there that is about to erupt at any moment.

[Paraselene]

Drinking some coffee.

---

Discovering that the new Star Trek series sucks (see what I did there? )

It aired on television last night and I only caught snippets of it while I was busy online. I've never really been a fan of Star Trek to begin with, so I probably won't like the new show either.

[Alex K]

Discovering that the new Star Trek series sucks (see what I did there? )

Tell me more.

[Paraselene]

Discovering that the new Star Trek series sucks (see what I did there? )

Tell me more.

https://youtu.be/DOYRLdisrTE

[Clueless Morgan]

Not feeling great today. I'm gonna try and blitz through some work so I can lay down for a bit.

And I just got up out of bed only an hour and a half ago...

Oh well, it's a slow day.

[KevinM1]

Discovering that the new Star Trek series sucks (see what I did there? )

Tell me more.

In the US, Star Trek: Discovery made it's TV debut last night.  Unfortunately, the rest of the series will only be available on CBS' streaming service (outside of the US, it's on Netflix).

It was an hour long premiere and, well, it was dumb as shit.  It takes place in the Prime universe (the one where William Shatner was Kirk rather than Chris Pine), and is an interquel between Enterprise and the original series.  Spoilers follow:

---

The main character - Michael Burnham (don't let the first name fool you... it's a woman) - is the first officer of a starship.  The captain is played by Michelle Yeoh.  It starts with the two of them on a desert planet.  They're there to unclog a well so that the local inhabitants can survive, but they stress the need for secrecy because of the Prime Directive (which makes no sense... the Prime Directive would have these aliens die due to the natural progression of their planet, but whatever).  And even as they clear the well, they're spotted, but nothing actually happens.

A sand/energy storm is approaching faster than Michael thought, and she laments that it's likely the ship can't get a lock on them, and they'll be stuck there for 90+ years (storms last a long time on this planet, apparently).  The captain pays it no mind, and tells her to walk with her.  While they walk, the captain tells Michael that she's been a loyal and good officer for the last 7 years, and deserves her own command.  They finish walking, and then their ship swoops down to get them.  They had walked a path that looked like the classic Starfleet symbol in the sand, and somehow a ship in orbit that couldn't detect them on their scanners could see the symbol below, even though it was only about the size of a football field, and not very deep.  They get beamed aboard.

Meanwhile, the Klingons (who look more like Nemesis' Remans than anything else) lament about the 24 houses being splintered, and that they should reunite under the light of Kahless.

Back on the ship, they're repairing a communications array that's near an asteroid field, which itself is near a binary star system.  The damage to the array is strange... they can't tell if it's from a small asteroid, or if it was deliberately damaged.  They detect a scattering field of some kind, and Michael volunteers to check it out.  Despite the radiation from the stars, and the danger presented by the asteroids, she decides to go out in a space suit so she can mimic the scene where Spock used a suit in The Motion Picture rather than a shuttlecraft.

So, she flies out there, and finds an ornate something.  She can't contact the ship due to the scattering field.  She lands/steps upon it, and then it starts opening up.  She's been detected.  She turns around, and there's a Klingon in an ornate spacesuit wielding a Batt'leth in front of her.  He swings, she ducks, then she rocket boots/shoulder slams into her.  That drives his weapon into himself, killing him, but she's knocked unconscious.

She has a flashback.  She's on Vulcan, getting trained in the Science Academy in a pod that looked a lot like what Spock was in during the 2009 JJ Abrams Trek film.  Little Michael is acing it, until the computer asks about the Klingons and her old colony.  Apparently, the Klingons destroyed a joint Vulcan/human science institute on some planet, and she was one of, if not the only, survivor(s).  Sarek(!) tells her that what's holding her back is not her brain or Vulcan training, but her human heart.  She awakens with a start, and we see she has radiation burns and is in sickbay getting treatment.  She learns that she's been out for 3 hours, and that her treatment still isn't done.  She storms to the bridge anyway.

There, she tells the captain and the rest of the bridge crew that she encountered the Klingons and killed one.  Unfortunately, the footage captured by her suit was fucked up, so there's no way to verify her claim.  The captain decides to trust her, and contacts Starfleet Command.  The admiral tells them to sit tight, but definitely do not engage.  Reinforcements are on their way.

There's some more Klingon stuff... it seems a lot more religiously motivated than anything we've seen in other Treks regarding them.  Rather than act as space Vikings, they're more of an Asian/Egyptian death cult.  They have a ceremony for the solider Michael killed, but rather than simply discarding the body as a useless, lifeless husk, they wrap it in bandages, put it in a sarcophagus, and then deploy it to space, where it eventually attaches itself to a battlecruiser (with many others already adorning it).

Michael gets 100% fixed up in sickbay, then comes back to the bridge.  The battlecruiser (which is OMG huge and ornate) uncloaks.  And they just sit there, looking at each other.  Michael's ship tries to hail it, but no dice.  Suddenly, the Klingon ship emits a blinding white light and weird sound.  It seems to be a signal.  Michael tells the captain that she might have an idea on how to deal with the Klingons, but needs to go to her quarters.  The captain agrees.

In her quarters, Michael speed dials Sarek(!) who answers immediately(!).  She tells him what's going on, and asks how the Vulcans managed to establish diplomatic relations with the Klingons.  He warns her that she won't like the answer.

It cuts to Michael returning to the bridge.  She tells the captain that the only way to proceed is with a preemptive strike.  The captain disagrees, saying that not only does Starfleet not fire the first shot, but that she's under orders not to engage.  Michael says that when the Vulcans first encountered the Klingons, the Klingons destroyed their ships on sight.  Since Vulcans never make the same mistake twice, they would simply open fire on any Klingon ship they encountered.  That show of strength impressed the Klingons, and they agreed to talk.  The captain essentially says, "that's nice, but this isn't a Vulcan ship, and I'm under orders."  They bicker on the bridge a bit, and then the captain demands that she and Michael talk in the ready room.

There, the captain at first dresses Michael down for insubordination, but then tells her she understands her feelings regarding the Klingons given her traumatic past.  Michael tearfully apologizes, and then Vulcan nerve pinches the captain(!).

She gets out to the bridge, and tells them to open fire on the Klingon vessel.  They hesitate because the captain didn't come out to the bridge with her.  Michael and the second officer bicker a bit, and then the captain emerges, phaser in hand, and tells Michael to stand down.  Just then, the light/signal fades from the Klingon ship, and 24 more - one for each Klingon house - drop out of warp.  And the show ends.

---

For me, the whole thing felt ridiculously contrived.

[Little lunch]

The thing that annoys me about Star Trek is that they destroy themselves every time they teleport.
And if they are fine with that, then why don't they just teleport dead people with a former teleport memory and make them alive again with a little memory loss?
It doesn't matter how they try to science it up, it will never make any sense.

[Ravenshire]

Job interview tomorrow at three. The pay's not great, but better than unemployment.

Best part is, it's not in oil and gas.